Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1886-08-11

| BE hldHTIN LIS AUTHENTlCATlON,O OTYLE,
| DOCTRINE AND EFFECTS.
| LAKESIDE, O., August Vast throngs
| of people came here to-day from all parts of
the country to hear the Rev. 7. De Witt
Talmage, d. D., 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 in listening to scientific
lectures. Many Of the guests spend the
whole summer here. The subject Of DR..
Talmage's sermon was, "The King of
Books" and the text from Psalm xix, s:
| "The statutes of the Lord are right" Fol-
lowing is the sermon in full:
Old books go out of date. When they
were written they discussed questions which
were being discussed; they struck at wrongs
which had long ago ceased, or advocated
institutions which excite not our interest
| Were they books of history, the facts have
been gathered from the imperfect mass, bet
ter classified and more lucidly presented.
Were they books of poetry, they were inter-
locked 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 bar
barism, neither do we want Sappho, Pythag-
oras and 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 gracefulness 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 fagitions lives and died deaths
of ignominy. Some were virtuous and ac-
complished glorious mission. Some went
into the ashes through inquisitorial fires.
Some found their funeral pile in sacked and
plundered cities. Some were neglected 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 possession 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 philanthro-
pists. Would that some tall shaft might
be erected in honor of the worlds buried
books! The worlds authors would make
pilgrimage thereto, and poetry, and litera-
ture, and science, and religion would con-
secrate it with their tears.
Not SO with one old book. 1t started in
the worlds infancy. 1t grew under theoc-
racy and monarchy. 1t withstood storms
of fire. 1t grew under prophets mantle and
under the fisherman's coat of the apostles; in
Rome, and Ephesus, and Jerusalem, and
Patmos. Tyranny issued edicts against it,
and infidelity cut out the tongue, and Mo-
hammedanism from it's mosques hurled its
anathemas, but the old Bible still lived. 1t
crossed the British Channel and was greeted
by Wickllffe and James l. 1t crossed the
Atlantic and struck Plymouth Rock, until
like that of Horeb it gushed with blessed
ness. Churches and asylums have gather
ed all along its way, ringing their bells and
stretching out their hands of blessing; and
every Sabbath there are ten thousand her.
aids of the cross with their hands on this
open, grand, free, old English Bible. But
it will not have accomplished its 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
amid the Australian mines; until it has
scattered its gems among the diamond dis
tricts of Brazil; and all 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 then will this glorious
Bible have accomplished its mission.
In carrying out, then, the idea of my text
1.-THE statutes of the Lord are right'-I
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.
1. Can you doubt the authenticity of the
Scriptures? There is not so much evidence
that Walter Scott wrote ''The Lady of the
Lake,; not SO much evidence that Shaks-
peare wrote ''Hamet''; not so much evil
dence that John Milton wrote "Paradlse
Lost" as there is evidence that the Lord
God Almighty, by the hands of the prohets,
evangelists and apostles, wrote this book.
Suppose book now to be written which
came in conflict with great many things,
and was written by bad men or impostors,
how long would such book stand? 1t
would be secuted by everybody. And say
if that Bible had been an imposition, or if it
had not been written by the men who said
they wrote it; if it had been mere collec-
tion of falsehoods, do you not suppose it
would have been Immediately rejected by
the people? If Job and Isaiah, and Jere-
miah 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 with
out a scar it is because there is nothing in
it destructible. How near have they come
to destroying the Bible? When they began
their opposition there were two or three
thousand copies of it. Now there are two
hundred millions, as far as can calculate
These Bible truths, Notwithstanding all the
have gone into al! languages
into the philosophic Greek, the flowing
Italian the graceful German, the passionate
French; the picturesque Indian, and the
exhaustless Anglo-Saxon. Under the
painter pencil the birth and the crucifxion
and the resurrection glow on the walls of
palaces; or under 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
martyrs. Now, do you not sup
pose if that book had been an imposition
and falsehood it would have gone down
under these ceaseless fires of opposition?"
Further, suppose that there was a great
pestlence going over the earth, and hun
dreds of thousands of men were dying of
that pestilence, and some one should find
medicine that cured ten thousand people,
would not everybody acknowledge that that
huSo No u SOOu IueulClce! w nv, some one
would say: Do you deny it? There have
been ten thousand people cured by it. 1
simply state the fact that there have been
hundreds Of thousands of Christian men and
women who say they have felt the truthful
ness Of that book and its power in their
souls. 1t 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 you not
reasonable enough to acknowledge the fact
that there must be some power in the
medicine? Will you take the evidence of
millions of patients who have been cured,
or will you take the evidence Of the skeptic
who stands aloof and confesses that he
never took the medicine?
The Bible intimates that there was city
called Petra, built out of solid rock Inf
deity scoffed at it. 'Where is your city of
Petra?" Buckhard and Laborde went forth
in their explorations and they came upon
that very city. The mountains stand
around like giants guarding the tomb where
the citv ia buried They find n ct-oot :,