Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1880-11-22
THE BIBLE.
Is 1t Immoral and False: or Does It Fmi
nate from God. and Contain Nauzht Of
Evilp

b1obA-
Is 1t Immoral and False; or Does It Fmi-
nate from God. and Contain Nauzht of
Evil'
NEW YORK, November 2l.
Special Dispatch to the Register.
The services at the Brooklyn Taber-
nacle this morning were opened by the
hymn:
"oh. could speak the matchless worth,
Oh. could Isound the glorieS for h."
The sermon was as follows:
subject:-"Is the Bible Immoral and
False p'
Text Matthew xiv, SS Heaven and
ear h shall p,rss away. but Ny words shall not
pass away.
What is that scrolled, clasped, Dore-
illustrated volume lying on the cloth OF
the drawing room centre-table? What
volume is il deiaced and worn and lead.
penciled lying on the clerks desk in the
court room? What volume is it that
the gowned professor reads in the col
iege chapel? What volume is it that is
packed away by loving hands in the
trunk on the morning Of the young
mans leaving homer What volume is
it on which the judges OF the Supreme
Court of the United States and all cur
Presidents take their oath OF Office? Of
what volume have the printers made
200 OOO, 600 copies? 1t is the book on
which infidelity puts its hands to-day
and cries, surrender" Shall We do
so, is the question of the day and Of the
hour? For many years | have heard
MANY complaints made against the
Bible, and have classified these com
plants, and find them to be four: The
Bible is impure. The Bible is cruel.
The Bible is contradictory. The Bible is
unscientidc.
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 1T their
own interpretations, and then fling
down the book, denounciny it as a
polluted volume. Is the Bible impure?
/ Law it down rs principle that an lm-
pure book will have impure results.
No man will deny tnat proposition. Oi
all your friends how many have had
their purity Of sonL stained, tarnished
or despoiled by scriptural perusal? Two
hundred million copies OF an impure
book scattered through christendom;
there must be great many victims.
Show me Thousand victims. Show me
five hundred victims. Show me hundred
show me fifty. show me ten, show me
one victim. Is that exorbitant? do
not care what the specimen is, whether
man. woman, child, white, black, cop
per-colored, American, European, Asiat-
L., African. Two hundred millions OF
books, in each volume OF which is the
leprosy OF impurily. Show me one VIC
tim. do not contine you to our own
times. Range through all the four thou
sand wears that have passed, and show
me one soul whose charity AMI purity
have been despoiled and ruined by
Bible perusal.
Challenge All Earth and He'll
for one victim. Your charge coliapses
and dies in the presence ot every frank
minded man. ~ iar from the Bible be-
inc an im,ure bo *. YOU know Very well
that il is only where the Bible Ielgns
that the fanny institution IL reg'ried:
The only difference between 80 iom and
CDnstanIinople, G. and Pekin ami Madras,
ON the one sld,,, aud our American cities
ON the other, in regard to the status OF
purity or iuipurity, il the difference be-
tween Bible AMI no Bible. III the Bible
he an impure book, am only asking OF
Won a fIir thing when ask that, after
two hundred millions OF copies have
been doing their work, you show me
ono victim
Charge the Second-The Bible is Cruel
To prove this the enemies OF the Bi-
BILE give US the story OF the ancient wars,
passages in the history of David and
Joshua. the extermination of the Ca
naapites and then declare that the Bible
approyes OF laceratiC II and manslaughter.
You have known great many persons
,o have this "cruel book i'm their hands.
Was the effect of this Cruel book to
send them towards yivasection, rDwardS
ma,treatment, towards manling! Did
your friends come out and practically
saw: 81 have been reading about the ex'
termination of the CLnaanites, and now
I mean to cut, stab. bruise and beat to
pieces every body can meet? As your
rhiI1ren have studied the Bible, have
they more and more OF a tendency 10
mil off the wings OF tiies, and to PIN
grass hoppsrs. and to rob birds nests IL
the Bible IS cruel, why does it not show
its cruelty in that direction? so lar
from its being true, all the asylums anu
institutions of mercy in this country
have been founded by Bible believers.
When did this "bloody book" so-called
by spme. imp ant cruelty in the heart oil
George Peabody, OF Miss Dix, OF Flor.
ence Nightingale, OF John Howard, OF
John Frederick Oberiin, OF Abbot Law
renee? Look at those twenty Christian
women in a hospital. They are washing
wounds, they are administering coriials,
thew are taking the last message OF the
sxpiriny. 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 hospit-
alp Do you find it in the gen,ieness OF
her step, or in the soft cadence OF her
voice, or in her prayer for the diving:
DLord Jesus. receive his spirito' When
YOU can make u rose leaf pierce like a
bayonet, when you can make icicles out
of the South wind, when You can pois.
on the tongue with honey made out of
blossoming buckwheat-then you can
And people praeticing cruelty learned
from the Bible.
| Charge Third-Ths Bible In Consrsdictory
Its enemies put apostle against apos-