The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-09-17
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Dead and Living Literature--"The
King of Books"

rbe Authenticity. Style. Condolences. Va
riety and Accuracy of the Bible Dis
eussed and Dlscoursed Upon
Ut Lakeside, o.,
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
sermon at Lakeside. o., in the course OF
his summer wanderings. taking for his
subject "The King Of Books" His text
was:
The statutes of the Lord are risht.-Psalms
xix.,s.
Old books 60 out of date. When they
were written they discussed questions
which were being discussed; they struck
ct wrongs which have long ago ceased, or
advocated institutions which excite not
our interest. Were they books of history,
the facts have been gathered from the inn
perfect mass, better classified and more
lucidly presented. Were they books OF
poetry, they were interlocked with wild
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,
and Tully to teach morals. What do the
masses of the people care now for the
pathos OF Simonides or the sarcasm OF
Menander, or the gracefulness Of Phile-
mon, or the wit OF Aristophanes! Even
the old books we have left, with few ex-
ceptions. 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 fiagitious lives and died deaths of
ignominy. Some were virtuous and accom-
plished a glorious mission. Some went
into the ashes through inquisitorial fires.
Some found their funeral pile in sacked.
and plundered cities. Some were neglect
ed and died as foundlings at the door Of
81 fence. Some expired in the authors
study, others in the publishers hands.
Ever aud anon there comes into your pos
session an old book, its author forgotten
lips it seems to say, 81 wish / were dead"
Monuments have been raised over poets
and philanthropists. Would that some
tall shaft might be erected In honor OF the
worlds buried booksi The worlds au-
thors would make pilgrimage thereto, and
poetry and literature and science and re.
ligion would consecrate Il with their tears.
Not SO with one old book. It started in
the worlds infancy. It grew under the
ocracy and monarchy. Il withstood
storms OF fra 1t grew under the proph-
cts mantle and under the fshermsn's
coat Of the apostles; In Rome, and Eph.
esus, and Jerusalem, and Patmos. Tyran.
ny issued edicts against it, and infidel.
ity put out the tongue, and Mohamme.
danism from its mosques hurled its anath-
emas, but the old Bible still lived. II
crossed the British channel and was vel.
coined by Wickliffe and James /. Il
crossed the Atlantic and struck Plymouth
Rock until, like that of Horeb, IL gushed
with blessedness. Churches and asylums
have gathered all along its way, ringing
their bells and stretching out their hands
In blessing; and every Sabbath there are
ten thousand heralds Of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand, free, old
English Bible. But it will not have &C.
complished its mission until IL has climbed
the icy mountains Of Greenland: until It
has gone over the granite cliffs Of Chin;
until it has thrown its glow amid the Aus
tralian mines; until it has scattered its
gems among the diamond districts
Of Brazil; and all thrones shall be gather.
ed 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 ransom.
ed empires. Not until then will this glor.
ious 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
in Authorization, that it Is right in style.
that it is right in doctrine, that il 10 right
In its effects.
/. Can you doubt the authenticity Of
the Scriptures? There Is not 10 much evil
dence that Walter Scott wrote ''The Lady
Of the Lake." not 80 much evidence that
Shakespeare wrote eHamlet" not 30 much
evidence that John Milton wrote ''Para-
disc Lost" as there IL evidence that the
Lord God Almighty, by the hands Of the
prophets, evangelists and apostles, wrote
this book.
Suppose q book now to be written which
came i'm conflict with great many things,
and was written by bad men or impostors,
how long would such book stand? It
would be secuted by everybody. And I
say IL that Bible had been an impose
ton, or II IL had not been writ
ten by the men who said they
wrote it, IL 1t had been . mere collection
of falsehoods. do you not suppose that It
would have been Immediately rejected by
the psoples II Job, and Isaiah, and
Jeremiah. and Paul, and Peter, and John
were impostors they would have been
secuted by generations and nations. II
that book has come down through fires
Of centuries without scar, it IL because
there Is nothing in Il destructible. How
near have they come to destroying the
Bible? When they began their opposition
there were 1000 or 5000 copies of it. Nov
there are 3O0. 600 900 - far a can CAL
culate. These Bible truths, notwith stand