The Forrest City times., 1891-04-10
PLAGUE OF INFIDELITY.
OR. TAlMAGE SAYS IT IS THE
 MOTHER OF PLAQUES.
fnf1delisy . Negative Religion.-It Can Offer the Christian Nothing
 in Exchange for His Faith.

AAA AzACuAu&o TUT hlo V ultus
 NEW YORK, April 5, 1so1.--Continuing his course of sermons on 'SThe Ten Plaques of the Cities" Rev. Dr. Talmage today took for his subject ''The Plague of Infldelity." The discourse was delivered 10 large and appreciative audiences at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in tho fore noon and the New York Academy of Music in the evening. The text was, Romans 3. 4: Let God be true, but every man liar"
 That is if God says enc thing and the whole human race says the opposite, Paul would accept tho Divine veracity. But there are many in our time who have dared arraign the Almighty for falsehood. h. fidelity is not only plague, but it is the mother of plaques.
 It seems from what we hear on all sides, that the Christian religion is . huge blundcr; that tho Mosaic account of the creation is an absurdity large enough to throw all nations into rollcking guffaw; that Adam and Eve never existed; that the ancient flood and Noah's ark were impossi- bilities; that there never was 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 snd mans stultification that tho Bible from lid to lid is . fable, a cruelty. humbug, sham, a lie; that tho martyrs whc died for it's truth were niser- able dupes; that tho Church of Jesus Christ is properly gazetted as a fool; that when Thomas Carlyle. the sceptic, said, Tho Bible is roble book, he was drop ping into imbecility; that when Theodore Parker declared in Music Hal Boston, ''Never boy or girl in all Christeudom but was profited 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 he world" and that lion hearted Andrew Jackson turned into a snivel- ling coward when he said, "rhat book, sir, is the rock on which our Republic rests;' and that Daniel Wooster abdicated the throne of bis intel ectual power and resigned his logic, and from beiug the great expounder of the Constitution and the great lawyer of his tSe, turned into an idiot when he said, My heart assures and treasures mo that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Irvine reality. From tho time that at my mothers feet, or on my fathers knee, irst learned to lisp verses from the sacred writings, they have been my daily study and vigilant contemplation, and if there is anything in my style or thought to be commended, tho credit is due to my kind parents in installing 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 it is wisest for us to take that book from the throne In the affections of uncounted multitudes, and put it under our feet to be trampled upon by hatred and hissing con- tempt; and that your old father was hood winked, and caloled, and cheated, and oefooled when he leaned on this as staff liter his steps shortened as he came up to he 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 tho children she had buried with infinite heartache, so that she could read no more until she took on her spectacles, and wiped from them he heavy mist of many tears. Alas ! that for forty and fifty years they should nave walked under this delusion and had it under their pillow when they lay a-dying n the back room, and asked that some words from the old book might be cut upon tho tombstone under tho 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 iu- tellects of the past, must not be allowed to deceive our larger. mlghtier, vastcr. moro stupendous intellects. And so out with the book from the courtroom, where 1t IS used in the solemnixstion of testimony. Out with it from under the foundation of church and asylum. Out with 1t from the domes- tic circle, Gather together all tho Bibles the children's Bibles. the family Bibles, those newly bound and those with lid near y worn out and pages almost oblitersted py the fingers long ago turned to dust bring thom all together. and let us make bonfire of them, and by it warm our cold rriticism. and after that turn under with the ploughsnare of public indignation tho polluted ashes of that loathsome, adulter-
 
 which is so antagonistio to mans liberty, and woman's honor, and the worlds happi- ness.
 Now that is the substar ce of what inh- delity purposes and declares. and tho at tack on the Bible is accompanied by great !ocosity. and there Is hardly any subjec. about which moro m!rth is kindled than about the bible.
 Now in this sentiment of nfidel thinkers I cannot join, and propose to give you some reasons why I cannot be an infdel, and so l will try to help out of this present condition any who may have been struck with tho awful plague of soepticism
 First. l cannot bo an infdel because iu- fidelity has no good substitute for the con solatlon it proposes to take away. You know there nro millions of people who get thoir chief consolation from this book.
 lntldolity is a relig on of " Don't know" Is the soul immortal? Don't knowl Is therc d God? Don't know! A religion of don't know" for the religion of 'I know" 'I know in whom have believed" II know that my Redeemer liveth." Inidclity pro- poses to substitute a religion of awful neg atives for our religion of glorious positivcs.
 Furthermore. cannot be an iniisel, be- cause of tho false charges infidelity is all tho time making against the Bible. Per haps the islander that has mada the most impression aud that some Christians have not been intelligent enough To deny is that tho Bible favors polygamy. Does the God of the Bible uphold polygamy. or did he? How many wives did God make for Adam? He made one wife. Does not your con-