Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1893-09-29
REV. DIR. TALNAGE.
The Eminent Brooklyn Divine's SUD-
day Sermon.
Subject: reinforcement"

xvii, 5.
''what pity he is going therew said my
friend, most distinguished general Of the
army, when he was told that the reason for
my not being present on a celebrated day in
BROOKLYN was that on that day | had sailed
for the Holy Land. "Why do you say that?'
inquired some one. My military friend re-
piled, ooh. he will be disilusoned when he
gets amidst 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.
l went to the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose 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. l can give you a
recipe for its obliteration. Read infidel
books, have long and frequent conversations
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 thatyou 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 can see
aplain way by which, in six weeks, l 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
forever all respect for the Bible l prove by
the fact that so many have done it. They
were not particularly brainy nor had special
j. force of will, but they so thoroughly accom-
: plished the overthrow Of their fait n that they
have no more idea that the Bible is true, OF
that Christianity amounts to anything, than
they have in the truth Ofthe Arabian Nights
Entertainments" or the existence of Don
Quixotes ''windmills. They have destroyed
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 neighborhood where
they live, and they will feel nothing but
silent or expressed disgust. There are per-
sons in this house to-day 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 take the
hammer of that bell, and l strike it three
times with all my might, and it sounds,
woe woe woe But my wish, and the wish
OF most ofyou. is the prayer expressed by
the disciples OF Jesus Christ in the words Of
my text, "Lord. increase our faith.
The first mode of accomplishing this is to
study the Bible itself do not believe there
Bible through. But as so important docu-
ment needs to be read at least twice through
in order that it may be thoroughly under
stood, and read in course, | now offer 800
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 integrity ex-
cept the Bible, and the man who rejects the
source OF truth how can accept his truth
fulness?
So 1 must have another witness in the case
before give the reward. I must have the
testimony OF some one who has seen him
read it all through twice. InndelS fish in
this Bible for incoherencies and contradic-
tions and absurdities, and if you find their
Bible YOU will see interlineatons in the book
of Jonah and some Of the chapters 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 Command
ments, and the Psalms of David. and the SER
mcn 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 a pronounced infidel.
knew it when many years ago accepted his
invitation to spend the night in his home.
just D6lOTt I6llIluS Ut hight odlQ III u
jOcose way, 81 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 easily be face
tious.
You know you can make fun about any,
thing. l suppose you couldtakethe last let
ter your father or mother ever wrote and find
-, h. hor all inc
or the tremor of the penmanShip about
which to be derisively critical The internal
evidence of the truthfulness OF the Biole is so
mighty that no one man out of the l 800 ,000,-
coo OF the worlds present population or the
Vaster millions of the past ever read the
Bible in course, and read it prayerfully and
carefully, but was led TO believe it.
John Murray, the famous book publisher
of Edinburgh, and the intimate friend Of
Southey, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Canning
and Washington Irving, bought OF Moore,
the poet. the f'Memoirs of Lord Byron, and
they were to be published after Byron's
death. But they were not fit to be pub
lished, although Murray had paid for them
SO. 1000. That was a solemn conclave when
eight of the prominent literary people OF
those times assembled in Albemarle street
after Byrons death to decide what should be
done with the "Memoirs," which were
and indelicacies. 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 best spirits Of
all ages were assembled to decide the fate Of
the Bible, which is the last will and tesla
ment 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
them live, though all else burn" Then put
together on the other hand all the debauchees
and profligates and assassins of the ages,
and their unanimous verdict concerning the
Bible would be. 'Let it burn.
Mind you, do not say that all infdels are
immortal, but do say that all the scrape-
graces and scoundrels of the universe agree
with them about the Bible. Let me vote with
those who believe in the Holy Scripture. Men
believe other things with half the evidence
required TO believe the Bible. The dis
tinguished Abner Kneeland rejected the
Scripture and then put all his money into an
enterprise for the recovery of that hocus
pocus Captain Kidd's treasures, Kneeland's
faith for doing so being founded on q mans
statement that he could tell where those
treasures were buried from the looks of a
glass OF water dipped from the Hudson
River.
The internal evidence of the authenticity
of the Scriptures is so exact and so vivid that
no man, honest and sane, can thoroughly
and continuously and prayerfuny read them
without entering their discipeship. So |
put that internal evidence paramount. How
Are you led TO believe in :clter lou re-
ceived from husband or wife or child or