The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1888-04-06
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Authenticity and
Commences of the Bible.
The Greatest of All Books, Adapted to
Every Condition in Life and the
One Source of SoIace When
All Else Fail.


One Source of soIace When
All Else Fail.
In a recent sermon delivered at the
Second Presbyterian Church, St. Louis,
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for his sub
/ ject tsThe Authenticity of the Bible," his
text being:
The statutes of the Lord are right-Psalm
/ xix. 8
He said:
Old books 90 out of date When they
were written, they discussed questions
| which we're being discussed; they struck
at wrongs which had long ago ceased, or
| advocated institutions which excite not
our interest. Were they books of history,
| the facts have been gathered from the i'm
| perfect mass, better classified and more
lucidly presented. Were they books of
| poetry, they were interlocked with wild
mythologies, which have gone up from the
| 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 us morals. What do the
masses of people care now for the pathos
| of Simonides, or the sarcasm of Menander,
| or the gracefulness of Philemon, or the
wit of Aristophanes? Even the old books
| we have left, with a few excep-
! tions, have but very little effect upon
| our times. Books are human; they have a
! time to be born, they are fondled, they
| grow in strength, they have middle life
| of usefulness, then comes old age, they
totter and die. Many of the National
libraries are merely the cemeteries of
| dead books. Some of them lived fagitious
lives and died deaths of ignOminy. Some
were virtuous, and accomplished glorl-
Gus mission. Some went into the ashes
through inquisitoriaI fires. Some found
their funeral pile in sacked and plundered
cities. Some were neglected and
died as fOundlings at the door Of science
Some expired in the authors study, 9TH
ers in the publishers hands. Ever and
anon there comes into your possession an
old book, its author forgotten and its use
fulness done, and with leathern lips 1t
seems to say: 81 wish 1 were dead"
Monuments have been raised over poets
and philanthropists. Would that some
tall shaft might be erected in honor of the
worlds buried books. The worlds au-
thors would make pilgrimage thereto, and
poetry and literature and science and re-
ligion would consecrate 1T with their
tears.
Not so with one old book. 1t started in
the worlds infancy. It grew under theoc-
racy and monarchy. 1t withstood storms
of fire. 1t grew under prophets mantle
and under the fisherman's coat Of the
apostles. In Rome, in Ephesus, and Jeru-
salem, and PatmOs. Tyranny issued
edicts against it, and infdelity put out the
tongue, and MOhammedanism from Its
mosques hurled its anathemas, but the old
Bible lived. 1t crossed the British Chan
nel and was greeted by Wickliffe and
James 1. 1t crossed the Atlantic and
struck Plymouth Rock, until like that OF
Horeb it gushed with blessedness
Churches and asylums have gathered
all along its way, ringing then
! bells, and stretching out thei1
hands of blessing; and every Sabbath
there are 1O, 900 heralds of the cross witt
their hands on this open, grand, free, ole
English Bible. But it viii not have &C
complished its mission until it has
climbed the icy mountains of Greenland
until it has gone over the granite cliffs o.
China, until it has thrown its glow annie
the Australian mines, until it has scat
tered its gems among the diamond dis
tricts of Brazil, and all thrones shall be
gathered into one throne, and all crowns
by the fires of revolution shall bt
melted into one crown, and this bool
shall at the very gate of Aeaven have
waved in the ransomed empires-nOt un
til then viii this glorious Bible have &C
complished its mission.
Further, suppose that there was a grea
pestiIence going over the earth, and hun.
: that pestilence, and some one should find
! medicine that cured ten thousand people
would not everybody acknowledge thai
that must be a good medicine? Why
some one would say: ''Do you deny il
There have been ten thousand people
cured by it." I simply state the fact tina
there have been hundreds Of thousands o
Christian men and women who say the.
. have felt the truthfulness Of that Book
and its power in their souls. It has cureC
them of the worst 1eprosy that has came
down on our earth, namely, the leprOsy 0.
: sin; and if 1 can point you to multitude
who say they have felt the power of tina
! cure, are you not reasonable enough T.
acknowledge the fact that ther
must be some power in the medi.
S cine? Will you take the eYi
dence of millions of patients who hav
been cured, or will you take the evidenc
Of the skeptic who stands aloof, and con
Q fesses he never took the medicine? Tn
a Bible intimates that there was city calle
o Petra, built out Of solid rock. Infidelit
= scOffed at it. ''Where is your city 0
h Petra?' Buckhardt and LabOrde wen
|. forth in their explorations, and they cam
: upon that very city. The mountains stan
around like giants guarding the tom
s where the city was buried. They find
II street in that city six miles long, wher
|. once flashed imperial pomp, and Whic
I. mirth on its way to the theater On tenn
= pies, fashioned out of colored stones
b some of which have blushed into the Grim
it son Of the rose, and some of which hav
d darkened into the blue of the SKI
and some of which have paIed int
: the whiteness of the Hly-ay, o
d column, and pediment, and entablatur'
ia and statuary, God writes the trut
q Of that Bible. The Bible says that SodoI
n | and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire an
l. birthstone. absurd" Infidels, year afte
= year, said: at is positively absurd ths
d they could have been destroyed by brim
stone. There is nothing in the element
to cause such a shower Of death that.
b Lieutenant Lynch think he was th
y first man who went out on the discover!
O. but he has been followed by many other
v Lieutenant Lynch went out in explOra
r ton, and came to the Dead sea, which, b
ID q conyulsion Of nature, has Oyerhown th
at place where the cities once stood. II
sank his fathoming line and brought u
II from the bottom Of the Dead sea grei
~ masses of sulphur, remnants Of that yer
q tempest that swept Sodom and GomoTra
N to ruin. Who was right-the Bible thu
IL announced the destruction Of those cite
= or the skeptics who for ages scoffed at i
,e The Bible says there was a city Gale
Nineveh, and that it was three days joU
ney around it, and that it should be d.
ae stroyed by fire and water. Absurd,
cried out hundreds of voices for man
ct years; 'sno such city was ever Duilt thi
er it would take you three days journey
e. 20 around. Besides, it could not be d.
nj stroy ed by nre and water; they are al
ld tagonistic elements" But LayRrd, Bott
r Bonomi and Keith go out, and by their q
plorations they find that city of Nfnevel
s. and they tell us that by their own exper
ed ment it is three days journey around Ca
al oording TO the old estimate Of a day
Journey, and that II was literally d