Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1900-07-19
DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.
subject: The Beat of All Eooks-The
Bibles Divine Origin Upheld-Ful-
filled Prophecies of the Old Testament
Prove Its Einanation From God.

tCopyriaht 1soU.l
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In the great con-
Ect now raging in Europe, as in this coun-
try, between Christianity and agnosticIsm
DR.. Tal,nage has taken decided stand,
and in this sermon declares his unwaver-
lures; text, Matthew vii, l6, do men
gather srares of thorns!"
Not i'll his country. Not in any coua-
try. 1horns stick, thorns laceratc, Dat
all the thorns put together never yielded
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
round, large, beautiful cluster of grapes,
you know that it was produced by a good
grapevine, and not from a tangle of Can
ada thistle. Now if | can show you that
TINS Holy Bible yields good fruit, healthfu.
fruit, grand fruit, splendid fruit, you will
come to tine conclusion it is coed Bible,
and all the arguments of the skeptic
against it when he tries to show it is u bad
book, will go overheard.
DO mon gather grapes of thorns? Can
bad look yield good results? Skeptic5
with great vehemence declare that the Bi-
bic is a cruel hook. They read the story
and oi all the ancient wars and of the h's-
tory OF David and Joshua, and they come
to the conclusion that the Bible is in fa-
vor of laceration and manslaughter and
massacre. Now, bad book viii produce
a bad result, cruel book will produce u
cruel result.
You have friends who have been in the
habit of reading the Bible great many
years. Have you noticed tendency to
cruelty on their part! Have you ever
heard any of them come out and practi
cally say, Il have been reading the story
ms nf no tps
and l am seized upon with 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 Bi.
BILE students and disciples of the Christ of
the Bible, shown tendency toward mas
sacre and murder and mansaughter! Has
that been your observation!
What has been the effect upon your chill
dren of this cruel book! Or, if you do not
hold, what has been the effect upon the
children of other households where the
Word of God is honored! Have they as n
result of reading this cruel book gone
forth with cruel spirit to pull the wings
off flies and to pinion grasshoppers and to
make cruel people; if they diligently read
it and get absorbed with it's principles 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 the life OF George Peabody, of Miss
Howard, of John Frederick Oberlin, OF
Abbot Laurence? Have you noticed in
reading the biography of these people that
in proportion as they became friends of
the Bible they became enemies to human
ity? Have YOU not, on the contrary, no.
ticed that all the institutions of mercy
were established, or. being established,
We're chiefly supported by the friends OF
this book There is the hospital in war
time. There are twenty Christian women.
They are binding up wounds, they are Of
fering cordials, they are kneeling down by
its. Where does the cruelty crop out:
They have been reading the Bible all their
lives. They read it every morning; they
read it every night; they carry. it under
their arm when they go into the hospital
Again, intidels go and most vehe-
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
tins? Your father read it--did it make
him a bad man? Your mother read it.
did it make her a bad woman? Your sis
ter fifteen years in heaven died in the
faith of this gospe-did it despoil her ma.
ture? Some say there are 200,0OO,0O0 cop
les of the Bible in existence; some say there
are 400, 100000 copies of the Bible. 1t is
impossible to give the accurate statistics
But suppose there are O0,0OO,000 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 l000 show me 500 vic
Tins of an impure book; show me 100 de-
spoiled of the Bible; show M. 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 we'll that it is
where the Bible has the most power that
the family institution is most respected.
Again, agnostics go on still further, and
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
Mil, who was 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 10000. 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?
Hou-Soou. kiHu, patent, just, loving. ON
nipotent. Mana lost sinner. Two desti-
nies-one for believers, the other for un.
believers. All who acceps Christ reaching
that home and only those destroyed who
destroy themselves, only those who turn
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 writer's agree. Mozart, Beethoven
Handel, Hadyn, never wrote moro 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 ana from diff |
ferent centuries. They had no communca-
ton with each other, they did not have an |
idea as to what was the chief Gesign of the |
Bible, and vet their writings, got up from
all these different ages and all these diff |
ferent 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, intidels vehemently charge that |
the Bible is an unscentific book In |
former discourse showed you that there