The Fort Worth gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-189?, 1891-04-09
Continuation of DR.. Talmage's
Series of Discourses on the
TEN PLAQUES OF THE CITIES.
Said He: "lnfdeIity is Not Only a Plague,
But It is the Mother of Plaques"
1t Scrapes no Lint for the Wounded, Bakes
no Bread For the Hungry, Rouses
NO Comfort for the Bereft, Glds
no Grave for the Dead.
Specia! 10 the Gazette.

the Cities, Rev. Or. IalInage To-Day tooh
for his subject The Plague of lnhdeIity.
The discourse was delivered 10 large and
appreciative audiences at the Brooklyn
Academy Of Music in the forenoon and the
New York Academy OF Music in the even
iur. 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 the opposite, Faut
would accept the Divine veracity. Eut
there are many il our time VINO have dare
arraign the Almighty for faisehood, lnh
Gality is not only a plague, but Is the
mother of plaques.
Il seems from what we hear on all sides,
that the Christian religion IS a huge
b!under: that the Mosaic account OF the
creation is an absurdity large enough 10
throw all nations mo rollicking gut1aw;
that Adam and Eve never existed; that the
ancient food and Noah'S Ark were lmpossl-
bilities that there never was miracle
that the Bible IS the friend OF cruelty, OF
murder. Of polygalny, of all forms of base
crime: that the Christian religion IS wo-
man ; tyrant and mans qualification; that
the Bible from lid to lid is a fable, cruelty,
a humbug. 4 sham, a lie; that the martyrs
who died for its truth were miserable
dupes that the church of Jesus Christ IS
properly gazetted as a fool; that when
Thomas Carlyle, the sceptic, SAID.
THE BIBLE Is A NOBLE BOOK"
he vas dropping INTO llnDecluly lHdt W usH
Theodore Parker declared in music hall
Boston, Never 4 boy or girl in all Chris
tendon but WAS profted by that great
book he was becoming very weak minded;
that II rnething to bring 4 blush to the
check very patriot, that John Adams,
the fat..tr Of American independence, de
Ciarcd .EIhe Bible is the best book in all
the world" and that lion-hearted Andrew
jackson turned into a snivellng coward
when he said That book, sir, IS the rock
on which our republic rests and that
Daniel Webster abGicated the throne of his
intellectual power and resigned his logic,
and from being the great eXpounder of the
constitution and the great lawyer OF his
age turned into an idiot when he sad,
MY heart assures and treasures me that
the gospel of Jesus Christ must be i divine
reality. From the time that at my mothers
feet. or on my fathers knee, | first learned
10 lisp verses from the sacred writings,
they have been my daily study and vigll2nt
contemplation, and II there Is anything
I'm nv stvle or thought to be commended
the credit IS due to my kind par
euts in nstilling into my mind an early love
Of the Scriptures - and that William II.
Seward. the diplomatist OF the century,
only showed his puerility when he de-
rlared. The whole hope of human progress
Is suspended on the evergrowing influences
Of he Bible;N and that it Is wlScSt for US TO
take that book from the throne in the affec-
tons of unCOuntcd multitudeS, and put It
under our feet to be trampled upon by
hatred and kissing contempt, and that your
old father was hoodwinked. and CajOled,
and cheated. and bcfooled, when he leaned
on this as 4 staff after his hair grows gray,
and his hands We're tremulous, and his steps
shortened rs he cunc up TO the verge oil the
grave; 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 heart3che,
SO that she could read no more until
she took OFF her spectacleS, and wiped from
them the heavy mist OF many tears. Alas:
thai for forty and fifty years they should nave
walked under this deluSiCn and had II under
their pillow when they lay a-dying III the
back room, and asked that some words from
the old book might be cut upon the tomb
stone under the shadow of the old country
meeting house where they sleep to-day
waiting for resurrection that will never
come This book, having deceived them,
and having decided the mighty intellects of
the past must not be allowed TO deceive our
larger, uIightier, vaStcr. more StupendouS
iuteilcctS And SO out with the book from
the court room whore it is used in the SOL
smuiZaiiOn of testimony. Out with II from
under the foundation of church and asy-
luIn Out wiki il from the domestic circle.
Gather together al the Bibcs-the chill
dren's Bibles, the family Bibles, those
newly bound, and those with lid nearly
worn out and pages almost Obliterated by
the fingers long ago turned TO dust-bring
them al together, and let US make bonfire
OF them, and by it warm our cold criticism,
and after that turn under with the plough
share of public Indignation the polluted
ashes of that loathSome. adulterous, OBJ
scene. cruel and beautiful book which is so
antagouis,ic to mans liberty and woman'S
honor and the worlds happiness.
Now that is the substance of what inf
deity proposes and declares, and the at
tack on the Bible IS accompanied by
great ocosity, and there is hardly any
subject about which more mirth is
kiudled than about the Bible. l like fun;
no man was ever built with keener APP
probation of it. There is health IL laugh
Ter instead Of harm-physical health, men
tal health. moral health, spiritual health
provided you
LAUGH AT THE RIGHT Thine.
The morning is iocund. The Indian with
its own mist bapIiZes the cataract Mime
haha. or laughing water. You have not
kept your eyes open, or your ears alert, Il
Won have not seen the sea smile or heard
the forests clap their hands, or the orchards
in blossom-week aglee with redolence. But
there is L laughter which is beautiful, there
is a laughter which has the rebound OF de-
spair. 1t is not healthy 10 giggle about
God. or chucsle about eternity, or smirk
about the things OF the immortal soul. You
know what caused the accident years ago
on the Hudson River railroad2 II was an
intoxicated man who for joke pulled the
string Of the aiE-brake and stopped the
train at the most dangerous point Of the
tourney. But helightning train, not know
Inc there was any impcdiment in the way,
came down crushing out of the mangled
victims the immortal souls that went speed
ing instantly TO God and Judgment. 1t was
only q joke He thought it would be such
fun to stop the train. He stopped it! And
so intideiity is chiefly anxious TO stop the
long train of the Bible, and tho long train
Of the churches and the long train Of
Christian influences, while coming down
upon US are death, Judgment, and eternity,
coming a thousand miles minute, coming
with more force than all the ayalancheS
that ever Slipped from the Alps, coming
with more strength than all the lightning
express trains that ever whlstled, or
shrieked, or Numbered across the continent
Now in this sentiment OF intiGel thinkers
cannot Join, and l propose 10 give you
some reasons why I cannot be an inhdel
and so I will try TO help out of this present
condition any who may have been struck
with the
AWFUL PLAGUE oE sCEPTICIsM-
First / cannot be an infidel because inf
deity has no good substitute for the conso-
lation il proposes TO take away. You know
there are millions of people who get their
chief consolation from this book. What
would you think of crusade of this sortl
& lppos. a man should resolve that he