TUj?' DAILY HERALD: PLATTSMOUTII, NEBRASKA, MONDAY, AUGUST 6, 1883.
ORTHODOXY.
T.
DE WITT TALMACE AT
CHAUTAUQUA.
Tli Celebrated Brooklyn Divine Answers
tbe Question, "I Ortbodozy Stale and
Unreasonable?" Tbe Hi bio Divinely In
spired and Dlrlnely Protected.
CnAfTACQtTA, N. Y., Aug. 5. The
Rev. T. Do Witt Talmago, D. D., of
Brooklyn, id present for tlio twelfth timo
nt,tho national meeting of religious edu
cators and students held yearly in this
. place. IIi3 seruion today, which waa
delivered to an audience iuijtosing in
numbers and intelligence, was from, the
following text, in the. Look of Jeremiah
vi, 10: "Ask for the old paths, where
is the gopd way, and walk therein, and
ye shall find rest for your souls," and
answered the qu4tion: "Is Orthodoxy
.Stale and Unreasonable?" Following is
a verbatim report of it:
A great Ixjiidon fog has come down
v. n some of the ministers aud some, of
the churches inthoshapcof what is called
"advanced thought" in biblical interpre
tation. All of them, and without any
xception, deny the full inspiration of
iho IJiblc. (Jones's id an allegory, and
there are many myths in the l'ible, and
they philosophize and guess and reasoa
anil cvolute until they land in a great
continent of mud, from which, I fear,
f.r all eternity they will not 1 able to
extricate themselves.
The Bible is not only divinely inspired,
but it is divinely protected in its present
Bliapo. You could as easily, without de
tection, take from the writings of Shake
f?ar "Hamlet," and institute in place
thereof Alexander Smith's drama, as at
any time during the last liftecn hundred
juitaanian could pate made any im
portant change in the IJible without im
mediate detection. If there had been an
element of weakness, or of deception, or
of di ;ir.tegration, tho book would long
ago have fallen to pieces. If there had
been one loose brick or cracked casement
in tins castellated trutn, surely tlio ocp;
bardment of eight centuries would have
fli-overcd and broken through that ini
jerfection. The fact that the Bible
Jtiind intact, notwithstanding all the
furious assaults on all tides upon if, is
proof io mo that it is a miracle, and
pvery miracle is of God.
'dint,' paya Scfme one, "while we admit
" the Bible is of (Jod, it has not been un
derstood until our time." "My answer is,
that if tho Bible bo a letter from God, our
Father, toman, his child, is it not strange
that that letter should have been written
In eijeh a way that it should allow serT
L-nty generations io jmss away aiid Ihj
buried before the letter could Ixj under
stood? Tliat would be ' a very bright fa
liter wlu) should write a letter for the
guidance and intelligence of his children,
not understandable until a thousand
years after they were buried and forgot
ten I While as the joars roll on other
beauties and excellencies will unfold from
the Scriptures, tliat the Bible is suh i
ffead failure tlap all the christian schWar
i'or eighteen huhjied years were deceived
In regard to vast reaches of Us meaning,
is a uemanu upon my creuuuiy so greui
that if I found myself at all disposed to
yield to it J should to-morrow morning
apply ft t some insane asylum as unlit to
gp' alone. - ' " - "
: " "yVho make up tlds precious group of
advanced thinkers to whom God has
piadc especial revelation in our time of
that winch, he tried tornake knoiyh fhou
ridi of years ago and failed to make in
telligible? Are they so distinguished for
un world liness, piety and scholarship that
it is to be expected that they would have
been chosen to fix up tho defective work
of Moses and Isaiah and Paul and Christ?
Is it, at all possible? I wonder on what
jnonntam these modern tr&egeies were
transfigured? I wonder what star
lointcd down to their birthplace? Was
it the North star, or the evening star,
the Dipper? As they came through and
descended to our world did Mars blush
or Saturn lose one of its rings? When I
pud 'iheao- modern wiseacres attempt
ing to improve upon tho work of the Al
mighty and to interlard it with their
wisdom and to suggest prophetic and
apostolic errata, I am filled with a dis
gust insufferable. Advanced thought,
which proposes to tell the Lord what he
ought to have soid thousands of years ago.
and would have said if he had been as
Wise os his Nineteenth century critk '
All thi3 comes of living away back in the
eternities instead of 1S83. I have two
wonders in regard to these men. The
first one is how the Lord got along with
out them lx?fore they were born. The
t,econa wonder is how the Lord will get
jlc-ng without them after they are dead.
