The Olneyville tribune. (Providence, R.I.) 1893-189?, 1893-09-23
SUNDAYS SERMON.
Subject: "Re-enforcement."


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 thai?"
inquired some one. My military friend re-
piled, "Oh, he will be disillusioned when he
gets amidst the squalor and commonplace
shaken In Christianity, for that is often the
result" The great general misjudged the
case.
1 went 10 the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose OF having my faith strengthened. and
that was the result which came OF il. In all
our journeying, In ali our reading, In all our
associations. In all our plans, augmentation
rather than the depletion OF our faith should
be our chief desire. IL Is easy enough to
have our faith destroyed. can give you
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
completely gone that you will laugh at the
idea that you ever had any.
IL you want TO ruin your faith, you can do
II 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 II Is easy to Danish soon and
forever all respect for the Bible prove by
the fact that so many have done IL. They
were not particularly brainy nor had special
force OF will, but they so thoroughly accom-
plished the overthrow OF their faith that they
have no more idea that the Bible is true, or
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 return OF ii.
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 il. 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 II 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 10
study the Bible itself do not believe there
Is an infidel now alive who has read the
Bible through. But rs so important n docu-
ment needs to be read at least twice through
In order that II may be thoroughly under
stood, and read In course, 1 now offer 800
reward TO any infldel who has read the Bible
through twice and read IL I'm course. But
cannot take such a mans own word for IL,
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 I must have another witness In tho case
before give the reward / must have the
testimony OF some one who has seen him
read IL all through twice. Infldels fish In
this Bible for incoherencies and contradic-
tions and absurdities, and II you find their
Bible you Will see interlineations In the book
of Jonah and some OF the chapters OF that
unfortunate prophet nearly worn out by much
use, and some parts OF III 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
mon on the mount, and the book OF John the
Evangelist, will not have a 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 pronounced inadel. l
knew II when many years ago accepted his
invitation TO spend the night In his home.
Just before retiring at night he said in a
jocose way, al suppose you are accustomed
to read the Bible before going 10 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. i suppose you could take the last let
ter your father or mother ever wrote and find
something In the grammar or the spelling
or the tremor Of the penmanship about
which 10 be derisively critical. The internal
evidence OF the truthfulness OF the Bible Is so
mighty that no one man out OF the GOO ,000,-
600 Of the worlds present population or the
vaster millions OF the past ever read the
Bible in course, and read 1t prayertully and
carefully, but was led TO believe IL.
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 "Memoirs OF Lord Byron, and
they were TO be published after Byron's
death. But they were not flt TO be pub
lshed, although Murray had paid for them
Ell, 900. That was n solemn conclave when
eight OF the prominent literary people OF
those times assembled Ia Albemarle street
after Byron's death TO decide what should be
done with the Memoirs" which were
charged and surcbarged with defamations
and indeicacfes. The memoirs" were read
and pondered, and the decision came that
they must be burned, and not until the Inst
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 testa-
ment OF our Heavenly Father, and these
memoirs Of our Lord Jesus, what would be
the verdict Shall they burn, or shall they
live2 The unanimous verdict Of all IL. Let
them live, though all else burn" Then put
together on the other hand all the debauchees
and profiigstes and assassins OF the ages,
and their unanimous verdict concerning the
Bible would be- "Let IL burn"
Mind you, / do not say that all infdels are
immortal, but do say that all the scrGpe-
graces and scoundrels OF the universe agree
with them about the Bible. Let me vote with
those who believe I'm the Holy Scripture. Men
believe other things with half the evidence
required 10 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 n man 8
statement that he could tell where those
treasures were buried from the LOOKS OF a
glass OF water dipped from the Hudson
I River.
The internal evidence OF the authenticity
| OF the Scriptures IL so exact and so vivid that
no man, honest and sane, can thoroughly
and continuously and prayeriully read them
without entering their discipleship. 80
put that internal evidence paramount. How
are you led 10 believe in a letter you re-