The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-09-20


to vast audience on the subject of Re
enforcement the text being Luke xviii
8, Lord, increase our faith"
What a pity he is going there" said
my friend, most distinguished general
Of the army. when he was told that the
reason for my not being present on a Gel
ebrated day in Brooklyn was that on
that day 1 had sailed for the holy land
"Why do you say that?" inquired some
one. My military friend replied. "Oh
he viii be disillusioned 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
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
it. In all our journeying. in all our
reading, in all our associations, in all
our plans, augmentation, rather than the
depletion Of our faith, should be our
chief desire. 1t is easy enough to have
our faith destroyed. I can give you a
recipe for its OblteratiOn. Read infidel
books. have long and frequent conversa-
tions with skeptics, attend the lectures
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 a plain way by which In six
weeks 1 could enlist my voice and pen
and heart and head and entire nature
in the bombardment of the scriptures,
and the church, and all 1 now hold sa-
cred. That it is easy TO Danish soon and
forever all respect for the bible 1 prove
by the fact that so many have done it,
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 Chris
tianity amounts TO anything than they
have in the truth Of the arabian Nights
Entertainments'' or the existence of Don
Quixote's "Windmills." They have de-
stroyed their faith so thoroughly that
they never will have a return of it.
Fifty revivals of religion may sweep
over the city, the town, the neighbor-
hood, where they live, and they will feel
nothing but a silent or expressed disgust.
There are persons in this house today
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 1 take the hammer
of that bell and I strike it three times
with all my might, and it sounds, Wool
woe! woer' But my wish, and the wish
l. ed
by the disciples 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. 1 do not be-
lieve there is an infidel now alive who
has read the bible through. But as 50
important a document needs to be read
at least twice through in order that it
may be thoroughly understood, and read
in course, I now offer 800 reward to any
infidel who has read the bible through
twice and read it in course. But 1 can
not take such mans own word for it,
for there is no foundation for integrity
except the bible, and the man who re-
jects the source Of truth, how can 1 ac-
cept his truthfulness2
So I must have another witness in the
case before / give the reward. l must
have the testimony of some one who has
seen him read il through twice. Infdels
fish In this bible for ineoherencies and
contradictions and absurdities, and If you
find their bible you will see interlinea-
tions in the book of Jonah and some of
the chapters OF that unfortunate prophet
nearly worn out by much use and some
parts OF IL Samuel or l Kings you will
find dim with fingermarks, 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 a single lead
pencil stroke on the margin nor any nm
germarlks showing frequent perusaL
The father OF one OF the presidents of
the United States was pronounced in
fdel. I knew it when many years ago
I accepted his invitation TO spend the
night in his home Just before retiring
at night he said in a jOcoSe way, Il sup-
pose 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 easily
be facetious.
You know you can make fun about
anything. / suppose you could take the
last letter your father or mother ever
wrote and find something in the gram
mar, or the spelling, or the tremor of
the ptI1ldnSHlp ABOUT WHICH 10 De Qe-
risivelv critical. The internal evidence
of the truthfulness of the bible is so
mighty that no man out of the 1900 O00-
900 Of the worlds present population or
the vaster millions Of the past ever read
the bible in course and read Ii prayer
fully and carefully but was led to be-
leve it.
John Murray, the famous book pub
Usher OF Edinburg and the intimate
friend of Southey. Coleridge, Walter
Scott. Canning and Washington Irving,
bought of Moore, the poet, the Me
moirs Of Lord Byron" and they were to
be published after Byron's death But
they were not fit to be published, al
though Murray had paid for them &c.
900. That was a solemn cOnclave when
eight OF the prominent literary people
Of those times assembled in Albemarle-
ST. after Byrons death to decide what
should be done with the Memoirs"
which We're charged and surcharged with
defamations and indelicacies. The Me
moirs' were read and pondered, and the
decision came that they must be burned,
and not until the last words of those
Memoirs" went TO ashes did the literary
company separate.
But suppose now all the best spirits of
all ages were assembled to decide the
fate Of the bible. which is the last will
and testament Of our heavenly Father,
and those memoirs Of our Lord Jesus,
what would be the verdict? Shall they
burn. or shall they live? The unani-
nous verdict Of all is, Let them live.
though. all else burn" Then put to-