Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-04-10
PLAGUE OF INFIDELITY
Or. TAlMAGE SAYS 1T is THE
MOTHER OF PLAQUES.
inhdelity Negative Religion.-ii
Can Offer the Christian Nothing
in Exchange for His Faith.

Plaques OF the Cities" Rev. DIR. Talmage
today took for his subject ''The Plague Of
! Infidelity.' The discourse was delivered
TO large and appreciatIve audiences at the
Brooklyn Academy OF Music in the fore
noon and the New York Academy of
Music in the evening. The text was,
Romans g. H. LET God be true, but every
man liar"
That is if God says che thing and the
whole human race says the opposite, Paul
would accept the Divine veracty. But
there are many in our time who have dared
arraign the Almighty for falsehood. In
fidelity is not only a plague, but it is the
mother OF plaques.
II seems from what we hear ON all sides,
that the Christian religion is a huge
blunder; that the Mosaic account OF the
creation is an absurdity large enough to
throw all nations into rollcking guffaw;
that Adam and Eve never existed that the
ancient flood and Noah ark were impossi-
bilities that there never was 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 end mans qualification;
that the Bible from lid TO lid is fable, q
cruelty, humbug, sham, lie; that the
able 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 was drop
ping into imbecility; that when Theodore
Parker declared in Music Hall, Boston,
Never boy or girl in all Christendom
but was proiited by that great book" he
was becoming very weak minded: that il is
something 10 bring a 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-hcartcd Andrew
jackson turned into SWIVEL
ling coward when he said THAT
book. sir. is the rock on which
our Republic rests and that Daniel
Webster abdicated the throne OF his intel
ioctual 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 said
'My heart assures and treasures me that
the Gospel Of Jesus Christ must be a
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 vgilant 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. Seward, the diplomatist of the century,
only showed his puerility when he
declared. 1.-THE whole hope of human
progress is suspended on the ever-growing
influences of the Bihle;" and that il is
wisest for US 10 take that book from the
/ tp hn q t,I
multitudes, and put it under our feet to be
trampled upon by hatred and kissing con
tempt: and that your old father was hood
winked. and caioled, and cheated. and
befooled when he leaned on this as staff
after his steps shortened as he came up 10
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
of her spcctacles, and wiped from them
the heavy mist of many tears. Alas that
for forty and fifty years they should
have walked under this delusion and had il
under their pillow when they lay a-dying in
the back room, and asked that some words
! from the Old book might be cut upon the
! tombstone under the shadow Of the old
country meeting house, where they sleep
today waiting for IA resurrection that will
never come. This book having deceived
them, and having deceived the mighty in
tellects Of the past must not he allowed TO
deceive our larger, mightier. vaster, more
! stupcndous intelects. And so out with the
book from the courtroom where ii is used
in the solemnization of testimony. Out
with it from under the foundation of church
and asylum. Out with it from the domes-
tic circle. Gather together all tho Bibles
the children's Bibles, the family Bibles,
those newly bound and those with lid near
ly worn out and pages almost obliterated
by the fingers long ago turned 10 dust
bring them ali together, and let US make
bonfire Of them, and by it warm our cold
! criticism, and after that tuyn under with
the ploughshare of public Indignation the
polluted ashes of that loathsomc, aduter-
Gus, obscene, cruel and beautiful book
which is so antagonistic to mans liberty,
and Woman's honor and the worlds happi-
ness.
Now that is the substar &C Of what inf
deity purposes and declares. and the at
tack on the Bible is accompanied by great
iocosity. and there is hardly any subject
about which more mirth is kinded than
about the bible.
Now in this sentiment Of infdel thinkers
cannot join, and l propose 10 give you
some reasons why / cannot be an infidel
and so ] will try 20 help ont of this present
condition any who may have been struck
with the awful plague of scepticism.
First, | cannot be an nfidel because in
fidelity has no good substitute for the con-
ISOLATION it proposes 10 take away. You
know there are millions of people who get
thor chief consolation from this book
lnfdelity is religion Of Don't know"
Is the soul immortal? Don't know Ia there
God? Don't know! A religion of don't
know" for the religion of ~ know" ~
know in whom have believed" IL know
that my Redeemer livcth." Infideiity pro-
poses TO substitute religion of awful neg
atives for our rel gion OF glorious positivcs.
Furthermore, L cannot be an infidel, be-
cause OF the false charges infidelity Is all
the time making against the Bible. Per-
haps the SANDER that has made the most
impression and that some Christians have