The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-04-09
INFIDELITY SCORCHED.
DR.. TALMAGE'S ELOQUENT REVIEW
OF AcNOSTIclSM.

The Most Remarkable of a Very Re-
markabIe Series OF Sermons on ''The
Plaques of the CitIes"-Does the Bible
Justify Polygamy?
NEW YORK, April 5.-Continuing his
course OF sermons on '"The Ten Plaques /
of the Cities" Rev. DR.. Talmage today |
took for his subject ''The Plague of In
fidelity" The discourse was delivered |
to large and appreciative audiences at |
the Brooklyn Academy of Music in the |
forenoon and the New York Academy
of Music in the evening. The text was
Romans iii, 4, Let God be true, but
every man liar"
That is, if God says one thing and the
whole human race says the opposite,
Paul would accept the divine veracity.
But there are many in our time who
have dared arraign the Almighty for
falsehood. Infidelity is not only a
plague but it is the mother of plaques.
It seems from what we hear on all
sides that the Christian religion is a
huge blunder; that the Mosaic account
Of creation is an absurdity large enough
to throw all nations into rollicking guf-
faw; that Adam and Eve never existed;
that the ancient food and Noahs Ark
were impossibilities that there never
was miracle; that the Bible is the
friend of cruelty, of murder, of polyg-
+ amy, of all forms of base crime; that
the Christian religion is woman's tyrant
and mans qualification; that the Bible
| from lid to lid is Il fable, cruelty, a
huInbug, u sham, lie; that the mar
tyrs who died for It's truth were niser-
able dupes; that the church Of Jesus
Christ is properly gaZetted as q fool;
that when Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic,
said The Bible is q noble book" he
was dropping into inbecility; that
when Theodore Parker declared in
Music Hall, Boston, ''Never a boy
or girl in all Christendom but was
profted by that great book" he was
becoming very weak minded; that it is
something to bring blush to the cheek
of every patriot that John Adams, the
father of American independence, de-
clared, 1.-The Bible is the best book in
all the world" and that lion hearted
Andrew Jackson turned into a snivel-
ing coward when he said, THAT book,
sir, is the rock on which our republic
rests" and that Daniel Webster abdi-
Gated the throne of his intellectual
power and resigned his logic, and from
being the great ozpounder of the con-
stitution and the great lawyer Of
his age, turned into an idiot when he
said, my heart assures and treasures
me that the gospel of Jesus Christ
must be q divine reality. From the
time that at my mothers feet or
on my fathers knee I first learned
to lisp verses from the sacred writ
ings they have been my daily study
and vigilant contemplation, and if
there is anything in my style or
thought to be commended the credit is
due to my kind parents in instilling
into my mind an early love of the
Scriptures - and that William II. Sew
ard, the dipio!Eatist OF the century,
only showed his puerility when he de-
clared, ''The whole hope of human
progress is suspended on the ever grow
ing influences of the Bible;'' and that
it is wisest for us to take that book
from the throne in the affections Of
uncounted multitudes, and put it un-
der our feet to be trarnpled upon by
hatred and kissing contempt, and that
t your old father was hoodwinked and
} cajoled and cheated and befooled
| when he leaned on this as a staff after
his hair grew gray, and his hands were
tremulous, and his steps shortened as
r he came up to the verge of the grave,
7 and that your mother sat with pack
of lies on her lap while reading of the
. better country, and of the ending of all
her aches and pains, and reunion not
. only with those of you who stood
. around her, but with the children she
had buried with infinite heartache, SC
that she could read no more until she
took off her spectacles and wiped
from them the heavy mist of many
tears.
THE GLORIOUS CONSOLATION.
= Alas! that for forty and fifty years
~ they should have walked under this
delusion, and had it under their pillow
a when they lay a-dying in the back
:. room, and asked that some words from
!. the vile page might be cut upon the
8 tombstone under the shadow of the ole
5 country meeting house, where they sleeE
S today waiting for resurrection thai
f will never come. This book, having
e deceived them, and having deceived
e the mighty intellects of the past, must
5 not be allowed to deceive our larger
5 mightier, vaster, more stupendous in
n tellects.
e And so out with the book from the
l. court room, where it is used in the
: solemnization of testimony. Out will
: it from under the foundation of churcl
II and asylum. Out with it from the do
i mestic circle. Gather together all th'
\ \ Bibles-the children's Bibles the fam
. lily Bibles, those newly bound ant
- those with lid nearly worn out an(
a pages almost obliterated by the finger
a long ago turned to dust-bring then
|. all together, and let us make bonfir
J. of them, and by it warm our cold crit
II icism, and after that turn under will
d the plowshare of public indignation
Z the polluted ashes of that loathsome
l. adulterous, obscene, cruel and death
= full book which is SO antagonistic t.
t, mans liberty, and woman's honor, ant
d the worlds happiness.
l. Now that is the substance of wha
is infidelity proposes and declares, AM
q the attack on the Bible is accompanied
IL by great jocosity. and there is hardl
% any subject about which more mirth
e kindled than about the Bible. I ik
= fun; no man was ever built with
= keener appreciation Of it. There
= health in laughter instead of harm