Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-09-20
By
Bishop w.
A. Gambler
DESTROYING CHRISTIANITY
-- AGAIN

the purest faith known to man were de-
stroyed?
We can understand the missionary who
forsakes home and friends and native
land to carry Christianity to the be-
nighted and broken-hearted who have it
not in heather lands. He believes the
Gospel is true and that 1t is the cure
for sin and the solace for sorrow. But
surely the Humes and Voltaires and
Haeckels have never dared to imagine
that bad world could be made better.
or a sad world be made more glad, by
the destruction Of all faith At best their
efforts can end in nothing better than
negation. If Christianity were a false
light, proving it to be such would not
relieve the surrounding darkness. What
then can such men hope to accomplish
by making themselves apostles of dark
ness and preachers Of despair? What
can they expect as the reward for all
their tolls? Or what can they hope will
be the fruit of their efforts to extirpate
faith and SOW the seeds of universal
doubt?
Benjamin Franklin was far from be-
ing saint, but he put to Tom Paine
some probing questions after the latter
had completed his vicious work en-
titled. Tine Age of Reason" The veneer
able statesman and diplomat wrote with
reference to the publication of that
doubt-laden composition, IF men are so
bad with religion, what would they be
without It? And may you not yourself
be indebted originally to your religious
education for the virtues upon which
you so Justly pride yourself? Therefore
my advice to you is, to burn this piece
before it is seen by any other person;
for among us it is not necessary, as
among the Hottentots, for a youth to
be raised to the company of men, to
prove his manhood by beating his own
mother"
Haeckel and his iconoclastic associ-
ates, flying at the throat of Christi
anity to choke the life out of it, should
stop long enough to inquire where
would all their boasted science be with
out Christianity? 1t is clear to even
the least informed that there is no
sciency worthy of the name outside OF
Christendom, and that In Christian
lands science is most vigorous and most
richly endowed where Christianity is
most fervently believed and most earn
estly obeyed. Would the darkness
which these enemies of Christianity
desire be more favorable than heathen-
ism to intellectual culture and scientific
efforts? If Christianity were over
thrown, and the motives of benevolence
which. IL calls into being were to wither
away, would we have schools, colleges
and universities so munificently endow-
ed as now? How many scientific insti-
buttons has agnosticism founded? What
schools of science has atheism estab-
lished and equipped2 by their fruits
We shall know them" Another thing
is worthy of remark with reference to
nd tets nf n
hence in science and literature does not
guarantee the soundness of a mans
conclusions nor the saneness of his
proposals. This delusion of the infali-
bility of the famous dece1ves many,
especially young men of moderate cul-
ture. Great names make certain type
of mind shudder with fear. Ernest
Haeckel has exerted such an influence
over many. In some lines of study he
is entitled to respect, but in all matters
concerning Christianity he is shameful
ly shallow and pitiably unreliable. In
his book, The Riddle of the Universe"
he has set down for history certain
charges against the religion of Christ
which should expose a schoolboy to the
penalty of a sound logging for uttering
as the truth. let this famous man
sets them forth as unquestionablc and
unquestioned history. 1t would be
lduRndDl6, II II were not SO InlSCUl6NOuS.
But his confident and positive-talking
ignorance deceives thousands to their
great injury. Many of the class who
are ready to believe any thing a scien-
fist says, provided it is not found in
the Bible, have read the dispatch about
this antf-Christian movement, and they
will be ready to say, Wei it is all
over with Christianity now
Let all such know that the movement
will have no more effect to overthrow
Christianity than a passing breeze has
to disturb the fixed stars in their lofty
places in the armament.
The greatest triumphs of Christianity
ever known are being wrought daily at
this time, and tomorrow they will be
greater. In Germany, the land OF
Haeckel, not to mention what is coming
to pass in other lands, there has sprung
up recently a great evangelical move
ment, not unlike the Wesleyan move
ment in England during the eighteenth
century, and ii is having most pro-
digious effect upon the German people.
although the movement Is of very