Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-07-13
TALMAGE In KENTUCKY.
WITNESSES TO THE TRANSFORMING
POWER OF CHRISTIAN RELIGION.


HIGH BRIDGE, Ky, July IA vast CON
course Of people assembled this morning
on the historic camp ground ut High
Bridge, KY, to hear Dr. Talmage preach.
They came from all the surrounding cities,
towns and neighborhood A large contin-
gent from Louisville and another from
Cincinnati were present. Many of the
visitors have remained here since yester-
day afternoon, when Dr. Talmage preached
In the same place The text of his sermon
this morning was from Acts iii, 10, 1--WE
arc witnesses"
Standing amid the hills and groves of
Kentucky and before this great multitude
that no man can number, most of whom
never saw before and never will see again
In this world, ! choose very practical
theme. In the days of George Stephenson
the perfector OF the locomotive engine, the
scientists proved cOnclusively that rail
road train could never DO driven by steam
power successfully without peril; but the
rushing express trains from Liverpool to
Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh to Lon
don, have made ali the nation witnesses of
the splendid achievement.
Machinists and naYigators proved CON
clusively that II steamer could never cross
the Atlantic ocean; but no sooner had they
successfully 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 guffaw of wise laughter at Professor
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 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
logically that when man was dead, he
was dead aud the heart, aud the liver, and
the lungs having ceased to perform their
Offices, the limbs would he rigid beyond al!
power Of friction or arous;tI. They showed
1t 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 behed
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 rec
ord OF the experiment and of the testimony
Is in the text "iIim hath God raised from
the dead, whereof we are witnesses"
FOLLY or THE AGNOsTIC.
Now let me play the skeptic for mo-
ment. "There is no God, " says the skeptic,
"for have never seen him with my phys
ical eyesight. Your Bible is pack of con
tradictions. There never was miracle
Lazarus was not raised from the dead, and
the water was never turned into wine
Your religion Is an imposition ON the ere
dulity Of the ages" There is an aged man
moving in that pew rs though he would
like to respond Here are hundreds of
people with faces little flushed at these
announcements, and all through this
throng there is n suppressed feeling which
would like TO speak out in behalf of the
truth of our glorious Christianity, rs in the
days of the text, crying out, eve are wit
nessesl"
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 apollo
Ries for Christianity and learned treatises
in defense Of religion-you would not con
vert soul, Lectures on the harmony be-
tween science and religion are beautiful
mental discipline, but have never saved a
soul and never Will save a soul. Put man
of the world and n man of the church
against each other, and the man of the
world will, in all probability get the tri-
umph. There are II 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 eXplora
ton. But then in order to have faith, we
must have testimony, and if five hundred
men, or one thousand men, or five hun
dred thousand men, or five million men
get up and tell me that they have felt
the religion of Jesus Christ II joy, n com
fort, help, IN inspiration, am bound as
a fair minded man TO accept their tcsti-
mony. want just now to put before you
three propositions, the truth of which |
think this audience will attest with over
whelmfng unanimity. The first proposition
is: We are witnesses that the religion Of
Christ Is able to convert a soul, The Cos
pei may have had II 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 bet
ter. 1--WE are witnesses" There never
was 80 great change in our heart and life
on any other subject rs on this.
PEOPLE Iasphed mt the missionaries in
MADAGASCAR becnuse they preached ten
wears without one convert; but there are
many thousands of converts in Madagas.
car TODAY. People laughed mt DR. .Tudson.
the Boptist missionary. because ne kent on
nreachinp in Burmah five wears With.
mt n single convert. brt there are many
thousnnds of Baptists in Iinrmab TODAY,
peonle laughed nj DR. Morrison in China
g. nroochin,, thor, so,cu ,onrs without,