The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-09-07
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
ABSuRDITIES OF EVOLUTION.

Preached at Lakeside, Ohio.l
Text: The statutes Of the Lord are right"
Psalm xix, 8.
Old books go out of date. When they were
written they discussed questions which were
being discussed; they struck at wrongs which
have long ago ceased, or advocated institu-
lions which excite not our interest. Were
they books of history, the facts have been
gathered from the imperfect mass, better
classified aud more lucidly presented. Were
with wild mythologies, which have gone up
from the face of the earth like mists at sun
rise. Were they books of morals, civilization
will not sit at the feet Of b%arbarism, neither
do we want Sappho, P~ythagoras and
Tully to teach us morals. What do the
masses Of the people care now for the
pathos OF Simonides, or the sarcasm Of Men
ander. or the gracefulness Of Philemon, or
the wit OF Ari~stophaness Even the old books
we have left, with a few exceptions, have but
very little effect upon our times, Books are
human; they nave a time to DO born, they
are fondled, they grow in strength, thoy have
a middle life Of usefulness: then comes old
age; they totter and they die. Many of the
national libraries are merely the cemeteries of
the dead books. Some of them lived fiagitious
lives and died deaths of ignominy. Some
were virtuous and accomplished a glorious
mission. Some went into the ashes through
tnQuisitorial fires. Some found their funeral
pile IN sacked and plundered cities. Some
were neglected and died as %foundlings at the
thor's study, others in the publishers hands.
Ever and onon there comes into your DOS
session an old book, it's author forgotten and
its usefulness done, and with leathern lips it
seems to say: II wish were dead" Monu-
ments have been raised over poets and phi
lanthropists. Would that some toll shaft
might be erected in honor of the worlds
buried books! Tho worlds authors would
make pilgrimage thereto, and poetry and lit
arafDr6 q nd aCiancn md ,.o1sortD~ .-1,1l
secrate it with their tears.
: Not so with one old book. It started in the
worlds infancy. 1t grew under theocracy
and monarchy. It withstood the storms OF
under the fisherman's coat of the apostles: in
Rome, and Ephesus. and Jerusalem and Pat
mos. Tyranny issued edicts against it, and
infdelity put out the tongue, and Mohamme-
mas, butthe old Bible still lived. It crossed
the British Channel and was greeted by
Wicklife and James 1. It crossed the AZ
!aHtic% and struck Plymouth Rock, until like
Churches. and asylums have gathered along
its way, ringing their bells and stretching out
their hands Of blessing: and every Sabbath
there are ten thousand heralds Of the cross
old English Bible. But it viii not have &C
oomplished its mission until It has climbed
the icy mountains Of Greenland; until it has
gone over the granite cliffs of China; until
A'Aas 'nioWu u gov amid the Australian
mines; until it has scattered its gems among
the diamond districts of Brazil; and ali
thrones shall be gathered 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 ransomed empires. Not until
thin will this glorious Bible lave accom-
plished its mission.
IN carrying out, then, the idea of my text
The statutes of the Lord ore right"-I
shall show you that the Bible is right in au-
;thentication; that it is right in style: that it
Is right in doctrine: that it is right in its eff
l. Can you doubt the authenticity of the
Scrtpturesa There is uot SO much evidence
that Walter Scott wrote 1.-THE Lady of the
Lake." not so much evidence that Shake
speare wrote Hamlet" not so much evidence
that John Milton wrote paradise Lostn as
there is evidence that the Lord God Almighty,
by the hands of the prophets, evangelists and
apostles, wrote this book.
Suppose a o now to be written which
came in conflict with a great many things,
and was written by bad men or inpostors,
how long would such a hook stands 1t would
be secuted by every body. And I say il that
Bible had been an imposition; or if it had not
neen written by the men who said they wrote
1t; II 1t had been q mere collection Of false
hoods, do you not suppose that it would nave
been Immediately rejected by the peoplea II
Job, and Isaiah, aud, Jeremiah, and Paul,
and Peter, and John were imposters they
800 - q ny RcuSluJlOu6 anu
nations. If that book has come down through
hres OF centuries without a scar it is because
there is nothing in it destructible. How
near have they come to destroying the
there were two or three thousand copies of it.
Now there are two hundred millions. as far
las ! can calculate. These Bible truths, not
<W~ithstanding all tue opposition, have gone
Greek, the flowing Italian, the grace.
:1ul German, the passionate French, tho
picturesque Indian, and the exhaustess
Anglo-Saxon. I'm Ter the painters pencil
the birth and the crucifixion and the resur-
rection glow on the walls of palaces; or, I'm
der the engraver's knife, speak from the
mantel Of the mountain 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 q falsehood, it would
not have gone down under these ceaseless
fires of opposition
Further, suppose that there was a great
Of thousands of men were dying Of that nestis
!ence, and some one should find a medicine
that cured ten thousand people, would not
every body acknowledge that that must be a
g God medicine Z Why, some one would saw;
you deny it.? There have been ten thou
Sane people cured by it." I simply state the
fact that there have been hundreds of thou
sands OF Christian men and women who saw
they have felt the truthfulness of that book
and Its power in their souls. It has cured
them OF the worst leprosy that ever came
down on our earth, namely: the leprosy of
sin. And if 1 can point you to multitudes
who say they have felt the power of that
cure, are Q not reasonable enough to ac-
knowledge the fact that there must be some
power in the medicine9 Will YOU take the
evidence Of millions of patients who have
been cured, on will you:take the evidence of
the skeptic who stands aloof and confesses
that he never took the me1icine7
+. That Rih!a Ssofir,otoc that <l,,o -
called Petra, builtout of solid rock. InhdeI
ity scoffed at it: "Where is your CITY of
Petra?' Buckhardt and Laborde went forth
IN their explorations and they came upon