The Indiana State sentinel., 1891-04-15
The MOTHER OF PLAQUES.
TALMAoE SAYS IT Is INfIDELlTv.
Is Gives No substitute for the Consolation
It Takes AwRy-It Builds No Hos
pitfalls COneges-A Religion
Of Negatives.


'sThe Ten Plaques of the Cities" the Rev.
DR.. Talmage Sunday took for his subject
''The Plague of Inidelity." 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 verscity. But
there are many in our time who have
dared arraign the Almighty for falsehood.
In6delity is not only plague, but it 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 crea-
ton is an absurdity large enough to throw
all nations into rollicking guffaw; that
Adam and Eve never existed; that the
ancient flood and Noah's ark were impos-
sibilities; 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 wo-
mans tyrant and mans qualification that
the bible from lid to lid is fable,
cruelty, a humbug, a sham, lie; that the
martyrs who died for its truth were miser-
able dupes; that the church of Jesus
Christ is properly gazetted Us 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 q boy or girl
I'm all chTistendOm but was pro6ted bv
that great book" he was becoming very
weak-minded; that Il is something 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
sniveling coward when he said, That
book, sir, is the rock on which our repub-
lie rests - and that Daniel Webster abdi-
Gated the throne oi 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 said, ''My heart assures and
treasures me that the gospel of Jesus
Christ must be divine reality. From the
time that at my mothers feet, or on nv
fathers knee, l first learned to lisp verses
from the sacred writings, they have been
nv daily study and vIgiiant contemp mplation,
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 diplo-
matist of the century, only showed his
puerihfy when he declared, The whole
hope OF human progress is suspended on
the ever-growing influences of the bibe;"
and that it is wisest for US to take that
book from the throne in the affections of
uncounted muititudes, and put il under
our feet to be trampled upon by hatred
and Kissing contempt; and that your old
father was hoodwinked, and caioled, and
cheated and beiOoled when he leaned on
this as a staff alter 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
q pack OF lies on her lap while reading of
the better country, 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 spectacles
and wiped from them the heavy mist of
many tears.
Alas that for forty and fifty years they
should have walked under this delusOn
and had it 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
resurrection that will never come. This
book having deceived the mighty intellects
of the past, must not be allowed to de-
ceiVe our larger, mightier, vaster, more
stupendOus intellects. And so out with
the book from the court room, where it is
used in the sOiemnlZatiOn of testimony.
Out with it from under the foundation of
church and asylum. Out with it from the
domestic circle. Gather together all the
bIbles-the children'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 all together, and let
US mako bonfire Of them, and by 1t warm
our cold criticism, and after turn under
with the plowshare OF public Indignation
the polluted ashes OF that loathsome,
adulterous, obscene, cruel and deathful
book, which Is so antagonistic 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 DlDle Is accompanied by great
jocosity, 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 keener appreciation Of
il. There is health in laughter instead of
harm-physical health, mental heath.
moral health, spiritual health-provided
you laugh at the right thing. The morn
ing is jocund- The Indian with its own
mist baptizes the cataract Minnehaha, or
laughing water. You have not kept YOUR
eyes open or your ears alert if you have
not seen the sea smile, or heard the forests
clap their hands. or the orchards in blos-
som-week aglee with redolence. But
there is a laughter which is deathful :;
there is a laughter which has the rebound
OF despair. 1t is not healthful 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
Il was an intoxicated man who for Joke
pulled the string of the air brake and
stopped the tram at the most dangerous
point OF the journey. But the lightning
train, not knOwieg there was an impedi-
ment in the way, came down crushing out
of the manged victims the immortal souls
that went speeding instantly to God and
judgment 1t was only a Joke. He
thought 1t would be such fun TO stop the