The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1895-02-22
THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL.
DR.. Talmnge Discourses on a Time
IL Topic.
The Greatest Novelty of Our Time Is tine
GospeI-Ignorance of the People
on the ubject-Modern
Theorists.


what he termed the greatest novelty
of our time. The Glorious Gospel, :"
the text chosen being: According to
the glorious Gospel of the blessed God,
which was committed to my trust
l. Tim, lii. Following is the SER
mon:
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 LOO
years ago recently brought up from
buried Pom2eii, AMI such cups, and
pitchers, and curious ware are univer-
sally admired, so anyone who can I'M
shovel the real Gospel from the noun
tains of stuff under which it has been
buried will be able to present some
/ thing that will attract the gaze, and
l admiration. and adoption of all the
| people. 1t is amazing what substitutes
have been presented for what my
| text calls The Glorious Gospel"
/ There has been an hemisphere
apostasy. There are many people in
/ this and all other large assemblaTes
/ who have no more idea of what the
/ Gospel really is than they have of what
1 is contained in the fourteenth chapter
of Zend-Avesta. the Bible of the Him
doc. the first copy of which | ever saw
/ purchased in Calcutta. India, 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 plain matter of Bible state
ment, and of childlike faith. Some of
the theological seminaries have been
hotbeds of inidelity. because they
have tried to teach the philosophy of
religion" BY the time that many
young theological student gets half
through his preparatory course. he is so
filled with doubts about plenary inspira-
ton, and the divinity of Christ, and the
questions of eternal destiny, that he is
more fit for the lowest bench in the in
FAINT class of the Sunday school than to
become teacher and leader of the
people. The ablest theological profess
sor is Christian mother. who out of
old how beautiful Christ was on earth,
and how beautiful He now 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 some
what faded cheek against the roseate
cheek of the little one. consecrates him
for time and eternity to Him who said:
''Suffer them to come unto me-" What
an awful work Paul made with the
ID. DIS, and the Ii. d. s and the +. r. IS,
when he cleared the decks of the old
Gospel ship by saying: Not 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 theolcgian
with his table piled up with all the
great books on Inspiration, and Exc
gesis, and Apologetics for the AL
mighty, and writing out his own elab-
crate work on the Philosophy of Re-
ligion, and his little grandchild COM
ing up to him for goodnight kiss, he
accidentally knocks off the biggest
book from the table and it falls on the
head of the child. of whom Christ him
self said: Out of the mouths of babes
and sucklings thou hast perfected
praise" All, my friends, the Bible
wants no apologetics. The throne of
the last judgment wants no apollo
getics. Eternity wants no apologetics.
Scientists may tell us that natural
light is the propagation of undula-
tions in an elastic medium. and thus
set in vibratory motion by the action
of luminous bodies" but no one
knows what Gospel light is until
his own blind eyes by the
touch of the Divine Spirit have
opened to see the MONDAY of
pardon and peace. Scientists may tell
us that natural sound is 1.-The. effect of
an impression made on the organs of
hearing by an impulse 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 theological 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 rather indelicate love
ditty, and the book of Job drama in |
which Satan was the star actor, and |
that Renan was three-quarters right |
about the miracles of Jesus, and that |
the Bible was gradually evoluted and
the best thought of the different ages,
Moses, and David, and Paul doing the |
best they could under the circum- |
stances, and therefore to be encouraged |
Lord of Heaven and earth, get us out |
of the London fog of higher criticism.
The night is dark and the way is |
rough, and we have a lantern which |
God has put in our hands, but instead |
of employing that lantern to show our |
selves and others the right way, we are |
lanterns. their shape and |
size. their material. and which is the /
better ight-zerosene, lampol or can
die; and while we discuss it we stand /
all around the lantern, so that we shut |
out the light from the mnltitudes who |
are stumbling on the dark mountains
of sin and death Twelve hundred |
dead birds were found one morning |
around Bartholdi's statue in New York |
harbor. They had dashed their life out |
against the lighthouse the night be-
fore. Poor things! And the great
lighthouse of the Gospel-how many
thinkers have beaten all |
their religious life out against it, while
it was intended for only one thing, and
that was to show all nations the way !
into the harbor of Gods mercy, and 20
the crystalline wharves of the Heavenly |
City, where the immortals are waiting |