The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-12-02
laltscellmenms.
REV. 7. DEWITT TALMAGE.
THE BOOK
Upon the Doctrines of Which Rests
Christianity
And, Solving All Questions, Places the
Mind at Rest.

SUBJECT: "Is the Bible Immoral and
False"
TEXT; St. Matthew, xiv, So: " Heav-
en- and earth shall pass away, but My
words shall not pass away"
What is that scrolled, clasped, Dore-
illustrated volume lying on the cloth of
the drawing-room center-table? What
volume is it defaced and worn and lead
penciled, lying on the Clerks desk in
the Courtroom What volume is it
that, the gowned Professor reads in the
College chapel? What volume is it that
is packed away by loving hands in the
trunk on the morning of the young mans
leaving home? What volume is it on
which the Judges of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and all our Presi-
dents take their oath of Office? Ofwhat
volume have the printers made 100000
600 copies? 1t is the book on which in
fidelity puts its hands to-day and cries,
surrenderp Shall we do so, is the
question of the day and of the hour, For
years l have heard mady complaints
made against the Bible, and | have
classified these complaints, and find them
to be four: The Bible is impure. The
Bible is cruel The Bible is contradic-
tory The Bible is unscientifc. To prove
that the Bible is impure its enemies read
portions of Scripture which they say are
unfit for the eye and ear of the family
circle. They read Solomon's Song, and
put upon it their own interpretations,
and then fling down the book, denounc-
ing it as a polluted volume. Is the Bible
impure? l lay it down as a principle
that an impure book will have impure
results. No man will deny that PROPOSE
ton. Ofall your friends, how many have
had their purity Of soul stained, furnished
or despoiled by scriptural perusal? Two
hundred million copies Of an impure
book scattered through ChristendOm;
there must be a great many victims.
Show me thousand victims. Show me
five hundred victims. Show me a hun
dred. Show me fifty. Show me ten.
Show me one victim. Is that exorbi-
tant? l do not care what the specimen
is, whether man, woman, child-white,
black, Observation-Disclosures Euro
peon, Asiastic, African. Two hundred
millions of books, in each volume Of
which is the leprosy of impurity. Show
me one victim. l do not confne you to
our own times. Range through all the
four thousand years that have passed,
and show me one soul whose chastity
and purity have been despoiled and
ruined by Bible perusal. challenge all
earth and hell for one victim. Your
charge collapses and dies in the presence
of every frank-minded man. So far from
the Bible being an impure book, you
know very well that is only while the
Bible reigns that the family institution
is regarded. The only difference be-
tween Sodom and Constantinople and
Pekin and Madras on the one side, and
our American cities on the other in re-
gard to the status of purity or impurity,
is the difference between Bible and no
Bible. If the Bible be an impure book,
I am only asking of you fair thing when
l ask that after two hundred million
copies have been doing their work you
show me one victim.
Charge the Second-The Bible is cruel.
To prove this the enemies of the Bible
give us the story of the ancient wars,
passages in the history Of David and
Joshua, the determination of the Canaan
ties, and then declare that the Bible ap-
proves of laceration and manslaughter.
You have known great many people
have this cruel" book in their hands.
Was the effect of this "cruel" book upon
them to send them toward vivisection,
toward maltreatment, toward mauling
Did your friends come out and practi
cally say al have been reading about
the determination of the Canaanites, and
now l mean to cut, stab, bruise and beat
to pieces every body can meet" As
your children have studied the Bible,
have they got more and more of a tend
ency to pull off the wings of flies, and to
pin grasshoppers, and to rob birds nests.
If the Bible is cruel, why does it not
show its cruelty in that direction? So
far from its being true, all the asylums
and institutions of mercy in this country
have been founded by the Bible believ-
ers. When did this "bloody book, so
called by some, implant cruelty in the
heart of George Peabody, of Miss Dix, of
Florence Nightingale, of John Howard,
of John Frederick Oberlin, of Abbott
Lawrence? Look at these twenty Chris
tian women in a hospital. They are
washing wounds, they are administering
cordials, they are taking the last message
of the expiring. Those Christian women
have been reading this book all their
lives, and now they are reading it to the
sick and the dying. At what point does
the cruelty of this book crop out in the
life of that ministering angel in the hos
pital2 Do you find it in the gentleness
of her step, or in the soft cadence of her
voice, or in her prayer for the dying: !
" Lord Jesus, receive his spirit?" When
you can make rose-leaf pierce like bay
onet, when you can make icicles out of
the south wind, when you can poison
the tongue with honey made out of bios
soming buckwheat-t you can find
people practicing cruelty learned from
the Bible.
Charge Third-The Bible is contradic-
tory. It's enemies put apostle against |
anOstlp and nrnnhpt oOaingt prODhpt |