"" i-lint," say some, "do 'you really think
the Scriptures are inspired throughout?"
Yes, either as history or as guidance.
Gibbon and Josephus and Prescott record
in their histories a great many thing3
they did not approve of. When George
Bancroft puts upon his brilliant histor
ical rage the account of an Indian mas
sacre, does he approve of that massacre?
There are scores of things in tho Bible
w hich 'neither God nor inspired men
sanctioned. Either as history or as
guidance the entire Bible was inspired of
God.
'-But," fays some one, "don't yeu
think tliat the copyists might have made
mistakes in" trattsf erring the divine words
from pne manuscript to another?'' Yes,
lio doubt there were such mistakes; but
they no more affect the meaning of the
Scriptures than the misspelling of a word
or the ungrammatical structure of a
sentence in a last will and testament af
fect the validity or the meaning of that
wilL All the mistakes made by the
copyists in the Scriptures do not amount
to any mere importance than tho differ
ence between your" spelling in a 'docu
ment the word forty, forty cr fourty.
This book is the last will and testament
of God to our lost world, and it be
queaths everything in the right way,
although human hands may have ur.:a
aged the grammar or made unjustifiable
interpolation.
These men who pride themselves in
our day on being advanced tlunkers in
Biblical interpretation will all of them
'nd in atlieism. If they live long enough,
-d I 'declare her today they are doing
-e in the different denominations of
"rrj, and throughout the world,
Crrlitianity and hindpriirg
That man who stands inside a castle Is
far more dangerous if ho be an enemy
than five, thousand enemies outside the
castle. Robert G. Ingersoll assails the
castle from the outside. These men vho
pretend to be advanced thinkers in all
tho denomination are fighting tho truth
from tho inside, and trying to 6hovo
back tlio bolts and 6wing open the gates.
Now I am in favor of the greatest free
dom of religious thought and discussion.
I would have as much liberty for hetero
doxy as for orthodoxy. If I should
change my theories of religion I should
preach them out and out, but not in tho
building where I am accustomed to
preach, for tliat was erected by ieople
who U-lievo in an entire Bible, and it
would bo dishonest for mo to promulgate
sentiments different from those for which
that building was put up. When wo
enter any denomination sli ministers of
religion we take a solemn vow that wo
will preach tho sentiments of that de
nomination. If wo change our theories,
as we liave a right to change them, then
there is a world several thousand miles
in circumference, and there are hundreds
of halls and hundreds of academies of
music where wc can ventilate our senti
ments. I remember that in all our cities in
time of political agitation there are the
Republican headquarters and the Demo
cratic headquarters. SupjKJse I should
go into ono of these headquarters pre
tending to bo in sympathy with their
work, at tho same time electioneering for
the opposite party. I would soon find
that tho centrifugal force was greater
than the centripetal 1 Now, if a man
enters a denomination of Christians, tak
ing a solemn oath, as ho will do, that he
will promulgate the theories of that de
nomination, and then the man shall pro
claim some other theory, he has btvVei)
his oath and he s ai out ana out perjurer.
Nevertheless, 1 declare for largest liberty
Jn religious discussion. I would no more
have tho attempt to rear a monument to
Thomas Paine interfered with than 1
would have interfered with the lifting of
the splendid monument to Washington,
Largest liberty for the ho.ly, largest lib1
erty for the mind, largest liberty for the
soul.
