| Show ATHEISM AND MODERN christians 21 this is said to be a christian nation and nearly all concede that the founders of our ear government were christian men betit is painfully paia fully apparent that very little of the element from which real christians are made is manifest today to day among leading men in america it has become fashionable to be irreligious rell ious and to have pronounced ideas idea s in fa favor vor of any religious religions code is to a large extent regarded as fanatical and unworthy of edu educated cited keople atheism is making gigantic inroads upon religious sentiment everywhere the dark fiend assuming the fascinating form of the god of reason 11 like satan appearing as an angel of light is daily and ana hourly seeking to allure the children of men he commenced by insidiously seeds of a universal unbelief in holy writ this was largely accomplished by garbling the scriptures and promulgating dial mul gating ting lor for biblical doctrine some of we me most moat inconsistent of the sectarian theories for instance such as the oft repeated assertion that the earth was made out of bothin nothing I 1 instead of from the elements wh which ak always existed much capital was coined from the inference that the creation only lasted six of our days instead of 0 six periods chichi according to biblical langua gewere each a thousand years in duration dura tiou that being the length of a day with the lord the atheistic reasoner took the meanest advantage of sectarian misconceptions tn in regard to the statements of scripture and the uninformed or superficial debater was at once silenced by these misleading statements coupled with the assertion of some scientific theory that appeared to conflict with the doctrine cited this slandering of the scriptures was carried on u until n til many of the more ignorant people were actually imbued with a distrust of the inspired writings and although many excellent works have been published to show the inconsistency of such false premises once the confidence of people was shaken in IB the scriptures it was difficult to get a patient consideration of their divinity and many now grope in darkness on these points through their unwillingness lin lit gness igness to consider an Int intelligent ellige p presentation r e sen tation of the facts or of argall arguments e n t to bustam them sometimes however the atheist meets his match and an opponent rises who coa contends tends against such dishonest advantages instead of allowing manufactured theories to be set like skittles which the wily why reasoner is ready to knock down with his bis scientific shots the solid student of scripture insists on holding him to the law and to the testimony but the atheist is not easily defeated when he fails fads in argument he descends to td ridicule when his L aph astry falls short he supplements it with wita sneers then he grows angry he profanes profaner pro fanes the name of god and slanders his servants prophets of a past age are held up by him to the derision of the scoffer of of moderia modera times and he disputes the declarations of the te departed saints because they are dead and dont answer from their graves in his unjust presence to substantiate stant late their testimony now the various ministers who as shepherds shei shards of their respective res active flocks preside over their pastoral as ral fields in utah and elsewhere will doubtless en dorse to some extent at least the views above expressed and the truth of the drawn as against the atheist will be acknowledged but bat will the same learned gentlemen look also upon the one now about to be bd presented about sixty bearg ago age a young man announced to the religious world in all soberness that he had bad been visited by a an angel who had bad delivered to him certain plates to te abe translated by the power of god this was the sacred record of an ancient people who have lived on this continent and whose descendants lingering under a curse are now roaming sit as indians upon this land the voice of unbelief was at once raised in denunciation nuncia aaion tion of the inspired record so presented to the world misrepresentations of its contents dispute eions as to its authorship and denial of its divine revelation poisoned the public mind everywhere garbled statements statement ff concerning its discovery descove and prod action tn in print were freel freely published blushed by press ress and pulpit and feelings feelings not oury only of distrust in the r record itself but bat of animosity against believers tn in its divinity were incited among the people while its translator was assassinated for his prophetic utterances te rances with tongues dipped in the very gall of 0 bitterness tm the clergy who had so 0 o unjustly suffered at the the hands bands of the atheists turned the force of their solemn upon the believers of chebook the book of mormon infidels had maligned and derided past prophets because they were dead and did not arise and set the seal of personal testimony opy up upon on their inspired writings but bat it was left tor for christians to revile the prophets of our own day because they were alive and had the temerity to declare that they too were called ot of god and could and did testify of him as living livina witnesses malignity vindictiveness derision sneers these have all played their parts in the great drama of opposition to the divine things bestowed aul fa for mans redemption in our day and christians have positively vied with atheists in the work of stirring up such antagonism as would it possible ensure the rejection of the sacred truths revealed in short atheism comme commenced nedd the work of fighting inspired writings rl tings and christians are trying to complete it even now the religious elements in utah melt with fervent heat 11 in their zeal to uproot and destroy the church founded by the modern prophet their priestly ardor was never more aroused against any atheistic I 1 son of I 1 than it is against these believers in both ancient and modern revelation and the wickedness and malice of opponents of the never reached a lower depth of trickery and meanness than have religious infidels in their efforts to destroy the reputation and influence of a people who conscientiously receive as divine the revelations through the latter day prophet where is the consistency in this course where the world is teeming with corruption through and rebellion against god why should ghoul so called caled religious people and especially their shepherds persecute and unfairly oppose a church because it believed la in more divinity than they do let the people and their shepherds answer A HATER OF ly |
