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Show PEET ON RELIGIOUS REVIVALS. Editor Truth The recent religious revival In Salt Lake and some of the methods that wore employed thera carries one back to tho direful, soul-sifting, soul-sifting, mauderlng, child-scaring, fool-making fool-making religious "awakenings" that were held every winter in nearly every community in the eastern states. The old-time revivalist found and studied tho weak spots of hU hearers and on these spots ho poured tho hell flro vltrol till he hid them writhing and calling for mercy. The methods of tho street-corner fakir, and most of tho religious revivalists are similar. The former will hold up a littlo bunch of tin tube3 with pieces of window glass in them, nnd tell of their wonderful magnifying qualities till his hearers fall over each other to buy them, believing they are getting get-ting a Lick or a Yerkes telescope for tho 25 cents they invest; or he will hold up n small, hard substance, a mixture of axlo grease, rosin and yellow yel-low ochre, and by his eloquence, flattery flat-tery and trnined knowledge of human weakness make tho crowd believe it is a real cake of Cashmere Bouquet soap. The religious fakir or revivalist revival-ist will first give his audience a repressing, re-pressing, subduing dose of weird songs and grim, ghastly prayers. Then he will hold up a harp and a crown and a heavenly mansion and if that bait does not bring them to the altar ho will get behind them with the devil's pitchfork of eternal and over-lasting over-lasting suffering and woo, and If they do not move up he will pitch them all, the old, tho young and the nursing babe, Into a lako of hell flro and brimstone, brim-stone, where they will sizzle and roast and groan forever and forever. This last threat usually relieves them of what llttlo senso they have, and up they go. I met an old friend of mine here tho other day and he told mo of his experience nnd the effect a religious revival had on him back in the sixties, six-ties, when he was a little six-year-old boy In Bradford county, Pennsylvania. I am going to tell It just as he old It to mo. Ho said: "My father and mother and six children lived on a farm in an old-fashioned red house that faced the north. My llttlw sister, who was ono and a half years older than myself, had never hard any terrifying ghost stories and we know nothing of the horrible bugaboo. Wo were not afraid whon the shades of night gathered over the land and wo enjoyed going out in tho dark after kindling wood and going to bed without tho candle was a real pleasure. plea-sure. The hat and tho owl were not birds of evil omen, and wo enjoyed tho song of the whlppoorwlil at night as well as wo did that of tho bobolink and tho meadow lark in tho daytime. On clear evenings in tho summer time wo would spend our time on the front steps of tho house watching tho northern north-ern lights. Wo thought they wero so beautiful and that thoy must rise from nn enchanted city jUBt over the north hill. Wo thought that thero could bo no cold, damp evening dew in such a bright place; that tho flowers flow-ers wero in bloom all tho time: that tho birds sang tho sweetest where llttlo children could play In the fields, wado In tho brooks and watch tha bees and butterflies all night. Wo asked our father if ho would not hiten up old Doll, tho family horse, and take us over to tho bright city of tho northern north-ern lights somo evening. Ho told us ho would' seo about It. Tho north star wo could locate and called It ok steady, for wo could always al-ways find it just over Mr. Tuttlo's houso on tho north hill. In our little minds we would take tho northern lights for stripes, and with tho stars wo would weave them Into a beautiful beauti-ful flag In tho northe-n heavens. Wo called old steady Pennsylvania's star and the ono In the big dipper nearest It New York's star. And undo let us look through his big telescope, and with that wo discovered the beautiful lady's faco in tho moon. Wo called her the beautiful queen of tho night and we were sure sho lived In the s bright city of tho northern lights. Wo tyt enjoyed tho rainbow just after the summer shower. Ono end scemod to rest on Mr. Miller's wood and the other down In tho beautiful llttlo valley val-ley of tho Tow Jack creek. We could separate tho principal colors In it and call them by name. Every day to us was peace, lovo and happiness. Wo knew not fear and had never heard .of . tho demon who terrorized llttlo children at night nnd stalked through tho earth nt noonday. Wo were as happy and contented as the littlo stream that rises in tho foot- ' hills and flows out through tho cornfields corn-fields and meadows. Thus wo lived on In happiness till one day in Jan- uary wo heard that a great revivalist " was holding meetings at Centre, a small town two miles from where wo lived. On that day two female ernes-sarles ernes-sarles of the children's demon visited our houso and told my mother that she was committing tho great sin of omission by not taking her children to this great revivalist and having their souls saved. They said, 'Suppose ono of your children should die without salvation it would be thrown Into tho lake of flro and brimstone and be burned forever and forever.' "That night my father packel the whole family In tho big sleigh and wo started for tho revival. It was a clear, crisp evening, tho moon was full and the light It cast on tho deep snow mado It look like a rich, sparkling spark-ling silver carpet covering the valley and hills. At the end of a long lane