Now, I want to show you, as a matter
of advocacy for what I believe to be the
right, tho splendors of orthodoxy. Many
have supposed tliat its disciples are peo
ple of flat skulls,' and no reading, and be
hind tho age, and the victims of gullibil
ity. shall fchow you thai tho word or
thodoxy stands for the greatest splen
dors outside of heaven. Behold the
splendors of the achievements. All the
missionaries of the Gospel the world
round are men who believe an uiue
Bible. Cal". lh& roll of - all hQ. Vision
aries who are today enduring sacrifices in
the ends of the earth for tho cause of re
ligion and the world's betterment, and
they all believe in an entire Bible, Just
as soon us a missionary begins to doubt
whether there ever was a Garden ci
Eden, or whether there is any such thing
as future punishment, he comes right
home from Beyrout or Madras, and Of
into the insurance business AM "tho
missionary societi6s" this' day ate Officered
by orthodox men, and are support ty
crtUcdM5 churchen.
Orthodoxy, beginning with the Sand
wich Islands, has captured vast regions
of barbarism for civilization, while
heteiwdoxy has to capture the iirst square
inch. Blatant for many years in Tireat
Britain and the United States, and strut
ting about with a peacockian braggado
cio it has yet to capture the first conti
nent, the. first state, the 'first ' 'township,
tho first ward, the first space of ground
as big as you could cover with the small
end of a sharp pin. Ninety-nine out of
every hundred of the Protestant churches
of America were built by people who be
lieved in an entire Bible. The pulpit
now may preach, eonie o.ther gospel ,'bui
it is " a 'lietcrouox gun on on orthodox
carriage. The foundations of ail the
churches that are of very great use in
this world today were laid by men who
believed the Bible from lid to lid, and if
I cannot take it in that way I will not
take it at all; jusfc as ? I received a tetter
that pretended to come from a friend,
and part of it wa3 his and part somebody
else's, and the other part somebody else's,
and it was a sort of literary mongrelism,
I would throw the garbled sheet3 into the
waste basket.
No church of very great nfle-iee
today bvif ws bu'lt -by "those who' be
lieved in an entire Bible. Neither will a
church last long built on a part of the
Bible. You have noticed, I suppose, that
as soon as a man begins to give up the
Bible he is apt to preach in some hi,
and he has an audience whiie he lives;
and when be dies' the Church dies. If I
thought that my church in Brooklyn was
built on a quarter of a Bible, or a half
Bible, P7 three-quarters of a Bible, or
ninety-nine ne-hundredths of a Bible,
I would expect it to die when I die ; but
when I know it is built on tho entire
"Word of God, I know it will last 200
years after you and I sleep the last sleep.
Oh, tho plendc.is of an orthodoxy
which' with l6.00Q 'hands and 10000 pul
pits and 10,000 Christian churches, is
trying to save the world !
In Music Hall, Boston, for many years
stood Theodore Parker battling ortho
doxy, giving it, as some supposed at that
time, its death wound, lie was the most
fascinating man I ever heard ' c)r ever
expect to hear,' and' I came hut from
hearing him thinking, in ray boyhood,
way, "WelJ, that's. h$ death of the
church." On that same street, and not
far from being opposite, stood Park Con
gregational church, called by its ene
mies "Hellfire Corner." Theodore Parker
died and his church died with him; or,
if it is in existence, it is so small you
cannot see t with he naked eye. Park
Congregational church' still' stands' on
"Hellfire Corner, " thundering away tho
magnificent trutlis of this glorious ortho
doxy just a3 though Theodore Parker
had never lived. Ail that Boston,, or
Brooklyn, or New York, or the world
ever got that is worth having came
through the wide aqueduct of orthodoxy
from tbe throne of God.
Behold the splenders of character built
up by orthodoxy. Who had the greatest
human intellect the world ever knew?
Paul. In physical stature insignificant;
in mind,' head and shoulders above all
the giants of the age. Orthodox from
scalp to heel. Who was the greatest poet
the ages ever saw, acknowledged to be so
both by infidels and Cbristianst John
HZtoo. tseing more nKhout eyes ttm
r 1 " ' r t-t rr t-!"i f C
tliodoz from scalp to heeL Who was the
greatest reformer the world lias ever
seen, so acknowledged by infidels ai well
as by Christians? Martin Luther. Or
thodox from scalp to heel.
