The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1893-11-24

10 God by plous mothers 10 stand up,
there would DO scores that would stand,
and If l should ask them to give testi-
inony it would be the testimony Of that
New England son coming ashore from
the split timbers of the whaling ship
my mother prayed me homer
THE IT'S OF iNCREpUIITY.
Another Bible 'if'is the ''if' of in
creduhty. Satan used it when Christ,
vitality was depressed by 40 days absti-
nence from food and the tempter point
ed to some stones, in color and shape
like loaves of bread, and said, IF thou
be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread" That was APP
propriate, for Satan is the father of
that ''if" of incredulity. Peter used that
same eff when, standing on the wet
and slippery deck of fishing smack ON
Lake Galilee, he saw Christ walking on
the sea as though it We're as solid as a
pavement of basalt from thesad Joining
volcanic hills, and Peter cried out, "If
it be thou, let me come to thee on the
water"
man foot was ever so constructed as to
walk ON water? In what part of the
earth did law of gravitation make excep-
ton to the rule that a man will sink to
the elbows when he touches wave Of
river or lake, and will sink still farther
unless he can swim? But here Peter looks
out upon the form in the shape of a man
defying the mightiest law of the uni
verse-the law of gravitation-ands stand
ing erect ON the top of the liquid. Yet
the incredalous Peter cries out to the
Lord, "1f it be thou" Alas. for that in
credulous ''if!' 1t is working as power
fully IN the latter part of this nineteenth
Christian century as it did in the early
part of the first Christian century.
Though small conjunction, it is the
biggest block today in the way of the
gospel chariot. "Ifr' 'Ifw We have
theological Summaries which spend most
of their time and employ their learning
and their genius in the manufacturing
of "ifs." With that weaponry are as
sailed the Pentateuch, and the miracles,
and the divinity of Jesus Christ. AL
most everybody is chewing on an ''if."
When many a man bows for prayer, he
puts his knee ON an ''if." The door
through which people pass into infidelity
and atheism and all immoralities has
two doorposts, and the one is l..ade upof
the letter 81" and the other Of the let
ter 'f"
There are only four steps between
strong falkland complete unbelief: First,
surrender the idea Of the verbal inspira-
ton of the Scriptures and adopt the idea
that they We're all generally supervised
by the Lord Second, surrender the idea
that they W re all generally supervised
by the Lord and adopt the theory that
they We're not all, but partly, supervised
by the Lord Third. believe that they are
the gradual evolution of the age, and
men wrote according to the wisdom of
the times in which they lived. Fourth,
believe that the Bible is a bad book and
not only unworthy Of sredence, but per-
nicious and debasing and cruel.
Only four steps from the stout faith in
which the martyrs died to the blatant
caricature of Christianity : the great
est sham of the centuries But the door
to all that precipitation and horror is
made out of an IF" The mother of
unrests in the minds of Christian people
and iii those who regard sacred things
is the if of incredulity. In 1879, in
Scotland, saw letter which had been
wit TO, h,rr 70
lyle to Thomas Chalmers. Carlyle, at
the time of writing the letter, was a
young man. The letter was not to be
published until after the death of Car
lyle. His death having taken place. the
letter ought to be published.
1t was a letter in which Thomas Car
lyle expresses the tortures of his own
mind while relaxing his faith in Chris
ianity, while at the same time he ex-
presses his admiration for DR.. Chalmers,
and in which Carlyle wishes that he had
the same faith that the great Scotch min
lister evidently exercised. Nothing that
Thomas Carlyle ever wrote in "Sartor
Resartus," o. the French Revolution"
or his Life of Cromwell" or his i'm
mortal Essays" had in it more Won
drous power than that letter which be-
walled his own doubts and extolled the
strong faith of another.
made an exact copy Of that letter.
with the understanding that it should not
be published until after the death Of
Thomas Carlyle; but, returning to my no.
tel in Edinburgh, felt uneasy lest some
how that letter should get out of my pos
session and be published before its time.
So l took it back to the person by whose
permission | had copied it. All reasons
for its privacy having vanished, wish
it might be published.
AN INCIDENT.
Perhaps this sermon. finding its way
into a Scottish home. may suggest its
printing, for that letter shows more
nightly than anything have ever read
the difference between the 81 know" of
Paul, and the II know of Job, and the
81 know Of Thomas Chalmers, and the
II know" of all those who hold with a
firm grip the old gospel, on the one hand
and the unmooriug, bestorming and tor.
turing if" of incredulity on the other
like the positive faith of that sailor boy
that Captain Judkins of the steamship
Scotia picked up in hurricane. "Go
aloft," said Captain Judkins to his mate
''and look out for wrecks"
Before the mate had gone far mp the
ratlines he shouted: "A wreck! A wreckr
Where away" said Captain .Judkins
"Of the port bow" was the answer
Lifeboats We're lowered, and 40 men vol
unteered to put out across the angry ses
for the wreck. They came back with {
dozen shipwrecked, and among them {
boy of ~ years.
WHO are your said Captain Judkins
| The answer was: Il am Scotch boy
My father and mother are dead, and
am on my way to America" WHAT hav'
you heret' SAID Captain Judkins as h,
opened the boys jacket and took hold o
a rope around the boys body. 1T is
rope" said The boy. but what is tina
tied by this rope under your ARM?
THAT, sir. is my mothers Bible. Sh
4 told me never to lose that" Gould you
/ not have saved something elseT' "No
/ and cayad tLot s.Di1 1-o,, axpec+ to m