QUITE a company was gathered round the table. A talkative army officer present freely interspersed his conversation with perverted Bible quotations, and remarks that showed he was an Atheist. A bantering remark about God, amounting to an open declaration of his infidelity, fairly roused his hostess.
“You seem to forget the presence of my brother here," she said. "He is a minister of the gospel.”
“Oh!" exclaimed the officer, "my friend and I understand each other;" and turning to the young minister with patronizing impudence, he said: "Is it not so, sir? Your office requires you to tell the old story, which may do very well for the ignorant to believe, but as a man of culture you cannot put faith in these worn-out doctrines.”
The minister eyed his questioner a minute, and then said: "Sir, before answering your question, I must ask you three. You are an Atheist. Such people have always been in the world. One class of these are thinkers, who have speculated and groped until they have fallen into despair, and said, 'There is no God.' Do you belong to that class?”
“No," said the officer, "thinking is not to my taste. I am no philosopher.”
The minister went on. “Another class are those who speak frivolously of God, merely because they learned to do it, where such talk was the fashion. Are you one of them?”
“No, sir," said the officer, slightly reddening;" I am not a blind follower of others.”
“There is but one more class of Atheists," quietly continued the minister; "those who have wallowed in sin till they must either expect the horrors of remorse or kill their conscience; and, as the shortest way to get rid of the alternative, they declare, 'There is no God.'”
This time the minister did not ask his question, "Do you belong to that class?" The deep blush on the scoffer's cheek told how truly the arrow shot at a venture had found its mark. Question and answer were needless.
- - -
The Bible confirms the fact that infidelity and gross sin go hand-in-hand. Nearly three thousand years ago the words were written, “The fool lath said in his heart, There is no God. They are CORRUPT, they have done ABOMINABLE WORKS." (Psa. 14:1) God puts sin and atheism together. There is plenty of proof of it. Look at the atheistic republics of South America. Life and limb, morality and virtue are alike disrespected, and the horrible spectacle of men killing themselves, nations wiping themselves out as the direct results of their sins, is what meets the eye.
Atheism may in its dark folly say, “There is no God." There is a God. You are His creature. You are accountable to Him. Have you begun to fear Him?
An atheist may possess much knowledge, he may know much about science, but he has neither true knowledge nor wisdom until he has the fear of the Lord before his eyes.
Whatever you may not do, dear friend, I implore you see to it that you get Right with God, else everything without exception will turn out wrong, and that for eternity. A. J. P.