The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1891-04-16
INFlDELITY SCORCHED.
pR. TALMAGE'S ELOQUENT REVIEW
OF AaMorylcisM.

markabIe Series Of Sermons on 1.-THE |
Plaques OF the Cities"-Does the Bible
Justify Poiygamys
NRw YORK, April continuing his
course of sermons on 1.-THE Ten Plaques
of the Cities" Rev. DR.. Talmage today
took for his subject 'The Plague of In
fidelity" 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 veracity
But there are many in our time who
have dared arraign the Almighty for
falsehood. Infidelity Is not only
plague but it is the mother of plaques,
II seems from what we hear on all
sides that the Christian religion is
huge blunder; that the Mosaic account
OF creation is an absurdity large enough
to throw all nations into rollicking guf
faw 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 polyg
amy, of all forms of base crime; that
the Christian religion is woman's tyrant
and mans qualification; that the Bible
from lid to lid isa fable, a cruelty, a
humbug, sham, lie; that the mar
tyrs who died for its truth were miser
able dupes; that the church of Jesus
Christ is properly gazetted as fool;
that when Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic,
said The Bible is noble book" he
was dropping into imbecility; that
when Theodore Parker declared in
Music Hall, Boston, Never boy
or girl in all Christendom but was
prohted by that great book" he was
becoming very weak minded; that it is
something to bring a blush to the cheek
of every patriot that John Adams, the
father of American independence, de-
clared The Bible is the best book in
all the world" and that lion hearted
Andrew Jackson turned into SWIVEL
ing coward when he said, "That book,
sir, is the rock on which our republic
rests" and that Daniel Webster abdi-
Gated the throne of his intellectual
power and resigned his logic, and from
being the great expounder of the con
stitution 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 my fathers knee | first learned
to lisp verses from the sacred writ
ings they have been my daily study
and visilant contemplation, and if
there is anything in my style or
thought to be commended the credit is
due to my kind parents in instil.ing
into my mind an early love of the
Scriptures" and that William II, Sew
ard, the diplomatist of the century,
only showed his puerility when he de
clared, Tile whole hope Of human
progress is suspended on the eger grow
ing Influences of the Bible" and that
it is wisest for us to take that book
| from the throne in the affections of
amounted multitudes, and put it un-
der our feet to be trainpled 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 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
hcr 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.
THE GLORIOUS CONSOLATION.
Alas that for forty and fifty years
they should have walked under this
delusion, and had it 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
today waiting for resurrection that
will never come This book, having
deceived them, and having deceived
the mighty intellects of the past, must
not be allowed to deceive our larger,
mightier, vaster, more stupendous in
tellects.
And so out with the book from the
court room, where it is used in the
sole1nnization of testimony. Out with
it from under the foundation of church
and asylum Out with it from the do
nestle circle. Gather together all the
Bibles-the children's Bibles, the fam
lily Bibles. those newly bound anC
those with lid nearly worn out ant
pages almost obliterated by the finger,
long ago turned to dust bring then
all together, and let us make bonfire
of them and by it warm our cold crit
cisln, and after that turn under witt
the plowshare of public indignation
tie polluted ashes Of that loathsome
adultprous, obscene. cruel and death
full book which is SO antagonistic II
mans liberty, and woman's honor, ant
the worlds happiness
Now that is the substance of wha
mlitleity proposes and declares, ant
the attack Oh the Bible is accompanied
by great jocosity, and there is hardl,,
any subject about which more mirth |
kindled than about the Bible. ik
fun; no man was ever built with
keener appreciation of it. There
health in laughter instead of harm
physical health, mental health, mora
health, spiritual health-provided yo1