Daily Republican., 1890-05-16
THE FAITH CURE DEFENDED.

Rev. Dr.. Ta'mage preached In Broo T.
lyn, N. Y. on sunday from the text
"Lift up your heads, o yc gates; and be
ye lifted up, 70 evcri4st'ng doors; and
the King OF glory shall come in." The
sermon was on the ascension of Christ,
and Dr. Talinage gave an elaborate de-
scr!ption OF Mount Olivet. and pictured
the sccne on the hill when the disciples
san their Lord ascend.
Among other things DR.. Tslmage said
II am 80 glad that Christ broke the
natural law Of gravitation when He
shook of from His feet the clutch of
Mount Olivet People talk as though
cold. Iron, unsyn pathetic, natural law
controlled everything. The reign OF law
10 majestic thing, but the God who
made It has . right to break 1t, and
again and again has broken 1t, and
again and again will break It. A law 10
ouly Gods way Of doing things, and II
He chooses to do them some other way,
He has right A law is not strong
enough to shackle the Almighty. Christ
broke botanical law when, on Monday
morning In March, on tho way from
bethany to Jerusalem, by few words
liieless stick. He broke ichthyologicai
-" "ncos "ishvus my nssuiAi Anuuco-
ment, He swung great school OF fsh
into part of Lake T1berias where the
fishermen had cast their nets for eight
or ten hodrs without the capture OF .
mnuow; and by making fish help pay
the tax BY yielding from its mouth .
Roman slater.
"Christ broke the law of storms by
compelling, With. . word, the angered
ssa to hush it, trehsy, and the winds to
quit their believing. He broke Eoologi-
cal law when He made the devils possess
the swine OF 0adara. He broke the law
OF economics when He made enough
bread Tor I've thousand people out Of ave
biscuits that would not ordinarily have
been enough for ten of the hungry. He
broke Intellectual law when, BY word
He silenced D maniac iuto placidity.
"le broke physiological Law when, by
touch, He raishtsned . women who
for eighteen years had been bent almost
double, aud when He put spring into the
foot Of inhumated Lazarus, and when,
without medicine, He gave the dying
Rirl back In health to the Syro-P Pheniciau
mother. and when He made the pal atisl
| homo Of the nobleman resound again
| with the laughter Of his restored boy,
and when, without knife or battery, HI
set caiaracted eyes to seeing again, and
the drum Of deaf ears TO vibrating again
| and the nerves Of pRralyEed arms tl
thrilling again; and then when In leaving
the earth He deaed all atmospheric law
and physiological law, and that Law
| which has In 1t withes and cables and
| girders enough to hold the universe, the
law Of sravltatiOD.
| "Deride not the faith-cure. Because
I imposters attempt It Is nothing agains,
good men whom God hath honored with
marvellous restorAtions. Pronouncs moth
ing impossible to prayer aud trust. Be-
cause you aud l cannot effoct 1t Is nc
reason why others may not. By the same
argument could prove that Raphael
never painted . Madonna, and that
Mendelssohn Revrr wrote an oratorio,
and that Paidias never chiseled statue.
Because we cannot accomplish 1t our
selves We are not to conclude that others
may not. There are in immensity great
ranges OF mists which have proved,
under closer tcleecopic scrutiny, to be
know but from that passage In James,
dim, there may roll out q now heaven
and q new earth. THE prayer Of faith
shall save the sick.'
"The faith-curists may, In this war
against disease. be only skirmishing be.
fore u general engagement, in which all
the maiAdies OF earth shall be routed.
Surely. allopathy and homeopathy and
hydropathy sd eclecticism need rein.
iorcement from somewhere. Why moi
from the faith and prayer OF the conse.
crateda The mightiest school Of medi.
cine may yet be the school OF Christ.
do not know but that diseases, now by
all schools pronounced incurable, may
give way under gospel bombardment I
do not know but that the day may CONS
when faith and prayer shall raise the
dead. Strauss and Woolston and Spinoza
and Hume and Schleiermacher rejected
the mirscles Of the far past. do not
purpose to be like them, and rel. ct the
miH ,cles Of the far future.
"This know, the Christ Of Ascension
Day 10 mightler than any natural laws,
for on the day Of which speak He
trampled down the strongest Of them
all. Law 10 mighty, but He who made 1t
Is mighlier. Drive out fatalism from
your theology, and give grace the