The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-09-18

Dr.. Talmase Could Become an lllidel
in Six Weeks.

Ike Inc W - +AA~NtH N@A%NN @t7~~N4A - 49,
Teachings of the Most Sublime
Philosophy.
Rrooklvn. Sept FIN his sermon at
Me Brooklyn tabernacle this forenoon,
Rev. DR.. Dewitt Talmage preached to a
Fast audience on the subject of "Rein-
Iorcemaut. the text being: Luke IL. 5,
Lord, increase our faith"
"What a pity he is going there said
INV friend. a most distinguished general
of the army. when he was told that the
reason for not being present on a cclebra-
ted DAY in Brooklyn was on that day l
had sailed for the holy land. why do
YOU say that3' inquired some one. My
military friend replied: ooh, he will be
disfIlusioned when he gets amid the
soualor and commonplace scenes of Pal
esrine. and his faith win be shaken in
Christianity, for that is often the result. ?"
TIE great general misjudged the case. /
went to the holy land for the one purpose
of having my faith strengthened, and
that was the result which came OF II.
In all our jouTneying, in all our reading,
in a. our associations, in all our plans,
su. aentation, rather than the depletion
OF our faith should be our chief
desire 1t is easy enough to have our
faith DESTROYED / can give you recipe
for its obliteration. Read inhdel books
have long and frequent conversations
withEskeptics attend the lectures of those
antagonistic to religion, give full swing
30 some bad habit, and your faith will be
so completely gone that you Will laugh at
the idea that you ever had any II you
want to ruin your faith you can do it
more easily than you can do anything
else. After believing the Bible all my
life. l can see a plain way by which, In
ak weeks ! could enlist my voice and pen
and heart and head and entire nature in
the bombardment of the Scriptures and
The church, and all / now hold sacred
THAT it is easy to Danish soon and for
ever all respect for the Bible, ! prove by
the fact that so many have done 1t. They
were not particularly brainy, 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 Chrlstlan1-
ty amounts to anything, than they have
III the truth of the Arabian Nights En-
Ouixote's "windmills." They have de
stroyed their faith so thoroughly that
they never will have a return of it. Fifty
reviYals of religion may sweep over the
city, the town, the neighborhood where
they live, and they will feel nothing but
q silent or expressed disgust. There are
persons in this house to-day, who, twenty
years ago, gave up their faith and they
will never resume it. The black and
deep-toned bell of doom hangs over their
head and | take the hammer of that bell,
and | strike it three times with all my
might. and it sounds, Woe! Woe! Woe
But my wish, and the wish of most of
YOU, is the prayer expressed by the disci-
pies to Jesus Christ, in the words of my
text: Lord, increase our faith"
The first mode of accomplishing this is
to study the Bible itself. l do not believe
there is an infidel now alive who has read
the Bible through. But as so important
document needs to be read at least twice
through in order that it may be thor
oughly understood, and read in course, |
now offer 500 reward to any intidel who
has read the Bible through twice and
read ii in course. But / cannot take such
mans word for it, for there is no foun-
dation for integrity, except the Bible and
the man who rejects the source of truth,
how can / accept his truthfulness} So ]
must have another witness in the case
before | give the reward. / must have
the testimony of some one who has seen
him read it all through twice. Infdels
fish in this Bible for incoherenc ies and
contradictions and absurdities, and if
you find their Bible, you will see inter
lineations in the book of Jonah and some
of the chapters of that unfortunate
prophet nearly worn out by much use,
and some parts of Second Samuel or
First Kings, Won will find dim with finger
marks but the pages which contain the
Ten Commandments and the Psalms of
David and the Sermon on the Mount and
the Book of John the Evangelist, will not
have single lead pencil stroke in the
margin, nor any finger-marks showing
frequent perusal. The father of one of
the Presidents of the United States was
pronounced infdel. | knew it when
many years ago l accepted his invitation
to spend the night in his home Just be
fore retiring at night he said, in q iocose
way: II suppose you are accustomed 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 me read, and he only asked
for those portions on which he could cas-
lily be facetious.
You know you can make fun about any
thing. l suppose you could take the last
letter your father or mother ever wrote
and find something in the grammar OF
the spelling, or the tremor of the pen
uanship, about which to be derisively
critical The internal evidence of the
truthfulness of the Bible is so mighty
that no one man out of the sixteen hun
dred millions of the worlds present popu
lation, or the vaster millions of the past
ever read the Bible in course, and read il
prayerfully and carefully but was led Il
believe it. John Murray, the famou.
book publisher of Edinburgh and the in
innate friend of Southey, Coleridge, Wal
ter Scott, Canning, and Washington Try
ing, bought of Moore, the poet, the ME
moirs of Lord Byron" and they were tC
be published after Byron's death Blu
they were not fit to be published. al
though Murray had paid for them so, 900
That was a solemn conclaye wher
eight of the prominent literary people o
those times assembled in Albemarl,
street after Byron's death to decide wha
should be done with the Memoirs. 3
which were charged and surcharged will
defamations and indelicacies The Me
moirs' were read and pondered, and tn,
decision came that they must be burned
and not until the last word of those Me
mOirsn went to ashes did the literary
company separate. But suppose now al
the best spirits of all ages were assemble
to decide the fate of the Bible, which il
the last will and testament of our Heav
emily Father and these memoirs of oul
Lord Jesus, what would be the verdict
Shall they burn or shall they livel The
unanimous verdict of all is Let it live
though all else burn. " Then put togethe
on the other hand all the debauchees anC
prOhigdtes and assassinS of the ages, anC
their unanimous verdict concerning TIN
Bible viii be, Let it burn Mind YOU