The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1888-12-28
"A BAD BOIL CURED"
DR.. TALMAoE ANALYzES RATIONAL
ISM IN RELIGION.

Christianity's New Foe Religious Disscc-
ton and the brushing Away Of tho Old
Religion Of Christ-Are Prayers An.
swered?
BRooKLyN, Dec. 23.-At the Taber.
nacle today the Rev. L. De Witt Tai
mage, d. d., read and expounded a
chapter about the multiplication OF
loaves and fishes. The opening hymn
was:
The morning light Is breaking,
The darkness disappears.
DR.. Talmage took as the subject OF
his sermon, "a Bad Boil Cured" The
text was; II have heard thy prayer;
behold, will heal thee. And Isaiah
said. Take lump Of figs. And they
took and laid it on the boil, and he re-
covered. III Kings Xxx, 8, Z.
Luxurious living is not healthy.
The second generation of kings and
queens and lords and princes is apt to
be brainless and invalid. The second
crop of grass is almost always short.
Royal blood is generally scrofulous.
You will not be surprised then to
hear that King Hezekiah had dis
orders which broke out in car
buncle, virulent and beautiful. The
Lord told him he must die; he
did not want to die. He turned his
face to the wall, so that his prayer
would not be interrupted, and cried to
God for his life. God heard the prayer
and answered it, saying: Behold, !
will heal thee" But there was human
fundamentally to be employed. This
carbuncle needed "cataplasm. That
is tough word we use to show how
much we know. If in the pulpit we
always used words the people under
stood, we never should have any repu
tation for learning. Well, this car
buncle needed a cataplasm, which is
a poultice. Your old mother who
doctored her own children in the time
when physicians were not as plenty as
they are now, will tell you that the
very best poultice is a fig, and that was
what was used upon the carbuncle OF
King Hezel1iah. The power of God,
accompanied by this human instru
mentality, cured the king.
In this age of discovery, when men
know so much it almost kills them,
and write so wisely it almost kills us,
it has been found out that prayer to
God is dead failure. All things are
arranged according to memorable law.
There is no use in praying to God for
rain in time of drought. The weather
probabilities" in the morning papers
will decide the question, rain or no
rain, and the whole nation in prayer
before God would not bring down a
single drop. lam notnow speaking of
an Imaginary theory, but of that which
is believed by ten thousand times ten
thousand men.
f-siclzness comes to your household,
it will depend entirely upon ventila-
ton, good diet, and the skill of the
doctors, as to whether your child gets
well. The father might pray all day,
and the mother might pray all night
it wouia net have any effect upon the
case. If squills, belladonna, paregoric
and Cruel do the work, your child will
get well; if not not. There is cast
iron God seated at the head of the uni
verse, holding in the cold grasp Of his
metal fingers band of law from which
nothing can break away.
WHEN TO TAKE UP ARMS AGAINST THE
ENEMY.
Men and women of GOD. at this
point the great battle of Christianity
is to be fought. The great foe Of
Christianity today is rationalism,
that comes out from our schools,
and universities, and magazines and
newspapers, to scott at Bible truth and
caricature the old religion of Jesus.
It says Jesus is not God, for it is i'm
possible to explain how he can be d.
vine and human at the same time.
The Bible is not inspired, for there are
things in it that they don't like. Re-
generation is a farce; there is good
enough in us, and the only thing is to
bring it out. Development is the word
development. The Garden of Eden is
fairy story, and no more to be be-
lieved than the arabian Nights, or
"Gulliver's Travels" or Robinson
Crusoe." Veal started as balloons, and
are blood relations to that monkey
squirming about on the top Of that
hand organ. Lazarus was not dead
when Christ pretended to raise him;
he was only playing dead. The water
was not changed into wine at the we'd
ding, but Christ brought in some wine
that he had found elsewhere to make
up the deficiency. Christ did not
walk on the sea, but on the shore, SO
near that it seemed as if he really were
ON the water
What is still more alarming is, Goat
Christian men dare not meet this ridi-
Guile. There is not one Christian man
in five that can, unblanched, stand in
the presence Of all this railery, say
ing: II believe in the whole Bible,
and in every single statement that it
makes" Christian men try to soften
the Bible down to suit the skeptics.
The skeptics sneer at the dividing of
the Red sea; and the Christian goes
to explaining that the wind blew
hurricane from one direction good
WHILE until all the water piled up;
and besides, that it was low water any
how, and so the Israelites went
through without any trouble. Why
not be frank and say: II believe the
lord God Almiphtv came to the brink