The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-09-29
CHRISTIAN FAITH.
DR.. Talmage Tells How It May Be
Increased
The Bible Should BE Daily Companion
testimony as to the Divinity of the
Book-The Efficacy of
Prayer.

n a laT6 SeTDdu DIT DTOOhlNu hCN. l.
Dewitt Talmage preached upon the
subject of Faith, his text being Luke
xvii 5: Lord, increase our faith" DIR.
Talmage said:
"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 a
celebrated day in Brooklyn was that
on that day had sailed for the Holy
Land. "Why do you say that?" in
-quired some one. My military friend
replied: ''Oh, he will be disillusioned
when he gets amid the squalor and
commonplace scenes of Palestine, and
his faith will De shaken in Christianity,
for that is often the case" The great
general misjudged the case. l went
to the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose Of having my faith strength
.ened, and that was the result
which came of il. In all our jour
neyings, in all our readings. in all our
associations, in all our plans, augmenta-
ton, rather than the depletion of our
faith, should be our chief desire. 1t is
easy enough to have our faith de-
'stroyed. l can give you a recipe for
its obliteration. Read infidel books,
have long and frequent conversat tons
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 anything else. After
believing the Bible all my life, / can
see 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 / 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. But my wish, and the wish of
most of you, is the prayer expressed by
he 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. l do not
believe there is an infdel 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 thoroughly understood,
and read in course, / now offer 500 re-
ward to any intidel who has read the
Bible through twice and read it in
course.
The internal evidence of the truth
fulness of the Bible is so mighty that
no one man out of the LOGO, 900, 900 of
the worlds present population, or the
-vaster millions of the past, ever read
the Bible in course, and read it prayer
fully and carefully, but was led to be-
lieve 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
81 Memoirs of Lord Byron" and they
were to be published after Byron's
death. But they were not fit to be
published. although Murray had paid
for them $4,000. That was solemn
nent literary people of those times
assembled in Albemarle street after
Byron's death to decide what should
be done with the Memoirs" which
were charged and surcharged with de-
famat ions and indellcacies. The ''Me-
moirs" were read and pondered, and
the decision came that they must be
burned, and not until the last word of
memoirs" went to ashes did the liter
airy 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
1nent 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 it 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 concern
ing the Bible would be, Let it burn"
The internal evidence of the anthem
ITCHY of the Scriptures is so exact and
so vivid that no man, honest and sane,
can thoroughly and continuously and
prayerfully read them without enter
ing their discipleship. So / put that
internal evidence paramount How
are you led to believe in letter you re-
sceive from husband or wife or child or
friend? You know the handwriting.
You know the style. You recognize
the sentiment. When the letter comes
you do not summon the postmaster
who stamped it and the postmaster
who received it and the letter-carrier
who brought it to your door to prove
that it is genuine letter. The inter
nal evidence settles it, and by the same
process you can forever settle the fact
that the Bible is the handwriting and
communication of the infinite God.
Furthermore, as have already init
mated, we may increase our faith by
the testimony of others. Perhaps we
of lesser brain may have been over
come by superstition or cajoled into an
acceptance of hollow pretension. So
/ will. this morning, turn this house
into a court room and summon wit
nesses. and you shall be the jury, and
now empanel you for that purpose,
and will put upon the witness stand
men whom all the world acknowledge
to be strong intellectually and whose
evidence in any other court room
would be incontrovertible l will not
call to witness stand any minister OF
the gospel, for he might be prejudiced.
There are two ways of taking an oath
in court room One is by putting the
lips to the Bible and the other is by
holding the right hand toward Heaven.
Now, as in this case, it is the Bible
that is on trial, we will not ask the
witness to put the book to his lips, for