Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-03-23
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
TALMAGE BREACHES ON THE
RELIGIOUS REVIVAL
An Answer to the Charge that Chris
tianity rs On the Decline-Meas Iring
InfdeIity - ChristiaEity Is Civiliza-
tlon.

acteristically vigorous sermon in refu-
tation of the oft-renewed assertion OF
the enemies of religion that Chris
tianity is retrograding and the Bible
losing its hold upon the hearts and
consciences of men. The subject of
the discourse as announced was:
From Conquest to Conquest" the
text being taken from Amos 8: xiii,
Behold the days come saith the
Lord, that the plowman shall over
take the reaper.'
Picture of tropical cline with a
season so prosperous that the harvest
reaches clear over to the planting
time and the swarthy husbandman
swinging the sickle in the thick grain
almost feels the breath of the horses
on his shoulders, the horses hitched to
the pillow preparing for a new crop.
Behold the days come, saith the
Lord, that the plowman shall over
take the reaper" When is that? That
is now. That is this day when hardly
have you done reaping one harvest
before the plowman is getting ready
for another.
l know that many declare that Chris
tianity has collapsed that the Bible is
an obsoletN Guok, that the Christian
church is on the retreat l will here
and now show that the opposite of
that is true.
An Arab guide was leading French
infidel across desert, and ever and
anon the Arab guide would get down
in the sand and pray to the Lord. 1t
disguised the French infdel, and after
awhile as the Arab got up from one of
his prayers the infidel said: How do
you know there is any God?" and the
Arab guide said: How do i know
that man and camel passed along
our tent last night? know it by the
footprints in the sand. And you want
to know how i know whether there is
any God. Look at that sunset. Is
that the footstep of man?" And by
the same process you and l have come
to understand that this book is the
footstep of God.
But now let us see whether the Bible
is last years almanac. Let us see
whether the church OF tod Is in Bull
Run retreat, muskets, canteens and
haversacks strewing all the way. The
great English historian, Sharon Tur-
ner, man of vast learning and of
great accuracy, not clergyman, but
an attorney, as well as a historian,
gives this overwhelming statistic in
regard TO Christianity and in regard
to the number of Christians in the diff
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500, 900 Christians; in the second cent
ury, 1000, 900 Christians; in the
third century, {, 900, 900 Christians;
in the fourth century, 10000,
900 Christians; in the fifth
century, 1900, 900 Christians; in
the sixth century, 20, 600. 900 Christians;
in the seventh century, "A, 600, 600 Chris
tians; in the eighth century, 10000, 0oc
Christians; in the ninth century, 40,
OOC, 900 Christians; in the tenth CEN
fury, so, 600, 100 Christians; in the
eleventh century, 20, 600, 900 Christians;
in the twelfth century, so, 600, 900 Chris
tians; in the thirteenth century, IS,
600, coo Christians; in the fourteenth
century, so, OOo, COO Christians; in the
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tians; in the sixteenth century, 125,
600, 600 Christians; in the seventeenth
century, 155, coo, 900 Christians; in the
eighteenth century, 200,000,000 Chris
tians-a decadence, as you observe, in
only one century, and more than made
up in the following centuries, while il
is the usual computation that there
will be, when the record Of the nine
teenth century is made up at least
800. 0O0 COO Christians. Poor Chris
tianityl what a pity it has no friends
How lonesome it must be. Who will
take it out of the poorhouse? Poor
Christianity! Three hundred million:
in one century. In a few weeks of the
year 1881 9. 500. 900 copies of the New
Testament distributed. Why, the
earth is like an old castle with twenty
gates and n park of artillery ready
to thunder down every gate. Lay
aside all Christendom and see how
heathendom is being surrounded and
honevcombed and attacked by this all
eoEquering gospel. At the beginning
of this century there were only l5(
missionaries; now there are 25, 00t
missionaries and native helpers and
evangelists. At the beginning of this
century there were only 50, 900 heather
converts; now there are l,750, 900 con
verts from heathepSom. There is not
sea coast on the planet but the bat
terry of the gospel is. planted and ready
to march on, north, south. east, west
You all know that the chief work OF
an army is to plant the batteries II
may take many days to plant the bat
teries, and they may do all their work
in ten minutes These batteries are
being planted all along the sea coasts
and in all nations. It may take good
while to plant them, and they may
do all their work in one dav. They
will Nations are to be born in one
day. But just come back to Christen
dom and recognize the fact that dur
ing the last ten years as many people
have connected themselves with evan
gelical churches as connected them
selves with the churches in the first
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