Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1893-09-21


Efficacy of Prayer.
BROOKLYN Sept 17.-In his sermon at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon
REV. DR.. De Witt Talmagc preached to II
vast audience on the subject of "Re-en-
forcement," the text being Luke xvii, 5,
Lord, increase our faith"
"What pity he is going there" said my
friend, a most distinguished general of the
army, when he was told that the reason
for my not being present on n celebrated
day in.Brook lynwas that on that day had
sailed for the Holy Land. why do you
ray that" inquired some one. My mill
tary friend replied, "Oh he will be disillu-
stoned when he gets amid the squalor and
commonplace scenes of Palestine, and his
faith will be shaken in Christianity, for
that often the result The great gem
eral misjudged the case
went to the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose of having my faith strengthened, ard
that was the result which came of it, In
all our journeyinS, in all our reading, in
all our associations. in all our plans, aug
mentation, rather han 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
infidel books have long and frequent con-
versations with skeptics attend the lee
lures of those antagonistic to religion, give
full swing to some bad habit, and your
faith will be so completely gone that you
will laugh at the idea that you ever had
any If you want TO ruin your faith, you
can do it more easily than you can do any
thing 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 entire nature in the bonn
bardment 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 prove by the fact that so many
have done it. They We're not particularly
brainy nor had especial force of will, but
they so thoroughly accomplished the over
throw of their faith that they have no more
idea that the Bible is true or that Chris
tianity amounts to anything than they
have inSthe truth of the Arabian Nights
Entertainments" or the existence of Don
Quixotes "windmills" They have de-
stroyed their faith so thoroughly that they
never will have return Of it.
Fifty revivals of religion may sweep over
the city, the town, the neighborhood, where
they live, and they will feel nothing but a
silent or expressed disgust. There are per-
sons in this house today who 20 years ago
gave up their faith, and they will never re-
sumo it. The black and deep toned bell of
doom hangs over their head, and l take the
hammer of that bell, and strike it three
times with all my might, and it sounds,
"Woel woei woe' But my wish, and the
wish of most of you, is the prayer expressed
by the disciples to Jesus Christ, in the
words of my text, Lord, increase our
faith"
STUDY THE BIBLE.
The first mode of accomplishing this is
to study the Bible itself. do not believe
there is an infidel now alive who has read
the Bible through. But as so important a
document needs to be read at least twice
through in ordcrt that it may be thoroughly
understood, and read in course, | now offer
500 reward to any infidel who has read the
Bible through twice and read it in course.
But | cannot take such mans own word
for it, for there is no foundation for integ-
1ity except the Bible, and the man who re-
jects 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. Infidels fish
in this Bible for incoherences and contra
dictions and absurdties, and if you find
their Bible you will see interlineations in
the book Of Jonah and some of the chap
tiers of that unfortunate prophet nearly
worn out by much use, and some parts OF
ii Samuel or | Kings you 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 Evan
Eelist will not have single lead pencil
stroke on the margin nor any finger marks
showing frequent perusal.
The father Of one of the presidents of the
United States was Il pronounced nfidel
knew it when many years ago | accepted
his invitation to spend the night in hi,
home. just before retiring at night he saC
IN jocose way, Il suppose you are accus
toned to read the Bible before going tC
bed, and here is my Bible from which tC
read" He then told me what portions h,
would like TO have me read, and he only
asked for those portions on which he coult
easily be facetious
You know you can make fun about any
thing. | suppose you could take the las
letter your father or mother ever wrote anC
find something in the grammar, or the spell
ing, or the tremor of the penmanship abou
which to be derisively critical. The inter
bic is so mighty that no one man out OF tn
1,600OO0,000 Of the worlds present popula
ton, or the vaster millions of the past eve
read the Bible in course and read it prayer
fully and carefully, but was led to believe it
John Murray, the famous book publishe
of Edinburgh aud the intimate friend O
t,outhey, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Canning
and Washington living, bought Of Moore
the poet, the Memoirs of Lord Byron.
and they were to be published after Byron
death. But they were not fit TO be pull
lished, although Murray had paid for then
$4,000. That was a solemn conclave whe
eight Of the prominent literary people @
those times assembled in Albcmarle stree
after Byron's death to decide what shout
he done with the Memoirs" which wer
charged and surcharged with defamation
and indelcacies The Memoirs wer
read and pondered, and the decision cam
that they must be burned, and not unit
the last word of those Memoirs went t
ashes did the literary company separate,
Tltrt oil ba hos to -,