Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1900-07-11
SERMON
Rev. DR.. Calrlae<

wv UU~ \WDu1stSE<
Bible's Divine Origin Upheld-Ful-
filled Prophecies of the Old Testament
Prove Its Ensnation From God.
ICopyriRht lsoo.I
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In the great con-
dict now raging in Europe, as in this coun-
try, betw cen Christianity and agnosticism
Dr. Talmage has taken decided stand,
and in this sermon declares his unwaver-
ing belief in the divine origin of the Scrip
lures; text, Matthew vii, l6, DO men
gather grares of thOrns?"
Not IN his country: Not in any coun-
try. 1horns stick, thorns laceratc, bat
one cluster of Catawba or Isabella grapes.
christ, who was the master of apt and po-
tent illustration, is thus setting forth what
you and l well know-that you cannot get
that which is pleasant and healthful and
good from that which is bad. Ii you find
4 round, large, beautiful cluster of grapes.
you know that it was produced by good
grapevine. and not from tangle of Can
ada thistle. Now if | can show you that
.nis Holy Bible yields good fruit, healthfu:
;ruit, grand fruit, splendid fruit, you will
come to the conclusion it is coed Bible,
against it when he tries to show it is a bad
book, will go overheard.
Do men gather grapes of thorns? Can
bad hook yield good results. Skeptics
With great vehemence declare that the B-
3lc is a cruel hook. They read the story
IL the determination of the Canaan,cs
and 6i all the ancient wars and of the his
1ory of David and Joshua, and they come
20 the conclusion that the Bible is in IA
sor of laceration and manslaughter and
massacre. Now, a bad book will produce
bad result, cruel book will produce a
cruel result.
You have friends who have been in the
habit of reading the Bible a great many
years. Have you noticed a tendency to
cruelty on their parts Have you ever
heard any of them come out and practi-
caly say, Il have been reading the story
about the determination of the Canaantes
and l am seized upon with a disposition
to cut and slash and maui and pinch and
murder and knock to pieces everything |
can lay my hands on:' Have your friends
in proportion as they become diligent BIZ
BILE students and disciples of the Christ OF
the Bible, shown a tendency toward mas
sacre and murder and manslaughtery Has
that been your observation!
What has been the effect upon your chill
dren of this cruel book! Or, if you do not
allow the book to be read in your house
hold, what has been the effect upon the
children of other households where the
Word of God is honored. Have they as a
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
it and get absorbed with its principles that
cause must produce that effect. At what
time did you notice that the teachings OF
his Holy Bible created cruelty in the heart
and the life of George Peabody, of Miss
Dix, of Florence Nightingale, of John
Howard, of John Frederick Oberlin, OF
Abbot Laurence? Have you noticed in
reading the biography of these people that
the Bible they became enemies to human
ty? Have you not, on the contrary, no
ticed that all the institutions of mercy
we're established, or, being established,
were chiefly supported by the friends OF
this book There is the hospital in wal
lime. There are twenty Christian women.
They are binding up wounds. they are of
tering cOrdials, they are kneeling down by
The dying, praying for their departing spir-
its. Where does the cruelty crop out!
They have been reading the Bible all theiI
lives. They read it every morning; they
read it every night; they carry. it under
their arm when they go into the hospital
Again, inhdels go on and most vehe-
mently 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 unclea book. Now, if this BIZ
BILE be an impure book, where are the VIC
him bad man? Your mother read it
did it make her bad woman. Your sis
ter fifteen years in heaven died in the
faith of this gospel-did it despoil her ma
ture? Some say there are 200, 100000 cop.
les of the Bible in existence; some say there
are 400, 900 copies of the Bible. 1t IL
to give the accurate statistics.
But suppose there are 200, ,0O0, 900 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 ages, for centuries-where are the VIC
Tins! Show me 1000; show me 800 vic
tins 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 not one victim OF the impurity. On
the contrary. you know very well that it is
where the Bible has the most power that
the family institution is most respected.
they say the Bible is a mass of contradic-
tions, and they put prophet against pro-
phet, evangelist against evangelist, apos-
tie 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 discovered 10000 different read
ings of the Scriptures and yet not one i'm
portant difference out of $1,000, only the
difference that you might expect from the
fact that the book came down from gener-
alton to generation, and was copied by a
great many hands. And yet ! put before
you this fact to-day-that all the Bible
writers agree in the four great doctrines Of
the Bible.
What are these four great doctrines
God-good, kind, patient, just, loving, ON
nipOtent. Mana lost sinner. Two desti-
nies-one for believers, the other for un.
believers. All who accept Christ reaching,
that home and only those destroyed who
their back upon Christ and come to the
precipice and jump off, for God never
pushes man off; he jumps off. Now
in these four great doctrines all the
Bible writers agree. Mozart, Beethoven,
Handel, Hadyn, never wrote more harmo-
nious music than you will find in this per-
feet harmony of the Word of God, the har-
mony in providence and in grace.
You must remember also that the au-
thors of the Bible came from different
lands, from different ages and from diff
ferent centuries. They had no communica.
ton with each other, they did not have an
dea as to what was the chief Gesign of tho
Bible, and yet their writings, got up from
all these different ages and all these diff.
terent centuries, coming together, make a
perfect harmony in the opinion of the
very best scholars of all lands. Is not that
\ most remarkable fact?
Again, infdels vehemently charge that
the Bible is an unscientitic book. In a
former discourse l showed you that there
was no collision between science and reve-
lation, and l went from point to point in
the discussion. But now let us have au-
thority in this matter. You and 1 cannot
give the forty or tiity or sixty years exclu-
sively to the study of science that some
men give. Let us have authority in this
matter.
Who says there is a collision between
science and revelation! Well, Herbert
Spencer, Tyndall, Darwin. They say there
is discord between science and revela-
ton. But 1 will bring you names of men
science and revelation, men as much nigh
er in intellectual character above those
whom / have mentioned as the Alps and