The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-04-16
AN AWFUL PLAGUE.
DR.. Talmage Says Infdelity Has
Wrought No Positive Good
to the World.
Instead 1t Has Always Been a Hin.
drance and an 0bstruc-
> ton. AHA

~ oiAe CAIleS, rev. Or. Ialmage TO-
day took for his subject ''The Plague
OF Infdelity."
The text was, Romans ill.,, 4: "Let
God be true, but every man a liar"
That is if God says one thing and
the whole human race says the oppo-
site, Paul would accept the Divine
veracity. But there are many in our
time who have dared arraign the Al.
mighty for falsehood. Infdelity 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 a
huge blunder; that the Mosaic account
OF the creation is an absurdity large
enough to throw all nations into roll
licking outlaw; that Adam and Eve
never existed; that the ancient flood
and Noah's ark were impossibilities;
that there never was q 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 stultifi-
cation; that the Bible from lid to lid
is fable, cruelty, a humbug, asham,
allie; that the martyrs who died for it's
truth were miserable dupes; that the
church of Jesus Christ is properly
gazetted as fool; that when Thomas
Carlyle, the sceptic, said, "The Bible
is a noble book" he was dropping in
to ilnbecility; that when Theodore
Parker declared in Music hall, Boston,
"Never q boy or girl in all Christen-
dom but was proited by that great
book" he was becoming very weak
minded; that it is something to bring
a blush to the cheek Of very patriot,
that John Adams, the father of
American independence, declared,
''THE BIBLE IS THE BEST BOOK
in all the world;' and that iron-heart-
ed Andrew Jackson turned into a
snivelling coward when he said, THAT
book, sir, is the rock on which our
republic rests"
1t is not healthy to giggle about
God, or chuckle about eternity, or
smirlz about the things of the i'm
mortal soul. You know what caused
the accident years ago on the Hud-
son river railroad. It was an intoxi-
Gated man who for a 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 speed
ing instantly to God and Judgment.
It was only joke. He thought it
would be such fun to stop the train.
He stopped it! And so inidelitv is
chiefly anxious to stop the long train
of the Bible, and the long train of the
churches, and the long train of Chris
tlan influences, while coming down
upon. us are death, Judgment, and
eternity, coming a thousand miles a.
minute, coming with more force than
all the avalanches that ever slipped
from the Alps, coming with more
strength than all the lightning ex-
press trains that ever whistled, or
shrieked, or Numbered across the
continent.
Now in this sentiment of infdel
thinkers cannot join, and I propose
to give you some reasons why l can
not be an infdel, and so I will try to
help out of this present condition any
who may have been struck with the
awful plague Of scepticism.
First | cannot be an inhdel because
intidelity has no good substitute for
the consolation it proposes to take
away. You know there are millions
OF people who get their chef consola-
ton from this book. Millions of peo-
pie willing with uplifted hand toward
heaven to affirm that the gospel OF
Jesus Christ is full of consolation for
them, and yet infdelity proposes to
take it away, giving nothing
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, EXCEPT FUN.
Is there any greater height, or depth,
or length, or breadth or immensely of
meanness in all Gods universe?
lnidelity is a religion of ''Don't
know" Is there God? Don't know!
Is the soul immortal? Don't know!
II we should meet each other in the
future world will we recognize each
other? Dom t know! A religion of ''don't
know for the religion of'sI know" II
know in whom I have Believed "I
know that my Redeemer liveth." Inf
deity proposes to substitute relig-
ion of awful negatives for our religion
of glorious positives, showing right be-.
fore us a world of reunion and &C.
stasy, and high companionship, and
glorious worship, and stupendous
victory; the mightiest Joy of earth not
high enough to reach to the bas of the
Himalaya of uplifted splendor await
ing all those who on wing of Christian
faith will soar toward it.
Furthermore, I cannot be an in6del,
because Of the false charges infidelty
is all the time making against the
Bible. Perhaps the slanderer that has
made the most impression and that
some Christians have not been intelli-
gent enough to deny is that the Bible
favors polygamy. Does the God OF
the Bible uphold polgamy, or did he?
How many wives did God make for
Adam? He made one wife. Does not
your common sense tell you when God
started the marriage institution, he
started it as he wanted it to continue?
: I r. Il e.. L