The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-07-23
RELIGIONS POWER.
The First Mentioned Is That It
Is Able to Convert the
Soul.
Gives Comfort in Trouble and
Composllre in the Last
Hour.

Composlre in the Last
Hour.
HIGH BRIDGE, KY, Especial A vast
concourse of people assembled on the
historic camp ground at High Bridge,
KY, to hear DR.. Talmage preach.
They came from all the surrounding
cities, towns and neighborhood. A
large contingent from Louisville and
another from Cincinnati were present.
The text OF his sermon was from Acts
iii, Is: eve are witnesses.
Standing amid the hills and groves
of Kentucky, and before this great
multitude that no man can MI mber,
most OF whom I never saw before and
never will see again in this world, I
choose g. very practical theme In the
days of George Stephenson, the per
fector of the locomotive engine the
scientists proved conclusively that
railroad train could never be driven
by steam-power successfully without
peril; but the rushing express
trains from Liverpool to Edinburgh,
and from Edinburgh to London, have
made all the nation witnesses OF the
splendid achievement. Machinists
and navigators proved conclusively
that steamer could never cross the
Atlantic Ocean but no sooner had
they successfully proved the impossi-
bility 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 a outlaw of
wise laughter at Prof. Morse's propo-
sition to make the lightning OF heaven
his errand boy, and it was proved
conclusively that the thing could nev-
er be done; but now all the news of
the wide world put in your hands every
morning and night, has made all ma
tions witnesses.
so IN THE TIME OF CHRIST
it was proved conclusively that it was
impossible for him to rise from the
dead. 1t 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 be-
yond all power of friction or arousal.
They showed it to be an absolute
absurdity that the dead Christ should
everget up alive; but no sooner had
they proved this than the dead Christ
arose and the disciples beheld him,
heard his voice and talking with him,
and they took the witness stand, to
prove that to be true which the wise
acres of the day had proved to be i'm
possible; the record OF the experiment
and OF the testimony is in the text:
Him hath God raised from the dead
whereof we are witnesses"
Now, let me play the sceptic for a
moment. '"There is no God" saws
the sceptic, "for I have never seen him
within physical eyesight. Your Bible
is a book of contradictions. There
never was miracle. Lazarus was not
raised from the dead, and the water
was never turned into wine. Your re-
ligionis animposition on the credulity
OF the ages. There is an aged man
moving in that pew as though he
would like to respond. Here are hund-
reds OF people with faces little flush
ed at these announcements, and all
through this throng there is a sup
pressed feeling which would like to
speak out in hehalf of the truth of our
glorious Christianity, as in the days
OF the text, crying out:
GIVE ARR WITNESSES"
The fact is, that if this world is ever
brought to God, it 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 a SOUL Lectures
on the harmony between science and
religion are beautiful mental discipline,
but have never saved soul, and new
er will save a soul. Put a man of the
world and a man of the church against
each other, and the man OF the world
will, in all probability, get the tri-
umph. There are a thousand things
in our religion that seem illogical to
the world, and always will seem illog-
ical.
Our weapon in this conflict is faith,
notlogic; faith, not metaphysics; faith,
not profnndity; faith, not scholastic
exAloration. But then, in. order to
have faith, we must have testimony,
and If five hundred men, or one thous-
and men, or five hundred thousand
men, or five million men get up and
tell me that they have felt the religion
OF Jesus Christ a Joy, a comfort, a help,
an inspiration, l am bound as a far
minded man to accept their testimony.
want just now to put before YOU
three propositions, the truth OF which
think this audience will attest with
overwhelming unanimity. The first
proposition is: We are witnesses that
the religion Of Christ is
ABLE TO CONVERT A SOUL.
The gospel may have had a hard time
to conquer US, we may have fought it
back, but we were vanquished. You
say conversion is only an imaginary
thinO H. Wa Ennu bo+ low ttJI|.