Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1891-04-17
REV. Or. TlLMkGE.
rHE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
SUBJECT, IA PLAGUE OF INfIpELlrl. =

TEXT; "Let God be true, but every man a
Hor.-Romans ill.,, 4.
That Is IL God says one thing and the
whole human race saws 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 aplague, but 1t Is the mother Of
plaques
1t seems from what we hear on all sides
that the Christian religion is huge blum
der; that the Mosaic account of the creation
10 an sbsurdity large enough to throw all
nations into rollicking guffaw; that Adam
and Eve never existed; that the ancient
flood and Noah's ark were impossibilities;
that there never was a miracle; that the
Bible Is the friend OF cruelty, of murder, OF
polygamy, 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 fable, a cruelty, q hum
bug. sham, a lie; that the martyrs who
died for Its truth were miserable 1upes
that the church OF Jesus Christ Is
properly gazetted as a fool; that when
Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic, said, "The
Bible Is a noble book" he was dropping
into imbecility; that when Theodore Parker
declared in Music hall, Boston, Never a
boy or girl in all Christendom but was
profited by that great book" he was be-
thing to bring a blush TO the cheek Of
every patriot that John Adams, the father
OF American independence, declared, The
Bible is the best book in all the world;'
and that lion hearted Andrew Jackson
turned into a sniveling coward when he said,
THAT book, sir, is the rock on which our re-
public rests" and that Daniel Webster alb
dicated the throne OF his intellectual power
and resigned his logic, and from being the
praat pyn0rpHer "a ~ tha constitution and ha
great lawyer Of his age turned into an idiot
when he said, my heart assures and rels.
sures me that the gospel OF Jesus Christ must
be divine reality. From the time that at
my mothers feet or on my fathers knee |
first learned TO lisp verses from the sacred
writings they have been my daily study and
vtgilant contemplation. and II there is any
thing in my style or thought to be commend
cd the credit is due TO my kind parents in in
stilling into my mind an early love OF tho
Scriptures" and that William H. Seward,
the diplomatist Of the century, only showed
bis puerility when he declared, THE whole
hope OF human progress Is suspended on the
ever growing influences OF the Bible and
that IL is wisest for us TO take that book from
the throng in the affections OF uucountei
multitudes and put it under our feet
to DO trampled upon by hatred
and Kissing contempt; and that
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 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 wtbh those
OF you who stood around her, but with the
children she had buried with infinite heart
a.,.a tk.N oh.
she took off her spectHcles and wiped from
them the heavy mist OF many tears. Alas
that for forty and fifty years they should
have walked under this deinsiou and had
1t under their pillow when they lay a-dying
in the back room and asked that some words
from the vile page might be cut upon the
tombstone 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 hav-
ing deceived the mighty intellects OF the
past, must not be allowed to deceive our
larger, mightier, vaster. more stupeudous
intellects. And so out with the hook from
the court room, where IL is used i'll the solemn
ization OF testimony. Out with IL from un-
der the foundation of church and asylum.
| Out with II from the domestic circle. Gather
together all the Bihles-the children's Bibles
blDitrr tHbsd ueNlN DtuUu, anu
those with lid nearly worn out and pages al
most obliterated by the fingers long ago
turned to dust bring them all together. and
let us make a bonfire OF them, and by it
warm our cold criticism, and after that turn
under with the plowshare of public indg.
nation tue pollutel as;ies OF that loathsome,
adulterous, obscene, cruel and deathful book
which is 30 antagonistic 10 mans liberty, and
and woman's honor, and the worlds
happiness.
Now that Is the substance OF what inhdel-
ity proposes and declares, and the attack on
the Bible Is accompanied by great jocosity
and there Is hardly any subject about which
more mirth is kindled than about the Bible
like fun; no man was ever built with a
keener appreciation Of it. There Is health
in laughter instead Of fharm-physical health,
mental health, moral health, spiritual health
provided you laugh at the right thing.
The morning Is iocund The Indian with its
own mist baptixes the cataract Minnehaha,
or Laughing Water. You have not kept
your eyes open CT your ears alert IL you 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 a
| laughter which has the rebound of despair
1t is not healthy to giggle about God or
chuckle about eternity or smirk about the
things Of the immortal soul.
You know what caused the accident years
ago on the Hudson River Railroad. 1t was
an intoxicated man who for joke pulled th,
string OF the air brake and stopped the trair
at the most dangerous point of the journey
| But the lightning train not knowing thert
was any impediment in the way, came down
crushing out of the maugled victims the i'm
mortal souls that went speeding instantly t.
/ God and Judgment. 1t was only joke II,
thought it would be such fun to stop tn,
train. He stopped It, And so infidelity il
| chiefly anxious to stop the long train of th,
Bible, and the long train of the churches
and the long train of Christrau influences
while coming down upon us are death, judg
ment and eternity coming thousand mile
minute, coming with more force than al
the avalanches that ever slipped from tn,
Alps, coming with more strength than al
che lightning express trains that ever whis
tied or shrieked or thundered across the con
| til II.
Now in this jocularity of infide! thinkers
cannot join, and propose to give you SOM
reasons why cannot be an nfidel, and 30
will try to help out of this present condition
any who may have been struck with tn
awful plague Of skepdciSm.
First, cannot be an infldel because inf
deity has no good substitute for the conso
lation 1t proposes to take away. You know
there are millions of people who get thei
chief consolation from this book. Wha
would you think of a crusade of this sort
Suppose a man should resolve that he woulC
organize a conspiracy to destroy all th
medicines from all the apothecaries and iron
all the hospitals Of the earth. The work
done The medicines are taken, and the
are thrown into the river, or the lake, or th
sea.
A patient wakes up at midnight IN par
oxysm of distress, and wants au anodyne
"Oh, Gays the nurse, "the anodynes are al
destroyed; we have no drops to give you
but instead Of that I'll read you book ol
the absurdities Of morphine and the absur
dities OF all remedies" But the man contiu
ues to writhe In pain, and the nurse says
"Fli continue to read you some discourses o.
anodynes the cruelties OF anodvnes, the In
Fdecencies of anodynes, the absurdities O
anodynes For your groan I'll give you
laugh"