The Bossier banner., 1886-09-02
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Dead and Living Literature -"The
King OF Books -
I fhs' Authenticity, iStYls, Concisspess. Va
rlsty and Accuracy Of the Bible Dis
cussed ana Discoursed Upon
8 at LaIreside. O.. -

Rev. T. Dewitt Taimage. delivered
sermon at Lakeside, o. in the course OF
his summer wanderings. taking Ter his |
subject "The King of Books" His text
was: = III kS9
The ssatusesoft the ford srarIght Fsalms
xix, y. A IL s
Old books go out of date When they
were written they discussed qnestions
which were sBeilg dis iscassed; they struck
atwrongs wHfehchave long agoceased, or
adyocsted situations MEich excite not
our interest Were they books nf history,
the facts have been gathered from the inn
perfect mass, better classified and more
lucidly presented. Were they books OF
poetry, they were interlocked with wild
mythologies which have gone up from the
face of the earth like mists at sunrise.
Were they.books of morals. civilization
will not sit at the feet of barbarism,
neither do we want Sappho, Pythagoras,
and Tully to teach morals. : What do the
masses of the people care now for the
pathos of Simonides or the sarcasm of
Menander, or the gracefulness OF Phile-
mon, or the wit of Aristophanes? Even
the old books we have left, with a few ex-
ceptions, have but very little effect upon
our times. Books are human; they have
time to be born, they are fondled,
they grow in strength, they have
middle life of usefulness. then comes
old age, they totter and they die. Many
of the national libraries are merely the
cemeteries of dead books. Some of them
lived fagitious lives and died deaths of
NJ
plished glorious mission. Some went
into the ashes through inquisitorial fires.
Some found their funeral pile in sacked.
and plundered cities. Some were neglect
ed and died as foundlings at the door of
science. Some expired in the authors
study, others in the publishers hands,
Ever and anon there comes into your pos
session an old book, its author forgotten
and its usefulness done, and with leathern
lips it seems to say, 81 wish were dead"
Monuments have been raised over poets
and philanthropists. Would that some
tall shaft might be erected in honor Of the
thors would make pilgrimage thereto, an d
poetry and literature and science and re-
ligion would consecrate it with their tears.
Not SO with one old book. It started in
the worlds infancy. It grew under the
ocracy and monarchy. 1t withstood
storms of fire. 1t grew under the proph-
cts mantle and under the fisherman's
coat of the apostles; in Rome, and Eph-
esus, and Jerusalem, and Patmos. Tyran-
ny issued edicts against it, and infidel-
ity put out the tongue, and Mohamme-
danism from its mosques hurled its anath.
emas, but the old Bible still lived. It
crossed the British channel and was well
coined by Wickliffe and James l. 1t
crossed the Atlantic and struck Plymouth
Rock until, like that Of Horeb, it gushod
with blessedness. Churches and asylums
have gathered all along its way, ringing
their bells and stretching out their hands
In blessing; and every Sabbath there are
ten thousand heralds of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand, free, old
English Bible. But it will not have ac-
complished its mission until it has climbed
the icy mountains of Greenland; until it
has gone over the granite cliffs of Chin;
until it has thrown its glow amid the Aus
traiian mines; until it has scattered its
gems among the diamond districts
OF Brazil; and oil thrones shall be gather
ed into one throne. and all crowns by the
fires of revolution shall be melted into one
crown, and this book shall at the very
gate of heaven have waved in the ransom
ed empires. Not until then viii this glor-
ious Bible have accomplished it's mission
In carrying out, then, the idea of my
text
e1$1x. ,Skn o,Rt tBS S
shall show You that the Bible is right in
in authentication, that it is right ia styl e
that it is right in doctrine, that It is righ,
Ia its effects.
/. Can you doubt the authenticity oi
the Scriptures? There is not so much evi.
dence that Walter Scott wrote "The I.ady
of the Lake." not so much evidence that
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet" not SO much
evidence that John Milton wrote stPara.
disc Lost" as there is evid ence that ths
Lord God Almighty, by the ha nds Of the
prophets, evangelists end apostles, wrote
this book. s
Suppose book now to be written which
came in conflict with a great many things
and was written by bad men or impostors
how long would such book stands II
would be secuted bv everybody And
ssy:sif that Bible had been an simposi.
tion.s OF Il It had mot been writ,
!. tensesbys the men who said kthey
wroee II II it had been a mere collection
E OF falsehoosls, do you not suppose that i
would have been Immediately rejected by
the people? II Job, and Isaiah, an
Jeremiah, and Paul, and Peter, and Johr
were impostors they would have beer
secuted by generations and nations. i
that book has come down through fire.
! Of centuries without q scar, il is because
there is nothing in il destructible. How
near have they come to destroying tn
Biblsf When they began their opposition
there, were 1000 or 5000 copies of it. Now
there are 100000, ,0W as far as can cal.
Aculate. These Bible truths, notwithsta nd
ing all the opposition, have gone into al
ianguages-into the philosophic Greek
the flowing Italian, the graceful German
the passionate French, the picturesque
), Indian and the exhnustless Anglo Saxon
Under the painters pencil the birth ant
the crucifixion aud che resurrection glow
on the walls of palaces; or, under the en-,
graver's knife, speak from the mantel. O
= the nio0ntain cabin;s while stones. toi1chet
- s&t<SE