“Men strike their knives into the Bible, and say the light of nature is sufficient. Indeed! Have the fire-worshippers of India, cutting themselves until blood spurts at every pore — have they found the light of nature sufficient? Has the Bornesian cannibal, gnawing the roasted flesh from human bones — has he found the light of nature sufficient? Has the Chinese woman, with her foot cramped and deformed into a hoof — has she found the light of nature sufficient? Could the ancients see heaven from the heights of Ida or Olympus? No! I call upon the pagodas of superstition, the tortures of Brahma, the infanticide of the Ganges, the bloody wheels of the Juggernaut, to prove that the light of nature is not sufficient. A star is beautiful, but it pours no light into the midnight darkness of a sinful soul. The flower is sweet, but it exudes no balm for the heart’s wound.” — Talmage