Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-08-02
THE KING OF BOOKS.
DIR. TALNAGE CONTINUES HIS RURAL SER
MONS IN OHIO.
A Discourse On the Bible, Which the Preacher
Shows to Be Right in It's Authorization Style,
Doctrine and EFsets-Ths Book Which
Is the Hive Of ALI Sweetness
Special Telegram to he Register.

the country to hear the Kew. L. De Mltt
Talmage, DID,, of Brooklyn. This place
is a summer encampment on the Chautau-
qua plan, where meetings are held for
several weeks, and the visitors employ
their time in Bible study, and listening to
scientific lectures. Many of the guest
spend the whole summer here. The sub
ject of DIR. Talmage's sermon was THE
King of Books, and the text from Psalm
xix, 8: THE statutes of the Lord are
right" Following is the sermon in full:
OLD BOOKS.
90 out of date When they were written
they discussed questions which were be
ing discussed; they struck at wrongs
which had long ago ceased, or adyo-
Gated institutions which excite
not our interest. Were they books of his
tory, the facts have been gathered frem
the imperfect 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 or
Tully to teach us morals. What do the
masses OF the people care now for the
pathOs of SimOnideS, or the sarcasm OF
Menander, or the gracefulnrsS of Philemon,
or the wit of AristOphanes? Even the old
books we have left, with few exceptions,
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 ilagitiOus lives and died deaths
of ignominy. Some were virtuOus and ac-
cOmplished a glorious mission. Some
went into the ashes through inquisitOrial
fires. Some found their funeral pile in
sacked and plundered cities. Some We're
neglected and died rs foundlingS ut the
door of science Some expired in the au-
thOrs study, others in the publishers
hands. Ever and anon there comes into
your possession an old book, its author for
gotten and its usefulness done, and with
leathern lips it seems to say: r wish |
were dead" Monuments have been raised
over poets and philanthrOpiStS. Would
that some tall shaft might be erected il
honor of the worlds buried books The
worlds authors would make pilgrimage
thereto, and poetry, and literature, and
science, and religion would cOnsecrate 1t
with their tears.
NOT 50 WITH ONE OLD BOOK.
II started i'm the worlds infancy. 1t
withstOOd storms of life. 1t grew under
prophets mantle and under the fisher
mans coat of the Apostles; in Rome, and
EpheSus, and Jcrusalum, and PatmOS.
Tyranny issued edicts against it, and inli-
deity put out the tongue, and MOhammc-
danism from its mosques hurled its ana
themaS, but the old Bible still lived. 1t
crossed the British Channel and was
greeted by WiCkliile and James !. 1t
crossed the Atlantic and struck Plymouth
Rock, until, like that of HOrcb, it guShed
with blessedneSs. Churches and asylumS
have gathered all along its way, ringing
their bells and stretching out their hands
of blessing; and every Sabbath there are
ten Thousand hcralds of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand,
free. old English Bible. But it
will not have accomplished It's
mission until it has climbed the icy
mountains OF Greenland; until it has gone
over the granite cliffs of China; until it
has thrown its glow among the Australian
mines; until it has scattered its gems
among the diamond districs of Brazil; and
l., inf nna
throne, and all crowns by the fires OF revo-
luton shall be melted into one crown, and
this book shall ut the very gate of heaven
have waved in the ransOmed empires.
Not until then will this glorious Bible have
accomplished its mission:
In carrying out, then, the idea Of my
text-''The Statutes of the Lord are
Right shall show you that the Bible
is right in authorization, that it is right
in style. that it is right in doctrine, that it
is right in its effects. lst.
CAN YOU DOUBT
the authenticity OF the Scriptures? There
is not so much evidence that Walter Scott
wrote "The Lady of the Lake not 50
much evidence that Shakespeare wrote
"Hamlet;" not SD much evidence that
John Milton wrote Paradise Lost, as
there is that the Lord God Almighty, by
the hands of the prophets, evangelists and
apostles wrote this book
Suppose y book now to DE written which
came in conflict with great many things
and was written by bad men or impoStorS,
how long would such n book stand. 1t
would be secuted by everybody. And /
say if that Bible had been an impOSture;O or
if it had not been written by the men who
said they wrote it; if it had been a mere
collection of falSehOOds, do you not sup
nose that it would have been Immediately
rejected by the people? If job, and Isaiah,
and jeremiah, and Paul and Peter, and
John were impOStors, they would have
been secuted by generations and nations
If that book has come down through fires
of centuries without scar, 1t Is because
there is nothing in it destTuctible.
How near have they come to destroying
the Bible? When they began their oppO-
sition there were two or three thousand
copies of it. Now there are two hundred
millions, as far rs | can calculate. These
Bible truths notwithstanding all the Op-
position, have gone into all languages
into the philOsOphic Greek, the flowing
Italian, the graceful German, the passion
ate French, the picturesque Indian and the
exhautleSs Anglo-SaXton, Under the
painters pencil the birth and the cruel
tixion and the resurrection glow on the
walls of palaces; OF under the engraver's
knife speak from the mantel Of the noun
tain cabin; while stones touched by the
sculptOr's chiSel, start up into preaching
APOSTLES and ascending martyrs. Now, do
YOU not suppose, if that Book had been an
imposition and falSehOOd, it would have
gone down under these celseless fires OF
opposition?
Further, suppose that there was
A GREAT PESTILENCE
going over the earth, and hundreds of
thousands of men were dying of that peStl-
lence, and some one should find medl-
cine that cured ten thousand people, would
not everybody acknowledge that that must
be a good medicine? Why, some one
would say: do you deny it? There
have been ten thousand people cured by
it." | simply state the fact that there