The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1901-02-15

triumphant deathbeds OF inhdels and athe
! lists;
How do you account for the fact thai
among the out-and-out believers in Chris
| Franklin, John Ruskin. Thomas CARLYLE
Babington Macaulay William Penn, Wal
ter Scott, Charles Kingsley Horace Bush
! nell. James A. Garfield, Robert r.. Lee
Stonewall Jackson, Admiral Foote, Ad
miral Farragut, Ulysses ;. Grant. John
! Milton, William Shakespeare. Chief Jus
tice Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Webs
ter, George Washington? How do YOU
account for their fondness for the Chris
| tlan religion
Among the innumerable colleges and
universities of the earth viii you name me
| three started by infidels and now sup
| ported by infidels: Down in your heart
are you really happy in the position you
occupy antagonistic TO the Christian reli'
gion.
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 apoplexy, and he will look az his
watch and say he has an engagement and
must go. You will put him in a sweat
that wall beat a Turkish bath. You will
put him on a rout compared with which
our troops at Bull Run made no time at
all.
Arm yourself. not with arguments, but
interrogation points, and | promise you
victory. Shall such a man as you, shall
such woman as you, surrender to one OF
the meAest spirits that ever smoked up
from the pit-the dumb devil spoken OF IN
the text
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when He said II charge thee to 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 book, and they
have voice, and they know how TO read
They know many of the tunes and yet are
silent while the great raptures OF music
pass by. Among those who sing not one
out Of a hundred sings loud enough 10
hear his own voice. They hum it. They
give a sort OF religious grunt They make
the lips 90, but IL is inaudible. With
voice strong enough to stop a street car
one block away, all they can afford in the
praise OF God IS about half whisper.
With enough sopranos enough altos,
enough bassos 10 make a small heaven be-
tween the four walls, they let the oppor-
tunity go by unimproved The volume of
voice that ascends from the largest au-
dience that ever assembled ought to be
multiplied two thousandfold. But the
minister rises and gives out the hymn, the
organ begins, the choir or preceptor leads,
the audience 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 over
the liDs of one half the audience. and the
otner wing over the hips of the other half
of the audience, and the voices roll back
into the throats from which they started
and only here and there anything is
heard and nine-tenths of the holy power
is destroyed, and the dumb devil as he
flies away says, II could not keep Isaac
Watts from writing that hymn, and /
could not keep Lowell Mason from com.
posing the tune to which IL is set. but
smote into silence or half silence the lips
from which il would have spread abroad
to bless neighborhoods and cities and
then mount the wide open heavens" Give
the long meter doXology the full support
OF Chrstendom and those four lines would
take the whole earth for God.
Do not, however, let us lose ourselves
in generalities. Not one of us but has
had our lives sometimes touched by the
evil spirit OF the teXt-ths awful dumb
devil. We had just one opportunity of
saying a Christian word that might have
led a man or woman into a Christian life.
The opportunity was fairly put before us.
The word of invitation or consolation or
warning came 70 the inside gate OF the
mouth, but there it halted Some hinder
ing power locked the jaws together so that
they did not open. The tongue lay fiat
and still in the bottom of the mouth as
though struck with paralysis We were
mute. Though God had given us the ply
slological apparatus for speech which, by
the command of our will, could have made
the laryngeal muscles move and the vocal
organs vibrate. we were wickedly and IA
tally silent For all time and eternity we
missed our chance. Or 1t was a prayer
meeting, and the service was thrown open
for prayer and remarks, and there was a
dead halt-everything silent as grave
yard at midnight. Indeed, 1t was
graveyard and midnight. An embaTass-
ing pause took place that put a wet blan-
ket on all the meeting. Men, bold enough
on business exchange or in worldly circles,
shut their eyes as though they were pray
ing IN silence, but they were not praying
at all. They were busy hoping somebody
else would do his duty. The women
flushed under the awful pause, and made
their fans more rapidly hutter Some
brother, with no cold, coughed, by that
sound trying to fill up the time. and the
meeting was slain. But what killed 1t?
The dumb devil
This is the way 1 account for the fact
that the stupidest places on earth are
some prayer meetings. do not see how
man keeps any grace If he regularly at
tends them. They are spiritual refrigera.
tors. Religion kept on ice. How many OF
US have los. occasions of usefulness!
In sculptor's studio stood figure OF
the god Opportunity. The sculptor had
made the hair fall down over the face of
the statue so as to completely cover 1t,
and there were wings to the feet. When
asked why he so represented Opportunity
the sculptor answered, The face OF the
statue is thus covered up because we do
not recognize Opportunity when II comes,
and the wings OF the feet show that Op-
portunity Is swiftly gone
But do not let the world deride the
church because of all this, for the dumb
devil is Just as conspicuous IN the world.
The great political parties assemble at the
proper time 10 build platforms for the
candidates to stand on. A committee OF
each party Is appointed to make the plat
form. After proper deliberation the com
mittees come an with a ringing report.
whereas and whereas and whereas y
Pronunciamentos all shaped with the one
idea of getting the most votes. All eX-
preston in regard to the great moral evils
of the country ignored. No expression IN
behalf of temperate living. for that would
lose the vote of the liquor traffic. No ex-
preston in regard 70 the universal attempt
AZ the demolition OF the Lords day. No
recognition of God IN the history OF ma
tions. for that would lose the vote OF
atheists. But whereas and whereas
and whereas Nine cheers viii be given
for the platform. The dumb devil OF the
text puts one wing over the one platform
and the other wing over the other plat
form. Those great conventions are opened
with PRAYER BY their chaplains II they
avoided patitudes and told the honest
! truth IN their prayers they would say
20 Lord, we want TO be postmastsrs and
consuls and foreign ministers and United
States district ATTORNEYS For that We are
here and for that we will strive tall the
election next November. Give us Office o.
we die. Forever and ever, Amen
We world 70 say the lensf is no bet