Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-04-10
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's Sun
day Sermon.
Subject. "Ths Plague of Innasi,,y..


whole human race says the opposite, Paul
would accept the Divine veracity. But there
arc many In our time who have dared arraign
the Almighty for faisehood lnfdeity 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 blum
der; that the Mosaic account OF the creation
Is an sbSurdity large enough to throw all
nations into rollicking guffaw; that Adam
and Eve never existed; that the ancient
food and Noah's ark were impossibilitieS;
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 woman'S tyrant
and mans qualification; that the Bible
from lid TO lid is fable, cruelty, hum
bug sham, lie; that the martyrs who
died for its truth were miserable dupeS:
That the church of Jesus Christ is
properly gazetted as a fool; that when
Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic, said, 1.-The
Bible is a 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
prOfited by that sreat book, he was be-
coming very weak minded; that it &c some
thing to bring 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 re-
public rests and that Daniel Webster alb
Dictated the throne of his intellectual power
and resigned his logic and from being the
great expounder OF the constitution ana the
great lawyer of his age turned into an IDIOT
when he said, MY heart assures and reas-
Of
be divine reality. From the time that at
my mothers feet or on my fathers knee |
first learned to lisp verses from the sacred
writings they have been my daily study and
vigilant contemplation, and il there is any
thing in my styie or thought TO be commend
Ell the credit is due to my kind parents in in
stilling into my mind an early love OF the
Scriptures" and that William H. Seward,
the diplomatist of the century only showed
his puerility when he declared. The whole
hope of human progress is suspended on the
ever growing influences Of the Bible and
that Il is wiseSt for us to take that book from
the throng in the affections OF uncounted
rnultitudes and put it under our feet
to be trampled upon by hatred
aud Kissing contempt and that
your old father was hoodwinked and caJoled
sud cheated and befooled when be leaned ON
this as staff after his hair grew gray, and
his hands were tremulouS, and bis 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 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 heart
ache so that she could read no more until
she took of 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 delusiOn and had
il 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
to-day waiting for resurrection that will
never come.
This book having deceived them, and hav-
ing deceived the mighty intellectS of the
past, must not be allowed to deceive our
larger, mightier. vaSter, more stupendous
intellects. And so out with the book from
the court room, where it is used in the solemn
ization of testimony. Out with 1t from UNI
der the foundation Of church and asylum.
Ont 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 al
most obliterated by the fingers long ago
turned to dust-bring them all together, and
let us make a bonfire of them, and by it
warm our cold criticism. and after that turn
under with the plOwshare Of public indig-
nation the polluted askes of that loathsome,
adulterous obscene cruel and beautiful book
which is so antagonistG TO mans liberty, and
and woman's honor, aud the worlds
happiness.
Now that is the substance OF what in6del-
ity proposes and declares, and the attack on
tho Bible is accompanied 0y great jocosity,
and there is hardly any subject about which
more mirth is kindied than about the Bible.
like fun: no man was ever built with
keeuer appreciation Of it, There Is health
in laughter instead of harm-physical health,
mental health, moral health, spiritual health
provided you laugh at the right thing.
The morning is jocund. The lnolan with It's
own mist baptizes the cataract Minnehaha,
or Laughing Water. You have not kept
your ewes open CT your ears alert if you have
not seen the sea smile, or heard the forests
clap their hands or the orchards in blossom
week aglee with redolence. But there is a
laughter which has the rebound Of despair
II is not healthy TO giggle about God or
chuckle about eternity or smirk about the
things Of the immortal soul.
You know what caused the accident years
ego on the Hudson River Railroad. 1t was
an intoxicated man who for 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 impeachment in the way, came down,
crushing out of the maDgled victims the inn
mortal souls that went speeding instantly to
God and Judgment. 1t was only joke. He
thought It would be such fun to stop the
train He stopped it. And 50 infidelty is
chiefly anxious TO stop the long train Of the
Bible, snd the long train of the churches,
and the long train OF Christrian influences,
while coming down upon us are death, judg-
inent and eternity. coming thousand miles
q minute, coming with more force than all
the avalanches that ever slipped from the
Alps, coming with more strength than all
the lightning express trains that ever whiS-
tied or shrieked or tbundcred across the con-
tinent.
Now in this popularity Of iniidel thinkers
cannot join, and propose to give you some
reasons why cannot be an inddel, and so
will try to help out of this present condition
any who may have been struck with the
awful plague Of skepticism
First | cannot be an infidel because inf
deity has no good substitute for the cOnso-
lation il proposes to take away. You know
there are millions OF people who get their
chief consolation from this book. What
would YOU think of crusade of this sort !,
Suppose man should resolve that be would
organize a conspiracy TO destroy all the
medicines from all the apothecaries and from
ali the hospitals Of the earth. The work is
done The medicines are taken, and they
are thrown into the river, or the lake, or the
SEA.
A patient wakes up at midnight in psv
oxysIn OF distress. and wants au onOlyne.
oh" says the nurse, 'the snodynes are all
destroyed we have no drops to give you,
but instead Of that Iii read you a book on
the absurdities of morphine and the absur
dities Of all remedies But the man contin-
ues to writhe in pain, and the nurse says:
"rll continue to read you some discourses on
anodynes the cruelties of anodynes. the in
decepcies Of anodynes, the absurdities Of
anodynes. For your groan I'll give you a
laugh"
Here in the hospital is a patient having n
gangrened limb amputated. He says: 'OA,
for ether Oh, for chlorosorm, The doc.
tor says: why, they are all destroyed; we
don't have any more chlorosOrm OF ether,
but have got something great deal bet
fer. III read you a pamphlet against
James Y. Simpson. the discoverer of chloro-
form as an anesthetic. and against Drs. Ag-
new and Hamilton and Hosack and Mott
and Harvey and Abernethy" But says
- L. 49,.