The Penn's Grove record., 1893-09-22
REV. DIR. TALMAGR
The Brooklyn Diyine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject acknowledgements"

TEXT "Lord, increase our yaith."-Luk,
xvii, {.
"What q pity he Is going there ~ said my
friend, a most distinguished general of the
army, when he was told that the reason foi
my not being present on n celebrated day in
Brooklyn was that on that day 1 had sailed
for the Holy Land. "Why do you say that2'
inquired some onn. My military friend re-
piled, sob, he will be disillusioned when he
gets amidst the squalor and commonplace
scenes of Palestine. and his faith Will be
shaken in Christianity, for hat is often the
result" Tn great general misjudged the
case.
1 went to the Holy Land for the one pur-
| pose of having my faith strengthened. and
that was the result which came of It. In all
our journeyiny, 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 q
recipe for its obliteration. Read fnfdel
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.
II you want to ruin your faith, you can do
It more easily than you can do anythiny else.
After believing the Bible all my life | can see
a 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 l now hold
sacred. That 1t Is easy to Danish soon and
| forever all respect for the Bible I prove by
the fact that 80 many have done it. They
were not particularly brainy nor had special
force of will, but they so thoroughly accom-
plished the overthrow of their faith that they
have no more idea that the Bible is true, or
that Christianity amounts TO anything, than
l kko,, a.n q, Ahn ar,tb afthn a. -ab{,,, NtgxhA.f
Entertainments" or the existence OF Don
Quixote's "windmills.' They have destroyed
their faith so thoroughly that they never will
have a return of 1t.
Fifty ~revivals OF religion my sweep over
the city, the town, the neighborhood where
they live, and they will feel nothing but a
silent or expressed disgust. There are per-
sons in this house to-day who 90 years ago
gave up their faith. and they will never re-
sumo 1t. The black and deep toned bell OF
doom hangs over their head, and l take the
hammer OF hat bell, and l strike it three
times with all my might, and it sounds,
woe! woe woe! But my wish, and the Wish
of most ofyou, Is the prayer expressed by
the disciples OF Jesus Christ in the words OF
my text. "Lord, increase our faith" !
TIL FIST mode OF accomplishing this Is to
study the Bible itself. l do not believe there
Is an infdel nov alive who has read the
Bible through. But as so important a docu-
I ultut HtcuS ~ Dt FShl ~ itttSt Nv WIGS through
In order that It may be thoroughly under
stood, and read In course, I now offer 500
reward to any infdel who has read the Bible
through twice and read 1t In course. But !
cannot tax such a mans own word for it,
for there Is no foundation for integrity eS-
cept the Bible, and the man who rejects the
source OF truth how cen l accept his truth
fulness?
So l must have another witness In the casa
before l give the reward. / must have thu
testimony OF some one who has seen hin
read 1t all through twice. Infdels fish Id
this Bible for incoherencies and eontradic.
lions and absurdities, and II you find their
Bible you will see interlinaations in the book
OF Jonah and some OF the chapters of that
unfortunate prophet nearly worn out by much
use, and some parts OF IL Samuel or l Kings
you will find dim with finger marks, but tbs
pages which contain the Ten Command;
ments, and the Psalms of David, and the SER
mon on the mount, and the book Of John the
Evangelist, will NOT have a single lead pencil
4 stroke in the margin, nor any finger marks
showing frequent perusal.
Tn father OF one of the Presidents Of the
United States was n pronounced infidel. l
knew it when many Years ago / accepted his
invitation to spend the night in his home.
Just before retiring NJ might he said in a
iocose way, 81 suppose you are accustomed
to read the Bible Lefore going to bed, n
here is my Bible from which to read" He
then told me what portions he would like to
have me read, AMI he only asked for those
portions on which h9 could easily be face
tious.
You know you can make fun about any
thing. l suppose you co~uldtakethe last let
ter your father or mother ever wrote and ind
something In the grammar or the spelling
or the tremor OF the ~penmanship about
which to be derisively critical. The internal
evidence of the truthfulness OF the Bible is SC
mighty that no one man out OF the | 500, 000,-
900 OF the worlds present population or the
vaster millions Of the past ever read the
Bible In course, and read it prayer.ully and
carefully, but was led to believe II.
John Murray, the famous book publisher
Of Edinburgh, and the intimate friend of
Southey, Coleridge, Walter Scott, Cannin.
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 pub
lished, although Murray had paid for them
$40, 900. That was a solemn conelave when
slight OF the prominent 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 n surcharged with defamationS
and indelicacies. The "Memoirs" were read
and pondered, and the decision came that
they must be burned, and not until the last
word of those "Memoirs" went to ashes did
the literary company separate.
But suppose, o all the best spirits OF
oil 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 Iis, 'Let
them live, though all else burn" Then put
together on the other hRnd all the debauchees
and profigates and assasslns OF the ages,
IN their unanimous verdict concerning the
Bible would be. LET II Durn."
Mind you, do not say that all in1dels are
immortal, but I do say that all the scrape-
graces and scoundrels of the universe agree
with them about the Bible. Let me vote with
those who believe in the Holy Scripture. Men
believe other things with half the evidence
REQUIRED to believe the Bible. The dis
tinguished Abner Kneeland rejected the
Scripture and then put all his money into an
enterprise for the recovery of that hocus
poeus Captain Kids treasures, Kneeland's
faith for doing 50 being founded on a mans
statement that he oould tell where those
treasures were buried from the looks ola
glass OF water dipped from the Hudson
River.
The internal evidence OF the authenticity
Of the Scriptures Is ro exact and SO vivid that
no man, honest and sane, can thoroughly
and continuously and prayerully read them
without entering their discipleship. So ]
| put that Internal eVluehce paramount. HOW
are you led to believe in a letter you re-
cGIved from husband or wife or child or
.riend2 You know the handwriting. You
know the style. You recognize the sentf-
ment. When the letter comes, you do not
summon the postmaster who stamped 1t, and
the postmaster who received it, and the let
ter eCrrler who brought 1t to your door to
prove that it Is q genuine letter. The internal
evidence settles it, and by the same process
you can forever settle the fact that the Bible
Is the handwriting and communication Of
the infinite God.
Furthermore, as l have already intlmatei,
We may increase our faith by the testimony
of Others, Perhaps we Of lesseF brain may
have been overcome by superstition or
oajoled ipto an acceptance of a hollow pro-
Tension. So l will this morning turn this
/ house into u courtroom and summon wit
~nesses. and you shall be the jury, and l now
limpanel YOU for that purpose, and | will put
upon the witness stand men whom all tho
world aoknowledge To be strong Intellectually
and whose evidence in any other courtroom
would he incontroyer+ible l will not call
to the witness stand any minister Of the
Gospel, for he might be prejuiiced,
There are two ways OF taking an oath in a
! courtroom. One is by putting the lips to the
I-N-