Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1893-09-23
CHRISTIAN FAITH.
DR.. Talmage Tells How It May Be
Increased.
The Bible Should he Daily Companion
Testimony as to the Divinity OF tho
Book-The Efficacy OF
Prayer.

In late sernian ut Brooklyn Rev. 7.
Dewitt Talmage preached upon the
subject of Faith" his text being Luke
xvii. 5: Lord, increase our faith" DIR.
Talmage said:
"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 n
celebrated day in Brooklyn was that
on that day l had sailed for the Holy
Land. "Why do you say that?" in
quired some one. My military friend
replied: ooh, he will be disillusioned
when he gets amid the squalor and
commonplace scenes of Palestine, and
his faith will be shaken in Christianity,
for that is often the case" The great
general misjudged the case. l went
to the Holy Land for the one pur-
pose of having my faith strength
ened, and that was the result
which came of it. In all our jour
neyings, in all our readings, in all our
associations, in all our plans. augmenta-
ton, rather than the depletion of our
faith, should be our chief desire. 1t is
easy enough to have our faith de-
stroyed. can give you recipe for
its obliteration. Read intidel books,
have long and frequent conversations
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 anything 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 / 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. But my wish, and the wish of
most of you, 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 to study the Bible itself l do not
believe there is an infidel 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, now offer 800 re-
ward to any infidel who has read the
Bible through twice and read 1t in
course.
The internal evidence of the truth
fitness of the Bible is SO mighty that
no one man out of the 1000, 10000 of
the worlds present population, or the
vaster millions of the past, ever read
the Bible in course. and read it prayer
fully and carefully, but was led to be-
lieve it. 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
'sMemoirs 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 $4,000. That was solemn
conclave when eight of the promi-
nent literary people of those times
assembled in Albemarle street after
Byron's death to decide what should
be done with the Memoirs which
were charged and surcharged with de-
famations and indelicacies. The "Me-
moirs" were read and pondered, and
the decision came that they must be
burned, and not until the last word of
s.Memoirs" went to ashes did the liter
airy 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 tesla
ment of our Heavenly Father, and
these Memoirs of our Lord Jesus, what
would be the verdict? Shall they burn
or shall they live? The unanimous
verdict of all is, LET it live, though all
else burn" Then put together on the
other hand all the debauchees and
proHigates and assassins of the ages,
and their unanimous verdict concern
ing the Bible would be, 'Let it burn. !"
The internal evidence of the authen.
ITCHY of the Scriptures is so exact and
so vivid that no man, honest and sane,
can thoroughly and continuously and
prayerfully read them without enter
ing their discipleship. So l put that
internal evidence paramount
Furthermore, as / have already inti-
mated, we may increase our faith by
the testimony of Others. Perhaps we
of lesser brain may have been over
come by superstition or cajoled into an
acceptance of hollow pretension- So
] will, this morning, turn this house
into a court room and summon wit
nesses, and you shall be the jury, and
now empanel you for that purpose,
and will put upon the witness stand
men whom all the world acknowledge
to be strong intellectually and whose