Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1901-07-25
DIR. TALMAGES SERMON
SUNDAYS DISCOURSE BY THE NOTED
DIVINE.

Subject: The Triumph of Christianity -
The Church of Christ is the Most En-
dearing Institution ON Earth-Its I'm
surpassed Growth-Infidelity Refuted.
copyright lsell
WASHINGTON, d. C. = Although DR..
Talmage was hindered from attending the
great annual meeting of the Christian En-
shows him to be in sympathy with the
great movement; text, Amos TX, IL. be
hold the days come, saith the Lord, that
the plowman shall overtake the reaper"
Unable because of other important du-
ties to accept the invitation to take part
in the great convention of Christian En-
deavorers at Cincinnati, l preach SER
mon of congratulation for all the members
of that magnificent association, whether
now gathered in vast assemblage or busy
in their places of usefulness, transatlantic
and cisatlantic. And, as it is now harvest
in the gathering of a great crop, l find
mighty suggestlveness IN my text.
1t is a picture of tropical cline, with
n season so prosperous that the harvest
reaches clear over to the planting time
and the swarthy husbandman, busy cut
ting the grain almost feels the breath of
the horses on his shoulders, the horses
hitched to the plow preparing for new
crop Behold the days come saith the
Lord, that the, plowman shall oyertake
the reaper" When is that? That is
now. That is this day; when hardly have
result than the plowman is getting ready
for another
In phraseology charged with all venom
and abuse and caricature l know that in
fides and agnostics have declared that
Christianity has collapsed; that the Bible
=, Oh hat ha Chr,s ian
church is on the retreat. / shall answer
that wholesale charge to-day.
Between 100000 and 1000, 900 Endeav-
orers sworn before high heaven that they
will do all they can to take America for
God, Europe for God, Asia and Africa for
God-are not the signs most cheering! Or,
to return to the agricultural figure of my
text, more than million reapers are over
taken by more than a million plowmen.
Besides this, there are more people who
believe in the Bible than at any time in
the worlds existence.
But now let us see whether the book Is
a last years almanac. Let us see whether
the church of God is a Bull Run retreat,
muskets, canteens and haversacks strew-
ing all the way. The great English hstor-
ian Sharon Turner, man of vast learning
and great accuracy, not clergyman, but
an attorney as well as a historian, gives
this overwhelming statistic in regard to
Christianity and in regard to the number
of Christians in the different centuries:
In the first century 100000 Christians, in
the second century 1900. 900 Christians, in
the third century 100000 Christians, in
the fourth, century l0,OoO,ooo Christians,
in the fifth century l5000, 900 Christians,
in the sixth century 20,000,000 Christians,
in the seventh century 24000,000 Chris
tans, in the eighth century 10000 900
Christians, in the ninth century 40, 900
Christians, in the tenth century $4,000 900
Christians, in the eleventh century TO-
100000 Christians. in the twelfth century
S0000,000 Christians, in the thirteenth
century 5000, 900 Christians, in the four
teenth century 10000 100 Christians in the
fifteenth century 100 600 900 Christians, in
the sixteenth century l25,000,000 Chris
tians, in the seventeenth century l55,000,-
900 Christians, in the eighteenth century
100000 900 Christians decadence,. as you
observe, in only one century and more
than made up in the following centuries,
while it is the usual computation that
there were at the close of the nineteenth
century 47009O,0 900 Christians, making us
to believe that before this century Is
close the millennium will have started its
boom and lifted its hosanna.
Poor Christianity What pity it has
no friends! How lonesome it must be! !
Who will take it out of the poorhouse? !?
Poor Christianity! Four hundred mill
ions in one century.
At the beginning of the nineteenth cen
tury $50 missionaries; at the close of that
century $4,000 missionaries and native
helpers and evangelists. At the beginning
of the nineteenth century there were only
$1,000 converts; now there are over ,000,-
600 converts from heathendom.
So Christianity is falling back and the
Bible, they say, is becoming an obsolete
bookl ! go into court, and wherever |
find judges bench or clerks desk !
find Bible. Upon what book could there
be uttered the solemnity of an oath?
What book is apt to be put in the trunk
life? The Bible. What shall / find in
nine out of every ten homes in this, city?
The Bible. In nine out of every ten homes
in Christendom? The Bible Votaire
wrote the prophecy that the Bible in the
nineteenth century would become extinct.
you that the room in which Voltare
wrote that prophecy not long ago was
crowded from floor to ceiling with Bibles
from Switzerland.
Suppose the Congress of the United
States should pass law that there should
no Bibles read. If there are 10000, 600
grown people in the United States there
would be 60000,000 people in an army to
put down such law and defend their
right to read the Bible But suppose the
Congress of the United States should
make a law against the reading or the
publication of any other book-how many
people would go out in such a crusade? F.?
Could you get $4,000 900 people to go out
and risk their lives in the defense Of
Shakespeare's tragedies or Gladstone s
tracts or Macaulay's History OF Eng
land?" You know that there are thou
sand men who would die in defense of
this book where there is not more than
one man who would die in the defense of
any other book. You try to insult my
common sense by telling me the Bible is
fading out from the world 1t is the most
popular book of the centuries.
"Oh," say people, "the church is col
lection of hypocrites, and it is losing its
power, and it is fading out from the
world" Is it? A bishop of the Metho
dist church told me that that denomina
ton averages two new churches every day
In other words, they build 730 churche:
in that denomination in a year, and
there are at least 1900 new Christian
churches built in America every year
Does that look as though the Christian
church were fading out, as though it We're
a defunct institution What stands near
est to the hearts of the American people
to-day? ! do not care in what village oi
what city or what neighborhood you go
NJ