Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-15
A STEEpLE SERMON.
THE DEVILS Z THE CHURCH'S!
Immortality And A Pollywog!
DIoGENEs' TAILLEss ROOSTER
Bishop Ninde and the Dedication of the
New Methodist Church!
wherever God erects house of prayer
The Devil always builds . chapel there"

Dearly beloved, Plato defined man as a
s.two-legged animal without feathers" He
did for fact, but young Diogenes ever
lastingly got away with the old duck of
philosopher by plucliing cock and setting
him down with the sentcntious observation,
'Here is Plato's mani" These interesting
historical incidents warrants your preacher
this morning in saying that you are then,
fellow sinners, something more than a roos-
ter with his tail pulled out; and, that while
feathers may be necessary 10 sustain the or
binary two-legged animal in flight, tina, yet
man may soar away above this earth with
out the assistance of any such APPENDICES,
and that, therefore, inferentially, mayhap,
angels have no wings.
These few preliminary remarks, patient
hearers, are sufficient TO enable you to readi-
ly catch on 10 the fact that our discourse
will be about man and Immortality and the
road to hea7en, ineidcntly, perhaps, also
mentioning the devil in consideration of the
feelings of the editor of the Beacon, whose
opinion that his satanic majesty is but big
"policeman's club" stands sadly in need of
correction.
The church steeple, my dear, struggling
warfarer, is the loftiest and most pointed
answer ever yet inade to that startling ques-
ton: "If man die shall he live again"
Like great exclamation point it silently
answers "Yes, he will And, it doubles up
that interrogating doubt :? which the devil
| has been won't, ever since bis ignominious
fall, to twist, as a shepherds crook, into the
tangled wool of we poor sinners before
hauling us in. Deprive this questioning
enemy of humanity the power of ending
up his sentences with this crooked ? which
converts all his utterances into mystifying
doubts and the spire of the church would be
but the graceful emblem of the faith which
points silently to tine skies and stars and to
that peaceful house of many mansions !
Birth ? and Death 2 in the absence of that
internal interrogatory 2 would, in the pres
ence of the assuring spire resolve them
selves into the element of a lie as compre-
hensive as creation itself and love as wide
and deep and necessary as eternity. How
this question has, dearly beloved, staggered
humanity, but. how the answer given by the
church steeple has, upon the other hand,
staggered the devil
Having disposed of the arch enemy, let us
ring in some other fellows that we know of
who have been trying TO overturn church
steeples. We refer 70 that order who claim
to believe that you, my level-headed broth
er, and that you, my conscious, smiling smil-
ing sister, don't, after all, don't amount to as
much as Diogenes' tailless rooster. These
come at Us with the question put by the
Democrats to each other in Washington on
Inauguration day, "What are we here for?''
They call themselves scientists, The "origin
of human life" is their hobby, and judging
them by the direction of their research, one
would be lead to believe that they expected
TO find that human life originated in hades
rather than in heaven. The smart Alecks,
instead of looking up, invariably look down,
always landing in the hole of bioplastic
tad-pole or in the slime of protoplasmatic
pollywog. We are neither, dear friends,
nor came we of either. These scientists will
run over a six-foot man weighing two hun
bred pounds and made in the image of God,
to find wind-egg, or the incipient vertebrae
Of grubworm's backbone which is a big
ger thing in their eyes than the word of God
and as full of meaning.
Another church is TO be dedicated to-day
in this city whose spire is an exclamation
point that reaches farther towards heaven
than any other thing in these benighted en-.
vironments if we except the prayers of the
righteous and the stand-pipe over at the
water-works. Were we convinced that ever
any considerable number Of our congrega
ton could be persuaded to be present e
listen to the thoughtful words of the good
and learned Bishop Ninde you would have
been spared this sermon this morning. But
we know the most Of you too well. Toe
many of YOU can more confidently be count
ed upon TO go fishing than to place your
self in an attitude to be fshed for. As We
are the only preacher who can catch you
we are bound to drop in our line and cal
your attention to the fact Of the dedication
to-day and TO its meaning-to the truth that
though you die you may live again. You
can't relieve your conscience by chipping
in" for we never pass hat to our congrega.
ton. And it will not do you any good tC
kick up when we tell you. in all sincerity,
that the more practical, the more spiritual
the more refined the man is the stronger
viii be his hold upon Immortality. Science
nor liberalism can lift you above the ma.
terial and its functions. Science puts
you in your coffin and says
you are dead, and so leave:
you, to be nailed up and carted off. But
what says your own heart-what that hope
and faith that erects the church steeple.
From whence comes the whisper, more con.
vincing than any human edict that your child
or friend is not dead: that your child oil
friend is not in the coffin at all! We tel
you il is from Him to whom the church
steeple points, and whose word. has been the
ouly ones to relieve this life of that darkest
of all thoughts, the possibility of man beng
resolved back into dust and dust only
Scientists and the church both agree at least
with your preacher in one thing distinctly
touching this earth, its multifarious life, ano
the vast universe. and that is, that there i:
an end in view and that man is that end. But
matter is just as unknowable as is spirit Of
as is God, for science has never got back Of
forms and functions, nor back of mans FIVE
senses. Now, my dear hearers, il your five
senses is all there is of you why can't your
senses answer all the questions that you
yourself put to them?
Ny beloved, after you have given that
last sentence about an hours serious study
we want you to take in the proposition, il
you can, tina. there must have been reason
for creating and developing being that can
/ love and adore, and commune with, and