The Bossier banner., 1895-04-04
THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL
Rev. DR.. Talmage Says It is So
-..-.E OLD That It is New,
And, In Consequence, Ii the Greatest Novel.
g. ty of Our Time When 1t 10
.... Dragged Ont From Noun
tains of Perversion.


The following discourse was deliv-
cred by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage in the
Academy of music, New York city, on
''The Glorious Gospel" 1t was based
on the text:
According to the glorious gospel Of the
blessed God. which was committed to my
trust.-L Timothy, l., II. s-..- ID.
The greatest novelty of our time is
the Gospel. 1t is SO old that it is new.
As potters and artists are now at
tempting to fashion pitchers and cups,
and curious ware like those of nine
teen hundred years ago recently
brought up from buried Pompeii, and
such cups and pitchers and curious
ware are universally admired, so any
one who can unshovel the real Gospel
from the mountains of stuff under
which it has been buried, will be able
to present something that will attract
the gaze, and admiration, and adoption
of all the people. 1t is amazing what
substitutes have been presented for
what my text calls 1.-THE Glorious
Gospel There has been an hemis-
pheric ,apostasy. There are many peo-
pie in this and all other large assem-
blages who have no more idea Of what
the Gospel really is than they have of
what is contained in the fourteenth
chapter of Zend-Avesta, the Bible of
the Hindoo, the first copy of which l
ever saw l. purchased in Calcutta, In
dia, last September. The old Gospel
is fifty feet under, and the work has
been done by the shovels of those who
have been trying to contrive the
philosophy of religion. There is no
philosophy about it. 1t is a plain mat
ter of Bible statement and of childlike
faith. Some of the theological SEM
inaries have been hotbeds of infideliS,
because they have tried to teach the
PHILOSOPHY of Religion" By the
time that many young theological
student gets half through his prepara-
tory course he is so filed with doubts
about plenary inspiration, and the Di-
vinity of Christ, and questions of
eternal destiny, that he is more fit for
the lowest bench in the infant class of
Sunday-school than to become a
teacher and leader of the people. The
ablest theological professor is a Chris
tian mother, who out of her own ex-
perience can tell the four-year-old how
beautiful Christ was on earth, and
how beautiful He is in Heaven, and
how dearly He loves little folks, and
| then she kneels down and puts one
arm around the boy, and with her
somewhat faded cheek against the
roseate cheek of the little one, conse-
| crates him for time and eternity to
Him who said: Suffer them to come
made with the D. DIS, and the LII. DIS,
and the F. R. SIS, when he cleared the
decks of the old Gospel ship by saying:
mot many wise men, not many noble,
are called. but God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound
the mighty"
There sits the dear old theologian
with his table piled up with the great
books on Inspiration, and Exegesis,
and Apologetics for the Almighty, and
writing out his own elaborate work on
the Philosophy of Religion, and his lit
tie grandchild coming up to him for a
| goodnight kiss, he accidentally
knocks off the biggest book from the
table, and it tails on the head of the
child, of whom Christ himself said:
! "Out of the mouths of babes and suck
lings thou hast perfected praise" All,
| my friends, the Bible wants no apollo
getics. The throne of the last judg-
ment wants no apologetics. Eter-
| nifty wants no apologetics. Scien-
fists may tell us that natural
| light is the propagation of un-
| dulations in an elastic medium,
and thus set in vibratory motion by
the action of luminous bodies" But
no one knows what Gospel light is un
til his own blind eyes by the touch OF
the Divine Spirit have opened to see
the MONDAY of pardon and peace. Sci.
entists may tell us that natural sound
is ''the effect of an impression made
on the organs of hearing by an i'm
| pulse of the air, caused by collision
of bodies, or by other means" But
those only know what the Gospel
sound is who have heard the voice of
Christ directly, saying: "Thy sins are
forgiven thee; go in peace" The the
ological dude unrolls upon the plush
of the exquisitely-carved pulpit a
learned discourse showing that the
Garden of Eden was an allegory
and Solomon's song a rather in.
delicate love ditty, and the
Book of Job drama in which satar
was the star actor, and that Renar
was three quarters right about the
miracles of Jesus, and that the Bible
,vas gradually evoluted. Lord o
Heaven and earth, get us out of thu
London fog of higher criticism! Tht
night is dark and the way is rough
and we have a lantern which God ha
put. in our hands, but instead of em
ploying that lantern to show ourselves
and others the right way we are dis
eussing lanterns, their shape, thei
size, their material, and which is tn,
better light-kerosene, lamp oil o
candle; and while we discuss i
we stand all around the lantern
30 that we shut out the light from
the multitudes who are stumbling OF
the dark mountains of sin and death
Twelve hundred dead birds were foun,