Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-01-16
INFIDELITY.
An Answer TO the Champion Bias
phemer of America.
What He ciaims-Testimony of the Great Of
All Ages-0n the Stand-Swearing the
Neutrality-suspicious., lgno-
rant or Millful.
INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT SERMON

rant or Wliltui'
INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT SERMON
That infidelity Is growing evil in
this country, cannot be denied, and the
fact that such men as Col. Ingersoll and
others devote their undOubted talents
and brilliant rhetoric to its advocacy, is
sufficient reason why they should be
met and their arguments answered by
those who are equally able and equally
brilliant. The sermon of DIR. Talmage
is, therefore, not only an interesting
contribution to the argument in favor
of Christianity, but it will be read with
the same pleasure, as literary produc-
ton, that attaches to the writings ofthe
brilliant champion ofinfidelity. As the
first ola series, which promises to grow
more interesting as they proceed, it
should be read with care, and will prove
both interesting and instructing.
s"s
BGooKLYH, January lj.-ReY. De Witt
Talmage, delivered sermon on "IntideIi-
ty," at the Tabernacle, this morning. The
text was Ephesians iy.1S:-"Having the
understanding darkcned, being alienated
from the life of God through the Ignorance
that is in them"
1t seems from what we have recently
heard, that the Christian religion is huge
blunder; that the Mosaic account of the
creation is an absurdity large enough to set
Adam and Eve never existed; that the del
uge and the ark were imposSiblities; that
there never has been miracle; that the
bible is the friend of cruelty, of murder, of
polygamy. OF adultery, OF all the baser
crimes: that religion is woman's tyrant
and mans qualification; that the bible
from lid to lid is an imposture, a fable, n
hUnbug,
A Shame and Lie,
that the martyrs who died for its truths
were dupcs; that the church OF God is q
fool; that Thomas Carlyle, the Sceptic,
when he admitted the Bible to be noble
book, was getting imbecile; that it must
have been by some weakness when Theo-
dore Parker, the infidel. admitted in Music
Hall. Boston, There is not boy or a girl
all christendom through but their life is
made better by this great book" that it is
something to make every patriot blush
when John Adams the father of American
independence, declared The Bible is the
best book in the world and lion-hearted
Andrew Jackson became sniyelling cow
ard when he declared: THAT book, sir, is
the rock on which our republic rests" and
Daniel Webster forgot his logic and abdica-
ted his throne of intellectual power and
from being the great expOuudcr OF the
Constitution and the great American law
yer, turned himself into an idOt when he
said: my heart has always assured and
reassured me that the gospel of Jesus Christ
must be divine reality, and from the time
that at my mothers feet or my fathers
knee first learned to lisp verses from the
sacred writings they have been my daily
study and yigilant contemplation, and II
there is anything in my style that is to be
the credit is due to my kind
parents in instilling into my mind real
love of the Scriptures; that William II.
Seward, the diplOnatist of the Century,
only showed himself puerilc when he de-
clared, The whole of human progress is
on the ever growing
Influence OF the Bible.
That it is better for us u take the Bible
from its throne in the affections of un-
counted millions and put it Under our feet
to be trampled on with SCorn and Kissing
that your father was hood
winked and cheated and befoolcd when, his
hair white and his hands tremulcus,
he leaned on this staff when his steps
shortened as he was about to stop his earth
ly Journey; and that your mother sat with
u pack of Interpretations on her lap Ill
those days when reading OF the better
world and the end OF all her aches and
pains, and the reunion under SUMMER skies
with yOu-thc children who stood around
her. and those she had buried with infinite
that she could read no more
until she took OFT her speCtacleS and wiped
from them The thick mist of many tears.
Alas, that for thirty or forty years they
should have gone under such q deiuSion,
and had il under their pillow IN the back
room where they lay a-dying, and should
have requested that words from the vile
thing be cut on the tombstone under the
shadow of the old meeting house where
they sleep this morning. waiting for res
direction which will never come.
And this book. having deceived
them, and deceived the mightiest
intellectS of all the ages we must not allow
it to deceive our greater and mighticr and
vaster and more stupendous intellects and
so out with il from the courtroom where
they Use il in solemniZation of testimony,
out with it from under the foundations of
church and asylum out with it from all
your homes. Bring tue bibles OF your
children, the family bibles, the. newly
bound bibles and those with worn out lids
and half obliterated pages-obliterated by
fingers long ago turned to dust-and let us
with q torch kipdlc blaze aud stand by 1t,
warming our cold criticism and afterward
turn under with the plOughshare of public
indignation the pallid ashes OF a book so
vile. so bloodthirSty, so obscene, so adul-
ferrous. so deathful, so bitterly autagonistic
to mans liberty, woman's honor and the
worlds Happiness.
But stop says some silly old man; stop,
says some weak-minded woman; stop
says some small-brained child, and give the
book a trial before you condemn it. Well,
perhaps we would better give it trial, SO
/ empanel all this entire audience for q
Jury. Twelve jUrers in other cases are all
that are required but as this is case OF
vaster moment than any other, take the
thousands this day here assembled and ask
you in silence solemnly to affirm that you
will well and truly try this issue of trav-
erse joined between infidelity, the plain
tiff, and christianity, the defendant.
Call you first witness,
Robert q. IngersoII!
Here! Swear the witness. But how
shall we swear him? There are only two
ways of taking the oath in the court room,
one by kissing the Book, and the other by
lifting the hand. l cannot ask him tc
swear on the Bible for he says that is pacI
of lies will not ask him TO lift his hand
heayenward, for that seems TO imply the
existence Of q God, fact that in this very
case is disputed. So l swear him by the
rings OF Saturn. and the mountains in the
moon, and the Milky Way, and the Nebu
lar Hypothesis that he will tell the truth
the whole truth. and nothing but the
truth. Let me say that | know nothing o
this witness in private life, neither do
want TO know. have no taste for explor
ing the private character. deal with hin
to-day, and all through these discourses a
| a public teacher. | shall not be diverted
from this course because he has publicl!
asSailed my name in his lectures and inter
views. / have no personal animosity.
| invite him, if he changes his mind OH thI
subject of the Christian religion to comt
! and stand where now stsnd
| and preach his first sermon. l shal
confine myself to his public teaching. VIII!
do preach this sermon? Am l iearIn
that Christianity will be oyerborne by hi
scoffing and TRADE? Oh, no. / tell yo,
lust about how much Mr.. Ingersol will i'm
| nede the great cause of Christianity