The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1895-06-22
TALMAGE's SERMON.
Oenunciation Of Those Who Would
Expurgate the Scriptures.
The Old Tcstsncnt's Description OF wsoh-
sdness Purposely and Rightcousiy
Piain-No Giidingtof Ini-
guilty In tho Bible.

! Rev. L. Dewitt Talmage preached
on "Expurgation of the Scriptures" In
recent sermon In the Academy OF
music. New York city, basing his dis
course on the text:
Lot God DO true, but every man iiar.-Ro-
mans ILL.,, 4
He said: The Bible needs recon
rstruction. according to some inside
4 and outside the pulpit. It Is no sur
prise that the world bombards the
Scriptures, but 1t is amazing to find
Christian ministers picking at this In
che Bible, and denying that, until
many good people are left In the fog
about what parts Of the Bible they
ought to believe, and what parts re-
ject. The Nervousness of finding fault
with the Bible ut this time is most
evident. In our day the Bible Is as
sailed by scurrility, by misrepresenta-
ton, by infidel scientists, by all the
vice Of earth and all the venom Of per-
dition, and at this particular time
even preachers of the Gospel fall into
line of criticism of the word of God.
Why, II makes me think of ship in a
September equinox, the waves dashing
TO the top of the smoliestack, and the
matches fastened down, and many
prophesying the laundering of the
steamer, and ut that time some OF the
crew with axes and saws go down into
the hold Of the ship, and they try to
saw OFF some of the planlss and pry out
some of the timbcrs because the timber
did not come from the right forest! 1t
does not seem to me cnmmendable
business for the crew to be helping
the winds and storms outside with
their axes and saws inside. Now, this
old Gospel ship, what with the roaring
| of earth and hell around the stem and
stern, and mutiny on deck, is having o
very rough voyage, but have noticed
and the captain says he will see 1t
through. And / have noticed that
keelson and countertimber.knce are
built out of Lebanon cedar, and she is
going to weather the gale, but no
credit to those who make munity on
deck.
When see professcd Christians In
this particular day finding fault
with the Scriptures, it makes me think
of fortress terrifcally bombarded,
and the men on the ramparts, instead
of swabbing out and loading the guns,
and helping fetch up the ammunition
from the magazine, are trying with
crowbars to pry out from the wall GER
tain blocks of stone, because they did
not come from the right quarry. Oh.
men on the ramparts, better fight back
and fight down the common enemy,
instead of trying to make breaches In
the wall.
While oppose this expurgation of
the Scriptures, shall give you my
reasons for such opposition. WHAT"
say some of the theological evolution
lists, whose brains have been added
by too long brooding over Darwin and
Spencer, you don't now really believe
all the story of the Garden of Eden, do
you?" Yes, Us much as believe there
were roses In my garden last summer.
But" say they, you don't really be-
lieve that the sun and moon stood
still?" Yes, and If had strength
enough to create sun and moon
could mako them stand still, or cause
the refraction OF the suns rays so 1t
would appear to stand still. But"
they say, You don't really believe that
the whale swallowed Jonah?" Yes,
and II were strong enough to make
q whale could have made very easy
ingress for the refractory prophet
leaving TO evolution to eject him, IL he
were an unworthy tenant! But" say
they, you don't really believe that
the water was turned into wine?"
Yes, but as easily as water now is
often turned into wine with an ad-
mixture of strychnine and logwood!
But" say they, You don't really be-
lieve that Samson slew a thousand
with the juwbone of an assT' Yes,
and I think that the man who in this
day assaults the Bible Ia welding the
same weapon!
There is nothing in the Bible that
staggers me. There are many things
do not understand, do not pretend
90 understand, never shall In this
world understand. But that would be
a very poor God who could be fully un-
derstood by the human. That would
be very small Infinite that can be
measured by the finite. You must not
expect to weigh the thunderbolts of
Omnipotence in an apothecary's bal
ancea Starting with the Idea that
God can do anything, and that he was
present at the beginning and that he
is present now, there is nothing In the
Holy Scriptures to arouse skepticism
in my heart Here stand, fossil OF
the ages, dug up from the tertiary
formation, fallen off the shelf of an
antiquarian, man I'M the latter part of
the glorious nineteenth century, be-
lieving In a whole Bible from lid to lid!
am opposed. to the expurgation of
the Scriptures in the first place, be-
cause the Bible in its present shape
has been SO miraculously preserved.
Fifteen hundred years after Herodotus
wrote his history, there was only one
manuscript copy Of it. Twelve hundred
years after Plato wrote his book, there
was only one manuscript copy Of it.
God was SO careful to have US have the
Bible in just the right shape that we
have fifty manuscript copies of the
New Testament q Thousand years old,
and some of them fifteen hundred
years old. This book handed down
from the time of Christ bv the hand