Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-02-15

O'Sh' W hst'e iour or nVe questions
with which you could coufound any
man who attacks Christianity. A man
90 years old was telling me how he put
to flight scoffer. My aged friend
said TO the skeptic, "Did you ever read
the history OF Joseph I'm the Bible?'
Yes" said the man. cit Is a fine story
ana as Interesting a story as I ever
read" "Well. now" said my old friend.
suppose that account OF Joseph stop
ped half wayT" "Oh." said the man.
then 1t would not be entertaining.-
well, now" said my friend. eve have
In this world only half Of everything.
and do you not think that when we
bear the last BALI things may be con.
sistent and that then we may find that
God was right?'
Interrogation Points
Oh, friends. better load up with n few
Interrogation points. You cannot afford
TO be silent when God aud the Bible
and the things of eternity are assaulted
your silence gives consent TO the BON
bardment OF your Fathers house. You
allow a slur to be cast on your mothers
dying pillow. In behalf of the Christ
or assassination on the rocky b,uff
back OF Jerusalem. you dared no., face
sickly joke. Better load up with a
few questions. so that next time you
Will be ready. Say TO the scoffer: "My
dear sir. will you tell me what makes
the difference between the condition Of
woman I'm China and the United States ?
What do you think OF the sermon on
the mount? How do you like the gold.
en- rule laid down I'm the Scriptures?
Are you In favor of the Ten Command
ments? In your large and extensive
reading have you come across a love
Ter character than Jesus Christ? VIII
you please TO name the triumphant
deathbeds of iufidels and atheists !?
How do you account for the fact that
among the out and out believers I'm
Christianity were such persons as
Benjamin Franklin. John RuskIn.
Thomas Carlyle. Babington Macaulay.
William. Penn, Walter Scott. Charles
Kingsley. Horace Bushnell. James a.
Garfield. Robert r. Lee. StonewaIl
jackson, Admiral Foote, Admiral Far.
ragut. Ulysses s. Grant. John Milton.
Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Web
ster. George Washington How do you
account for their fondness for the
Christian religion? Among the innu-
merable colleges and universities of the
earth will you name me three started
by infidels aud now supported by inf
dels? Down i'm your heart are you real
ly happy in the position you occupy an
tagonistic TO the Christian religion?
when do you have the most rapturous
views OF the next world?" Go at him
with few such questions. and he will
get SO red in the face as TO suggest apo
plexy. and he will look ut his watch
and say he has an engagement and
must so. You will put him In a sweat
that Will beat a Turkish bath. You
Will put him on n rout compared with
which our troops Mt Bull Run made no
time at all Arm yourself not with ar
guments, but Interrogation points. and
i promise you victory. Shall such n
man as you. shall such woman as
you. surrender 10 one OF the meanest
spirits that ever smoked up from the
pit-tLe dumb devil spoken Of in the
text7
Lift Up the Voice.
But then there are occasions when
ehis particular spirit that Christ ex-
orcised when he said 81 charge thee
20 come out of him" takes people by
the wholesale. In the most responsive
religious audience have you noticed
how many people never sing at all?
They have n book. and they have n
voice, and they know how TO read
They know many OF the tunes and yet
are silent while the great rnptures OF
music pass by. Among those who
sing not one out OF hundred sings
loud enough to hear his own voice.
They hum IL. They give sort OF re-
iigious grunt. They make the lips GO.
but 1t is inaudible- With n voice strong
enough TO stop a street car one block
away, oil they can afford In the praise
OF God Is about half n whisper. With
enough sopranos. enough altos, enough
bassos 10 make small heaven be-
tween the four walls, they let the op-
go by unimproved. The vol
ume or voice that ascends from the
largest audience that ever assembled
ought TO be multiplied about two thou
sandfold. But the minister rises and
gives out the hymn, the organ begins.
the choir or precentor leads, the audi
ence are standing so that the lungs
may have full expansion, and a mighty
harmony Is about to ascend when the
evil spirit spoken OF in my text-the
dumb devil-spreads his two wings.
one over the lips OF one-half the audi
ence and the other wing over the Inns
or the other half of the audience, and
the voices roll back into the throats
from which they started. and only
here aud there anything Is heard. and
hine-tenths or the holy power is de
stroyed, and the dumb devil. as he
HES away, says, 81 could not keep
isaac Watts from writing that hymn.
and L could not keep Lowell Mason
from composing the tune to which IL Is
set, but | smote into silence or half
silence the lips from which II would
nave spread abroad to bless neIghbor.
moods and cities and then mount the
wide open heavens" Give. the long
meter doxology the full support OF
Christendom and those four lines
would take the whole earth for God.
The Power of Song.
During the cotton famine In Lanca.
SHIRE, England. when the suffering was
something terrific, as the first wagon
ioad or cotton rolled in the starving
people unlocked the horses and drew
Inc load themselves. singing until all
Lancashire Joined In with triumphant
voices, their cheeks soppIng with tears. |
Praise God. from whom all bless.
lngs HOW" When Commodore Perry.
with his warship. the Mississippi. Law
or the coast OF Japan. he bombarded |
The shores with "Old Hundredth" play
I'd by the marine band. Glorious "Old |
Hundredth." composed by William
Franc of Germany In a war prison AT |
lo O'Clock at night. the poor fellows far |
from home and wounded and sick and
lying, one prisoner started the "OId |
dundredth Doxology," aud then a score
of voices Joined. then all the prisoners
ID all the floors took up the acclaim nm