Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1900-06-29
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE EMINENT DIvINE's SUNDAY
DISCOURSE.
Subject: The Best or All Books-The
Bibles Divine Origin Upheld--Fni-
filled Prophecies of the Old Testament
Prove It's Emauation From God.


Bibles Divine Origin Upheld--Ful-
filled Prophecies of the Old Testament
Prove Its Emanation From God.
Copyright 1901
WASHINGTON, D. Gin the great con.
fict now raging in Europe, as in this .oun-
try, between Christianity and agnosticism
DIR. Talmage has taken a 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 grapes of thorns?"
l. Not in this country. Not in any coun-
try. 1horns stick, thorns laccratc, bnt
all the thorns put together never yielded
one cluster Of Catawbsa or Isabella grapes.
Christ, who was the master of apt and po-
tent illustration. 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 cluster OF grapes:
you know that it was produced by a good
| grapevine, and not from d tangle OF Can
ada thistle. Now, if can show you that
this Holy Bible yields good fruit, healthfui
fruit, grand fruit, splendid fruit, you Will
| come to the conclusion it is coed Bible,
| and all the arguments OF the .skeptlcc
| against it when he tries to show it is bad
| book, will 60 overheard.
Do men gather grapes OF thorns? Can
| n bad look yield good results? Skeptics
with great vehemence declare that the hi
bic is a cruel hook. They read the story
| oil the determination of the Canaaniscs
| and OF 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 laceration and rlanslaughter and
! massacre. Now, 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
| wears. Have you noticed tendency to
cruelty on their part? Have you ever
heard any of them come out and practi-
cally say, ri have been reading the story
about the determination of the Canaanites
and I am seized upon with a. disposition
to cut and slash and maui md pinch and
murder and knock to pieces everything i
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 a tendency toward mas
sacre and murder and manslaughter! Has
that been your observation!
What has been the effect upon your chill
| dren of this cruel book? Or, il you do not
allow the book to be read in your house
| Mold. what has been the effect upon the
children of other households where the
Word of God is honored? Have they as a
result of reading this cruel book gone
forth with cruel spirit to pull the wing:
of flies and to pinion grasshoppers and to
rob birds nests? A cruel book ought to
it and get absorbed with its principles that
cause must produce that effect. At what
time did you notice that the teachings o.
this Holy Bible created cruelty in the heart
and the life of George. Peabody, of Mis-:
Dix, of Florence Nightingale, of Johr
Howard. of John Frederick Oberlin, o.
Abbot Laurence? Have you noticed IL
reading the biography of these people that
in proportion as they became friends o.
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
were chiefly supported by the friends o.
this book? There is the hospital in wal
time. There are twenty Christian women
They are binding UP wounds. they. are OF
ferinG cordials, they are kneeling down BY
the diving, praying for their departing spir
it's. Where does the cruelty crop out
They have been reading the Bible all then
lives They read it every morning; they
read it every night; they carry, it under
their arm when they go into the hospital.
Again, inidels go on and most. vehe
mently charge that this Bible is an impure
book. You all know that an impure 6ool
produces impure results. No amount o
money could hire you to allow your chile
to read an unclea- book. Now, if this Ri
bic be an impure book, where are the VIC
Tins? Your father read it--did 1T 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 tn
faith of this gospel-did it despoil her ma
ture? Some say there are 2OO,OO0,OO0 cop
les of the Bible in existence; some say Their
are 4O0000,0O0 copies of the Bible. 1t i
impossible to give the accurate statistics
But suppose there are 200, 600 copies
the Bible abroad. this one book read NOR
than any twenty books that the worlt
ever printed, this book abroad for ages
for ages, for centuries-where are the VIC
TINS? Show me 1000; show me 500 vic
tins of an impure book; slrow me 100 dc
spoiled of the Bible; show me- fifty; SHOW
me ten; show me two; show me one. Nv
hundred million copies of an impure book
and rot one victim Of the impurlty. W
the contrary. you know very wen that II
where the Bible has the most power tina
the family institution is most respected.
Again, agnostics 90 on still further, ant
they say the Bible is a mass OF contradlc
tions, and they put prophet against pro
phet, evangelist against evangelist, apps
lie against apostle, and they say II this b
true how, then, can that be true. MI
Mill. who was friend of the Bible, sal,
he had discovered 10000 different read
ings of the Scriptures and vet not one I'm
portant difference out of 10000, only tn
difference that you might expect from tn
fact that the book came down from .genel
alton to generation, and was COPIED by
great many hands. And yet l put bef !I
you this fact. to,day-that all the BID
writers agree in the four great doctrines
the Bible.
What are these four great doctrines
God-good, kind, patient, just, loving, on
nipotent. Mana lost sinner. Two dest
niee-one for believers, the other for III
believers. All who accept Christ reachin
that home and only those destroyed VIII
destroy themselves, only those who tuT
their back upon Christ and come to tn
precipice and jump off, for God nevt
pushes man off; he jumps off. No,y
in these four great doctrines an u
| Handel, Hadyn, never wrote more harm
nicus music than you will find in this pc
feet harmony of the Word of God, the ha
mony in providence and in grace.
You must remember also that the a.
thors of the Bible came from ditfereI
lands, from different ages and from di
ferent centuries. They had no commune
ton with each other, they did not have
idea as to what was the chief design OF Il
Bible, and yet their writings, got up fro
all these different ages and all these, di
ferent centuries, coming together, make
perfect harmony in the opinion OF II
very best scholars of all lands. Is not TIL
most remarkable fact?
Again, infdels vehemently charge TIL
the Bible is all unscienti6c book. In
former discourse I showed you that the
was no collision between science and rev
IS lation, and went from point to point