The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1901-07-17
TALMAGES SERMON
Dr. Tslmass's Discourse on the Growth
and Perfection of Christianity.


and Perfection Of Christianity.
Although Dr.. Tslnage was hindereo
from attending the CREST annual meet
ing Of the Christian Endeayor society
at Cincinnati, his sermon shows him to
be in sympathy with the great move
nent; text. Amos *: 13, Behold
the days come, saith the Lord, that
the plowmsn shall oVertake tie reaper"
Unable because of other important
duties to sccept tie iov:tstion to
take part IN the great convention OF
Christian Endeavorers st Cincinnati,
begun last week, preach sermon OF
congrstulstion for sll the members cf
that magnificent association, whether
now gathered in vast assenb age OF
busy in their places of usefulness,
transatlantic and cissslantic, and as il
is now harvest time in the feds and
sickler are flashing IN the gathering Of
great crop, fad mighty suggestive
ness in my text.
It is picture o. tropical cline,
with season so prosperous that the
harvest reaches clesr over to the plant
ing time, and the swarthy husbsndmao
busy cutting the grain, slmost feels the
breath Of the horses on his shoulders,
the horse hitched to the ploE, pGepar,
ing for new crop. 'Behold the days
come, saith the Lord, the ploEman
shall overtaks the reaper" When is
that? That is now. That is this dsY
when hardly have you done reaping one
harvest Of religious result than the
plowman is getting ready for smother.
In phraseology charged with sll
venom and abuse ond caricsture I know
that infelds and sgnostics have dec!ar-
ed that Christianity hss collapsed: that
the Bible is an obsolete book; that the
Christian church is on the retreat. l
shall answer that wholesale charge to-
day.
Between 5000, 900 snd 4, 900. 600 En-
deavors sworn before high heaven that
they will do all they can to take
Anercs for God. Europe for God.
Asis and Africs for God-are not the
sign most cheering? Or, to return to
the agricultural figure Of ny text, more
than million reapers are overtaken by
more than q million ploWmen. Besides
this, there are more people who believe
in the Bible than st any time in the
worlds existence. An Arab guide was
leading French in6del across the de-
sert and ever and anon the Arab guide
would get down in the sand and pray to
the Lord. It disguised the French in
fdel, and after awhile, as the Arab got
up from cne of his prayers, the in6del
sai6, ''BoW do you know there is any
God?" And the Arab guide sald:
How do I know that man and q
camel passed by our tent last night? !
know it by the footprint in the sand.
And you want to know how I know
whether there is any God? Look at
the sunset. Il that the footstep Of a
man?" And by the same process you
and 7 have come to understand that
this book is the footstep of God.
But now let US see whather the book
is q last years almanac. Let Us see
whether tto church of God is Bull
Run retreat, muskets, canteens and
haversacks strewing all The way. The
great English historian Sharon Turner,
. man Of vast learning snd great &C
curacy, nota clergyman but an attorney
IS we'll as historian, gives this over
whelning statistic in regard to Chris.
tisnity and in regard to the number Of
Christians in the different centuries;
In the first century 500 600 Christians,
in the second century 2 0O0, 900 Chris
tians, in the third century 5000. OOO
Christians, in the fourth century TO-
100000 Christians, in the fifth century
Is, 900 900 Christians, in the sixth CEN
tury 100000 Christians, IN the
seventh century q 900, 600 Christians,
in the eight century 10000, 900 Chris
tisns, in the ninth century 10000, 600
Christians, in the tenth century So
100000 Christians, in the eleventh CEN
tury 70,000,000 Christians, in the
Twelfth century $4,000, 10000 Christians,
in the thirteenth century $4,000. 600
Christians, in the fourteenth century
$4,000, 900 Christians, N the fifteenth
century 100, 600, GOO Christians, in the
sixteenth century Ia, 900. 600 Chris
tains, in the seventeenth century l55,-
000, 600 Christians, in the eighteenth
century 200, 0O0,0)0 Christalns-s de-
cadence, as you observe, in only one
century, and more than msde up in the
following centuries, WnIle 1t is the
usual computation that there were al
the close Of the nineteenth century
470,000,000 Christians, making US to
believe thst before this century IS clos.
ed the millennium will have started
its boom and lifted its hossnns.
Poor Christianity! What pity it has
no friends! How lonesome it must be!
Who Ril! take it out of the poorhouse?
Poor Christianity! Four hundred mil
lions in one century. In few weeks
Of this yesc 2 500, 600 copies Of the New
Testament distributed. Why, the earth
is like an old castle with 20 gates and a
park Of artillery ready to thunder down
every gate. See how hesthendom is be-
ing surrounded and honeyconbed ana
attacked by this all conquering gospel.
At the beginning Of the nineteenth
century $50 missionaries; at the close
of that century 81. 900 missionaries and
native helpers an1 evangelists. at
the beginning Of the nineteenth CEN
tury there were only $4,000 converts.
Now there are over ]. 100000 converts
from heathendom.
You all know that an important work
Of an army is to plant the batteries. Il
may take many days to plant the bat
telies, and they nay do all the work in
ten minutes. These gospel batteries
are being planted al along the sescoasts
and in al nations. It may take good
while to plant them, and they may dc