The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1889-01-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Noted Divine Took as His Sub
ject, "A Bad Boil Cured"
4 New Foe to Christianity-ThatG God An.
swers Prayer, There are Ten Million
Facts in ChrlstendOm to Prove.

Facts in Chrlstendom to Prove.
Dr. Talmage took the following for his
text last Sunday: 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 recovered. III
Kings XIX, 81.
Luxurious living is not healthy. The sec.
ond generation Of kings and queens and
lords and princes is apt to be brainless and
invalid. The second crop of grass is al
ways short Royal blood is generally
scrofulous. You will not be surprised then
to hear that King Hezekiah had disorders
which broke out In a carbuncle, virulent
and beautiful. The Lord told him he must
die; he did not want to die. Returned 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 answer.
cd it. saying: Behold, will heal thee"
But there was human instrumentality to
BE- employed. This carbuncle needed .
.'cataplasm." That is q tough word we
use to show how much we know. II in the
pulpit we always used words the people
understood, we never shCIld have any
reputation for learning. Well, this car
buncle needed a cataplasm, which is
poultice. Your old mother who doctored
her own children in the time when physi-
clans were not as plenty as they are now,
will tell you that the very best poultice is
fig, and that was what was used upon
the carbuncle of King Hezekiah. The
ofG >d cd hut 10 hum n
instrumentality, cured the king.
In this age Of discovery, when men
know SO much 1t almost kills them, and
write so wisely it almost kills us, 1t has
been found out that prayer to God Is a
dead failure. All things are arranged &C.
| cording 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 ques.
ton, rain or no rain, and the whole nation
in prayer before God would not bring
down a single drop. am not now speak
ing of an imaginary theory, but Of that
which is believed by ten thousand times
ten thousand men.
If sickness comes to your household, 1t
will depend entirely upon ventilation,
good diet and the skill Of the doctors, as
to whether your child gets we'll. The
father might pray all day, and the mother
might pray all night-it would not have
any effect upon the case. II squills, bella
donna, paregoric and cruel do the work,
your child will get well; II not, not.
There is cast iron God seated at the head
Of the universe, holding in the cold grasp
OF his metal fingers band Of law from
| which nothing can break away.
Men and women of God, at this point
the great battle of Christianity is to be
fought. The great foe of Christianity to-
day is rationalism, that comes out from
our schools; and universities, and maya
zines and newspapers, to scott at Bible
truth and caricature the old religion of
Jesus. 1t says Jesus is not God, for it is inn
possible to explain how he can be divine
and human at the same time. The Bible is
not inspired, for there are things in it that
they don't like. Regeneration is 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
believed than the Arabian Nights" or
"Gulliver's Travels" or Robinson Cru.
soe." We all started as balloons, and are
blood relations to that monkey squirming
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
wedding. 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 il
seemed as If he really were on the water.
What is still more alarming is, that
Christian men dare not meet this ridicule.
There is not one Christian man in five
that can unblanched stand In the
presence Of all this railery, saying: II be.
lieve in the whole Bible, and in every sim
gle statement that 1t makes" Christian
men try to soften the Bible down to suit
the skeptics. The skeptics sneer at the di.
viding of the Red Sea; and the Christie
goes to explaining that the wind blew q
hurricane from one direction good while
until all the water piled up; and besides
that it was low water anyhow, and so the
lsraelites went through without any
trouble. Why not be frank and say: "a
believe the Lord God Almighty came tt
the brink of the Red Sea, land with hi.
right arm swung back the pillows on tn,
right side. and with his left arm swung
back the pillows on the left side, and the
abashed water stood up hundreds of fee
high, while through their CLASSY wall thu
sea monsters gazed with affrightet
eyes on the passing lsraelites?" Tn,
nationalist comes to you saying: "How
about Jonah and the whale? Do yoy
really believe that fish story" Their,
were never so many Nantucket fishermen
after one whale as there have been ration
alists flinging harpoons at the Mediterra
mean sea monster, and from that one whal,
they have got enough oil to light ten thou
sand souls to perdition. A skeptc tell
you that Jonah would have been killed il
the process of swallowing, and that h,
could not, anyhow, have lived three day,
in such close quarters, but would hav,
been smothered by the poor ventilation
How the good Christians Immediately e.
10 work, and try to explain the who'll
thing by natural laws, so as to please tn
rationalists, and say that the whale is al
ir-breathing fish; that every little Will
it comes to the surface, and that the whal
that swallowed Jonah did the same thing
and thus got supply for itself and TO
the prophet Why not rather say tina
God can do any thing; and he could taxi
Jonah through the whales throat al
though the throat would not have beer
half large enough ordinarily to let hin
pass, and could have kept him alive in tn