Connecticut western news., 1893-09-21
INCREASE OF FAITH.
REV. OR. -TALMAGE ON REINFORCE MENT AT THE TABERNACLE.

REV. OR. 1TALMAGE ON REINFORCE
 MENT AT THE TABERNACLE.
 How to Accomplish This Desirable Result.
 Science as a Convincing witness-How
 to Give Gospel Life to Freezing Souls.
 BROOKLYN, Sept. 17.-In his sermon at the Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon Rev. Dr. De Witt Talmage preached to vast audience on the subject of "Re-en- foroement," the text being Luke xvii, 5, "Lord, increase our faith"
 "What g pity he is going therer' said my friend, 8 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 that9" inquired some one. My military friend replied, "Oh, he will be disillusioned when he gets amid the squalor and conmonplacesc scenes of Palestine, and his faith will be shaken in Christianity, for that is often the re- sult." The great general misjudged the case.
 went to the Holy Land for the one purpose of having my faith strength ened, and that was the result which came oft. 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. It is easy enough to have our faith destroyed. I can give you recipe for its obliteration. Read infdel books, have long and frequent converse tions 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 1t 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 bombardment of the Scriptures and the church and all I now hold sacred. Thatit Is easy to banish soon and forever all respect for the Bible prove by the fact that 30 many have done it. They were not particularly brainy nor had especial force of will, but they so thoroughly &C., compHshed 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 of the Arabian Nights Enter tainmente'' or the existence of Don Quix- ote's 'windmills." They have destroyed : their faith so thoroughly that they never will have return of it.
 Fifty revivals of religion may sweep over the city, the town, the neighbor- hood where they live, and they will feel nothing but a silent or expressed dis gust. There are persons in this house today who 20 years ago gave up their faith, and they will never resume It. The black and deep toned bell of doom hangs over their head. and take the hammer of that bell, and strike 1t three times with all my might, and it sounds, wool wool 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 our faith"
 STRENGTH OF THE BIBLE
 The first mode of accomplishing this is to study the Bible itself. I do not be- neve there is an infdel now alive who has read the Bible through. But as so important a document needs to be read at least twice through in order that it may be thoroughly understood, and read In course, I now offer $100 reward to any inAdel 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 integri- ty except the Bible, and the man who re- jects the source of truth how can &C., cept hds truthfulness?
 So must have another witness in the case before I give the reward. Imust have the testimony of some one who has seen him read 1t all through twice. h. fdels fish in this Bible for incoherencies and contradictions and absurdities, and if you find their Bible you will see inter hneations 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 I Kings you will find dim with finger marks, but the pages which contain the Ten Commandments, and the Psalms of David, and the sermon on the mount, and the book of John the Evangelist, will not have single lead pencil strokein the margin nor any finger marks showing frequent perusal.
 The father of one of the presidents of the United States was pronounced in- fdel. knew 1t when many years ago I accepted his invitation to spend the night in his home. Just before retiring at night he said in jocose way, ''I 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 facetious.
 You know you can make fun about anything. suppose you could take the last letter your father or mother ever wrote and find something in the gram mar or the spelling or the tremor of the penmanship about which to be deriavely critical. The internal evidence of the truthfulness of the Bible IS so mighty that no one man out of the 1 500, ,000, 900 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 pub fisher 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 fit to be published, although Murray had paid for them SIG, 1000. That was solemn conclave when eight of the prominent literary people of those times assembled in Albemsrle street after By ron's death to decide what should be done with the Memoirs" which were charged and surcharged with defanna- tions and indelicaoies. The Memoirs" were read and pondered, and the decision xl kI- -4 l~~ 0A