The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-07-11
DIR. TALMAGES> SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BYTHE NOTED
DIVINE,

|
DIVINE.
Subject: The Best OF All Books-Th
Bibles Divine Origin Upheld-Ful
filled Prophecies of the Old Testamen
Prove Its Emanation From God.
copyright lsOal
WASHINGTON, D. C.-In the great con
try, between Christianity and agnosticisn
Dr.. Talmage has taken decided stand
and in this sermon declares his unwaver
ing belief in the divine origin of the Scrip
tires; text, Matthew vii, l8, "Do ner
gather grares of thorns% 80
Not III his country. Not in any coun
try. 1horns stick, thorns laceratc, but
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 we'll know-that you cannot gel
that which is pleasant and healthful and
good from that which is bad. If you find
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
this Holy Bible yields good fruit, healthfu,
fruit, grand fruit, splendid fruit, you will
come to the conclusion it is coed Bible
and all the arguments OF the skeptic
book, will 60 overheard.
Do men gather grapes of thorns? Can
bad look yield good results? Skeptics
with grea! pehemence declare that tn, Bi-
| bic is 4 cruel hook. They read the story
oil the determination of the CanaaniSes
and ot all the ancient wars and of the his.
tory, of, David and Joshua, and they come
to the conclusion that the Bible is in ia.
vor of lacerati6n and manslaughter and
massacre. Nova 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 great many
| years. Have you noticed a tendency to
cruelty on their part? Have you ever
| heard any of them come out and practi-
cally say. 81 have been reading the story
about the determination of the Canaanites
and ] arm seized upon with a disposition
to cut and slash and maui and pinch and
murder and knock to pieces everything l
can lay my. hands on?", Have your friends
in proportion as they become .diligent Bi.
BE students and disciples Of the Christ Of
the Bible, shown tendency toward mas
saore and murder and manslaughter? 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 n
result of reading this cruel book gone
forth with q cruel spirit to pull the wings
off flies and to pinion grasshoppers and to
make cruel people; = 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
this 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 Oherlin. 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
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 war
time. There are twenty Christian women.
They are binding up wounds, they are Of
iering cordials, Trey are kneeling down by
he dying, praying for their departing spir..
Its. Where does the cruelty crop out:
They have been reading the Bible all their
lives. They read it every morning; they
:ead it every night; they carry. it under
Again, in6dels go, on and most vehe-
nently 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 Bi-
bic 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 bad woman?. Your sis
faith of this gospel-did it despoil her ma
ture? Some say there are 2O0,0000OO cop
es of the Bible in existence; some say there
are 40O.O00,000 copies of the Bible. 1t is
impossible to give the accurate statistics.
But suppose there are 00,000,0 900 copies of
the Bible abroad, this one book read more
than any twenty books Tat the world
ever printed. this book alb; ad for ages,
for ages, tor centuries-where are the VIC
sims? Show me 1000: show me 500 vic
tins of an impure book; show me 100 de-
ne 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 1t ls
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 mass of contradlc-
tions, and they put prophet against pro-
phet, evangelist against evangelist. apos-
lie against apostle, and they say if this be
true how, then, can that be true. Mr.
Mil, who was a friend Of the Bible, said
he had discovered 10000 different read
ings of the Scriptures and yet not one i'm
poltant difference out of $4,000, only the
difference that you might expect from the
:act that the book came down from .gener-
alton to generation, and was copied by
great many hands. And yet / put before
you this fact to.day-that all the Bible
writer's agree in the four great doctrines OF
he Bible.
What are these four great doctrines?
God-good. kind, patient, just, loving, ON
kipotcnt. 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
destroy themselves, only those who turn
their back upon Christ and come to the
precipice and jump off, for God never
pushes a man off; he Jumps of. Now,
in these four great doctrines all the
Bible writer's agree. Mozart, Beethoven,
Handel, Hadyn, never wrote more harmo-
nious music than you will find in this per
!ect 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 dit
ierent centuries. They had no communca-
ton with each other, they did not have an
idea rs to what was the chief Iesign of the
Bible, and yet their writings, 60. up from
all these different ages and al Il these, diff
iprent centuries, coming together, make
perfect harmony in the opinion OF the
very best scholars Of all lands. Is not that
a NEST remarkable fact?