Newport weekly independent., 1901-07-12


 of the nineteenth century 150 mission aries; at the close of that century S4,- l 900 missionaries and native helpers and eVange!ists. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were only 50,O00 converts. Now there are over 100000 converts from heathendom. You all know that an important work of an army is to plant the batteries. It ! may take many days to plant the bat teries, and they may do all the work i'll ten minutes. These Gospel batteries are being planted all along the sea- coasts and in all nations. It may take | a good while to plant them, and they may do all their work in one day. They will. Nations are to be born in a day. But just come back to Christendom and recognize the fact that during the last ten years as many people have con- nected themselves with evangelical | churches IS connected themselves with the churches in the first 50 years oflast century. So Christianity is falling back, and the Bible, they say, is be- coming an obsolete book I go into court, and wherever I find a judges l bench or a clerks desk I find a Bible. | Upon what book could there be uttered the solemnity of an oath? What book is apt to be put in the trunk of the young man as he leaves for city life? The Bible. What shall find in nine out of every ten homes in this city? The Bible. In nine out of every ten homes l in Christendom? The Bible Noltaire wrote the prophecy that the Bible in the nineteenth century would become extinct. That century is gone, and 1 have to tell you that the room in which Voltaire wrote that prophecy not long ago was crowded from floor to ceiling with Bibles from Switzerland.
 Suppose the congress of the United States should pass a law that there should be no more Bibles printed in l America and no Bibles read? If there are 60,000,000 grown people in the United States, there would be CO., oOo,oo0 people in an army to put down such a law and defend their right to read the Bible. But suppose the con gress of the United States should make law against the reading or the publication of any other book, how many people would go out in such a crusade? Could you get CO., 100000 people to go out and risk their lives in the defense of ShakeSpeare's tragedies or Gladstone's tracts or Macaulay's History of England?" You know that there are a thousand men who would die in the defense of this book where there is not more | than one man who would die in the defense of any other book. You try to insult my common sense by tell ing me the Bible is fading out from the world. It is the most popular book of the centuries.
 How do I know it? I know it just as I know in regard to other books. How many volumes of that history How many copies of another book are published? A hundred thousand. Which is the more popular? Why, of course, the one that has the hundred thousand circulation. And if this book has more copies abroad in the world, if there are five times as many Bibles abroad as any other book among civ ilized nations, does not that show you that the most popular book on earth to-day is the word of God?
 "Oh," say people, ''the church is a collection of hypocrites, and it is los. ing its power, and it is fading out from the world.' Is it? A bishop of the Methodist church told me that that denomination averages two new churches every day. In other words, l they build T30 churches in that de- nomination in a year, and there are at least 1,500 new Christian churches built in America every year. Does | that look as though the Christian church were fading out, as though it were a defunct institution? What stands nearest to the hearts of the American people to-day? l do not care ill what village or what city or what neighborhood you go. What is it? Is it the post office? Is it the hotel? Is it the featuring hall? An, you know it is not! You know that that which stands nearest to the hearts of the American people is the Christian church.
 The infdels say: 'There is great liberty now for infidels; freedom of platform. Infidelity shows it's power from the fact that it is everywhere tolerated, and it can say what it will" Why, my friends, infdelity is not half so blatant in our day as it was in the days of our fathers. Do you know that in the days of our fla thers there were pronounced infidels in public authority, and they could get any political position? Let man to-day declare himself antagonistic to the Christian religion, and what city wants him for mayor; what state