The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-02-22

said. The laugh started, and you joined
In, and not one word of protest did you
utter. Whatifept you silent? Modestyi
No. Incapacity to answer! No. Lack Of
opportunity? No. 1t was a blow on both
your lips by the wing of the dumb devil.
II some one should malign your father or
mother or wife or husband or child, you
would flush up quick and either with an
indignant word or doubled up fist make
response. And yet here is our Christian
religion which has lone so much for you
and so much for the world that it will
take all eternity to celebrate it, and yet
when it was attacked you did not so much
as say: II differ. l object. / am sorry to
hear you say that. There is another side
to this" You Christian people ought in
such times as these to go armed, not with
earthly weapons, but with the sword Of
the spirit. You ought to have four or FIVE
questions with which you could confound
any man who attacks Christianity. a
man 80 years old was telling me how he
put to fight a s~coffer. My aged friend
said to the skeptic, did you ever read
the history of Joseph in the Bible?'
Eyes" said the man, sit is a line story
and as interesting a story as l ever read.
'Well, now" said my old friend, sup
pose that account Of Joseph stopped half
way?" "Oh," said the man, "then it
would not be entertaining" WELL, now
said my friend, "we AVE in this world
only half of everything, and do o not
think that when we hear the last half
things may be consistent and that then
we may find that God was right?'
Silence Gives Consent.
Oh. friends, better load up with a few
interrogation points, You cannot afford
to be silent when God and the Bible and
the things of eternity are assailed. Your
silence gives consent to the lombard
ment of your Fathers house. You allow
a slur to be cast on your mothers dying
pillow. In behalf of the Christ, who for
you went through the agonies of assas-
~sination on the rocky bluff back OF Jeru-
salem, you dared not face a 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 be-
tween the condition of woman in China
and the United States? What do you
think Of the sermon on the mount! How
do you like the golden rule laid down in
the Scriptures? Are you in favor of
the Ten Commandments? In your large
and extensive reading have you come
across a ~lovelier character than Jesus
Christ? Will you please to name the
triumphantdeathbeds of infidels and athe-
lists? How do you account for the fact
that among the out and out believers In
Christianity were such persons as Benja-
min Franklin, John Ruskin, Thomas
Carlyle, Darlington Macaulay, William
Penn, Walter Scott, Charles Kingsley,
Horace Bushnell. James A. Garfield,
DoLor+ u Taa Stonawan IonlSnn Adj
miral Foote, Admiral Farragut, Ulysses
s. Grant, John Milton. William Shake
speare, Chief Justice Marshall, John AID
ans, Daniel Webster, George Washing
ton? How do you account for their fond
ness for the Christian religion? Among
the innumerable colleges and universities
of the earth will you name me three
started by infdels and 10 supported
by in6dels? Down in your heart are
you really happy in the position you oc-
cupy antagonistic to the Christian re-
ligion? When do you have the most
rapturous views Of the next world?' Go
at him with a few such questions, and he
will get SO red in the face as to suggest
apoplexy, and he will look at his watch
and say he has an engagement and must
go. You will put him in a sweat that
win 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 l promise you
victory. Shall such a man as you, shall
such a woman as you, surrender to one
of the meanest spirits that ever smoked
up from the pit-the dumb devil spoken
of in the text?
Duty t. Sing Gods Praise.
But then there are occasions when this
particular spirit that Christ exercised
when he said, 81 charge thee to come out
of him." takes people by the wholesale.
In the most responsive religious audi
ence have you noticed how many people
never sing at all? They have a book. and
they have a 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 to hear his own voice. They hum
it. They give q sort of religious grunt.
They make the lips go. but it is inaudible.
With a voice strong enough to stop q
street car one block away all they can
afford in the praise of God is about half
a whisper. With enough sopranos. enough
altos, enough bassos to make a small
heaven between the four walls they let
the opportunity go by unimproved. The
volume of voice that ascends from the
largest audience that ever assembled
ought to be multiplied two thousand fold.
But the minister rises and gives out the
hymn, the organ begins. the choir or pre-
centor leads, the audience are standing SO
hat the lungs may nave 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 audience
and the other wing over the lips of the
other half OF the audience, and the voices
roll bach into the threats from which
they started. and only here and there
anything is heard. and nine-tenths Of the
holy W is destroyed. and the dunk
devil. as he flies away, says, Il could not
keep Isaac Watts from writing thar
hymn, and l could not keep Lowell ~:
son from composing the tune to which ii
is set, but i smote into silence or half 81
lence the lips from which it would have