Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-05-07


When Lepaux, member of the
French Directory, complained to Tai
leyrand that his new religion, "Theo-
philanthrophy," made little headwav
among the people, the shrewd old states
man replied:
81 am not surprised at the difficulty
you find in your effort 1t is no easy
matter to introduce new religion. But
there is one thing | would advise you
to do, and then, perhaps, you might
succeed. ."-"Wha is it =? what is it :"
eagerly asked Lepaux.-"1t is this, !"
said Talleyrand; "go and be crucihed,
and then be buried, and then rise again
on the third day, and then go on work
ing miracles, raising the dead, and
healing all manner of diseases, and
casting out devils; and then it is possi
BILE that you may accomplish your
end I" The philosopher went away
silent; and no infdel succeeded in full
filling these conditions. But Christ
has died, and risen again, and these
apostles suffered the loss of all things,
and even of life itself, in proclaiming
these facts; and they left their testi-
mony on record in this Book. Then
the apostles quote from the prophets,
and the prophets. quote from the
Psalms, and refer to the Law which
was given on Mount Sinai; and so we
60 back from book to book, until we
reach the book of Genesis, and that
does not quote from anybody or any
thing. You have then reached the
fountain-head.
But" says one, II think that the
Bible may be true history, but that
is no proof of its inspiration. 1t does
not require divine inspiration to write
true history" So you think it an
easy matter to tell the truth, do you ?
I wish you could make other people
think so. Suppose you 60 and read a
file of the newspapers published just be-
fore the last election, and see if you do
not thiuk it requires divine inspiration
to tell the truth, or even to find it out
after it is told Truth is mighty hard
to get at, as you can see by perusing
the daily papers on the eve of an elec-
ton.
There are certain things in the Bible
which, to my mind, bear the impress of
Divinity. A skeptic will tell you what
a race of OLD sinners we read about in
the Bible Noah got drunk; David
was guilty of adultery and
murder; Solomon was an idolator, and
wrought folly; Peter denied his Lord,
and Judas sold him for thirty pieces of
silver; all these people that the Bible
talks to US so much about are pretty
set of men! Very well; what kind of
men do you expect to read about in the
Bible Noah got drunk. Is that
strange? Did no one else ever get
drunk? Peter cursed and swore. Are
there not other men who curse and
swear? Judas, an apostle, sold his
Lord, who said he had chosen twelve
and one of them was devil. Do you
not sometimes find a Judas in the
church even nowadays? One in
twelve was a thief and a traitor then;
and we need not be surprised if we find
about the same average now. But you
seem to think, that when you read about
q man in the Bible he is sure to be free
from all kinds of errors, frailties, faults
and sins. You have formed this idea
of men from reading in Sunday school
books about good children, who usual
ly die young; or perusing excellent
biographies, which, as you read them,
cause you to exclaim, 81 wish | could
be as good as that person was; but l
never shall" No, 1 presume you never
will and if you knew the whole story
about the person you might not feel so
deeply on the subject
Do you suppose that if the Bible had
been written by some learned doctor,
revised by a committee of eminent
divines, and published by some great
religious society, we should ever have
heard of Noah's drunkenness, of Abra-
hams deception, of Lots disgrace, of
Jacobs cheating, of Paul and Barna-
bas quarreling, or of Peters lying,
cursing and assembling? Not at all.
The good men when they came to such
an incident, would have said, "There
is 10 use in saying anything about that
1t is all past and gone; it will not help
and it will only hurt the
cause" Applause. If committee
of such emminent divines had prepared |
the Bible, you would have had biog-
raphy of men whose characters were
patterns of piety and propriety, instead
of poor sinners, as they were. Some
times a man writes his own diary and
happens to leave it for some one to
print after he is dead; but he leaves
out all the mean tricks he ever did, and
puts in all the good acts he can think
of: and you read the pages, filled with
astonishment, and think, "What a |,
wonderful good man he was J" But
when the Almighty writes mans life
He tells the truth about him; and there
are not many persons who would want
their lives printed if the Almighty
wrote them.
Suppose young man goes, say from
the country, down to the city. Per-
haps he is rich mans son, who has
had more money than was good for
him at home, and who comes to the
city to see the sights. He sails around
in dangerous waters, and slips into
various ports that are not exactly safe,
and the next morning finds him hauled
up before his Honor in the police court.
You get morning paper, and you ex-
pect to find the full particulars of the
case. You do, do you? You find a
paragraph on this wise: "a certain
young man from the rural districts
came to town yesterday, sailed around
in different parts of the city, and fell
into rather bad company. This morn
ing he was brought up before his
Honor, who admonished him to be
more careful in the future, and he de-
parted sadder and wiser young
man" This is the the kind of para
graph YOU will find in the papers when |