Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-08-17
ORTHODOXY.
mr.. II. De Witt Talmaee's
sermon at Chautauqua,
New York.
celebrated Brooklyn Divine Answers the
% Question, rs Orthodoxy Stale and
Unreasonable"

The Rev. 7. De Witt Tailmage, D. D.,
Rrooklyn. is at present for the twelfth
ma at the national meeting of religious
Rucators and students held yearly in
Sautauqua, N. Y. His sermon, which
- delivered to an audience imposing
numbers and intelligence, was from
following text, in the book of Jere-
;,h Vi. is: Ask for the old paths,
here her is the good way, and walk therein,
=, ~. re shall find rest for your souls"
ID ID answered the question: is Ortho-
NV Stale and Unreasonable" Follow
v us verbatim report of it:
Great London fog has come down
NON ~ some of the ministers and some of
p o churches in the shape of what is
allied advanced thought" in biblical
p'tt s, All of them, and with
ut any exception, deny the full
nusupiration of the Bible. Genesis is an
Iegory, and there are many myths in
ke Bible. and they philosophize and
mess and reason and evolute until they
and in great continent of mud, from
rhich fear. for all eternity they will
ot be able to extricate themselves.
The Bible is not only diyinely in
pred, but it is divinely protected in its
resent shape. LOU cOulu as easily,
ithout detection, take from the writ
hos of Shakespeare Hamlet, and insti-
Ete in place thereof Alexander Smiths
rama, as at any time during the last
500 Years a man could have made any
Important change in the Bible without
Immediate detection. If there had been
4 clement Of weakness, Or of deception,
of disintegration, the book would
Cng ago have fallen to pieces. If there
ad been one loose brick or cracked
asement in this castellated truth, surely
be bombardment Of eight. centuries
|oull have discovered and broken
trough that imperfection. The fact
but the Bible stands intact, notwith-
landing all the furious assaults on all
ilcs upon it, is proof to me that it is a
piracle, and every miracle is Of God.
But. says some one, while we admit
be Bible is of God, it has not been
nlerstood until our time" My answer
that if the Bible be a letter from God,
III Father. to man, his child, is it not
range that that letter should have been
rtten in such way that it should al
pw seventy generations to pass away
nd be buried before the letter could be
nderstood? That would be very
right father who should write o letter
or the guidance and intelligence of his
hidren, not understandable until a
housand years after they were buried
md forgotten! While as the years roll
II other beauties and excellencies will
MOLD from the Scriptures, that the
bible is such dead failure that all the
christian scholars for 1,8OO years We're
eceived in regard to vast reaches of its
beaning, is demand upon my credulity
great that if 1 found myself at all
isposed to yield to it should to-mor-
cw morning apply at some insane
sylum as unfit to go alone.
Who makes up this precious group of
dvanced thinkers to whom God has
bade especial revelation in our time Of
hat which he tried to make known thou
hnds of years ago and failed to make
ptelligible? Are they SO distinguished
or rnworldliness. piety, and scholar
hip that it is to be expected that they
Fould have been chosen to fix up the
Paul and Christ? Is it at all possible?
m exegetes We're TRANSPORTED? Won
birthplace? Was it the North star, or
NV e,ehAHo sCa1, VI tuc 1l1PpeA. Ao 'Ae
ame through and descendedto our world
|lnss? When [ find these modern wise
york of the Almighty and to interlard
Prophetic and apostolic errata, I am
Fled with disgust insutferable. Ad-
(anced though, which proposes to tell
No | nrI hot O,,Ch+ fn hnva
thousands of years ago, and would have
aid if He had been as wise as the Nine
eenth century critics! All this comes
Pf living away back in the eternities in
Ftead of 1855 I have two wonders il
Fesard to these men. The first one is
how the Lord got along without then
before they were born. The SECOND
Ponder is how the Lord will get along
Elthout them after they are dead.
But. say some. do you really thinl
be Scriptures are inspired through out!'
PES. either as history or as guidance
'lbhons and Josephus and Prescott re-
Eetd III their histories 8 great man,
hing they did not approve of. Whc1
george Bancroft puts upon his brillian
historical page the account OF an Indian
massacre. does he approve OF that mas
ESsic? There are scores of things III thu
blble which neither God nor inspired
men sanctioned. Eitheras history or a:
guidance the entire Bible was inspired
Dt God.
But says some one, don't you thinl
mat the copyists might have made mis-
=. IN transferring the divine words
from one manuscript to another Yes
~ =" ',eubt there were such mistakes; bu
,'eE no more affect the meaning OF tn
nEEptures than the misspelling OF
"ofi on the ungrammatical structure o
sentence in last will and Testament
. "A&ct the validity or the meaning or tina
Will. MI the mistakes made by tn
ttoi'Elst i'll the Scriptures do not amour
any more Importance than the dltfer
.hce between Your spelling IN a docr1
T'He the word forty, forty or fourty
MS book is the last will and tesla
n'eile OF God to our lost world, and
"'s4oeaths everything in the right way
"l'h9llsh human hands may have dam
go the grammar or made unjustitiabl
i.terpolation.
lhese men who pride themselves Il
bHf day on being advanced thinkers l.
" ".1 Interpretation will all Of thel
. .na IN atheism, if they live long enough
% W." | declare here too day they are dom
,.."fe IN the different denominations
4iistlans, and throughout the Worlo
w.; ;os damaging Christianity and hinder
a., ,nS the cause of the worlds bettermen
.Hsn live thousand Robert Ingersoll'
could do 'Fho+ ,,,o,, who stands inSiQ