Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1893-09-21
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
DIR. TALMAGE breaches FROM
SAINT LUKE.
Lord Increase Our Faith, 11:5-Rein-
forcement of the Christian Armies
the Theme of Last Sundays Sermon
I'm Brooklyn.

BROOKLYN, Sept. lin his sermon al
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon
Rev. DR.. Dewitt Talmage preached to G
vast audience on the subject of Reinforce
ment," the text being; Luke l1:5, Lord,
| increase our faith
"What pity xs 70 Nusss unere, y
said my friend, saosI xNtiR0 eishcd
general of the array, whom ne vrs told
! that the reason Tor my not being
| present on a celebration day in Brook.
lyn was that on that day | had sailed
for the Holy Land. "Whv do you say
! that" inquired some one. My mill
tary friend replied; ''Oh, he will be
! disillusioncd when he gets amid the
/ squalor and commonplace scenes Of
| Palestine, and his faith will be shaken
| in Christianity, for that is often the
! result The great general misiudged
! the case. ! went 10 the Holy Land
for the one purpose of having my faith
! strengthened, and that was the result
! which came of it. in all our journey
! ing, in all our reading, in all our as
| sociations in all our plans, augmenta-
! ton, rather than the depletion of our
| faith, should be our chief desire. 1t is
| easy enough to have our faith
! destroyed, | can give syou "a rcciI 9
! for its obliteration. Read infidel
| books, have long and frequent CONVEX
sationS with tsceptics, attend the lect-
ureS OF those antagoniStic to religion,
give full swing to some bad habit,
and your faith will be so completely
gone that you will laugh ut the idea
that you ever had any. If you want to
ruin your faith, YOU can do il more
easily than you can do anything else.
After believing the bible all my
life, | can see plain way by which,
in six weeks, | could enlist my voice
and pen and heart and head and en-
tire nature in the BON bardmG mt of the
scriptures and the church and all
now hold sacred That it is easy to
Danish soon and forever all respect for
the bible, lprovc by the fact that so
many have done it. They were not
particular y braiuy, nor had especial
force of will but they so thoroughly
accomplished the overthrow of their
faith that they have no more idea that
the bible is true, or that christianity
amounts to anything, than they have
in the truth of the ARABIAN Nights
Entertainments or the existence of
Don CuiXote's Wv ndmills." They
have destroyed their faith so thor
oughly that they never will have re-
turn of it, Fifty revivals of religio 4
may sweep over the city, the town
the neighborhood where they live, Id
they will feel nothing but silent or
expressed disgust There are pers ons
in this house to-day, who, two, nty
years ago, gave up their faith and
they will never resume it, The lack
and deep toned bell of doom iangs
over their head and ! take the ham
&C ! 1t I'LL 4
times with all my might, and it
sounds, Woe. Woe. Woe! SUIT my
wish, and the wish of most o. YOU, is
the prayer expressed by the disciples
to Jesus Christ, in the wo rds of my
text Lord, increase our Attn"
The first mode of accomp fishing this
is TO study the bible. itself | do not
believe there is an intide / now alive
who has read the bible Il trough. But
as so important docum emit needs to
be read at least twice tb rough in order
that it may be thorough ilv understood |.
aud read in course, now offer 500
reward to any intidel Who has read the
bible through twice and read it in
course. But | cam OF take such a
mans own word for it, for there is no
foundation for int .gritv, except the
bible, and the M an who rejects the
source of truth, he w can | accent his
truthfulness' SO ] must have an other
witness in the ca sc before | give the
reward. | must have the testimony of
some one who h as seen him read il all
through twice. Infidels fish in this
bible for inct ,herencies and contra,
dictions and absurdities, and ii you
lind their bi BILE, you will see inter,
hneatlons in the Book of Jonah and
some OF the other chapters of that UNI
fortunate rophet nearly worn out by
much use, and some parts of Second
samuel or First Kings, you will find
dlm with frger marks, nut the pages
Whlca &C nta 4 the Ten Commandments
and the Psalms of David and the Ser.
mon on the Mount and the Book OF
John t ne Evangelist, will not have a
single lead pencil stroke in the margin
nor any fnger-marks showing fire.
quen perusal. The father of one OF
the Presidents of the United States
was pronounced intidel. | knew il
WI en- many years ago | accepted his
IN citation to spend the night in his
d ome. Just before retiring at night,
.e said, in u iocose way: II suppose
you arc ac ustomcd to read the Bible
before going to bed, and here is my
Bible from which to read" He then
| told me what portions he would like To
| have read, and he only asked for those
! portions on which he could easily be
facctious
You know YOU can make fun about
anyt ing. ] suppose you could take
the last letter your father or mot her
ever wrote and find something in the
/ grammar or the spelling, or the ire
| NOR of the peumanship about which
to be dcrisivcly critical. The internal
I evidence of the truthfulncSs of the
bible is SO mighty that no man out OF
the LGOO, 900, 900 of the worlds present
population, or the vaSter millions OF
the past ever read the bible in course,
and read it praycIfully and carefully
but was led to believe it, John Muir
ray, the famous book publisher OF
Edinburgh and the intimate friend OF
Southey, Colcridgc, Walter Scott,
Canning and Washington Irving,
bought of Moore, the poet, the
Memoirs of Lord Byron" and
they were TO bo published after BY
ron death. But they were not lit Ia
be published, although Murray had
paid for them $1,000. That was a
solemn conclayc when eight of the
prominent literary people of those
times assembled in Albermarle
street after Byron's death to decide
what should b done with the MEM
oirs' which were charged and sur
charged with dcfamations and indcli-
cacies. The Memoirs were read and
pondered, and the decision came that
they must be burned, and not until
the last word of those Memoirs" went
to ashes did the literary company
separate. But, suppose now all the
b st spirits of the ages were Assem- bled
TO decide the fate of the bible, which
is the last will and testament Of our
heavenly father, and these memoirs OF
our Lord Jesus, what would be the
verdict? Shall they burn or shall they
live? The unanimous verdict of all is
LET it live though all else burn.
Then put together on the other hand
all the debauchees and prohigates and
assassins of the ages, and their unan.
imous verdict concerning the bible
would be, LET it burn" Mind you,
do not say that all infidels are i'm.