The morning times., 1896-02-17


DR.. Talmage preached for the first time
al Il morning service at the First Presby
terian Church yesterday morning on the
subject THE IFS of the Bible" to a large
congregation. The afternoon service was
equally we'll attended. In the morning
sermon DR.. Talniage said in part:
Text, Exodus xxxii:32: "If Thou wilt
forgive their sin; and if not, blot me,
pray Thee, out of Thy book
There is in our English language a small
conjunction, which ] propose, with Gods
help, to haul out of its present insuffciency
and set upon the throne where il belongs,
and that is the conjunction If
Though made of only two letters, it is
the pivot on which everything turns. All
time and all eternity are at its disposal.
We slur it i'll our utterances, we ignore it
i'll our appreciation, and none of US recog-
niZe it as the most tremendous word in all
the vocabulary outside of those words
which describe Deity.
If! Why that word we take as tramp
among words now appearing here, now
appearing there but having no value of
its own, when it really has millionaire
dom of worlds and in its train walk all
planetary, stellar, lunar, solar destinies.
If the boat of leaves, made watcr-tight in
which infant Moses sailed the Nile, had
sunk who would have led Israel out of
Egypt?
SOME CONSEQUENCES.
If the Red Sea had not parted for the
escape of one host ana then come together
for the submergence Of another host, would
the Book Of Exodus ever have been written?
If the ship on which Columbus sailed for
America had gone down in an Atlantic
cyclone, how much longer would it have
taken for the discovery OF this continent?
II Grouchy had come up with reinforce
ments in time to give the French he victory
at Waterloo, what would have been the
fate of Europe? If the Spanish Armada
had not been wrecked off the coast, how
different would have been many chapters
in English history.
II the battle OF Hastings, or the battle
of Pultowa, or the battle OF Valmy, or
the battle of Metauras, or the battle of
Arbela, or the battle OF Chalons. each one
OF which turned the worlds destiny, had
been decided the other wayi If Shakes
peare had never been born for the drama,
or Handel had never been born for music,
or Titan had never been born for painting,
or Thorwaldsen had never been born for
sculpture, or Edmund Burke had never
been born for eloqGence, or Socrates had
never been born for philosophy, or Black
stone had never been born for the law, or
Cobernicus ha d never been born for astron-
omy, or Luther had never been born for the
reformation!
Oh, that conjunction ''lf,'' How much
depended on it. The height OF it, the
depth of it, the length of it, the Breadth OF
it, the immcnsity OF it, the infinity OF it,
who can measure? It would swamp any
thing but Oninipotenee.
First the 'if' of overpowering earnest
ness. My text gives it. The Israelites
have been worshiping an idol, notwitl.-
standing all that 6 od had done for them,
aud now Moses offers the most vehement
prayer Of all history. aud it turns upon
an''ff.' IF thou wilt forgive their sins
and if not, blot me. pray Thee. out of Tiny
| book" Oh, what an overwhelming ''if''
IF OF FINCREDULITY.
What yehemence and holy recklessness
OF prayer. Yet there are those here who,
have no doubt. in their all-absorbing
desire to have others saved, make the
! same prayer, Tor IL is 1lSk.
Another Bible ''If' is the 'If' of in
| credulity. Peter used that same "Ir'
when, standing on the wet and slippery
deck-af-a fishing smack OF Lake Galilee, he
saw Christ walking on the sea as though
j it were as solid as a pavement of basat
from the adjoining volcanic hills, and Peter
cried out: IF it be Thou. let me come
10 Thee on the water" What a prepos-
/ ferrous "IfI
Almost everybody is chewing on an "If."
When many man bows for prayer, he puts
his knee on an "If." The door through
which people pass into infideity and athe
ism and all immoralities has two door
posts, and the one is made up of the let
ter .'r' and the other of the letter FL
There are only four steps between strong
| faith and complete unbeief. First, sur
| render the idea OF the verbal spira tion of
the scriptures, and adopt the idea that
they We're all generally supervised by the
| Lord. Second. surrender the idea that
they were all generally supervised by the
| Lord, and adopt the theory that they
| were not all, but partly, supervised by the
| Lord.
| Third, believe that they are the gradual
| evolution of the ages, and men wrote ac-
cording to The wisdom OF the times in
which they lived. Fourth, believe that
the Bible is bad book and not only un-
worthy of credence, but pernicious and
debasing and cruel.
There is only one kind of prayer in which
! you need to put the if and that is the
| prayer for temporal blessings. Pray for
| riches and they may engulf us, or for
| fame and it may bewitch us, or for worldly
success of any sort and it may destroy us.
! Bettersay ''If it be best" IF can make
proper use of it, If thou seest need it."
A wife praying for the recovery of her
| husband from Illness, stamped her foot
! and said with frightful emphasis: Il
| VIII not have him die; God shall not take
| him.
Her prayer was answered, but a few
| years after the community was shocked
! by the fact that be had in moment of
| anger slain her. A mother, praying for a
sons recovery from Illness, told the Lord
he had no right to take him, and the boy
recovered, but plunged into all denominations
] and died renegade.
Abraham's prayer for the rescue Of
Sodom was a grand prayer in some re-
spects, but there were six Ifs in it. or
| 'peradventures," which means the same
| thing "Peradventure there may be fifty
| righteous in the city, peradventure forty
4 five npradypnturp forty nprodyan ture