The Iola register., 1891-04-10
TALHAGE'S SERMON.
THE "PLAGUE OF INFIDELITY" THE
SUBJECT. THE SHEER AND MOCK
ERY OF THE BIBLE BY THE INFI-
DELIC WORLD CLEARLY ANSWERED.
Nothing Good From Infdelity.

morning at the Brooklyn Academy o
Music on the subject, 1.-The Plague Ol
Infidelity." The text chosen wa:
Romans, iii, 4: let God be true, but
every man a liar"
That is il God says one thing and the
whole human race says the opposit, Pau
would accept the divine veracity. But
there are many in our time who have
dared TO arraign the Almighty for
falsehood Infdclity is not only plague
but is the mother of plaques.
1t seems from what we hear on al
sides, that the christian religion is q
huge blunder: that the Mosaic account
OF the creation is an absurdity large
enough to throw all nations into 'rol
licking guffaw: that Adam and Eve
never existed: that the ancient foo anC
Noah's ark were impossibilities: there
never was ami icle: that the Bible is Il {
friend OF cruelty, of murder, OF poiyga
my, of all forms of base crime: that the
christian religion is wOman's tyra1t and
mans qualification; that tie Bible from
lid to lid is fable, a cruelty, humbug,
lie: that the martyrs who died for its
truth were miserable dupes; that the
church of Jesus Christ is properly gaZ-
zetted as fool: that when Thomas Car
lyle. the sceptic, said, ''the Bible is a
noble book; he was dropping into imbec-
ility: that when Theodore Parker de-
clared in Music hall, Boston, not COY or
girl in ali Christendom but was profited
by that great book" he was be-
coming very weak minded that
it is something to bring blush to the
cheek Of every patriot; that John
Adams, the father of American indie
pendence. declared, THE Bible is the
best book in all the world" and that
lion-hearted Andrew Jackson turned
into a snivelling coward when he said,
That book, sir, is the rock on which
our republic rests, and that Daniel
Webster abdicated the throne OF his in
tellectual power and resigned his logic,
and from being the great eXDOuTder of
the constitution and the great lawyer of
his age, turned into an idiot when he
SAID, MY heart assures and reassures
me that the Gospel o. Jesus Christ must
be divine reality. From the time at
my mothers feet, or on my fathers
knee. | first learned to lisp verses from
the sacred writing, 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 scrip
lures" and that William II. Seward.
the diplomatist OF the century, only
showed his puerility when he declared.
The whole hope OF human progress is
suspended on the ever growing inhu-
ences 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 under our feet 10
be trampled upon by hatred and kissing
contempt; and that your old father was
hoodwinked and caiOled, 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 IS he came up to the verge of
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 heartache,
so that she could read no more until she
took off her spectacle and wiped from
them the heavy mist of many tears.
The attack on the Bible is accompa-
MED by great iocosity, and there is
hardly any subject about which more
mirth is kindled than about the Bible.
I like fun: no man was ever built with a
keener appreciation. of it. There is
health in laughter instead of harm
physical health, mental health, moral
health. spiritual health-provided YOU
laugh at the right thing. The morning
is jocund. The Indians with its own
mists baptizes the cataract Minnehaha.
or laughing water. You have not kept
your eyes open, or your ears alert, ifyou
have not seen the sea smile, or heard
the forests clap their hands, or the or
chards in blossom week aglee with red
olence. But there is a laughter which
is deathful, there is laughter which
has the rebound of despair. 1t is not
healthy to giggle about God, or chuckle
about eternity, or smirk about things
OF the immortal soul. You know what
caused the accident years ago on the
Hudson River railroad. 1t was an in
toxicated man who for joke pulled the
string OF the air brake and stopped the
train, at the most dangerous point
of the Journey. But the lightning
train not knowing there was any i'm
pediment in the way, came down,
crushing out of the mangled victims the
immortal souls that went speeding in
stantly to God and Judgment. II was
only joke. He thought it would be
such fun to stop the train. He stopped
it! And so infidelity is chiefly anxious
to stop the long train of the Bible, and
the long train of the churches, and the
long train of Christian influences, while |
coming down upon us are death, judg |
ment and eternity, coming a thousand |
miles minute. coming up with more |
force than all the avalanches that ever |
slipped from the Alps, coming with |
more strength than all the lightning |
express trains that ever whistled, or !
shrieked, or thundered across the conti- |
nent.
Now in this sentiment of infidel |
thinkers can not join, and l propose |
TO give you some reasons why | can not |
be an infidel, and so | will try to help |
out Of this present condition any who |
NAV have been struck with the awful |
plague of skepticism.
First, cannot be au infdel because |
infidelity has no good substitute for the |
consolation it proposes to take away. |
You know there are millions of people |
who get tAeir chief consolation from |
this book. What would you think of |
crusade of t6is sort. Suppose a man !
should resolve that he would organize |
conspiracy to destroy all the medicines /
from all the apothecaries and from all |
the hospitals Of the earth. The work |
is done. The medicines are thrown |
into the river. Or the lake, or the sea
A patient wakes up at midnight in a |
paroxysn G distress and wants an |
anedyne. .'0h," saws The nurse, ''the |
anodynes are an destroyed; we have no
drops to give you but instead of that
I'll read yeu a book on the absurdities |