The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1886-08-19
lR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
REPORTED FOR THE PRESS,
Preached nj Lakeside, Ohio. I


nave long ago ceasel, or advocated institu.
lions which excite not our interest. Were
tnev books OF history, the facts have been
gathered from the imperfect mass, better
classified and more lucidly presented Were
they books of poetry, they were interlocked
with wild mytholosies, which have gone up
from the face of the earth like mi Is at sun,
rise, Were they books of morals, civil, alton
will not sit at the feet of barbarism. neither
DO we want, Sappho, fythagoras and
Tully to teach us morals. What do the
masses OF the people care now for the
pathos oil Slmonides, or the sarcasm of Mem
ander. or tine 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 ha 9
a middle life Of usefulness: then comes old
age; they totter and they die. Many of tie
national libraries are merely the cemeteries of
the dead books. Some of hem iyel lagtious
lives and died deaths of ignomny. Some
were virtuous ami accomplished q glorious
mission. mo went into the ashes through
in .ui 'itorial fires. some found their funeral
pile in sa ckei and plundered cities. Some
were neglected and died as foundlings at the
door of science. Some expired in the al.
thor's study, O hers in the publishers hands.
Ever aud anon there comes into your pos
session an Old BOOK, its author forgotten and
Its usefulness done, and with Ii a, hern lips it
seems to say: - wi were deadn Monu-
ments have been raised over poets and phi
Ian hropists. Wou that some tall shaft
might Le erected in honor of the worlds
buried books! The words authors would
make pilgrimage the eto, and poetry and t.
erature and science and religion would coz
secrat, it wi the tears.
Not SO with one cd book. 1t started in the
worlds infancy. 1t grew under theocracy
a,,l IA
tire. 1t grew under prophet's maute and
under the fisherman's coat OF the apostles: in
home, and Ephesus, and Jerusalem ,and Pat
mos. Tyranny issued edicts against it, and
infdelity put out the tongue, and Mohamme-
danSm from its mosques hurled its ana he
nas, but the old Bible still lived 1t crossed
the British Channel and was greeted by
Wicklite and James l. 1t crossed the At
lantic and struck Plymouth Rock until like
that OF Horeb it gushed with ble.sedness.
Churches a ID asyums have gathered along
its way, ringing heir bells and stretching out
their hands of blessing; and every sabbath
there are ten thousand he ,alds of the cross
with their hands on this oren, grand, free
old English Bible. But it will not have ac-
compished lis mission until it has climbed
the icy mountains of Greenland until it has
gone over the granite cliffs of China: until
it has thrown i glow amid the Australian
mines; until it has scattered its gems among
the diamond districts of Bra il; and all
thrones shall be gathered into one throne,
and all crown, by the fires Of revolution
shal be melted into one crown, and this
B ok shall at very gate Of heaven have
! waved in he rarsomed empires. Not until
/ then will this glorious Bible have accom-
plished it's mi sion.
In carrying out, then, the idea of my text
1.-The statues of the Lord are right
! shall snow you that the Bibla is right in a,l-
/ khapti attou. that IL ic rirbt in txy1a. hot
Is right in doctrine; that 1t is right in its ef-
fects
l. Can you doubt the authenticity Of the
6criptur S: There is uot so mu:h evidence
that Walter Scott W ote "The Lady of the
Lake." not so much evidence that Shake
speare wrote Hamlet" not so much evidence
that John Milton W ots paradise Lost" as
there is evidence that tine LORD God Almighty,
by the hands of the prophets, e, angelists and
spostles wrote this book.
suppose book now to be written which
came III conflict with great many thing,
and was written by bad men or impostors,
how long would such book stand. 1t would
be outed by every body. And :ay if that
B BILE had been an imposition; or if it had not
been written by the men who said they wrote
1t: if it ha been mere collection of fal e.
hoods, do you not suppose that it would have
been Immediately re, ected by the people. II
Job, and Isaiah, aud jeremiah, an / Paul,
would have teen secuted by generations and
nat ons. If that ho TX has come down through
fires of centuries without scar it is because
there is n)thing in it destructible. How
near ha they come to de- royng the
B BILE! Wien TIL began their opposition
there were two or hree thousand copies of it.
