The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1891-08-14
WE ARE WITNESSES.
4 Sermon Among the Hills and Groves
Of Kentucky.
Inspired Nv Glorious Nature and Invig-
Grated By Fresh Air Rev. T. De-
witt Talmage, ID. d., Charms
His Hearers.

nesses."
Standing amid the hills and groves Of
Kentucky. and before this great multi
tude that no mau can number, most of
whom / never saw before and never
will see again in this world, choose a
very practicable theme. In the days
of George Stephenson, the perfector of
the locomotive engine, the scientists
proved conclusively that a railroad
train could never be driven by steam
power successfully without peril; but
the rushing express trains from Liver
pool TO Edinburgh, and from Edinburgh
TO London have made all the nation
witnesses Of the splendid achievement
Machinists and navigators proved con.
clusively that a steamer could never
cross the Atlantic ocean; but no sooner
had they successfully proved the inn
possibility of such an undertaking than
the work was done and the passengers
on the Cunard and the Inman and the
National and the White Star lines are
witnesses.
There went up guffaw of wise laugh
ter at Prof. Morse's proposition to make
the lightning of Heaven his errand boy,
and IL was proved conclusively that the
thing could never be done: but now all
the news OF the wide world put in your
hands every morning and night have
made all nations witnesses.
So in the time of Christ it was proved
conclusiyely that II was impossible for
him TO rise from the dead. II was shown
logically that when a man was dead he
was dead. and the heart and the liver
and the lungs having ceased to perform
their offices, the limbs would be rigid
beyond all power Of friction or arousal.
They showed it TO be an absolute alb
surdity that the dead Christ should ever
get up alive; but no sooner had they
proved this than the dead Christ arose
and the disciples beheld him, and heard
His voice, and talked with Him, and they
took the witness stand to prove that to
be true which the wiseacres of the day
had proved to be impossible; the record
OF the experiment and of the testimony
is in the text: Him hath God raised
from the dead, whereof we are wit
nesseS."
Now, let me play the sceptic for n
moment. "There is no God" says the
sceptic, for l have never seen him
with my physical eyesight. Your Bible
is a pack of contradictions. There new
err was miracle. Lazarus was not
raised from the dead, and the water
was never turned into wine. Your re-
ligion is an imposition on the credulity
of the ages" There is an aged man
moving in that pew as though he would
like TO respond. Here are hundreds of
people with faces n little flushed at
these announcements, and all through
this throng there is suppressed feel
ing which would like to speak out in
behalf of the truth of our glorious
Christianity, as in the days of the text,
crying out, 1--WE are witnessesY'
The fact is, that IL this world Is ever
brought to God il will not be through
argument, but through testimony.
You might cover the whole earth with
apologies for Christianity and learned
treatises in defense of religion-you
would not convert soul Lectures on
the harmony between science and re-
ligion are beautiful mental discipline,
but have never saved soul, and never
will save soul. Put man of the
world and n man of the church against
each other and the man OF the world
will, in all probability, get the triumph
There are a thousand things in our re-
ligion that seem illogical to the world
and always will seem illogical.
Our weapon In this conflict is faith,
not logic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
Gate nhnl oti II
exploration. But then, in order to have
faith, we must have testimony, and II
800 men, or 1000 men, or 500, 900 men,
or 3, 900, 900 men get up and tell me they
have felt the religion OF Jesus Christ a
Joy, n comfort a help. an inspiration,
] am bound as n fair-minded man to ac-
cept their testimony. l want just now
10 put before you three propositions,
the truth Of which think this audi
ence will attest with overwhelming
unanimity. The first proposition is:
We are witnesses that the religion of
Christ Is able TO convert soul. The
Gospel may have had hard time to
conquer US, we may have fought IL
back, but we were vanquished. You
say conversion Is only an imaginary
thing. We know better "We are wit
nesses"
There never was so great a change in
our heart and life on any other subject
as on this People laughed at the mis-
sionaries in Madagascar because they
preached ten years without one con-
vert; but there are many thousands of
converts in Madagascar to-day. People
laughed at DIR. Judson, the Baptist mis-
sionary, because he kept on preaching
in Burmah five years without single
convert; but there are many thousands
of Baptists in Burmah to-day People
laughed at DIR. Morrison, in