Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-07

A STRONG SERMON BY THE REV.
DR.. TALMAeE AT BEATRICE, NE6.

Worked by Faith, to the Great Infiu-
ence for Good and Comfort of Belief
In Jesus Christ.
BEATRIcE, Neb., July CDR. Talmage
preached here in the open air to an inn
mense congregation which had gathered
from all the surrounding country to hear
the famous preacher His text was, 1--WE
are witnesses" Acts iii, 15). Following is
his sermon;
In the days of George Stephenson, the
perfeetor of the locomotive engine, the sci
entists proved eonclusively that railway
train could never be driven by steam pow
er successfully and without peril but the
rushing express trains from Liverpool to
Edinburgh and from Edinburgh to Lon
don have made all the nations witnesses of
the splendid achievement Machinists and
navigators proved conclusively that a
steamer could never cross the Atlantic
ocean; but no sooner had they successfully
proved the impossbility of such an under
taking than the work was done, and the
passengers on the Cunard and the Inman
and tho National and the White Star lines
are witnesses. There went up guffaw Of
wise laughter at Professor Morse's propo-
errand boy and it was proved conclusively
that the thing could never be done; but
now all the news Of the wide world, by As
ISOLATED Press put in your hands every
morning and night, has made all nations
witnesses.
SO in the time of Christ it was proved
conclusively that it was impossible for him
to rise from the dead 1t was shown log
innI Ity hut hnn a tf1OT NHynG al hD VIZ q
dead and the heart and the liver and the
lungs having 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 should ever get up alive; but
no sooner had they proved this than the
dead Christ arose and the disciples 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 he impossible; the record
of the experience and of the testimony is
in the text: Him hath God raised from
the dead, whereof we are witnesses"
Now let me play the skeptic for mo-
ment "There is no God, says the skeptic,
"for / have never seen him with my physi-
cal eyesight Your Bible is pack of con-
tradictions. There never was a 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 NOV
ing over yonder as though he would like
to respond Here are hundreds of people
with faces II little flushed at these an.
nouncements, and all through this assem-
bly, there is suppressed feeling which
would like to speak out in behalf of the
truth of our glorious Christianity, AS in
the days of the text, crying out, "We are
Witnesses
TESTIMONY, NOT ARGUMENT.
The fact is that if this world Is ever
brought to God it will not be through ar
gument, but through testimony. You
might cover the whole earth with apologies
for Christianity and learned treatises in
defense of religion-you would not convert
IA soul. Lectures on the harmony between
science and religion are beautiful mental
discipline, but have never saved u soul and
never will save q soul. Put man of the
world and Il man of the church against
each other and the man of the world will
in all probability get the triumph There
are n thousand things in our religion that
seem illogical to the world and always will
seem illogical Ourweapon 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 five
hundred men, or one Thousand men, or five
hundred thousand men, or. five million
men get up and tell mo that they have
felt the religion of Jesus Christ Il Joy, q
comfort u help, IN aspiration, am bound
as a fair minded man To accept their testi
mony. | want just now to put before you
three propositions, the truth of which
think this audience will attest with over
whelming unanimity.
VANoUIslIED ny THE GOSPEL.
The first proposition is: Weare witnesses
that the religion of Christ is able to con
vert soul The Gospel may have had 1
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 wit
nesses" 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 Madagascar today
People laughed Mt DIR. Adomram Judson
the Baptist missionary, because he kept OF
preaching in Burnah five years without {
single convert; but there are 10000 Bap
lists in Burmah today People laughed a
DIR. Morrison, In China for preaching ther'
seven years without u single conversion
but there are % 900 Christians in China to
day. People laughed at the missionaries
for preaching nc Tahiti fifteen years with
out single conversion, and mt the mission
aries for preaching in Bengal seventeen
years without a single conversions; yet II
all those lands there are multitudes o
Christians today.
FREE GRACEr"
But why 20 so far to find evidence OF TIT
Gospels power to save soulr I'VE ar
witnesses" We were SO proud that M
man could have humbled us; we were 81
hard that no earthly power could hav
melted us; angels of God were ell aroun'
about us; they could not overcome us. Blu
one day, perhaps at Il Methodist anNiou
seat, or at Presbyterian catechetica
lecture, or Mt "A burial, or on horseback,
power seized us, and made us get down
and made us tremble, and made us kneeI
aud made us cry for mercy, aud we tried y
wrench ourselves away from the grasp, bu
we could not 1t flung us HAT, and whel
we arose we were as much changed q
Gourgis, the heather, who went into
prayer meeting with dagger and GU
70 disturb the meeting and destroy it, bu
the next day was found crying, "Oh, m
great sins Oh, my great Saviour" an
for eleven years preached the Gospel @
Christ To his fellow mountaineers, the las
words on his dying lips being Free grace!
oh. il was free grace!
There is man who for ten years was
hard driuker The dreadful appetite ha
sent down its roots around the palate an