Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1900-06-28
TALMAGE'S SERMON,
THE BIBLE. THE SUBJECT ON
LAST SUNDAY.
Good Accomplished Thereby an Evidence
of Its Divine Origin-An Answer to
the Cheap Agnosticism of the Pres.
ent Day.


ent Day.
copyrighted 1900 by Louis Klopsch)
Text, Matthew viii, l6, DO men
gather grapes of thorns?"
Not in this country. Not In any
country. Thorns stick. thorns LAGER
ate, but all the thorns ever put togeth-
err never yielded one cluster of Cataw-
ba or Isabella grapes. Christ. who
was the master of apt and rotent il
lustration, is thus setting forth what
you and l well know, that you cannot
get that which is pleasant and health
full and good from that which is bad.
IL you find a round, large, beautiful
cluster of grapes, you know that 1t was
produced by good grape vine and not
from tangle of Canada thistle. Now.
If / can show you that this holy Bible
yields good fruit, healthful fruit, grand
fruit, splendid fruit. you will come to
the conclusion that it is a good Bible,
and all the arguments of the skeptic
against 1t when he tries to show it is
bad book will go overheard.
DO men gather grapes of thorns?"
Can bad book yield good results?
Skeptics with great vehemence declare
that the Bible Is a cruel book. They
read the story of the determination OF
the Canaanites and of all the ancient
wars and the history Of David and
Joshua, and they come to the conclu-
hot hn 10 In, 20 ~
Grafton and manslaughter and massa-
ere. Now, bad book will produce a
bad result; cruel book will produce a
cruel result.
Eject on Children.
What has been the effect upon your
children of this cruel book? Or If you
do not allow the book to be read In
your household, what has been the eff
feet upon the children of other house
holds where the word of God is hon
ored? Have they, as a result of read
Ing this cruel book gone forth with
| cruel spirit to pull the wings off flies
and to pinion grasshoppers and to rob
birds nests? A cruel book ought to
make cruel people. If they diligently
read 1t and get absorbed with its prin-
ciples that cause must produce that
effect. At what time did you notice
that the teachings of this holy Bible
created cruelty in the heart and life OF
George Peabody, of Miss Dix, of Flor
ence Nightingale, of John Howard, OF
John Frederick Oberlin, Of Abbot Lau-
renee? Have you noticed in reading
the biography of these people that in
proportion as they become friends OF
the Bible they became enemies to hui
mainly? Have you not, on the con-
trary, noticed that all the institutions
of mercy established or being estab-
lished were chiefly supported by the
friends of this book? There Is the
hospital in wartime. There are twenty
Christian women. They are binding
up wounds; they are offering cordials;
they are kneeling down by the dying
praying for their departing spirits.
Where does the cruelty crop out? They
have been reading the Bible all their
lives. They read it every morning;
they read 1t every night; they carry 1t
under their arm when they go into the
hospital.
Where does the cruelty of the book
crop out? Is it in the gentleness of
their step? Is it in the cadence of their
voice? Is 1t in the sympathetic prayer
they offer at the bedside of the dying?
Your common sense tells you that a
cruel book must produce cruel results.
When you can make a rose leaf stab
like a bayonet, and when you can
manufacture icicles out of the south
wind, and when you can poison your
tongue with honey got from blossom
ing buckwheat, then you can get cruel
ty out of the Bible. That charge of the
skeptics falls fiat in the presence OF
every honest man.
The Charge OF Inhdels.
Again, infidels go on and most We
hemently charge that this Bible is an
impure book. You all know that an
impure book produces impure results.
No amount of money could hire you
to allow your child to read an un-
clean book. Now, II this Bible be an
impure book, where are the victims?
Your father read ibid 1t make him a
bad man? Your mother read ibid
1t make her a bad woman? Your sis
ter fifteen years in heaven died in the
faith of this gospel-did it despoil her
nature? Some say there are 100000
900 copies of the Bible in existence,
some say there are 400, 900, 900 copies
of the Bible. 1t is impossible to get
the accurate statistics, but suppose
there are 200 100000 copies of the Bible
abroad, this one book read more than
any twenty books that the world ever
printed, this book abroad for ages, for
centuries-where are the victims?
Show me 1000. Show me 500 victims
of an impure book. Show me 100 de-
spoiled Of the Bible. Show me fifty.
Show me ten. Show me two. Show
me one! Two hundred million copies
Of an impure book and no: one victim
of the impurity! On the contrary. you
Bible has the most power that the
family institution is most respected.
Again, agnostics go on still further,
and they say the Bible is mass of
contradictions, and they put prophet
against prophet, evangelist against
evangelist, apostle against apostle, and
they say If this be true, how, then, can
that be true? Mr.. Mill, who was a
friend of the Bible, said he had discov-
cred 10000 different readings of the
Scriptures, and yet not one important
difference out of 30,0O0-only the diff
ference that one might expect from
the fact that the book came down
from generation to generation and was
copied by great many hands. And