leading from the house to the main road was a large, beautiful hard maplo tree. This tree in tho springtime spring-time furnished sap from which we made the purest and sweetest maplo sugar. In the hot summertime my sister and I built play houses under Its shade and ttod our swing pole to its long, slender branches. Whon we drove by I remarked to my mother that the old maple must be awful cold, It looked so lonesome and bare In the chilly night air. Mother told us that in tho winter time tho life, or sap of tho tree went down Into tho roots and that thoy were kept warm by the earth that covered them, just as wo wero kept warm in tho blankets that covered us when wo wero In bed. When wo reached tho main road and turned north tho horses cast a long shadow on the snow. This shadow wo said was Santa Claus roturnlng home after Christmas, and how we did enjoy seeing It Jump Into the fence corners and over the stumps nnd small bushes along tho road! Wo arrived at tho church Just as tho preacher was reading a doleful hymn on eternity in a dismal, woebegone ,r' voice. After slowly nnd sadly wall-lng wall-lng tho hymn, tho preacher offered up a heartless, cruel prayer to a revengeful, revenge-ful, merciless and eternal torture-loving God. Ho read as a scripture lesson les-son about the rich man in his groat torment in hell, who called to Lazarus Lazar-us for a few drops of water' to quench his burnlnc thirst. Then he turned back to tho Old Testament nnd read that the moon was turned to blood nnd all tho proud and wicked would burn as stubble. After tho singing of another mournful, unearthly unearth-ly song In slow measure tho preacher took tho following text: 'What will It profit a man if ho gain the whole world nnd loose his own soul?' I will nover forgot that sermon or tho man who preached It. Ho pictured hell to bo an actual dead-suro reality. He said If ho should stick his hand Into the red hot stovo boforo him nnd hold It there till it was burned off that the (Continued on page 0) HI III II n ii n isss liiiTi i" j m" 1 1 1 i j ii PEET ON RELIGIOUS REVIVALS. J (Continued from page 8) ,-, niln would bo nothing as compared to jj the fires of hell, where tho whole i body was thrown, for tho fires kindled by God wero a thousand times hotter than those mado by man and In those God mado fires j tho sinner was roasted forovor ; and over, both night and day without 1 recess or intermission through nil i eternity, nnd that eternity was so long that if a bird from another world should como to this earth onco In a thousand years and carry away a ; I grain of sand when It had this 'j, earth all removed eternity would J havo just begun. Ho quoted lino aftor lino of the Westminister catechism a and told mothers that they must A brinu their babies and llttlo 01103 to j 1 tho anxious scat to savo them, and ( ) that tho man who was kind, moral l and thoughtful of others would bo aim cast out along with tho thieves and Vim murderers If ho did not como for- I'M ward; that tho dovll was llko a roar- liH lng lion, nnd that tho rainbow nnd the M northern lights wero emblems of holl. 'm My mother and sisters, and most of JB tho audience wero weeping and many iW wero crowding forward to tho anxious w scat, screaming and Imploring to be Ml saved. Others fell prostrato on tho 'M floor and crlod to an angry God for ffl mercy. What an awful night! My jfl sister and I wero almost frightened II to death. My father was mad and told us to got ready to go homo whilo ho went aftor tho team and sleigh. What a direful, cowardly change that ono hour had brought into my young and happy llfo! When I got Into tho sleigh and saw tho J, northern lights I know they wero a J reflection from tho lake of flro and brlmstono and I Imagined I could hoar the pitiful cry of llttlo children and !. the hoarse groans of tho oldor people i who wero being tortured thero. 1 -thought I could soo drops of blood on tho moon and that old stoady was M an evil eye, watching mo. Tho shad- ows that tho horses cast on tho snow r, wero roaring Hons, trying to jump fj Into tho sleigh to dovour us. I Imag- J lned tho dear old maplo tree was a H mass of flames Illuminating a world of demons. 'j "When my sister and I went to bed ! that night wo did not go to tho win- i dow and bid old steady good-night or c look nt tho beautiful flag in tho sky, but wo asked mother to pull down , tho window curtain tight so that not i ono ray of that ugly light could pone- trato tho rooms. Wo thought after .'j that awful night that tho owl and whippoorwill wero birds of ovll foro- bodlngs and that their cry was a sign of approaching death. When- , ever wo saw tho rainbow wo would ; run into tho dark closet and hldo for fear It would set tho world on flro. Our lives wero filled with dread and . fear nnd our true, genuine, childish j happiness was entirely blotted out Tho world Is getting hotter. Thero is only ono church that still hangs to that frightful dogma founded by tho J Westminister catechism. The preach- ; or who takes eternal woo Into his pul- ( pit today Is a 2x4 and does not know j any hotter. Tho Unlversallsts, the Unitarians, tho Mormons, tho Chris- , tlan Scientists and a few other re- ligious sects wero novcr guilty of tor- rorizlng young children and many of tho orthodox churches nro utterly 5 ashamed of the frightful work thoy j did In early days. Tho coming church Is the ono that teaches its j children a lovo that casteth out foar jjj and stands on a platform of Intelll- I genco, reason and justice. I Yours truly, I V. S. PEET. I Washington, D.- C, Feb. 22, 190C. ! |