Now there are two hundred millions, as far
as can al ulate. These Bible truths. not
withstanding all the oppos in, have gone
into al ltnguag s-into the ph loso ,hic
Greek, the flowing Italian, thu grace
full German, the passionate French, the
pi tureSC ue Indian, and the eZhaustless
Angl Saxon. I'm er the painters lencil
the birth ami TIL crucifixlol and the resur-
rect on glow on the walls of palaces; or, un-
der the ergra er's kn fe, SPEAK from the
man e. of the II ountaiu in while st mes,
touched by the soul It RS chse'. start up into
prea ng APOSTLES and as ending martyrs.
Now, do you not suppose, if that Book ha
been an i'm ostion an | a falsehood, it would
not have gone down under these ceaseless
fires of opposition
Further, suppose that thero was great
pestilence going over the earth, and hundreds
OF thousands OF men were dyin : Of that lesti
lence, AMI some ono should find a medic nj
that cure ten tho lsand peope. would moi
every body knowledge that that must be g
good medicine. Why, some one would say
"Do you deny itl There have been ten thou
fact that there have Teen hundreds of thou
sands of Christ an ren aud women who sa,
they have te the truthtuness of that bool
and its power in their sou 1t has curee
them OF ths worst leprosy that ev amt
down on our earth, ma nelly: the leprosy 81
sin. And if l can poilt YOU to multitude
who say they have felt the power of tina
cure, are you MT reasonable enough to ac
knowledge TIE fact that the must he somt
power in the me icne. Will YOU take tn
evidence of millions OF patients who hav
, been cured, or will You take the eviden"e o
the skeI tic who stands aloof end confesse
that he never took the Te licine?
That Eibe init mates that there was a cit,
called Petra, built out of solid rock. lnidel
ity scofed at it, Where is yolr city o
Petra.' Buckhardt and Laborde went fort
in their exDloratio IS and they came uooI
that very city. The mountains stand aroun
like giants guarding the tomb where the cit.
is buried They tind street in that city 81
miles long, where ONE flashed inperia
penn, aid which echoed with the laughte
of ligh hearted mirth on its way to th
theatre On temples fashioned out Of co
orei stones--som Of which have blushe
into the crimson Of the roe, and some
whi have palel into the whiteness of tn
J lily--aye, on column, and pediment, and eI
tablature. and statuary, God writes the trut
OF hat Bible.
+ The BILE sa- S that Sodom and Gomorra
. were destroyed by fire and birthstone. "A
surd.h Inf els year after year said: lit
positively absurd that they could have be-
destroyed by birthstone. There is nothing
the elements to eau such a shower of deaf
as that Lieutenant Lynch think he WI
, the first man who went out on the discover
but he hns been fol owed by many others
Lieutenant Lynch went out in explo ati'
aud ca ne to the Lead a, which, by convr
sion of nature, has oyerlown tie pa
9 waere the cities oncc stood. He sank |
fathoming line, and brought up from t
bottom OF the Deal Sea great masses OF $,
phur. remnants of that very tempest tn
swept Sod m and Gomorrah to ruin. W
was right the Bible that announced t
de truction of those cities, or the skept
who Tor ages scotfed at it
The Bible says there was a city call
Nineveh, and that it was three days iouru,
around it, and that it should be DESTROYED
1 fire and water. Absurd" criei ont hu
dreds OF voices for many years; "no ci
:, was ever built that it would take thr
7 days Journey to 60 a-oun1. Besides,
could not be de'trnyed by fire ani wate
the ere autagon ste elements" But La
} ard. tia aud Keith GO out, and by tn,
a explol atiuns they find that city of Nineve
= and they tel us that by they own exns