The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1888-04-05
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on the Authenticity and
Genuineness of the Bible.
The Greatest of All Books, Adapted to
Every Condition In Life and the
One source of SoIace When
All Else Fail,


In a recent sermon delivered at the
Second Presbyterian Church, st. Louis,
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmagc took for his sub
ject "The Authenticity of the Bible," his
text being:
Thc statutes Of the Lord are right-Psalm
TX, ..
He said
Old books go out Of date. When they
we're written, they discussed questions
which were being discussed; they struck
at twrongs which had long age ceased, or
advocated institutions which excite not
bSr interest, Were they books of histOry'
tie facts have beer gathered irpr1r TIE I'm.
perfcct mass, better classified ana ffinr'
lIicidly presented. Were they books OF
nDetry, they were interloCked with wild
nythologics, 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 barbarlsm,
neither do we want Sappho, Pythagoras
aud Tully to teach US morals. What do the
masses cf pcopl" care now for the patbos
~ Simonides. br the sarcasm tf Merhrder,
or the cracEfulrcss of Philemon, Or the
wit of Aristophanes! Even tie OH books
we have left, with few eXcep-
tiens. have but very little effect upon
orr times. Books are human; they have
time to be born, they are fondled, they
grow in strength. they have middle life
OI usefulness, then comes old age, they
tcttcr and die. Many of the National
libraries are merely the cemeteries ~
dead books. Some of them lived tagitious
ii 7es and died deaths of ignominy. Some
were virtuous, and accomplished glorl-
Gus mission. Some went into the ashes
through inquisitorial fires. Some found
their funeral pile in sacked and plundered
cities. Some were neglected ana
died as fOundlings at the door of science.
Some expired in the authors study 9TH
hrs III the publishers hands. Ever ana
anon there comes into your poSscSSlph an
old book, its author forgotten and It's use1
fulness done, and with leathcrn lips II
seems to say: Il wish l were dead"
Monuments have been raised over poets
ard philanthropists. Would that some
tall shaft might be erected i'll honor OF the
worlds buried books. The worlds au-
thofs would make pilgrimage thereto ana
poetry and literature and science ana re-
liyion would cOnseCr&tc it with their
tears.
Not SO with one old book. 1t started in
the worlds infancy. 1t grew under theoc-
racv and monarchy. 1t withstood storms
of fire. 1t grew under prophets mantle
and under the fishcrman'S coat OF the
apostles. In Rome, in Ephcsus, and Jeru-
salem, and Patmos. Tyr&nny issued
cdicts against it, and intidelity put out the
tongue, and Mohammedanism from ITS
mosques hurled its anathemas, but the old
n, IL, nA1t i.l1 In
III. and was greeted by Wickliffe and
James ]. 1t crossed the Atlantic and
srruck Plymouth Rock, until like that of
Horeb it gushcd with bleSSednesS:
Churches and asylums have gathered
all along its way, ringing their
bells. and stretching out their
hands of blessing; and Every Sabbath
there are 10000 heralds of the cross with
their hands on this open, grand, free, old
English Bible But it will not have ac-
c9mplished its mission until it has
climbed the icy mountains of Greenland
ultil it has gone over the granite cliffs OF
China, until it has thrown its glow amid
tLc Australian mines, until it has scat
ts-ed its gems among the diamond dis
tracts 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 cmpires-not un"
til then will this glorious Bible have ac-
complished its mission.
Further, suppose that there was great
pestilencC going over the earth, and hun
dreds of thousands Of men We're dying Of
that peStilpnCe, and some one should ind q
medicine that cured ten thousand people,
would not everybody acknowledge that
that must be a good medicine: Why,
some one would say: "Do you deny IT:
There have been ten thousand people
cured by it." | simply state the fact that
there have been hundreds of thousands of
Christian men and women who say they
have felt the truthfulness OF that Book,
and its power in their souls. 1t has cured
them of the worst leprOsy that has came
down on our earth, namely, the leprosy of
sin; and if can point you to multltudeS
who say they have felt the power of that
cure, are You not reasonable enough to
acknowledge the fact that there
must be some power in the medi-
cine? Will you take the evil
dence of millions of patients who have
been cured, or will you take the evidence
of the skeptic who stands aloof, and con-
fcsses he never took the medicine: The
Bible intimates that there was city called
Petra, built out of solid rock. lntdellty
scoffed at it. .Where is your city of
Petra:" Buckhardt and LabOrde went
forth in their explorations, and they came
upon that very city. The mountains stand
around like giants guarding the tomb
where the city was buried. They find
street in that city six miles long, where
once flashed imperial pomp, and which
echoed with the laughter of light-hearted
mirth on its way to the theater. On tenn
pies, fashioned out of colOred stones
some of which have blushed into the GRIM
son of the rose, and some of which have
darkened into the blue Of the sky,
aad some of which have paled into
the whteness of the Hly-ay, on
column, and pediment, and entablature,
and statuary, God writes the truth
of that Bible. The Bible says that Sodom
and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and
birthstone. absurd" Infidels, year after
year, said: at is positively absurd that
they could have been destroyed by brim-
stone. There is nothing i'll the elements
to cause such a shower of death as that"
Lieutenant Lynch think he was the
first man who went out on the discovery,
but he has been followed by many others
Lieutenant Lynch went out in explora-
ton, and came to the Dead sea, which, by
a convulsion of nature, has overiown the
place where the cities once stood. He
senk his fathoming line and brought up
fIom the bottom of the Dead sea great
masses Of sulphur, remnants OF that very
tempest that swept Sodom and Gomorrah
to ruin. Who was right-the Bible that
Al