Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-11-23

W bhy bieSet NNN NNNA e-1tAe NessN Ne-ts
rending ''if' Of my text, If not, blot me.
pray thee, out OF thy book
After three years OF absence son wrote
his mother In one OF the New England
whaling villages that ne was coming home
In certain snip. MYtheriike' she STOOD
watching and tie snip was In the ofnng,
but a fearful storm struck IL and dashed
the ship on the rocks that night. All that
night the mother prayed ior the saiety Oh
the son, and Just at dawn there was
Knock at the cottage aoor, ana the son en-
tered, crying out, Mother' khe" you
Weuld pray me homer II would ask all
those in this assemblage who have been
prayed home to God by pious mothers to
stand up, there would be scores that would
stand, and IL should ask them to give tes-
timony 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 "IF" OF IScREDULITY.
Another Bible ''if'' is the ''if'' OF incredu-
lily. Satan used it when Christs vitality
was depressed by 40 days abstinence from
food, and the tempter pointed to some
stones, in color and shape like loaves OF
DTtdu, uuu hdlut II LnOu Do JuC OOH VI
God, command that these stones be made
bread" That was appropriate, for Satan
is the father of that ''if' of incredulity.
Peter used the same ''if'' when, standing
on the wet and slippery deck of fishing
smack off Lake Galilee, he saw Christ walk
ing on the sea as though it were as solid as
a pavement Of basalt from the adjoining
volcanic hills, and Peter cried, IF it be
thou, let me come to thee on the water"
What preposterous ''ifP' What human
foot was ever so constructed as to walk on
waterS In what part Of the earth did law
Of gravitation make exception to the rule
that man will sink to the elbows when he
touches the wave of river or lake and will
sink still farther unless he can swimi But
here Peter looks out upon the form In the
shape of man defying the mightiest law
Of the universe, the law of gravitation, and
standing erect on the top of the liquid. Yet
the incredulous Peter cries out to the Lord,
"If it be thou" Alas, for that incredulous
'if" 1t is working as powerfully IN the
latter part of this nineteenth Christian cen
tury as it did in the early part OF the first
Christian century.
Though small conjunction, 1t Is the big
gest block today in the way OF the gospel
chariot. III" 'ltF' we nave theologlcal
seminaries which spend most OF their time
and employ their learning and their genius
in the manufacturing OF IFS" With shat
weaponry are assailed the Pentateuch, and
the miracles, and the divinity OF Jesus
Christ. Almost everybodyis chewing on an
IF" When many man bows for prayer,
he puts his knee on an If" The door
through which people pass INTO lnndenty
and atheism and all immoralities has two
doorposts, and the one IS made OF the letter
'1' and the other OF the letter l."
FOUR MoMENToUs STEPS.
There are only four steps between strong
faith and complete unpeliel: flrst' surren-
der the idea OF the verbal inspiration OF the
Scriptures and adopt the idea that they were
all generally supervised by the Lord. Sec
ontl, surrender the idea that they were all
generally supervised by the Lord and adopt
the theory that they were not all, but part
ly, supervised by the Lord. Third, believe
that they are the gradual evolution OF the
ages, and men wrote according to the wis
dom of the times in which they lived.
Fourth, believe that the Bible is a bad book
and not only unworthy OF credence, but
pernicious and debaslng and cruel.
Only four steps from the stout faith In
which the martyrs died to the blatant car
feature of Christianity as the greatest 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 IN those VINO regard
sacred things is the If OF lncredullty. In
1879, in Scotland, saw letter which had
been written many years ago Dy Thomas
Carlyle to Thomas Chalmers. Carlyle at
the time OF writing the letter was young
man. The letter was not to be published
until after the death of Carlyle. His death
having taken place, the letter ought to be
published.
1t was letter in which Thomas Carlyle
expresses the tortures of his own mind
while relaxing his faith in Christianity,
while at the same time he expresses his ad-
miration for DR.. Chalmers, and in which
Carlyle wishes that he had the same faith
that the great Scotch minister evidently ex-
ercised. Nothing that Thomas Carlyle ever
wrote in ''Sartor Resartus," or the French
Revolution" or his Life of Cromwell" !" or
his immortal Essays" had in it more Won
drous power than that letter which bewail-
ed his own doubts and extolled the strong
faith of another.
Imade 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 hotel in Edin-
burgh felt uneasy lest somehow that let
ter should get out of my possession 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 pub
lished.
THE BOY AND HIS BIBLE.
Perhaps this sermon, finding its way into
a Scottish home, may suggest its printing,