Connecticut western news., 1893-11-23

| New England son coming ashore rom | the split timbers of the whaling ship My mother prayed me homer' THE ''IFs'' OF INCREDULITY. Another Bible ..if' is the '.if'' of in- credulity Satan used it when Christ, vitality was depressed by 40 days absti- hence from food and the tempter point ed to some stones, in color and shape like loaves of bread, and said, ..'If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread" That was ap- propriate, for Satan is the father of that If" of incredulity Peter used that same eff" when, standing on the wet and slippery deck of fishing smack on Lake Galilee, he saw Christ walking on the sea as though it were as solid as a pavement of basalt from the adjoining volcanic hills, and Peter cried out, "If it be thou, let me come to thee on the water"
 What a preposterous ''ifr' What hu- man foot was ever so constructed as to walk on water? In what part of the earth did law of gravitation make excep- ton to the rule that man will sink to the elbows when he touches wave of river or lake, and will sink still farther unless he can swimp But here Peter looks out upon the form in the shape of @ man defying the mightiest law of the uni verse-the law of gravitation-and stand ing erect on the top of the liquid. Yet Lord, eff it be thou" Alas, for that in- credulous ''ifr' It is working as power fully Tn the latter part of this nineteenth Christian century as it did in the early part of the first Christian century.
 Though small conjunction, it is the biggest block today in the way of the gospel chariot. "Ifr' "Ifp' We have theological seminaries which spend most of their time and employ their learning and their genius in the manufacturing of ''ifs." With that weaponry are as- sailed the Pentateuch, and the miracles, and the divinity of Jesus Christ. AL most everybody is chewing on an ''if." When many man bows for prayer, he puts his knee on an eff" The door through which people pass into infdelity and atheism and all immoralities has two doorposts, and the one is made up of the letter ''i'' and the other of the let ter "f."
 There are only four steps between strong faith and complete unbelief: First, surrender the idea of the verbal inspira- tion of the Scriptures and adopt the idea that they were all generally supervised by the Lord. Second, surrender the idea that they were all generally supervised by the Lord and adopt the theory that they were not all, but partly, supervised by the Lord. Third, believe that they are the gradual evolution of the age, and men wrote according to the wisdom of the times in which they lived. Fourth, believe that the Bible is bad book and not only unworthy of sredence, but per nicious and debasing and cruel.
 Only four steps from the stout faith in which the martyrs died to the blatant caricature of Christianity as the great est 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 who regard sacred things is the ''if'' of incredulity. In 1879, in Scotland, I saw letter which had been written many years ago by Thomas Car lyle to Thomas Chalmers. Carlyle, at the time of writing the letter, was a young man. The letter was not to be published until after the death of Car lyle. His death having taken place, the letter ought to be published.
 It was letter in which Thomas Car lyle expresses the tortures of his own mind while relaxing his faith in Chris tianity, while at the same time he ex- presses his admiration for Dr. Chalmers, and in which Carlyle wishes that he had the same faith that the great Scotch min ister evidently exercised. Nothing that Thomas Carlyle ever wrote in ''Sartor Resartus," or the French Revolution" CT his life of Cromwell" or his inn mortal Essays" had in it more won- drous power than that letter which be- walled his own doubts and extolled the strong faith of another.
 made 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 ho- tel in Edinburgh, felt uneasy lest some how that letter should get out of my pos session and be published before it's time So took it back to the person by whose permission had copied it. All reasons for it's privacy having vanished, I wish 1t might be published.
 AN INCIDENT.
 Perhaps this sermon. finding it's way into Scottish home, may suggest it's printing, for that letter shows more nightly than anything have ever read the difference between the "I know" of Paul. and the "I know" of Job, and the 'I know" of Thomas Chalmers, and the s'I know" of all those who hold with a firm grip the old gospel, on the one hand, and the unmooring. bestorming and tor turing ''if' of incredulity on the other. like the positive faith of that sailor boy that Captain Judkins of the steamship Scotia picked up in hurricane. "Go aloft," said Captain Judkins to his mate, land look out for wrecks."
 Before the mate had gone far up the ratlines he shouted: "A wrecki A wreckr' Where awayY" said Captain Judkins of the port bow," was the answer. Lifeboats were lowered, and 40 men vol unteered to put out across the angry sea for the wreck. They came back with a dozen shipwrecked, and among them a boy of 12 years.
 "Who are you?' said Captain Judkins The answer was: 'I am Scotch boy. My father and mother are dead, and I am on my way to America" "What have you herer' said Captain Judkins as he opened the boys jacket and took hold of a rope around the boy's body. Ut is rope," said the boy. But what is that tied by this rope under your arm2'' That, sir, is my mothers Bible. She told me never to lose that" Gould you not have saved something else?" "Not and saved that" Did you expect to go downr' 'sYes, sir, but I meant to take my mothers Bible down with me-" ''Bravop said Captain Judkins. "I will take care of you.'
 That boy demonstrated a certainty and confidence that like. Just in propor- tion as you have few ''ifs" of incredulity