The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-02

/ blessings and peace and joys of his price
less heritage. Learned audacity and su.
/ perficial professors are essayng with
might and main to destroy the founda-
tons, and to leave the world to drift on
amid the darkness and gloom and de-
spair of endless night.
1nfidelity is not dead but "alive and
| kicking" with it's iron hoofs It's Protea1
form is seen constantly lurking near
the sacred precincts of pure and unde-
filed religion. sedulously seeking to I'M
dermine and destroy forever the fair and
beautiful edifice in which it ever abides.
1t is a great mistake to suppose that in
fidelity expired with Homer and Voltaire
and Volney and poor contcmpti-
/ bic Tom Paine. or that indiscreet
dreamer and mellihuous humbug lee
turer, Bob Ingersoll 1t still lives. a
perfect Rosicrucian, breathing the same
pestifcrous air as it did of old, and using
the same weapons Of ridicule and sar-
casm, of irony and invective, of cob-web
sOphisms and outspoken lies, of pleasi-
BILE inaninities and ASSUMPTIONS of learn,
ing, of protested discoveries and dull or
ingenious augmentation. In fact inf
deity is multi-fOrm and manycolored in
its appearances, and ceaseless and un-
firing in its consuming energy. Its spe-
ciOus pleas, it's pretended discoveries in
learning. its seven-leagued dogmas are
sent out and enforced through
the press, ard then again through
the flowing periods, and gorgeous
rhetoric and tropical pIatitudes of ram
pant but gifted DISCLAIMERS who allure
men to destruction through the power of
susceptibility and the, force of earnest
persuasion. It's apostles are active
tireless, urgent and are to be met with
in studies, on platforms, in pulpits, in
solid type, by the fire-sidc or Oh the
street, in crowded cities. in the rural
village, even on the plantations of farm
ere. You will hear its insinuating,
plausible stuff in the pulpit, urged with
sonorous periods or acclaimed with
mighty vociferation in the lecture hall.
lou will hear its devastating tenet8
urged in clarion tones and with clo-
quence even worthy of nobler theme.
or your will meet with it's fippant. nau-
seating, poisonous teachings III oracular
leaders in some imposing daily or in
some readable, gossiping monthly or in
printed on hot pressed vellum.' In some
college dormitory. or in some university
chapel, the same pushing. interchangeable,
insolent Inlidelity. with unblushing cf-
froDtery and the self-confidence of a
modern Solomon, will harangue in Ian
guage idiomatic purity (perhaps pu-
rility also) an auditory of students burn
ing with as restless Il desire to proselyte
and TO deceive. as it did when its first
converts were secured, when on that fate
full day our first mother Eve yielded to
the gilded bait, the alluring incarnation
of that earliest of all infdel discourses
which was preached by Satan to her
itching ears in the beautiful Garden
of Eden.
This busy ard earnest hierophant of
untruth, seeking to deceive and BAN
boozIe, is for ever at work, and each
succeeding year finds him dreadfully
busy with his energies cXerted in some
new direction. SO the valiant, watchful
soldier of the Cross is forced to- meet a
new adversary, or an old enemy under
new guise, with a different face every
few years at farthcst. The cunning.
eager destroyer goes down before the
Gods truth, but he soon recupcrates his
strength. and iutcnsfies his savasery,
and simply changing his form and shift
ing his tactics, he again advances, as he
thinks invulnerably panoplied. to the at
tack, but only to be oVcrthroNn. Sknp-
ticism inlidelity, atheism and what not,
arc all around the world now. At first
they merely abided in France and Ger
many, with some scattering allies in
England. But now they have invaded
our country, and many other lands. II
used to bc-somc twenty or thirty or for
ty years ag0-that in Germany. BaeuT,
Strauss and some others occupied the
field, but The disease spread. and the
school enlarged until mystics and ra-
tionalists sought to blast the hopes oil
the world. In France August Comic,
Renan. and farther back. NOltairC and
others. filed the land with their irreligi-
Gus cacklc and clamor. VGnitics and va
garics and theorics--all seeking TO de-
story the solemn vcrities of the Bible,
and ali true religions philosophy. and
upon their ruins build M a philosophy
as chimerical. IS absurd. SIS false as
ever emanatcd from the sccUhinG brain
CT a cfaISu anu ill-lNlCi isitb th''AS~t1l''
"a system as bancful TO the best and
nchlest interests of man as mephitic eX-
haIatfons are baneful to health or nitro
glycerinc is to human life.
1t will be a profitable study to the in
telligcnt. receptive, seeking mind. to
farther consider Gods blessed Book
which contains more wisdom than tnc
wisdom of all ages. and has done more
for MANS temporal prosperity. and
brought him moro Of positive and Graci-
Gus blessings for time and eternity. than
all the philosophers of the world which
have so blinded while clectrifyinG The
devotec, and thrown their infatuatinS ana
Dernicious influences across the great
highway Of The nations
Tho Bible tho sure inerrant Word q
Cod is truth, and truth is impcrisha bic.
Tho aitritions of time can icthcr wear.
away its fair proportions nor dcfacc its
lovclincsS and charm. In spite Of dis
play ot great learning. based on
ignorance aud sccptici5m mainly: in