The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1895-06-14
THE BIBLE AS TT IS.
REV. DR.. TALMAGE ON THE ExPuRGA-
TON OF THE SCRIPTURES.

| Nor Taken From It-An Eioqueht ser
mon oil 1 iiifleis toris.
NEW YORK, June 9.-In his sermon
FOR today Rev. Dr. Talmage deals with
\ subject that is agitating the entire
Christian church at the present moment
viz, "Expurgation Of tho Scriptures,
The test chosen was, "Let God be true,
but every mui harh tRomans iii. ~,
The Bible needs reconstruction &C.
| hording to some inside and outside tho
pulpit u Is no surprise shat the world
bombards the Scriptures; but it is amaz-
ing to find Christian ministers picking
at this in tho Bible and denying that
until many good people are left in tho
fog about what parts of tho Biblo they
| 1ught to believe and what parts reject,
! rho Righteousness of fuding fault with
,ho Bible 1T this timB is most evident,
In our day the Bible is assailed by sour
rility, by misrepresentation, by intidel
scientists, by all the vice of earth and
all the venom of perdition, and at this
particular time even preachers Of the
gospel fall into line of criticism of the
word of God. Why, it makes me think
= Il sLif1i d September ssuilox, the
waves dashing to the top Of the smoke
stack. and the matches fastened down,
and many prophesying the laundering
of the steamer aud at that time some
Of the crew with axes and saws 90 down
! ihto the hold of the ship, and they try
| TO Saw ~ some of. the blanks and pry
! Gdt SOME OF the timbers because che tim
Der did not come from the right forest.
1t does not seem to me n commendable
business for the crew to be helping the
| winds and storms outside with their axes
| lind SAWS inside; Now this old gospel
| ship, what with the foafing of earth and
holl around tho stem and stern and
mutiny on deck, is having a very rough
voyage, but have noticed that not one
of the timbers has started, and the cap
tan says he will see it through. And /
huJ6 Noticed that keelseh and counter
| tiahSr knee are buil5 ont of Lebanon
H5,laf and she is going to weather the
gale, bat no credit to those who make
mutiny on deck.
Expurgation of the Scriptures.
When see professed Christians in this
| particular day finding fault with the
| Scriptures, it makes mo think of for
| tyRss terriHdally boliibafdcd, and the men
8ii the EainDarts; Instead Of sWabbipg
out and loading the guns and helping
| fetch up the ammunition from the mag
azinc are trying with crowbars to pry
| ont from the wall certain blocks of stone,
because they did not come from the right
quarry. Oh, men on the ramparts, bet
ter fight back, md fight down the COM
! inoI cu0hiS, instead of trying to make
breaches III the WALL
While Ioppose this expurgation of the
Scriptures, shall give you my reasons
for such opposition. "Whatv' say some
of the theological evolutionists whose
brains have been added by too long
brooding over them by Darwin and
Spencer, you don't now really believe
all the story Of the garden Of Eden, do
your Yes, as much as 1 believe there
were roses il my garden last summer.
But" say they, "you don't really
believe that the sun and moon stood
still:' Yes, and if l had strength enough
| ii create a sun and moon | could make
them stand still or cause the refraction
of the suns rays so it would appear to
stand still But" they say, "you
don t really believe that the whale swal-
| lowed ,Jonah?" Yes, and if l were
strong enough to make whale could
have made very easy ingress for the re-
fractory prophet, leaving to evolution to
eject him if he were an unworthy ten
nut But, say they, you don t really
| believe that the water was turned into
Nne?' Yes, just as easily as water now
is often turned into wine with an adj
mixture Of strychnine and logwood!
"But," say they, 'you don't really be-
Ievc that Samson slew / 900 with the
jaw bone Of an ass?' Yes, and | think
that the man who in this day assaults
the Bible is welding the same weapon
There is nothing in the Bible that
staggers me. There are many things
do not understand, do not pretend to
understand, never shall in this world
understand, But that would be q very
| poor Tod who could be fully understood
by the human That would be a Very
small Infinite that can be measured by
the finite. You must not expect to weigh
the thunderbolts of Omnipotence in an
apothecary's balances 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 l stand a
fossil of the ages, dug up from the tI
tiary formation, fallen off the shelf Of
Hi antiquarian, q man in the latter part
Of the glorious nineteenth century be-
lieving iii whole Bible from lid to lid
Divinely Protected.
l am opposed to the cxpurratiOu G.
the Scriptures in tho first place, loca1s,
the Bible in its present shape has rc'
so miraculously preserved. Fifteen ll,
bred years after Herodotus wrote
history, there was only one manYrs'.
copy Of it. Twelve hundred years a.
Plato wrote his book, there was only q.
manuscript copy of it. God was so car
full to have us have the Bible in Just t.,
right shape that we have so inana>c'
copies of the New Testament I'll nt,i'
years old, and some Of then 800 "
old. This book handed down from
time Of Christ, Or Just after the t.r,r
Christ, by the hand Of such men as g.
gen in the second century and Tertul-a
i'll the third century, and by men of d
ferent ages who died for their principle
The three best copies of the New Tesla
ment ii manuscript i'll the possession q
the three great churches-the Protcstant
church of England, the Greek church o.
s.. Petersburg and tho Romish church O
Italy.
It is a plain matter of history tina
Tischendorf went to convent in thu
peninsula of Sinai ard was by ropes r.
ed over the wall into the convent. III.
being the only motIo of admission, az,
that he saw there il the vast c',asl-ct fu
kindling for tie fires II ilGlHecr;p ut O
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