Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-05-12
AMERICA THE ROAD TO HELL?
BY BISHOP WARREN A. GAMBLER.

ton? Are italy. Belgium and
Spain free from infidelity today? Is
not America as near heaven and as
remote from hell as any OF those
countries? Does the friar piety
prevalent in the philippines keep
down scepticism and promote
faith?
After all is admitted that can be
Justly urged against our country in
the matter Of irreligion. make bold
to affirm that no land under the
sun holds a purer or more potent
type of Christianity. Nowhere else
is there a more abounding benevo-
Ience; nowhere else Is the Sabbath
better observed; nowhere else is the
Bible more universally read and
more generally believed; nowhere
else is faith more genuine. for no.
where else is 1t so free. No coercion,
political or ecclesiastical. is allowed
in religion in this land. and hence
men have the smallest possible mo-
tive to dissemble in sacred things.
Hereby American piety is promoted
and not hindered.
Nothing could be worse for Chris
tianity than to prove, IL such
monstrous proposition were suscep-
tible OF proof, that where men are
most free it is least powerful. Inn
deity cannot conceive more IL
belous charge against our holy reli-
gion, and heathenism could not offer
e. "a
Indictment were true.
Moreover. If it be true that Chris
tianity withers and dies in an at
mosphere OF freedom, then 1t surely
is doomed, for the spirit Of the age
and the progress Of the race will
unite to overthrow it. The present
is the era of freedom. Crowns were
never before held so cheap and the
liberty OF the Individual man was
never rated so high. The value of
a man as a man has wonderfully
appreciated during the last hundred
years, and this higher appraisement
of untitled manhood has. affected
unfavorably the superstitious esti-
mate which was formerly placed on
monarchs and monarchies. And all
this is exactly in accord with the
teachings Of Jesus and the genius
of Christianity. The incarnation
and the atonement stamp all men
and each man, however humble,
with infinite value. One for whom
Christ died has right to be free.
We may be sure therefore that the
movement for human freedom is not
going backward. 1T is going to en-
brace eventually all mankind.
Hence any form of Christianity
which cannot prosper under free
governments had as well get ready
to go out OF business. It cannot sur
vive, because ii is not fit to survive.
Freedom and faith are not incom-
patibles. America is not the road
to hell. AS many souls find the way
to heaven in America as anywhere
else on the planet. English has as
good standing in heaven doubtless
as French, Italian or Spanish,
though it is considered by some as
not quite so well suited to grand
opera The fathers of our republic
were not emissaries of Satan when
they fashioned the great and good
government under which we live.
They wrought so well that thou
sands and tens of thousands of wise
Irismen have sought refuge under
the noble civil structure which they
erected, and there is room for thou
sands more beneath its strong shell
ter.
Commenting upon this article of
the Rev. Mr.. Shinnors. The Free
mans Journal Of Dublin prints this
suggestive paragraph:
Father Shinnors appeals to the
priesthood of Ireland to do all in their
power to discourage an emigration
that involves such perils to the faith
and character of their people. Amer
lean bishops and priests are most We
hement in their appeal to stop the
tide of emigration Irish priests. says
the writer, could do much to de-
stroy the glamour that surrounds
American citizenship with a false
splendor. That is true. But until
much more has been done to make
life possible for Irish boys and girls
in their old land the tide will flow,
and the melancholy results describ-
ed by Father Shinnors will follow
for thousands of our peasantry.
Is 1t not strange that so many Of
the faithful rush away from the Sc
curity of old Erin and fly madly into
this road to hell?" Bishops and
priests frantically appeal to them to
stop. but the tide of emigration
flows on in spite of all that they can
say or do. And the Freeman's Jour
nal intimates that the tide will flow
on because in America, 'the road to
hell" life is possible" as it is not in
the old world. What strange road
to hell is here?