The Forrest City times., 1888-05-19
DESIGNATION.
Talmage's Sunday Morning Dis
 course.
The Nineteenth Century Apostle ExpOunds the Gospel to an 0veraOwing Con-
 gation.

Result of Inhielity the Complete and Un-
 utterable Degradation of Womanhood-
 Prophetic Utterances of the Great Divine.
 BRooKLYS. May 13: This morning the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, D b. preached at the Tabernacle 10 an overlooking eongrega- ton The hymn beginning,
 stand up my soul. shake on thy fears.
 And grd the Gospel armor on
 vas sung with magnificent effect Dr. Tal- mage's subject was 'Obscuration," and his text; "The sun shall be turned into dark ness "-Acts ii., V. 20 He said:
 Solar eclipse is here prophesled to take place about the time of the destruction of ancient Jerusalem. Josephus, the historian, says that the prophecy was literally fulfilled, and tEat about that time there were strange appearances in the heavens. The sun was not destroyed, but for a little while hidden.
 Christianity is the rising sun of our time, and men have tried with the uproling vapors of tkepticism and the smoke of their bias phemy to turn the sun into darkuess. Suppose the archangels of malice and horror should be let loose little while and be allowed to cx- extlnguish and destroy the sun in the natur- al heavens. They would take the oceans from other worries and pour them on this luminary Of the planetary system, and the waters go hissing dowu am!d the ravines and the cay erns. and there Is explosion after explosion, until there are only few peaks of fire left fin the sum- and these are cooling down and go- ing out until the vast continents of flame arc reduced to a small acreage of fire, and that whltens and cools of until there are only a few coals left. and these are whitening and going out until there is not a spark left in all the mountains of ashes and tbe valleys Of ashes and the chasms of ashes An extinguished sun. dead sun burned sun Let all worlds wall at the sturendous obsoqules.
 Of coures this withdrawal of the solar light and heat throws our earth into uniyer- cal chill, and the tropics become the temper ate, and the temperate becomes lhe Arctic and there are frozen rivers and frozed lakes and frozen oceans. From Arctic and Antarctic re. xions the inhabitants gather in toward ihs centre and find the Equator as the poles. The slain forests are piled up into a great bon fire, and around tbem gather the shiverng viii lsges and cities, The wealth of the coal mines Is hastily poured into the furnaces and stirred into rage of combustion, but soon the bouires began to lower, and the furnaces began to go out, and the nations began to die. Colopaxi, Vesuvius, Etna. Stronboli California geysers cease to sInoae, and the Ice or hail storms remain unmelted in their crater. All the 1oa CTS have breathed tleir last breath. Ships with sailors frozen at tue mast and helmsmen frozen at the wheel, and and passengers frozen iu the cabin; all na- tiOns dying, first at the north aud then at the south. Child frosted and dead in the cradle. Octogcuarian frosted and dead at the hearth. Worknen with frozen hand on the hammer and frozen foot on the shut tie. Winter from sea to sea. Al-congealng winter. Perpetual winter. Globe of frigiditt Hemisphere shackled to hemis bere b. chains of ice Universal Nova Zembla The earth an foe grinding against other ice-noes. The arch-dngels of work, and now they may take their thrones of glaciers and look down upon the ruin they have wrought
 What the destruction of the sun in the nat ural heavens would be to our ph, seal earth, the destruciion of Chr stlanity womb b,. to the moral world. The sun turned into darkness. InfdeIliy in our me IS consider ed great joke. There people who re- loiee to hear Christianity caricatured and to hear Christ assailed with bubble and qurk and misrepresentation and badiuage and harlequnade.
 propose this morning to take Infdelty and Atheism out of the realm of jocularity into one Of tragedy and show you what they propose, and what, il they are successful, they Will accomplish. There are those in ail our communities who would like to sec the Christian religion overthrown, and who say the world would be better without 1t l want to show you what is the end of this road, and what is the terminus of this crusade and what ths world will be when Atheism and lnhdelity have trumphed over it, if they can ] say, II they can, l reiterate it, i( they can.
 In the first place, 1t will be the complete and unuttefabie degratlon of womanhood. l Will prove 1t by facts and arguments which no honest man will dispute In all commit mites and cities aud states and nations where the Christian religion has been dominant, wo- mans condition has been amellorated and i'm I-t... |. T. a thousand things, and every gentleman takes of his hat before her. If your asso- ciations have been good, you know that the name of wife, m ,thor, daughtcr. suggest gracious surroundings. You know there are no better schools and sem naries in Brooklyn or in any other city of this country than the schools and seminaries for our young ladies. You know that while woman may suffer injustice in England and the United States she has more of her rights in Chrlstend m than she has anywhere else.
 Now, compare this with womsn's condition in lands where Christianity has made little or no advance-in China, in Barbarg, in Borneo, fin Tartary, in Egypt, in liindOOstan. The Burmese sell their wives and daughters as so many sheep. The Hindoo Bible makes 1t dis graceful and an outrage for woman to lis- ten to music. or look out of inc N Window in the absence of her husband, and gives as lawful ground for divorce a woman's begin- ming to eat before her husband has finished his meal. What mean those white bundles on the ponds and rivers in China in the morningf lnfantcide following infantcIde Female children destroyed simply because they are female. Woman harnessed 10 blow as an OK. Woman yelled and barricaded and in all styles of cruel seclusion. fer birth a misfortune. Her life a torture. II, death a horror The miss onarv of the cross today in beathen lands breaches generally to two groups-a group of men who do as they please and sit where they please; the other group women hidden and carefully secluded in a side apartment, where they may hear the voice of the preacher but may not be seen. No refine ment No liberty. No hope for this life. No hope for the life to come. Ringed nose Cramped foot Disfgured face. Embruted soul. Now compare those two conditions How far toward this latter condition that speak of would woman go if Christian in fiuenees were withdrawn and Christianity were destroyedi It is only a question of dy- namcs. II an object be lifted 10 a certain point and not fastened there, and the lifting power be withdrawn, how long be- fore that object will fall down to the point from which it startedi It will fall down, and 1t will go stili further than the point from which il started. Christianity has lifted women up from the very depths of degradation almost to the skies. If that lift ing power be withdrawn she falls clear back to the depths from which she was resurrected not going any lower because there is no lower depth. And yet, notwithstanding the fact that the only salvation of roman from degra- dstion and woe is the Christian religion, and the only influence that has ever lifted her In the social scale is Chris stianity-I have read that there gre women who reject Christianity. make no remark in regard to those persons make no remark in regard to them. In the silence of your own soul make your observa- tons
 If infdeity triumph and Christianity be overthrown, 1t means the demoralizaton of society. Inc one idea in the Bible that atheists and inflels most hate, is the idea of relribntion Take away the idea of reiribu- ton and punishment from society, and 1t will begin very soon to disntegrate; and take away from the minds of men the fear of hell, and there are a great many of them who would very soon turn this world into hell. The ma ioriiy of those who are indignant against the Bible because of the idea ot pun ishnent are men whose lives are bad or whose hearts are impure, and who hate the Bible because of the idea Of future punish ment for the same reason that criminals hate he panftantfary Oh have heard tbia hrava