Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1901-02-11

genital mutes. We mean those who
are born with all the faculties of vo-
calization and yet have been struck
by the evil one mentioned in the text
the dumb devil to whom Christ called,
when he said, "Thou dumb and deaf
spirit l charge thee, come out of him. -
Silence Is Crime.
There has been apotheosiZation of
silence. Some one has said silence is
golden, and sometimes the greatest tri-
umph is to keep your mouth shut. But
sometimes silence is a crime and the
direct result Of the balefu1 influence
of the dumb devil of our text. There
is hardly man or woman who has
not been present on some occasion
when the Christian religion became a
target for raillery. Perhaps it was
over in the store some day when there
was not much going on and the clerks
were in a group, or it was in the fac
tory at the noon spell, or it was out
on the farm under the trees while you
were resting, or it was in the clubroom
or it was in a social circle, or it was
in the street on the way home from
business, or it was on some occasion
which you remember without my de-
scribing it, Some one got the laugh on
the Bible and caricatured the profess
sion of religion as hypocrisy or made
pun out of something that Christ said.
The laugh started, and you Joined in,
and not one word of protest did you
utter. What kept you silent? Modesty?
No. Incapacity to answer? No. Lack
of opportunity? No. 1t was a blow
on both your lips by the wing of the
dumb devil If some one should malign
your father or mother or wife or hus-
band 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 done 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: 81 differ. I object. I am
sorry to hear you say that. There
is another side to this" You Christian
people ought in such times as these
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 flight a scoffer. 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 fine story
and as interesting a story as 1 ever
read" "Well, now" said my old friend,
suppose that account of Joseph stop
ped half way?" "Oh,'' said the man,
''then it 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
hear the last half things may be con-
siStent and that then we may find that
God was right?"
Interrogation Points.
Oh, friends, better load up with 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 bonn
bardment Of your Fathers house. You
allow slur to be cast on your mothers
dying pillow. In behalf of the Christ,
who for you went through the agonies
of assassination on the rocky bluff
back of Jerusalem. 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 between 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 gold
en- rule laid down in 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? Will
you please to name the triumphant
deathbeds of infidels and atheists?
How do you account for the fact that
among the out and out believers in
Christianity were such persons as
Benjamin Franklin, John Ruskin,
Carlyle, Darlington Macaulay,
William Penn, Walter Scott, Charles
Kingsley, Horace Bushnell, James A.
Garfield. Robert e. Lee, Stonewall
Jackson, Admiral Foote, Admiral Far
ragut, Ulysses S. Grant, John Milton,
William Shakespeare, Chief Justice
Marshall, John Adams, Daniel Web
ster, George Washington? How do you
account for their fondness for the
Christian religion? Among the innu-
colleges and universities Of the
earth will you name me three started
by infidels and now supported by inf
dels? Down in your heart are you real
~ 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 at his watch
and say he has an engagement and
must go. You will put him in q sweat
that will beat a Turkish bath. You