The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1900-06-30
OF DIVINE ORIGIN.
DR.. Talmage's Reasons for His Be
lief in the Scriptures.
The Good Accomplished in the World
ms an Evidence-An Answer to
AgnOstieism-PrOph
FULFILLED.
copyright. 1900 by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington

In the great conflict now raging i
Europe as in this country between
Christianity and agnosticism DR.. Tai
{ mage has taken decided stand, and il
this sermon declares his unwaverinj
1 belief in the divine origin of the Scrip
lures; text, Matthew, ZIG, do mel
gather grapes of thorns?'
Not in this country. Not in any
country. Thorns stick, thorns LAGER
ate, but all the thorns put together
never yielded one cluster of Catawbs
or Isabella grapes. Christ, who was
the master of apt and potent illustra
ton, is thus setting forth what you
and | 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 clus-
ter of grapes, you know that it was
produced by good grapevine and not
from tangle of Canada thistle. Now,
if | can show you that this holy Bible
yields good fruit. healthful fruit, splen-
did fruit, you will come to the conclu-
sion that it is good Bible, and all the
arguments of the skeptic against it
when he tries to show it is a 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 of the history of David and
Joshua, and they come to the conclu-
| sion that the Bible is in favor of lacera-
| ton and manslaughter and massacre.
Now, bad book will produce bad
result, a cruel book will produce cruel
result.
You have friends who have been in
the habit of reading the Bible a great
many years. Have you noticed a ten
dency to cruelty on their part? Have
you ever heard any of them come out
and practically say: 4 have been read
ing the story about the determination
of the Canaanites, and 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 pro-
portion as they become diligent Bible
students and disciples of the Christ of
the Bible shown a tendency toward
massacre and murder and manslaugh-
ter? Has that been your observation?
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
foot ha - 14l. l.
holds where the word of God is hon
ored? Have they as result of reading
this cruel book gone forth with cruel |
spirit to pull the wings of 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
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 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 became friends of
the Bible they became enemies to hui
mainly? Have you not, on the
contrary, noticed that all the institu-
tions of mercy established or being es-
tablished were chiefly supported by the
friends of this book? There is the hos
pital in war time. There are 20 Chris
tian women. They are binding up
wounds; they are offering cordials;
they are kneeling down by the dying
praying for their departed spirits.
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.
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 it in the sympathetic
prayer they offer at the bedside of the
dying? Your common sense tells you
that cruel book must produce cruel
results. When you can make a rose
leaf stab like bayonet, and when
you can manufacture icicles out of the
south wind, and when you can poison I
your tongue with honey got from
buckwheat. then you can I
get cruelty out of the Bible. That S
charge of the skeptics falls fiat in the
presence of every honest man.
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 5
TO allow your child to read an I'M a
clean book. Now, if this Bible be an '
impure book, where are the victims?
Your father read ibid it make him ]
! bad man? Your mother read it. a
lid it make her bad woman? Your 6
sister Is years in Heaven died in the {
aith of this gospel-did it despoil her I
Some say there are 200, 000,- i
700 copies of the Bible in existence,
iome say there are 400, 100000 copies p
If the Bible. 1t is impossible to get I
he accurate statistics, but suppose C
here are 200,0c0,c0O copies of the p
Bible abroad, this one book read more e
han any 20 books that the world ever n
printed, this book abroad for ages, for ]
enturies-where are the victims?
show me 1000. Show me 500 victims
# an impure book. Show me 100 de- a
poiled of the Bible. Show me 50. n
'how me ten. Show me two. Show il
ne one! Two hundred million copies a
# an impure book and not one victim Y
# the impurity! On the contrary, h
-ou know very well that 1t is where Ii
he Bible Las the most power that the a
amily institution is most respected. A