The Brookhaven leader., 1886-08-12
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Dead and Living Litsrature-"The
King OF Books-
me aushentseity. style. ooaeiseness. va
riety aad Accuracy Of the Bible Dis
oussed and Dlseour-ed UPoa
ct Lakeside, o.,

Rev. 7. BeNi1 TalmaEe deltveTe1
sermon st Lakeside, O., in the course Of
his sumner wauierings. taking for bis
suiiect The King Of Books." His text
ras.
The statutes Of the Lord are right-Psalms
xix
Old books 20 out Of date. When they
gere written tney discussed questions
which were being discu sssd; they struck
a. wrongs which have long ago ceased. or
advocated institutions which excite not
our interest Were they books Of history,
TIE facts have been gathered from the i'm
perfect mass, better classified and more
lucldly presented. Were they books Of
poe ~. they were interlocksd with wild
mytbologies which have gone up from the
face Of he earth like mists al sunrise.
Were they books Of morals. civilization
viii not st al the feet Of barbarism,
nei.r~r Do we want Sappbo. PythGgoras,
and Tully 70 teach morals. What do the
masses Of the people care now for the
pathos Of simoniies OF the sarcasm Of
Meusndsr. or the grace fitness OF Pble-
mon, or the wit Of AristOphsnes: Even
the old b,oks we have LEFT, with few ex-
ceytious, have but very lit'ls effect upon
our I mes. Books are human: they have
q time 70 be born. they are fondlsd,
they grow IN strength, they have q
middle life Of usefulness then comes
Old age, they tgtter an they die. Many
Of the national libraries are merely the
rene. cries o dead looks. Some Of them
lived Sagiii % lives aud dis1 deaths Of
igurw-uy. Some wee vlst.o1s and accom-
uEsus1 3 gio-l "a mission. Some went
ire the ashes ftrlugb Irguisitprial fres.
Some t1uud Their funeral pie IN 80 ckei
and r'u- 5erel cities. some were neglect
Cd sud died as fyandlirgs at t.e door Of
Ieucs. some expired in the authors
study. o,be#s il tie p5tl hers hands.
Ever sal anon there comes into your pos
session al Old took. is author forgotten
ami It's usefulness done. and " tn leathern
p t. seems 70 say, ~ WISH were dead"
Monuments uave Ussn raised over poets
and fbIauthrop.s- Would that some
tall Shaft Z ght be erec Il il honor OF the
worl1's burIs3 books, The worlds au-
thofs ~ou make u, griuage thereto, az /
poetry and literature and SCIENCE and re-
lici9n would cOnsscraie il with their tears.
Not s. VIII one Old took. l; started in
the worlds infancy. Il grew under the
ocTacy ana monarchy. Il withgtood
storms - Ere l. grew N Ter the proph-
e.'s mantle and under the fsherman's
coat q tn apostles; il Rome, and Eph-
egus sn1 Je usalen. sui Patmos. Tyrsn-
by Issued gilcts against i. and infdel-
ity PIX cut the tongue, and HohanDs-
Danish from u u-zq l=s hurled & anath-
emss. blt tie Old BE s.iI lived. Il
cross tie British caarae. ani was wel-
coined by Wick.fs AID James !. Il
~ ed me Al Htl- an stEa ( Plymouth
h5eE Until, Ike ttat Il EyT-t, II gushs5
with -iess=du=zs- Churches and zsylurs
have CatLe-e1 al along IT, way. ringing
tLe.T tells and stretching cut Il cir hands
L blessing: al every Sabbath there are
ter thousand herslds Of TIE cross with
Their hands On THIS open. grand, free. old
Enslsn Bite. But Il vii not have &C.
colnllisbed IS ssioD until il has elm led
the icy Inouutstas Of Greenland: until II
has gone over the granite cliffs Of Chin;
until II las thrown ts glow amid the Aus
tralian mines; until Il nas scattered its
gems among the diamond districts
Of Brazil; and al throne saaH be gather
ed into oae throne ami ali crowns ~ the
fires Of revolution saaIl be melted into one
crown, and this book shall al the very
gate Of heaven have waved IN the ransom
ed empires. Not until then viii this glor-
Ious Bible have accom- plish= d is mission.
In carrying out, then, the idea of my
text
The statutes Of the Lord are right
l shall show you bat the B bic is right in
in auth enticatiJn, that it il right in style,
that If is II ght in doctrine, that II is right
il It's effects.
!. Can you doubt the authenticity Of
the Scriptures; There Il not 50 much evil
dence that Walter Scott wrote '.The Lady
Of the Lake" no. 50 much evidence that
Shakespeare wrote Hamlet" not so much
evidence that John Milton wrote para
disc Lost" as II ere is evid ence that the
Lord God Almighty, by the hands Of the
prophets, eyaDgeli5ts and apostles, wrote
this book.
Suppose a book now 10 he written which |
came in conflict with a great many things,
and was written by tad men or impostors,
how long would such q book standE 1t
would be secuted by everybody. And /
say if that Bible mad been an IMPOSE
ton, OF if il had not been writ
ten by the men who said they
wrote il, if il hal been mere collection
Of fslsehoods, do you not suppose that it
would have been Immediately rejected by
sic people: II job, and Isaiah, and
Jeremi a q. and Paul, and Peter, and John
were impostors they would have been
secuted by generations aud nations. If
that book has come down through fires
Of centuries without scar, il is because
there i, nothing in il destructible. How
near have they come to destroying the
Bible: When they began their opposition
there were 400 or 3 900 copies Of it. Now
there are 2JO,OJOO)0 as far as can cal
culate. These Bible truths, notwitbstand-
ing all the opposition, have gone into all
l5nguages-into the philosophic Greek,
the flowing Italian, the graceful German,
the passionate French, the picturesque
Indian aud the exhaustless Anglo-Saxon.
Under the painters pencil the birth and
the C ucifxion and the resurrection glow
on the walls Of palaces; or, under the en-
graver'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 false
hood, it would have gone down under
these ceaseless fires Of opposition!
The Bible intimates that there was city
called Petra, built out Of solid rock. Inf
deity scoffed at it. "Where 10 your city
of Petras" Buckhardt 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 city is buried. They find