Thomas County cat., 1890-07-24
TALMACE'S SERMON.

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His text was: 1--WE are Witnesses" Acts
iii. IL. Following is his sermon:
In the days of George Stephenson, the
perfector of the locomotive engine, the
scientists proved conclusively that a
railway train could never be driven by
steam power successfully and without
peril; l;but the rushing express trains
from Liverpool to Edinburgh, and from
Edinburgh to London, have made all
the nations witness of the splendid
achievement. Ma ;hinists and naviga-
tors proved conclusively that steam
boat could never cross the atlantic
ocean. tut no sooef had they success
fully proved the impOssibility of such
an undertaking than the work was done
and the passengers on the Cunard and
the Inman and the National and the
White Star lines are witnesses There
went up a guffaw of wise laughter at
Prof. Morse's proposition to make the
lightning Of heaven his errand boy
and it was proved conclusively that
the thing could never be done, but, now
all the news of the wide world by
Associated press put in your hands
every morning and night, has made all
nation witnesses. So in the time of Christ
it was proved conclusively that it was
impossible for Him to rise from the
dead. Itwas shown logically that when
man was dead he was dead, and the
heart and the liver and the lungs hav-
ing ceased to perform their offices the
limbs would be rigid beyond all power
of friction or arousal. They showed it
to be an absolute absurdity that the
dead Christ arose, and the deciples
beheld Him heard His voice and talked
with Him, and they took the witness
stand to prove that to be true which
the wiseacres of the day had proved to
be impossible; the record of the ex-
perience and of the testimony is in the
text: Him hath God raised from the
dead, whereof we are witnesses"
Now let me play the sceptic for mo-
ment. There is no God" says the
sceptic, ''for 1 have never seen Him
my physical eyesight. Your
- IS apack of contradictions. There
never was miracle. Lazarus was not
raised from the dead and water was
never turned into wine Your religion
is an imposition on the credulity of the
ages There is an aged man moving
over yonder as though he would like to
respond. Here are hundreds of people
with faces little flushed at these an
nouncements, and all through this
assembly there is suppressed feeling
which would like to speak out in behalf
of the truth of our glorious Christian
ity, as in the days of the text, crying
out, 1--WE are Witnesses
The fact is that if this world is ever
brought to God it will not be through
argument, but through testimony. You
might cover the whole earth with apollo
gies for Christianity and learned treat
ises in defense of religion-you would
not convert soul. Lectures on the
harmony between science and religion
are beautiful mental discipline, but have
never saved a soul and never will save
soul. Put a man of the world and
man of the church against each other
and the man of the world will in all
probability get the triumph. There are
a thousand things in our religion that
seem illogical to the world, and always
will seem illogical. Our weapon in
this conflict is faith, not logic; faith.
not metaphysics; faith, not profundity;
faith, not scholastic exploration. But
then, in order to have faith we must
have testimony, and if 500 men or 1000
men, or 100000 men, or 100000 men
get up and tell me that they have felt
the religion of Jesus Christ a JOY,
comfort, help, an aspiration, l am
bound as fair minded man to accept
their testimony. l want just now to
put before you three propositions, the
truth of which think this audience
will attest with overwhelming un-
animity.
The first proposition is, We are wit
nesses that the religion Of Christ is able
to convert a SOUL The gospel may
have had hard time to conquer us
we may have fought it back, but We
were vanquished. You say conversion
is only an imaginary thing. We know
better. 1--WE are witnesses" There
never was so great a change in our
heart and life on any other subject as
ON this. People laughed at the mission
aries in Madagascar because they
preached ten years without one convert:
but there are $4,000 converts in NADIA
gascar today. People laughed at DIR
Adoniram Judson, the great Baptist
missionary, because he kept on preach
ing in Burmah five wears without |