Then look at the certitudes. O man,
believing in an entire Bible, where did
you como from? Answer: "I descended
from a jerfoct parentage in Paradise, and
Jehovah breathed into my nostrils the
breath of life. I am a son of God." O
man, believing in a half and half Bible, be
lieving in a Bible in spots, whers did you
come from? Answer: "It is all uncer
tain; in my ancestral lino away back
thero was an orang outang and a tadpole
and a olywog, and it took millions of
years to get mo evoluted." O man, be
lieving in a Bible in sjxjts, where aro you
going to when you quit this world?
Answer: "Going into a great to be, so
on into the great somewhere, and then I
shall pass through on to the f jeat any
where, and I shall probably arrive in the
iwjwhero." Tliat is where I thought
you would fetch up. O, man, believing
in an entire Bible, and lielieving with all
your heart, where aro you going to when
you leave this world? Answer: "I am
going to my Father's house; I am going
into tho companionship of my loved ones
who havo gone before; I am going to
leave all my sinj, and I am going to bo
with God and liko God forever and for
ever." Oh, the glorious certitudes of
orthodoxy!
Behold the splendors of orthodoxy in
its announcement of two destinies.
Palace and penitentiary. Palaeo with
gates on ail sides through which all may
enter and livo on celestial luxuries
world without end, and all for the knacky
ing and the asking. A palaeo grander
than if all the. Alhambiaa and tho Ver
sailles, and the- Windsor castles and the
Winter gardens and tho imperial abodes
of all the earth were heaved up into ono
architectural glory. At the other end of
the universe u penitentiary, where men
who want their sins can have thev.
Would it be fair that you nr.t J thoiiid
have our cho'rc Chiistand the palace,
and oilier men bo denied their clioico of
sin and eternal degradation? Palace
and penitentiary. The first of v4
use unless vou have the itj. Brooklyn
and New York would be better places to
live, iii with Raymond 6trcct jail and tho
Tombs and Sing Sing, and all the sniiiil
lox hospitals emptied f them, than
heaven wptd4 b& if there wero no hell.
Palace and ienitentiary. If I see a man
with a full bowl of sin, and he thirsts for
it, and his whole nature craves it, and he
takes holdjwitli both hands and prfc-
that bowl to his lips, ami ,hea pves'es'it
h.trd between his iee(;h' 'aAd the draught
bt-guia" i ' pcuf ' its sweetness down his
throat, shall we snatch away the bowl,
and jerk tho man up to the galo of
heaven, and pusli him in if ho. does not
want to go pud li down and sing psalms
lot everr No. God has made you and
mo so completely free that we need
go to heaven unless we prefer it.
not
Not
more free to soar than free to s'v,!,
nearly au ha hptc'rov'ox;
kno: believe all are. '("oninig out at
A 1
same destiin: without record to faith or
character wo :rs all coming out at the
shining gate. Thero they are, all in
glory together. Thomas Paino and
Gecrgo Whitefield, Jeaelicl and Mary
Lyon, Nero and Charles Wes', Cnarles
Guiteau ni ijaiiv k. Gariieldi John
Wilkes jpiooih and Abraham Lincoln all
in glory together! All tho innoeer-
men, women and cliildrevu who, were
massacred, side bf. side with' tlieir mur
derers. If we are all coming out at the
same destiiiy, without regard to charac
ter, then it is true. I turn away from
such a debauched heaven. Against that
caldron of piety and blasphemy, philan
thropy and assassination, self sacuuee
and beastl'rcs, I iha two. destinies
of tliA Bible" fiTfcr''ad' forever and for
ever upurt.
Behold also tho splendors of the Chris
tian orthodox death beds.
Those who deny the Bible, or deny any
part of it, never die well. They either go
out in darkneaa py they go put in silence
poi tc-ntQui' You. niay gather up all the
biographies that have come forth since
tho art of printing was invented, and I
challenge you to show me a triumphant
death of a man who rejected the Scrip
tures, or rejected any part of them. Ilere
I make a great wide avenu. f in ihfe, one
I put the defjtb, 'pevi of "iliose whb be
,ievud iV an 'oil tire' Bible. On the other
side of that avenue I put the death beds
of those who rejected part of the Bible,
or rejected all of the Bible. Now, ako
my arm and let us p? through this
dividing 9.ypnnG. Look eff upon the
light side.'' Here are the death beds on
tho right side of this q venue.
