The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1893-10-14
AT THE TABERNACLE.
DR.. TALMAoE TELLS HOW TO RE-
ENFORCE OUR FAITH.


Efficacy of Prayer.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 17.-ln his sermon at
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon
Rev. DIR. De Witt Talmage preached to
vast audience on the subject of "Re-en-
forcement," the text being Luke xvii, 5,
Lord, increase our faith"
"What 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 celebrated
day in Brooklyn was that on that day had
sailed for the Holy Land "Why do you
say that" inquired some one. My mill
tary friend replied, "Oh, he will be disillu-
stoned 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 gen
eral misiudged the case.
l went to the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose Of having my faith strengthened, and
that was fhe result which came of 1t. In
all our iourneying, in all our reading, in
all our associations, in all our plans, aug
mentation, rather than the depletion of our
faith, should be our chief desire. 1t is easy
enough to have our faith destroyed. | can
give you a recipe for it's CELEBRATION. Read
infdel books, have long and frequent con-
lures 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 plain way by which in six weeks
] could enlist my voice and pen and heart
and head and entire nature in the bonn
bardment 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. They were not particularly
brainy nor had especial force of will, but
they so thoroughly accomplished the over
throw 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 n return of it.
Fifty revivals of religion may sweep over
the city, the town, the neigh borhood, where
they live, and they will feel nothing but a
silent or expressed disgust There are per
sons in this house today who 90 years age
gave up their faith, and they will never re-
sumo it. 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 it sounds
"Woe woe! wool" But my wish, and the
wish of most of you, is the prayer expressed
by the disciples to Jesus Christ, in the
words of my text, Lord, increase oul
faith"
STUDY THE BIBLE.
The first mode of accomplishing this is
to study the Bible itself. ! do not believe
there is an infidel now alive who has reat
the Bible through. But as SO important
document needs to be read at least twic
through in order that it may be thorough,
understood, and read in course, now offe
800 reward to any inildcl who has read tn
Bible through twice and read it in course
But cannot take such mans own wor
for-it, for there is no foundation for inteG
rity except the Bible, and the man who r.
jects the source of truth, how can acceI
his truthfulness?
So | must have another witness in til
case before | give the reward. | must hav
the testimony of some one who has see
him read it all through twice. Infidels fis
in this Bible for incoherences and contra
dictions and absurdities, and if you fin
their Bible you will see interlineations i
the book of Jonah and some of the chap
tiers of that unfortunate prophet nearl
worn out by much use, and some parts c
II Samuel or | Kings you will find dir
with finger marks, but the pages whic
contain the Ten Commandments, and til
psalms of David, and the sermon on til
mount, and the book of John the Evar
gelist will not have a single lead penc
stroke on the margin nor any finger mark
showing frequent perusal.
The father of one of the presidents of til
United States was pronounced infidel.
knew it when many years ago accepte
his invitation to spend the night in b
home. just before retiring at night he sal
in jocose way, II suppose you are accu
toned to read the Bible before going
bed, and here is my Bible from which
read" He then told me what portions
would like to have me read, and he on
asked for those portions on which he coul
easily be facetious.
You know you can make fun about an
thing | suppose you could take the la
letter your father or mother ever wrote al
find something in the grammar or the spel
ing, or the tremor of the penmanship abol
which to be dersively critical. The int
nal evidence of the truthfulness of the +
bic is so mighty that no one man out of Il
LOCO, 100000 Of the worlds present popul
ton, or the vaster millions of the past ev
read the Bible in course and read it praye
fully and carefully, but was led to believe
John Murray, the famous book publish
of Edinburgh and the intimate friend
Southey, Coieridge, Walter Scott, Cannil
and Washington Irving, bought of Moor
the poet, the Memoirs of Lord Byron
and they were TO be published after Byron
death. But they were not fit to be pu
lished, although Murray had paid for the
$4,000 That was a solemn conclave VIII
eight of the prominent literary people
those times assembled in Albemarle sire
after Byron's death to decide what shou
be done with the Memoirs" which we
charged and surcharged with defamatio
and indelicaces. The Memoirs" we
read and pondered, and the decision cal
that they must be burned, and not un
the last word Of those Memoirs" went
ashes did the literary company separate.
But suppose now all the best spirits
all ages were assembled to decide the fs
of the Bible, which is the last will a
testament of our heavenly Father, a
these memoirs of our Lord Jesus, WI
would be the verdict' Shall they bul
or shall they liver The unanimous "
dict of all is, Let them live, though
else burn" Then put together on the 9th
hand all the dehauchees and profiga'
and assassins of the ages, and their una
nous verdict concerning the Bible wou
be, LET 1t burn"
Mind you, do not say that all infd
-