112. an Infidel Challenge
Over a century ago, an infidel German Countess gave orders that her grave should be covered with a solid granite slab, with large blocks of stone clasped with iron around, and the words cut in the granite, "This burial place must never be opened to all Eternity." A tiny seed sprouted under the covering, shot its shoots between the slabs, grew and increased until it lifted the granite, and stands in Hanover to-day as God's answer to that infidel challenge.
113. "God Is Nowhere."
An atheist's motto was fixed on the wall of a skeptical lawyer's sanctum. His little daughter, beginning to read, came into the place one day, and while awaiting her father to go home, spelled out the letters, dividing them so: "God—is—now—here." Her father was so impressed by that word of his child, that he renounced his skepticism, turned to the living God, and His motto now reads, "God is now here.”
114. a Dakota Cyclone
A follower of Col. Ingersoll boasted that he would build a barn that "God Almighty could not blow down." So he erected a great stone structure, and called his neighbors to see it. The following year a great cyclone swept the country, and one of the first buildings to go into a heap of ruins before it, was the infidel's barn. He stood before the wreck silent, and one said, "It is the finger of God"—to which he gave no answer. But since that day, his infidelity has left him.
115. Nothing to Hold on to
A dying infidel was visited by one of his former associates, who asked him if he was holding on to the principles they had adopted and advocated in public. "There is nothing left for a dying man to hold on to," he said sadly. No, nothing in infidelity.
116. a Defiant Challenge
A young Jew who had become an atheist, stood on an English marketplace proclaiming his atheism. In the hearing of those who stood around, he cried out defiantly, "If there be a God, let him speak out so that we can hear Him." That moment a flash of lightning lit up the place, and the young infidel was struck blind for life by it. He was soon after converted to God, and lives to testify to the judgment and mercy of that God whom he blasphemed.
117. Not at Rest
GEORGE RIPLEY of the New York Tribune, who was a confessed skeptic, riding in the country with Dr. Prime of the Observer, said, "I never see you without a feeling of envy. Your mind seems to be at rest in regard to the future, while mine is not.”
118. a Cob of Coal
A the close of a lecture by an infidel in a Lancashire mining village, a collier stood forward, and addressed the crowd as follows:-"My mate was a Methodist till one of them infidel chaps came round. Jim turned infidel, and laughed at me for going to prayer meetings. One day in the pit, a big cob of coal fell on Jim. We all thought he was killed, but he began to cry to God for mercy." Then looking the lecturer full in the face, the collier added, "There's naught like a cob of coal for knocking the infidelity out of you chaps.”
119. No Comfort
The mother of Hume, the infidel philosopher, being dazzled by the genius of her son, became a skeptic. As she lay on her dying bed, she wrote, "My dear son, my health has failed, I cannot live long. Your philosophy gives me no comfort in my distress. I am without hope of consolation, and my mind is sinking into a state of despair. Hasten home, or write what in your philosophy will afford consolation in a dying hour.”
120. Never Scoffed at
An infidel scornfully pointed to one who had professed Christianity and gone astray. Dr. Mason, who heard the remark, said, "Did you ever hear of a scoff being raised because an infidel went astray." The scorner admitted he had not. "Then," said the doctor, "You thereby admit that Christianity is a holy religion, and that its professors should be so too Your scoff, therefore, pays it the highest compliment.”
121. Infinite Contempt
COL. INGERSOLL, lecturing in New York, boasted that although he had defied the Almighty for years, he had never been harmed by Him. A hearer remarked, "That reminds me of a skeptic who indulged in a somewhat similar boast, when one answered, 'You forget, sir, that God is capable of infinite contempt as well as infinite power.'”
122. an Infidel Earl
In the reign of Charles II., none excelled in vice and skepticism as the handsome and witty Earl of Rochester. Johnson describes him as "drunken, sensual, worthless and useless, at the age of thirty-one exhausted, and in a state of decay, sheltering his wickedness behind infidelity." Returning to his estate in Somerset, his mother's chaplain read to him Isa. 53, and by means of these great words, describing the sufferings of Christ, he was converted. Fanshaw, a former infidel companion, found the Earl praying, and ran from the place in terror. His last words were, "O how I long to die, and be with my Savior.”
123. "Free Lance."
Such was the signature of a writer on infidelity in The National Reformer, and he was secretary to Charles Bradlaugh. In his later years, when infidelity began to fail him, he was brought under the Gospel's sound, and converted. He openly gave testimony to God's saving grace in Whitefield Church, Drury Lane, and lived in Chelsea for many years a true Christian.
124 God Revealed
H. MUSGRAVE READ, for twenty years a prominent Atheist, Socialist, and Secretary of the Manchester Independent Labor Party, a personal friend of Bradlaugh, Blatchford, and other infidels, while in a railway car beyond Colorado, amid scenes of surpassing wonder, became convinced there is a God, and soon after, the character of that God was revealed to him by means of John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16). Then welcoming the love of God to sinners, and His Son as personal Savior, he was saved, and is now a preacher of the Gospel.
125. His Mother's Faith
A young, daring skeptic, was in the act of addressing a crowd of young men at a street corner. An old man, gray-haired, leaning on his staff in passing, recognized the speaker. Raising his voice during a pause, the aged man said, "I knew your mother. She never taught you that. You are sinning against your conscience, and denying your mother's faith." These words went as an arrow from God to that young man's conscience. He never proclaimed infidelity again. God saved him, and at his first testimony to God's saving grace, the aged man was a joyful hearer.
126. Better Than a Deist
JUDGE CURRY of New Orleans, dates his conversion from an incident of early life. A lawyer of great ability, but a deist, had a Christian wife. Speaking of her virtue to young Curry, he said, "If I were to marry again, I would seek a true Christian. She makes a better wife, a better mother, a better mistress, than a skeptic. If she is poor, she can bear adversity, if rich, she has no desire for show. And when the end is reached, if she is mistaken, she is no worse off than me; if I am, she is infinitely better off." The young lawyer determined to examine the Bible for himself, with the result that he was converted.
127. a Cowboy's Conversion
Brought up in a Scottish home, under a godly mother's care, he emigrated to the Rocky Mountains, and imbibed the teachings of Ingersoll. Living godless, he came across a sermon of Talmage's, the text of which was, "What wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan?" (Jer. 12:55If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? (Jeremiah 12:5)). In great distress, he lifted a penny Testament from his master's desk, and hastened to the shade of a tree. Twice he decided to take his life, and had his revolver in hand to do it. A text in the Testament met his eye (John 6:3737All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)). God used this to his conversion, and he now proclaims the Gospel in England, which he that day received alone with God.
128. a Tiger Tamed
WILLIAM HONE, an infidel lecturer, found in a country house a child reading a Testament. "Why do you read a stupid book like that?" he asked. "It is my sick mother's only comfort," said the child. That stuck to him. He determined to read the Bible for himself, and not go by other men's opinions of it. He did, and God spoke to his soul through it. When his next birthday came, his Bible lay open before him, and he wrote on its fly-leaf these lines
"The proudest heart that ever beat,
Hath been subdued in me;
The wildest will that ever rose
To scorn Thy cause or aid Thy foes,
Is quelled my God by Thee.”