Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-04-06
ATTACK ON INFIDELS.
Rev. I. Dewitt TaImage Takes Skep-
ticiSm for the Subject Of
ONE OF THE SERMONS on PLAQUES.
The Reasons Which He Gives for Net Being
an UnbelieVer.
GOD NEVER DID SANCTION PoLEGAMY
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH,

ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DIsPATcH.I
NEW YORK, April 5.-Continuing hi.
course of sermons on 1.-THE Ten Plaques O.
the Cities Rev. DR.. Talmage to-day took
for his subject "The Plague of Infdelity. D
The discourse was delivered to large and
appreciative audiences at the Brooklyr
Academy of Music in the forenoon and the
New York Academy of Music in the even
ing. The text was, Romans 3 4: Let God
be true, but every man 4 liar"
That is, il God says one thing and the whole
human race says the opposite, Paul would ac-
oept the Divine veracity. But there are many
in time who have dared arraign the
Almighty 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 huge blunder; that
the Mosaic account of the creation is an ab.
surdiry large enough to throw all nations into
rOllicking gutfaw; that Adam and Eye never
existed; that the ancient flood and Noah'S Ark
we're ImpOSsibilitles; that there never was a
miracle; thar the Bible is the friend of cruelty,
OF murder, Of pOlygamy, of all forms of base
crime; that the Christian religion is woman's
tvrRnt and mans qualification; that :he Bible
.rOm lid 10 lid IS a fable a cruelty, humbug, a
sham, lie; that the martyrs who died for its
Jesus Christ is properly gazetted fool: that
when Thomas Carlyle, the skeptic, said, "The
Bible is a noble book" he was dJopplug into
iubeCility; that when Theodore Parker de-
ciarcd in Music Hail. Boston, Never boy or
girl IN all ChriStendom but was protteu Icy
that great book, - be was becoming very weak
minded; that 1t Is something 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 snivelling coward when he said, That
book. sir, Is the rock or which our republic
rests;'' and that Daniel Webster abdicated the
throne OF his intellectual power and resigned
his logic. and from being the great expounder
OF the Constitution and the great lawyer of
MS age, turned into an idiot, when he said,
Wy heart assures and treasures me that the
gospel 0t Jesus Christ must be a divine reality.
From the time that at my mothers feet. or on
my fathers knee, l first learned to lisp verses
from the sacred writings, they have been my
daily study and vigi'ant contemplation, and if
there is anything i'll my style or thought to be
commended, the credit is due to my kind
Parents in InStilllng into my mind an early
love OF the scriptures"
- The Cry of the Latter-Day Skeptic.
This book. having deceived them. and hav-
ing deceived the mighty intellects of the past,
must not be allowed TO deceive our larger
mIIHder, vaster, more stupendous intellects.
And so out with the book from the courtroom,
where it is used in the solemuization of testi-
mony. Out with 1t from under the foundation
Of church and asylum Out 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 almost obliterated by the
fingers long ago turned to dust-bring them all
together. and let us make a bonfire OF them,
and by u warm our cold criticism, and after
that turn under with the plOughshare of pub
lie Indignation the polluted ashes of that lOath-
lQulTpTOUE obscene
book which is so antagOnistc to mans liberty
and wOman'S honor and the worlds happiness
low, that IS the substance OF what infdeiity
proposes ana declares, and the attack on the
Bible is accompanied by great jocOsity, ana
there is hardly any subject about which more
ml-th is kindled than about the Bible. l like
fun; no man was ever built with a keener ap-
pTecl2tIon OF II. There Is health in laughter
instead OF harn-physiCal health, mental health,
moral health, spiritual healtb-proyided You
laugh at the right thing The morning is jo-
cund. The Indian with its own mist baptizeS
the cataract Minnehaha. nr laughing water
You have not kept your eyes open, or your ears
alert, II you have not seen the sea smile or
heard the forests clap their hands, or the
chards in blossom week aglee with redolence.
But there is a laughter which is deathful, there
is laughter which has the rebound of despair.
il IS not healthy TO glEgle about God, or chuckle
about eternity o. slnirll about the things of the
immortal soul You know what caused the ac-
CIdent wears ago the Hudson River Rail
road. 1t was an intoxicated 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 lmpedIment in the way,
came down. crushing out of the mangled vic
tins the immortal souls that went speeding in
SlaltlH to OOu and Judgment. 1t was only a
joke. lie thought ii would be such fun to stop
the train. He stopped it! And so mfidelity is
chiefly anxious to stop the long tram of the
Bible and the long train of the churches, and
the long train of Christian Influences while
coming down upon rs are death, judgment and
eternlty-Coming !, 900 miles 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 whIstled or shrieked or
Numbered across the continent.
Why He Is Not an InfldeI.
Now in this sentiment of infidel thinkers
cannot join, and I propose to give you some
reasons why l cannot be an intidel, and So
will try to help out of this present condition
any who may have been struck with th awful
plague of skepticism.
First l cannot be an iIfidel because infidelity
has no good substitute for the consolation it
proposes TO take away You know there are
millions Of people who yet their chief consola-
zion from this book What would YOU think
OF crusade Of this sort? Suppose a man
should resolve that he would organize CON
spIraNy to destroy all the medicines from all
the apotheCarles and from all the hospitals of
the earth, The work is done. Tie medicines
are taken and they are thrown into the river.
OF the lake, or the sea. A patient wakes up at
midnight in paroXysm of distress, and wants
an anOdyne. Oh says the nurse "the ano-
dynes are all destroyed; we have no drops to
give you, but instead OF that FL read YOU a
book on the abSuTditieS OF morphine. and on
the absurditles Of all remedies"
But The man continues TO writhe in pain and
the nurse says: '1ll continue to read you
some dlscourSes on anodynes the crueltIes of
anOdYueS. the lndecencleS of anodypas rho oh
surditleS of anOdynes. For YOUR groan pu
give you laugh" Here in the hospital is a
patient having gangrened limb amputated
be says, "OL, for ether. On. tor cEloroformf'
1hc doctors say w by they all destroyed;
we don't have any more chlOrofoTm or ether;
but have got something great deal better.
III read you pamphlet against James Y
Simpson, the dlscOVeTer of chluroform as an
an5Rsthetc, and against Drs. Agnew, and Ham
alton, and HOSack and Mott and Harvey ard
Abernethy." But" says the man. ii must
have some an8sthetics." No" saw the doc
Uors, they are ali destroyed, but we have got
something great deal better" What is
elst? Fun" Fun about medicines. Lie
down all We patients in Bellevue Hospital and
stop your groaning-an We broken-hearted of
an She cities, and quit your crying; We have the
catholcon a. last!
Here is a dose of WIZ, here is a strengthening
plaster Of sarcasm. here is a bottle of ribaIdrS
that you are To keep well shaken up and take A
spoonful of it after each meal, and if that does
not cure you, here is a solution of blaspbemyin
which you NAV bathe, and here is a tincture of
derislon. Tickle the skeleton of death with a
repartee! Make the King OF Terrors cackIeI
For all the agonies Of all the ages. Joke!
Millions Of people willing with unified hand
toward heaven 10 affirm that the gospel of
Jesus Christ Is full OF consolation for them,
and yet lDhdellty proposes to take ii away
gIVlng nothing, absolutely nothing except fun
Is there any greater height, or depth or length.
or pTeadth or immensely OF meanness in all