Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1882-03-09
NOT FLYING FROM ITS FOES.
Christianity's Triumphs Pictured by
DIR. Talmage.

DR.. Talmage.
LET us see whether the Bible is a last
years almanac. Let as see whether the
Church of God is is in Bull Run re-
treat, with maskets, haversacks, and
caAteens strewing all the way" said DR..
ralmage yesterday morning in the
Brooklyn Tabernacle. ain the first CEN
tury there were 100000 Christians. In
the eighteenth century there were 200,-
100000 Christians, and the estimate for
the nineteenth century is 300,000,000
Christians. Poor Christianity What
pity it has no frisndsl Who will take
it out Of the poorhouse? In few
weeks of last year there were 2,5OO,OOO
copies of the New Testament distribu-
ted. During the last ten years more
persons have connected themselves with
Christian churches that in the first fifty
years of this century. Is the Bible be-
coming an obsolete book? You find it
in every court room; in every house.
Voltaire predicted that the Bible would
be extinct in the nineteenth century.
The room in which he wrote that pre-
diction was recently crowded from floor
to ceiling with Bibles for Switzerland.
The Bible is to-day the most popular of
books. There are five times as many
copies of the Bible sold as of any other
book. The Methodist Church erects a
new house of worship every day in the
year. What Institution stands nearest
TO the hearts of the people? Is it the
Post Office? Is il the hotel? No; it is
| the Christian Church. You may talk
about the Church as collection of hyp-
ocrites, but when the diphtheria sweeps
of your children you don't go to the
Post Office for consolation. You don't
call in the Attorney General or the Post
master OF the Alderman, and you don't
want the body taken to the hotel or the
| theatre, and you don't want them to sing
the Marseilles' or 'Gcd Save the Queen
or our national anthem. You want the
minister and the church and the Sunday
school hymn that your little girl sang
the last time.
Let man proclaim himself an enc
my to the Bible, and he cannot get ma
jority-of votes in any city, county, or
wand in America. Mr.. Ingersoll, years
ago, riding Ill railroad car in Illinois.
asked, What has Christianity doneP'
There was an old Christian woman who
heard him, and she replied: christianity
has done one thing; it has prevented Mr..
Ingersoll from being Governor of Illi-
nois.' The Christian religion is to-day
mightier than ever. Do you think such
a scene could be enacted now as in the
days of Robespierre?
Suppose one passenger out of five
hundred on an ocean steamer jumps
overheard; does that stop the ship? Yet
| that one passenger makes more excite
ment than the five hundred who stay on
board. Do you believe these people are
going to be frightened by infidel scien,
lists, who have fifty different theories
| about the origin of life? l tell you that
all denominations agree in two or three
radical ideas of the Christian relig.
ion. They are unanimous as to the au.
thenticity of the Scriptures and the di.
vinity of Christ.
| How is it with the infidels? No two
of them think alike. 1t makes me sick
to see one of those library folks going
along with a copy Of Darwin's works
under one arm. and under the other a
case of transfxed grasshoppers and d
book on the organizationsof protoplasm
Just as soon as one of these fellows be
gins to know the difference between the
feelers of wasp and the horns of bee.
tie he begins to patrenize the Almighty
But AgassiZ set his face against the
| theory of development. The scientists
don't agree about smbryology. They
don't agree about the gradation of spe.
cies. Herschel wrote a book on the er
rors of astronomy. How many colors
are there in light? One says seven; an
other says three. How high is the au
rora borealis? One says two and a hall
miles; another says 16S miles. How fan
is the sun from the earth? One says
100000 miles; another says 104, ,0O0,
00O-only little difference of $4,000, ,O0C
miles. If jury does not agree, you
send it back to deliberate. Infidelity has
failed to agree after deliberate SOC
years. Let it go back and deliberate 5OC
years mere, and agree on something.
"LoOk at the International system OF
Sabbath school lessons. This afternoon
there will be 100000 people studying
the same lesson. Science is no solace
for the troubles of the world. You can.
not sOlace that bereayed mother by tell.
| ing her of the survival of the fittest; by
telling her that her child died because i;
was not worth as much as other chill
dreB. You can't go to that dying mar
and keep up his courage by telling him
to put confidence in the great TO be- the
Everlasting Nay or the eternal 'Whai
is it, Go to the widow and tell her thai
it WAS geological necessity that hel
husband should be taken away, just as
in the course of time the megathereum
had to pass out of existence, and that in
the course of fifty million years we our
selves may be scientific specimens of an
extinct human race"