"Victory through or Lord Jesus
Christ!" "Free grace" "Glory, glory!"
f'J uu sweeping through the gates washed
in tho blood of the Lamb!" "The
chariots are coming!" "I mount, I fly !"
"Wings, wings!" "They are coming
for me!" "Peace, be still!" Alfied
Cookman's deahbd Richard. Oecirp
jteatUued, tpontniodor Foote's deathbed.
Voar father's deathbed, your mother's
deathbed, your sister's deathbed, your
cliild's deathbed. Ten thousand radiant,
songful deathbeds of those who believed
an entire Bible.
Now, take my arm, and lot us go
through that afenueV'and look off upon
the other' side. No smile of hope. No
shout of triumph. No face etiperoafu
rally illumined. Those who reject any
myt oi the Bible never die well. No
txxkoning for angels to come. No listen
ing for the celestial escort. Without
any exception they go out of the world
because they aro pushed out; while pa
the other hand the list of hos who be
lieved in an entire. Bible and gone but of
tho world in triumph is a list so long it
seems interminable. Oh, is not tha$ a
splendid influence, this orthodoxy which
makes that which must otherwise be the
most dreadful hour of life the last hour
positively paradisaical?
Young men, old men, midJlo aged
men, take sides in this contest between
orthodoxy and heterodoxy. "Ask for
the old paths, walk therein, and ye shall
find rest for your souls." But you fol
low this crusade against any part of the j
Bibh? first at all you will give up Gene- i
sis, whicn is as true as Uiattnew; tnen
you will give up all the historical parts
of the Bible; then after a while you will
give up the miracles; then you will find
it convenient to give up the Ten Com
mandments: and then after a whie, you
will wake up in a f orm tfrfo lees, rockless.
t ex t.Ttzzir'z rrocco.
IV- 5I. '
; r : . r i r
. 9
be laughed at for standing by the Bible
just as God has given it to you and mi
raculously preserved it.
Do not jump overboard from the
stanch old Great Eastern of oi l fxdiioned
orthodoxy until there is something ready
to take you up stronger than tho fan
tastic yawl which has iainted on tlio
side "Advanced Thought," and which
leaks at tho prow and leaks at the stern
ami has a steel pen for one oar and a
glib tongue for tho other oar, and now
tips over this way and then tips over
tliat way, until you do not know whether
tlio passengers will land in the breakers
of despair or on the sinking sand of infi
delity and atheism.
I am in full sympathy with the ad
vancements of our time, but this world
will never advance a single inch beyond
this old Bible. God was just as capable
of dictating the truth to the prophets and
apostles as he is capable of dictating the
truth to these modern apostles and
prophets. God has not learned any
thing in a thousand years. Ho knew
just as much when he gave tho first dic
tation as ho does now giving the last dic
tation, if ho is giving any dictation at all.
So I will stick to the old paths. Naturally
a skeptio and preferring new things to
old, 1 never 60 much as today felt tho
truth of the entire Bible, especially as I
see into what sjiectacular imbecility men
rush when they try to chop up the Scrip
tures with tho meat ax of their own
preferences, now calling upon philosophy,
now calling on tho church, now call
ing on God, now calling on tho
dovil. I pvefer the thick. wr.rr. :h
tho old religion old as God the robe
which has kept so many warm amid the
cold pilgrimage of this life and amid f.U
chills of death. The eld rolo rathe than,
tho thin, uncertain gauze offered, us by
theso wiseacres who be Hive- the Bible in
spots.
On July Q7, at yeais of age,
expired. ?stbella Graham. Sho was the
iKt useful woman of her day amid the
poor and sick, at the head of the orphan
asylums and Magdalen, asylums, and an
angel of mercy h hospital and reforma
tory, 3px. Mason, ono of tho mightiest
meii of his day, said at her funeral that
sho was mentally and spiritually the most
wonderfully endowed person ho hail ever
inet. She was an imjiersonation of the
most orthodox orthodoxy. Her last word
was peace. As a sublime, peroration to
my sermon, I will give an extract from
her last will and testaniot. showing how
ono who believes h an entire Bible may
maki; ; iv-kms exit.
