Connecticut western news., 1901-07-11

WASHINGTON, July 7.--Although Dr. Talmage was hindered from attending the great annual meeting of the Chris tfan Endeayor society at Cincinnati his sermon shows him to be in syul- pathy with the great movement; text, Amos K, 13, Behold the days cone, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtakc the reaper"
 Unable because of other important duties to accept the invitation to take part in the great convention of Chris tian Endeavorers at Cincinnati, begun last week, I preach q sermon of con- graduation 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 har vest time in the fields and sickles are flashing in the gathering of a great crop, l find mighty suggestiveness in my text.
 It Is a picture of a tropical cline, with season so prosperous that the harvest reaches clear over to the plant ing time and the swarthy husbandman, busy cutting the grain, almost feels the breath of the horses on his shoulders, the horses hitched to the blow prepar- ing for a new crop. Behold the days come, saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper" When is that? That is now. That is this day, when hardly have you done reaping one harvest of religious result than the plowman is getting ready for another.
 In phraseology charged with all ven- om and abuse and caricature I know that infdels and agnostics have de- elared that Christianity has collapsed; that the Bible is an obsolete book; that the Christian church is on the retreat. shall answer that wholesale charge today.
 Between 3,OGo,O0O and 400O,00O En- deavorers 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 overtaken by more than a million plowmen. Be- sides this, there are more people who believe in the Bible than at any time in the worlds existence.
 Growth of Christianity.
 But now let us see whether the book Is last years almanac. Let us see whether the church of God is a Bull Run retreat, muskets, canteens and hayersacks strewing all the way. The great English historian Sharon Turner, a man of vast learning and great ac curacy, not clergyman, but an attor- ney as well as historian, gives this overwhelming statistic in regard to Christianity and in regard to the num- Der of Christians in the different cen turies: In the first century 100000 Christians. in the second century 2,G0O- 900 Christians, in the third century 5,O00,0O0 Christians, in the fourth cen tury 10,000,000 Christians, in the fifth century 15,O0O,O0O Christians, in the sixth century 2O,000,0C0 Christians, in the seventh century 24 100000 Chris tians, in the eighth century 30,000,000 Christians, in the ninth century 40,000,- 900 Christians, in the tenth century 50,
 
 tury 70,O00,0O0 Christians, in the twelfth century 8O,OO0,0O0 Christians, in the thirteenth century 75,OOO,0O0 Chris tians, in the fourteenth century S0,0O0, 900 Christians, in the fifteenth century 100,OOO,00O Christians, in the sixteenth century 125, 100000 Christians, in the seventeenth century 155,000,oo0 Chris tians, in the eighteenth century 20G,- 0OO,OC0 Christians-a decadence, as you observe, in only one century and mcre than made up in the following centu- ries, while 1t is the usual computation that there were at the close of the nine- teenth century 47000O,000 Christians, making us to believe that before this century is closed the millennium will have started it's boom and lifted it's hosanna.
 Poor Christianity! What a pity 1t has no friends! How lonesome 1t must be! Who will take 1t out of the poor house? Poor Christianity. Four hun- dred millions in one century In few weeks of this year 2,500,000 copies of the New Testament distributed. Why, the earth Is like an old castle with 20 gates and park of artillery ready to thunder down every gate. See how heathendom is being surrounded and honeycombed and attacked by this all conquering gospel. At the beginning of the nineteenth century 150 mission aries; at the close of that century S4- 900 missionaries and native helpers and evangelists. At the beginning Of the nineteenth century there were only 6O,CO0 converts; now there are over 100000 converts from heathendom.
 So Christianity is falling back and the Bible, they say, is becoming an ob- solete book! l go into q court and wherever l find a judges bench or a clerks desk I find Bible. Upon what book could there be uttered the soiem- nifty of an oath? What book Is apt to be pnt in the trunk of the young man as he leaves for city life? The Bible. What shall I find in nine out of every ten homes in this city? The Bible. In nine out of every ten homes in Chris tendon? The Bible. Voltaire wrote the prophecy that the Bible in the nine= teenth century would become extinct. The century Is gone, and I have to tell you that the room in which Voltaire wrote that prophecy not long ago was crowded from floor to ceiling with Bi- bles from Switzerland.
 Suppose the congress of the United States should pass a law that there should be no more Bibles printed ill America and no Bibles read. If there are G0,0000O0 grown people in the United States, there would be 60.000,- GOO people in an army to put down such a law and defend their right to read the Bible. But suppose the congress of the United States should make law against the reading or the publication of any other book-how many people would go out in such a crusade? Could you get 60,OO0,000 people to go out and risk their lives in the defense of Shake speare's tragedies or Gladstone's tracts or Macaulays History of EnglandT' You know that there are a thousand men who would die in the defense of