Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1893-09-18
INCREASE OF FAITH.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON REINFORCE
MENT AT THE TABERNACLE.
How to Accom- pIish This Desirable Result.
Science as a Convincing witness-How
to Give Gospel Life to Freezing Souls.

How to Accomplish This Desirable Result.
science as Convincing witness-How
to Give Gospel Life to Freezing Souls.
BROOKLYN, Sept. 11-In his sermon at
Che Brooklyn Tabernacle this forenoon
vast al iuDpe Witt Ta1mage preached to a
forcement," the NttRs subject Of Green
"Lord, increase our faith. "'''ke XVII, o.
What a pity he is going therer' salo
my friend, q 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 thatT inquired some
one. My military friend replied, ,"Oh,
be will be disillusioned when he gets
amid dthesqualor and commonplace scenes
of Palestine, and his faith will be shaken
In Christianity, for that is often the re-
suit" 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 of it. 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. 1t is easy enough to have
our faith destroyed. can give you a
recipe for its obliteration Read infidel
books, have long and frequent conversa-
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 it more easily than you can do any
thing else. After believing the Bible all
my life | can see plain way by which, in
sixweeks, | could enlist my voice and pen
and heart and head and entire nature in
the bombardment of the Scriptures and
the church and all l 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 ac-
complished 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
tainments" 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 silent or expressed dis
gust. There are persons in this house
today who 90 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
Npf that bell, and strike it three times
With all my might, and it sounds, woei
woeI woel 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. do not be-
leve 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 800 reward to
any infdel who has read the Bible
through twice and read it in course. But
l cannot take such mans own word for
il, for there is no foundation for integri-
ty except the Bible, and thema who re-
iects the source of truth how can l ac-
cept his truthfulness5
So must have another witness in the
case before give the reward. must
have the testimony of some one who has
seen him read it all through twice. In
fidels fish in this Bible for incoherencies
and contradictions and absurdities, and
if YOU find their Bible you will see inter
lineations 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
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 a single lead pencil strokein the
margin nor any finger marks showing
frequent perusal.
The father of one of the presidents oi
the United States was pronounced In
fidel. knew it when many years ago
accepted his invitation to spend the
night in his home. Just before retiring
at night he said in jocose way, 81
suppose you are accustomed to read the
Bible before going to bed, and here il
my Bible from which to read" He then
told me what portions he would like tc
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
,.rote and find something in the gram
lar or the spelling or the tremor OF the
penmanship about which TO be derisiyeiy
critical. The internal evidenceImghty
truthfulness Of the Bihhe 1900, 100000
that no one man esent population or the
of tha.1nIIions of the past ever read the
tfihle in course. and read il prayerfully