An extract from a will:
"My children and my grandchildren 1
leave to my covenant God, the God who
hath fe.1 mo all my life with the bread
thai purisheth and tho bread that never
pcvishelh, who has been a Father to my
fatherless children and a husljand to their
widowed mother thus fur. And now re
ceiving my Redeemer's testimony, I set
to my seal that God is true; and bolievinsr
tho V1 vf fc'lm tliat God hath given
to vao eternal life and this Ufo is in his
Son, who, through tho eternal Spirit,
overcomes without spot unto God, and,
being consecrated a priest forever,
hath with his own blood entered into the
holy place, having obtained eternal re
demption for ma. I also lelieve hc Ud
vIlij pevtect what concerns me, support
and tarry me safely throng'.; death, and
present me to his Fal;e complete in his
own rigliteCiUiis3, without snot or
wrinkle. Into tho hands of th3 redeem
ing' God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. I
commit my redeemed spirit. IsaboU
Graham."
Let me die the death of Ls vighteou'"
and let my last end to U&e hers. "Giory
be to the F.hc- and to tho S'on and to
tl;o Hoiy Ghost; as it was in the begin
ning, is now and ever shall lx, world
without end. Amen aud amen!"
MULTUM IN PARYQ,
Not a single congressman smokes cigar
ettes, bu,t the. majority of them incline
to cigars,
Sunday schools are increasing rapidly
in this country. Last year the American
Sunday School union organized 1,502,
with 0,320 teachers and 54,129 scholars.
A British vessel is now surveying a
route between Australia and Canada,
pveliiainary to laying a telegraih cable.
The cable will be 7,500 miles lcsig, and
tho work of laying it wiU take three
years.
Counterfeit pliyev certificates of $5, as
wel aa.fl, are floating alxnit. The coun
terfeits aro three-sixteenths of an inch
shorter than the genuine bills. Take
along your tape measure.
The Western Union Telegraph com
pany reports $5,000,000 gross earnings
for the last quarter; net earnings, $1,
350,000; fixed charges and dividends,
$1,220,000; surplus, $180,0QG, The
gross earnings for the quarter ore larger
than ever befotc.
Thirty-three persons wero killed and
C17 injured by railway accidents in Eng
land last year. There were thirty-two
collisions between passenger tnts in
which twenty -five persona were killed
and forty-two ccdliskins, "between passen
ger nd freight trains, by which one
poison, was killed. In I-S80 twelve per
sons were killed and COG injure.! or.
English railways.
- The Transvaal
Africa bids fair
republic in South
to become a British
possession before many years. The Eng
lish are flocking to tho gold mines in
large numbers, and the Boei-s are appre
hensive of being swamped. Arms and
ammunition are now being distributed
among them, and it U supposed that
they will forcibly resisS any attempt to
get Englishmen represented" in the legis
lative body.
The expression "dark horse," now in
such general political use, first occurred
in Lord Beaconsfield's "Young Duke."
Here is tho paragraph: "The first favor
ite was never heard of, the second favor
ite was -never 6een after the distance
post, all the ten-to-.ones were in the rear,
and a dark horse which had never been
thought of rushed past the grand stand
in sweeping triumph."
The fact that at the recent national
congress in India all the speeches and
proceedings were in EagUsli.is a striking
illustration of the vtide diffusion of that
tongue. Ther were gathered at Madras
700 delegates from all parts of India,
Afghanistan, Nepaul and Scinde. They
spoke nine different languages, and the
English was the only medium through
wtich the preeeedir could be satis
f "f- " - -
The Plattsmouth Herald
Is on joying aBoimin both, ita
DAXXT AD WEEELT
EDITIONS.
Tike
Year
Will be one lnriii; which the subjects of
national interest sunl importance will le
strongly agitated and the election of a
President will take place. Hie people of"
Cass County who would like to learn of
Political, Commercial
and Social
of this year and would keep apace Avith
the times should
-FOU
Daily or Weekly Herald
Now while we have the subject before the
people we will venture to epeak of our
"Which is first-class in all respects and
from which our job printers are turning
out much satisfactory work.
PLATTSMOIITir,
1888
Transactions
KITHEIi TI1K-
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NEBRASKA.
