Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1888-08-06
ORTHODOXY.
REV. 7. DE WITT TALMAGE At
CHAUTAUQUA.
The Celebrated Brooklyn Divine Answers
the Question. rs Orthodoxy Stale and
Unreasonsbiee"-The Bible DIvineiy In
spired and Divinely Protected.

Unreasonabiee''-The Bible DIvinely In.
spired and Divinely Protected.
| CHAUTAUoUA, N. Y, Aug. 5.-The Rev.
I. De Witt Talmage, DID,, OF Brooklyn, il
| present for the twelfth time at the national
meeting Of religious educators and students
held yearly in this place His sermon today,
which was delivered to an audience imposing
In numbers and intelligence, was from the
| following text, in the book of Jeremiah
| vi, 10: ASK for the old paths, where is
| the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls," /" and answered the
| question: us Orthodoxy Stale and Unrea-
sonablef Following is a verbatim report
of it:
A great London fog has come down upon
some of the ministers and some Of the
| churches in the shape of what is called lad
vanced thought" in biblical Interpretation.
All Of them, and without any exception,
| deny the full inspiration of the Bible Gene
sis is an allegory, and there are many myths
in the Bible, and they philosophize and guess
and reason and evolute until they land in a
great continent of mud, from which, fear,
for all eternity they will not be able to extri-
cate themselves.
The Bible is not only divinely inspired,
but 1t is diviueiy protected in its present
shape. You could as easily, without detec-
ton, take from the writings of Shakespeare
"Hamlet" and institute in place thereof Alex
ander Smiths drama as at any time during
the last fifteen hundred years a man could
have made any important change in the
Bible without immediate detection. II there
had been an element of weakness or Of de
ception or of disintegration, the book would
long ago have fallen To pieces. II there had
been one loose brick or cracked easement In
this castellated truth, surely the lombard
ment Of eight centuries would have discov-
cred and broken through that imperfection.
The fact that the Bible stands intact, not
withstanding all the furious assaults on all
sides upon it, is proof to me that it is mir
acle, and every miracle Is of God.
"But," /" says some one, ''whiie We admit the
Bible is of God, it has not been understood
until our time" My answer is that If the
Bible be letter from God, our Father, to
man, his child, is it not strange that that
letter should have been written in such
way that it should allow seventy generations
to pass away and be buried before tine letter
could be understoodl That would be very
bright father who should write O letter for
'ne su''anoe anu ii''ehiseheeoi VI MS eniiureii'
no' unaerstahdaoie uhtiA Ihoiisahd years
ei'e, 'ney Meie >, purieu anu iorsoe'ei' h,e
aS 'ne ye,is ron On o'hei oeauties anu eAcef-
iencIes WIZ uiiioiu from the scriptures, ina.
tne oioie Is sueh oeaa iaiiuie lna1 al tne
Christian scholars for eighteen hundred years
were deceived in regard to vast reaches of its
meaning, is demand upon my credulity SO
"a. ''a' y = iou,iu ny sen a' al islSseu W
yieiu 'oi' snouiu w o'rom ihoi ming oPpy
~ soh" 'hs,ii'e aSy .ui Us unit W 20 aione'
"no niaAe up 'nis piecious group VI ao-
vanceo lniHkeis 10 "noh uod mas MADE es-
Seiai ie'eia'ioh IN oui Time oi Ina. WHICH
i'e uiet " n,aHe Aio"u '''ousaus VI PEARS
az anu taneu 70 nhaNe ln1e,i,si are
y u,Sneu ~ uii VI iui'nes'' pie'y
ai'u ssnoia, sup ',ia' IL Is W oe eApec'ei tnas
.le' "ou. .'a,e 10 N onos'ah " ~ W
t.e 20 "o,A VI Ao'sS anu i'tii.,u anu
I'ui Siiu Sni ,s.I - ~ 9. an possioie' :
1.N" - -. .,n' .'e
80 VIZ - Mouoe' wrat
"a, pvn'u M'.. uo" !" " .nei, oii ii'npiaoe' was
~ ~ 'no t'oi,n s,"i vi 'uo evening s'ar vi tne
DiPpei, as 'neS caine 'nrousn ana oe-
oA uiu MAJ piusn
or saturn lose one Oh its rihSsi "hen
! ma these modern "iseacres attemptr
ing 10 improve upon the WORK OF the
Aimhgnty ana 10 interiard IL WITH their Wis
doHi ana 10 suggest prophelc ana apostoiic
errata' am hiied with a disgust insurer
aoie' Au'anceu thouSn1, which proposes 70
teh tne Loru "nae ne ought 10 nave saio
.Iousanos Vi years ago. anu wouid nave said
II ne hau peel as wise US MS Nineteenth CEN
fury CRITICS! An tnis comes OF hVlng away
oscS IN the eterhlties instead OF isSa l
nave Two wonders IN regard 70 these mer.
Inc nrs' one Is now the Lord got along with
out them peiore they were born The second
woncer Is now the Loru VIII get along with
out them efter tney are dead.
But say some, 10 you really think the
SCRIPTURES are inspired throughousf Yes,
either as history or as guidance. Gibbon
and Josephus and Prescott record in their
histories a great many things they did not
approve of. When George Bancroft puts
upon his brilliant historical page the account
of an Indian massacre, does he approve Of
that massacref There are scores Of things in
the Bible which neither God nor inspired
men sanctioned. Either as history or as
guidance the entire Bible was inspired of
Go1
but, says some one, don't you think
that the eopyists might have made mistakes
IN transferring the divine words from one |
manuscript TO anotnerr Yes, no doubt there |
were such mistakes; but they no more affect |
the meaning OF the Scriptures than the mis- |
spelling OF a word or the ungrainmatical
structure OF sentence IN last will and tes- !
lament affect the validity or the meaning Of |
that will. All the mistakes made by the cop |
yists in the Scriptures do not amount to any |
more Importance than the difference between
your spelling IN document the word forty |
forty" or 'fourty." This book is the last |
will and testament OF God to our lost world, |
and 1t bequeaths everything in the right |
way, although human hands may have dam |
aged the grammar or made unjustifiable in |
terpolation-
These men VINO pride themselves In our