The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1888-08-17
AS T0ORTH0DOXY.
DR.. Talmage inquiries whether Orthodoxy Is
Stale and Unreasonable.

DR.. Talmage inquiries whether Orthodoxy Is
Stale and Unreasonable.
The Rev. II. Dewitt Talmage, ID. D., OF
Brooklyn, is present for the twelfth time at
the national meeting Of religious educators
and students at C~haatauqua. His sermon
which was delivered to an audience imposing
in numbers and intelligence, was from the
following text, in the book Of jeremiah, CHI.
vi, v. JIG; 'sAsk for the old paths, where is
the good way, and walk therein, and 70 shall
find rest for your souls, and answered the
question; rs Orthodoxy Stale and Unrea-
sonable?" Following is a verbatim report Of
it:
A great Loudon fog has come down upon
some of the ministers and some Of the
churches in the shape OF what Is called ''ad.
vanced thought" in Biblical interpretation
All Of them, and without any exception, deny
the full inspiration o. the Bible. Genesis is
an ~allegory, and there are many myths in
the Bible, and they philosophiEe and guess
the reason and eyolute until they land in a
great continent Of mud, from which, ! fear
for all eternity they viii not be able to exsri.
cate themselves.
The Bible is not only diyinely inspired but
it is divinely protected in its present shape.
You could as easily, without detection, take
from the writings of Shakespeare Hamlet"
and institute ia place thereof Alexander
Smiths drama as at n time during the
last 1,500 years a man could have made any
important changes in the Bible without im-
mediate detection, If there had been an
element Of weakness, or of deception, or of
disintegration, the Bible would long ago
haye fallen to pieces. If there had been one
loose brick or cracked easement in this caste
lated truth, surely the bombardment OF eight
centuries would have discovered and broken
through that imperfection. The fact that
the Bible stand intact, notwithstanding all
the furious assault on all sides upon it, is
proofto me that it is a miracle, and every
miracle is of God.
"But," says some one, "while we admit tina
Bible is of God, it has not been understood
until our time" My answer is, that IL the
Bible be a letter from God, our Father, to
man, His child, is it not strange that that
letter should rave been written in euch a
way that it should allow seventy generations
to pass away and be buried before the letter
could be understood That would be q very
bright father who should write o letter for
the guidance and intelligence Of his children
not understandable until a thousand years
after they were buried and forgotten. While
90 tue 1NtAAG AOtiO III OAiCi ahGauAAEr LII RANNt"
lencies win unfold from the scriptures, that
the Bible is such a dead failure that all the
Christian scholars for 1880 years were de-
ceived in regard TO vast reaches ofits mean
ing, is a demand upon my credulity so great
that If ! found myself at all disposed to
yield to it / should tomorrow morning apply
at some insane asylum as unfit to 90 alone.
Who make up this precious group Of adj
vaneed thinkers to whom God has made es-
pecial revelation in our time of that which
He tried to make known thousands of years
ago esd failed to make intelligible2 Are
they so distinguished for nworsdliness, piety,
and scholarship that tits to be expected that
they would rave been chosen to ill up the de-
fectiye work of Moses and Isaiah and Paul
and Christ? is it at all p0ssible2 / wonder
on what mountain these modern exegetea
we're transfgured2 | wonder what star
pointed down to their birthplace? Wa il
the North star, or the evening star, or the
Dipper2 As they anne through and de
scended to our world Gid Mars blush or Sa-
of these wiseacres attempting TO improve up-
on the work of the Almighty and to inter-
lard it with their wisdom and to sug-
gest prophetic and apostolic errata,
l am filed with a.disgust insufferable. ADJ
vaneed thought, which proposes to tell the
Lord what He ought to rave said thousands
Of years ago, and would have said If He had
Deem as wise as Ills uiUeleelLn century tIlllcbf
All this comes Of living agcS back in the
eternities instead of1SSS. / have two won-
ders in regard to these men. The first one is
how the Lord got along without them before
they were born. The second wonder Is how
the Lord win get along without them after
they are dead.
But, !" say some, "do you really think the
scriptures are inspired throughout Yes,
either as his.efy-or as guidance. Gibbon
and Josephas bid RrescetSaccrd in their
history a great many things they did not
approve of. When George Bancroft puts
uRon his brilliant historical page the ccoun
Of an Indian massacre, does he approve of
that massacre2 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
God.
"But," says some one, ssdon't you think
that the eopyists might have made mistakes
in transferring the divine words from ono
manuscript to another?" Yes, no doubt
there we're such mistakes; but they no more
affect the meaning of the scriptures than
she misspelling of word or tae ~ungramati-
cal structure Of a sentence in the last win and
testament affect the validity or the meaning
of that win. All the mistakes made by the
copyists in the scriptures do not amount to
any more Importance than the difference be-
tween your spelling IN q document the word
tOFtyy AOfby OF IOufJy. ln4a DOCK Is tue AHSb
viii and testament of God 10 our lost world,
and it bequeaths everything IN the right way,
although human hands may have damaged
the grammar or made unjustifiable interpo-
lation.
These mel who pride themselves In our day
on being advanced thinkers in Biblical inter-
probation viii all of them end in atheism, II
they live long enough, ard l declare here to-
day they are doing more In the different de.
nominations of Christians, and throughout
the world, for damaging Christianity and
hindering the cause of the worlds better
ment than 5000 Robert Ingersoils could do.
That man who stands inside q castle is far
more dangerous, IL he be an enemy, than
5000 enemies outside the castle. Robert g.
Ingerson assails the castle from the outside.
These men who pretend to be advanced
thinkers In all the denominations are fight
ing the truth from the inside, and trying TO
shove back the bolts and swing open the
gates.
Now, ! am 10 favor Of the greatest freedom
OF religious thought and discussion. /
would have as much liberty for h~eterodoxy
as for orthodoxy. i'll should change my
theories Of religion ] should preach them ont
and out, but not in the building where ! am
accustomed to preach, for that was built by
q people who believe IN an entire Bible, and
IL would be dishonest in ME to promulgate
sentiments different from those for which the
building was put up. When we enter any
denomination as ministers Of religion We
4AI = 49, LII - IL