The Russellville Democrat., 1888-04-05
TALMAGES SERMON.
A Discourse on the Authenticity and
Cenuineness Of the Bible.
The Greatest Of An Books. Adapted TO
Every Condition In life and the
One source OF soIace when
All Else PAN.


All Else Fail.
In recent sermon delivered at the
second Presbyterian Church, st. Louis,
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage took for ms SUB
isct "The Authenticity u the Bible," his
text being:
The statutes Of the Lord are right-Psaim
xix,
He said:
Old books 20 out Of date. When they
we're written, they discussed questions
which we're being discussed; they struck
at wrongs which had long ago ceased OF
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 ana more
lbcidl7 presented. Were they OoVAs y,
poetry, they were interlocked Win Milu
mvtbologfes. which have gone up from the
60 - the enrth like mists at sunrise.
We're thew books Of morals, civilization
viii mot sit at the feet of barbarism,
neither do we want Sappho, Pythagoras
and TulIv 10 teach us morals. What do the
masses OF people care now for the pathos
nj Simouides. OF the sarcasm OF Mcnander,
ar the rracefulness Of Philemon, or the
wit OF Nristophauesy Even the old books
we have left, with few e&cep-
tions. have but very little effect upon
our times. Books are human; they nave
time to be born, they are fondled' thsy
grow tn strength, they have middle NE
of usefulness, then comes old age they
totter and die Many Of the National
libraries are merely the cemeteries OF
dead books. Some ot them lived hagitlous
lives and died deaths Of ignominy. some
were virtuous, and accomplished BioIA-
ous mission. Some went into the Hhhes
through inquisitorial fires. some lounu
their funeral pile in sacked and plundereu
cities. Some were neglected ana
died as souudlings at the door OF science.
Some expired in the authors study, oth-
crs in the publishers hands Ever ana
anon there comes into your possession an
old book. its author forgotten and It's use
fitness done. and with leathern lips II
seems TO saw: 81 wish ! 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 an-
thors would make pilgrimage thereto, ana
poetry and literature and science ana re-
lipion would consecrate 1t with their
tears.
Not so with one old book 1t started in
the worlds infancy. 1t grew under theoc-
racy and monarchy. 1t withstood storms
of fire. 1t grew under prophets mantle
and under the fsherman'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 ola
Bible lived. 1t crossed the British Chan
r.-r-1. Il
mel, and was greeted by Wlekl1te ana
James |. 1t crossed the Atlantic and
struck Plymouth Rock, until like that OF
Horeb it gushed with blessedness.
Churches and asylums have gathered
nil along its way, ringing their
bells. and stretching out their
hands Of blessing; and every Sabbath
there nre "a. 900 heralds Of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand, free, old
English Bible. But it will not have ac-
complisbed its mission until it has
climbed the icy mountains OF Greenland,
until ii has gone over the granite cliffs OF
China. until it has thrown its glow amid
the Australian mines, until 1t 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 be
melted into one crown, and this book
shall at the very gate of Aeayen have
waved in the ransomed empires-not UNI
I'll then viii this glorious Bible have ac-
complished its mission.
In carving out, then, the idea OF my
text ssThe statutes of the Lord are right,
shall show you that the Bible is right IN
Authorization, that it Is right IN style
that it is right in doctrine, that 1t Is rlghl
In its effects. Can You doubt the authen-
ITCHY of the Scripturesg There is not 50
much evidence that Walter Scott wrote
the "Lady of the Lake." not so much eyi-
dence that Shakespeare wrote "Hamlet;"
not SO much evidence that John Milton
wrote "Paradise Lost'-as there is evil
dence that the Lord God Almighty, by the
hands of the prophets, evangelists and
apostles, wrote this book Suppose book
now to be written which came in conflict
with a great many things, and was written
by bad men or imposters, how long would
such book stand? 1t would be secuted
by everybody. And ! say, il that Bible
had been an imposition-~if 1t had not been
written by the men who said they wrote II
If II had been mere collection of false
hoods, do you not suppose that 1t would
have been Immediately rejected by the
people? If Job. and Isaiah, and jeremiah
and Paul, and Peter, and John were inn
posters, they would have been secuted by
generations and nations. IL that book has
come down through fires Of centuries with
out scar, it is because there is nothing In II
destructible. How near have they come
to destroying the Bible? When they began
their opposition, there were two thousant
or three thousand copies Of it. Now there
are two hundred million, as far as I car
calculate. These Bible truths, notwith-
standing all the opposition, have gone in
10 oil languages-into the philosophiC
Greek, the flowing Italian, the graceful
German, the passionate French, the pict'
uresuue Indian, and the exhaustless An
rlo-Saxon. Under the painters pencil
the birth and the crucifixion, and the res
direction glow on the walls of palaces; OF
under the engraver's knife speak from the
mantel OF the mountain cabin; while
stones, touched by the sculptor's chisel
start up into preaching apostles and as
cending martyrs. Now, do you not sup
pose. if that book had been an imposition
and a falsehood, il would have gone dowr
under these ceaseless fires OF Sppositioni
Further suppose that there was great
pestilence going over the earth, and nun
dreds Of thousands of mon were dying o,
that pestilence, and some one should find {
medicine that cured ten thousand people
would not everybody acknowledge that
that must be a good medicinei Why
some one would say: "Do you deny it
There have been ten thousand people
cured by it," l simply state the fact tina
there have been hundreds Of thousands o.
Christian men and women who say thel
have felt the truthfulness OF that Book
and its power in their souls. 1t has curec
them OF the worst leprosy that has came
down on our earth, namely, the leprosy OF
sin; and If can point you to multitude
who say they have felt the power Of tina
cure. are you not reasonable enough 4
acknowledge the fact that ther'
must be some power in the medi-
cineY win you take the evi
dence Of millions OF patients who have
s.T-g. . H... a 90