The Vinita daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1902-1913, 1912-04-04
THE REASON WHY.
BY John Marcus, S. S.

clined to be fair in their arguments
against the Bible and Christianity. In
fact the very mention of the Scrip
lures would stir up their wrath and
elicit from them the bitterest denunci-
atoms of the Book. Now. there must
be reason for this In so far as my
experience goes I am thoroughly CON
vineed that iniidelity is the product of
two causes. First. the remote or pri-
mary cause is MANS DEPRAVITY;
and, secondly, MANS WANT OF
TRUE KNOWLEDGE.
AS to the first cause, mans deprav-
ed and wicked nature, we can readily
discover how it would bias him in his
belief towards the side of falsehood,
He would naturally reject the Book
which enjoins everything that is right
eous, self-denying, pure and holy. And
this first cause of unbelief logically
drifts into the second cause, that is.
no true knowledge of the book he at
tacks; or, in other words, lack of cor
rect information.
But to recur to the first cause:
There are two notable things that
stand out as clear as crystal on the
pages Of the Bible, and these are, the
fact of mans depravity, and his love
of lies. Never was there a truer axiom
than this: The carnal mind is en-
nifty against God To an unbelieyer
this sounds strange. He is not con
scious of any enmity against God. He
imagines, usually, that he loves his
Creator. It is hard to convince dim,
though, that his god is not the God
of the Bible. The god he worships IS
a god of his own manufacture. and
such a god resembles, more or less.
the character of the Individual who has
made it, Heathenism is a proof OF
this assertion. To the Scandinavian
of ancient times the god Thor was a
god of battles and plunder; but holi-
ness and purity he did not love. Take
the Greek of two thousand years ago
had you asked him If he loved God,
he would have replied, Yes. But
who is your God?' and he would have
answered, "Bacchus, Venus, or Mars 2
"A deity of wine. or revelry, or sem
suality or war he did not hate; but
if you had placed before him the full
character of the God Of the Bible, as
the apostle did ne would have turned
away in anger Take any of the
heather religions, despite glimmer
of truth scattered here and there in
their so-called sacred writings, and
you will find at the base of all of them
lust, cruelty, and pollution-that which
represents the character of the indi-
yidual who is. to a great extent, it's de-
votee. But the moment you call his
attention to the God who loves JUS
tice and humility, purity and peace.
he cannot bear to hear you.
Then as to the natural mans love Of
lies
Men have loved darkness rather
than the light Light in the Bible.
is always the synonym for TRUTH;
Darkness always means LIES. Again,
it does not seem to the unbelieyer
that he prefers falsehood to truth.
The most prejudiced man thinks him
self impartial It is so on any sub
iect The most bigotted partisan poll
tician imagines himself unbiased III
his judgment; and the most deadly
enemy, in speaking Of the one he hates
will tell you that his views are not
the offspring of passion, yet he would
believe evil of his neighbor more
readily than good, even when the good
was true
And this has been my observation
with regard to iniidels, that one cum
ningly-devised lie will influence him
further than one hundred plain and
forcible arguments in favor of Reyela-
tion A defender Of the Christian
faith once said
"A man may stand on the side of a
precipitous mountain, and long for the
top. vet the impetus of an ounce viii
push him further down than many
times that force will cast up. One who
desires the valley below. can get there
without struggle The man who
has sinneG may desire the sammit of
truth, but he stands on the declivity
cf a sinful nature. Every transgres-
sion or sensual indulgence has added
Continued on Last Pagel