Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1885-02-16
SLANDERlNG CHURCHES.
DIR. TAIINIAGE ON UTrERANCEs
FROM OTHER PULPITS.

Healthy and Full of Lffe-A Good
Word for all the Churches-Another
Installment of Complimentary Letters
to the Brooklyn Divine.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Feb. 15.-Another
installment of complimentary letters on
DR.. Talmage's birthday comes through
the Brooklyn Magazine. Among the
more remarkable are the letters of Sena-
tor COlquitt, Ex-Governor Blackburn and
DR.. Spear. Senator Colquitt writes as fol-
lows:
SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON.-Ree T.
De WfH Idtmd0e, D. D.-MY DEAR SIR:
beg to tender you my sincere congratulations
on the event Of your birthday anniversary
day that gave to the world a preacher OF
the Christian falth whose eloquence is un-
rlvalled, whose weekly congregations en-
brace the people of an entire continent, with
whom every sentiment and religious preiu-
dice are subOrdinated to Christian love for
the human race-Whose highest ministerial
ambition si Is to make men letter, and compel
them 10 love one another; such day deserves
a CORDIAL recognition from every good man
IN the land, and with all my heart, l tender
you my own. A. IL. CoLQUITT.
lucky, writes to the editor of the BROOKLYN
Hdgdsiae as follows: II sympathize most
heartily with the friends and admirers of DR..
Ialmage IN their desire to make his SD
anniversary an occasion for cOngratulatiOn,
and gladly embrace the opportunity of ex-
tending TO MIN my most cordial greeting.
The day OF his nativity was one fraught indeed
with the rich bounty of God to this generation
and pregnant with an intellectual and moral
force and power destined to stamp itself upon
succeeding ages Among the most promi-
nent to-day upon the watch towers of Zion
stands he whom we delight to honor, fighting
for the faith of the fathers against fanatI-
clsm and bigOtry within and the evil and
blasphemOus tendencies of the age without.
hnnnu0r md NH ~l-,, - \
science, falsely so called, have reared their
sacrileglous heads the sword of the Lord and of
Ialmage had smitten and driven them to con-
fusion and shame. l esteem it a high DrivI-
lege to know him and call him my friend (:
would that could pay lifting tribute to his
genius and godliness, the embodiment of all
that Is eleVating, manly and ennobling IN life
pray that his life may long he spared as an
ornament to his profession and blessing and
an honor to his race"
DR.. 5. L. Spear says: "Though not an hab-
ltual attendant upon his church, have with
IN the last five years heard him preach as
many as hundred sermons and hence |
think know what he is in the pulpit as well
as out Of it. My judgment is that, taken all
IN all, he Is the most remarkable, impressive,
attractive and profitable preacher of the
Gospel to whom | ever listened. He is, in
deed, marvellous man when standing be-
lore popular congregation, and his history
IN TINS city proves this fact beyond the posi-
blllty of reasonable doubt. He is by the con-
sCtutlon OF his mind a genius of the highest
order, being poet and a dramatist at the
same time, and his great powers in both re-
spects he utilizes for the glory of God and the
good OF mankind, alike in the pulpit and else
where"
At the Brooklyn Tabernacle to-day DR..
Talmage publicly announced the receipt
of $50 sent him in an anonymous letter
for charitable objects, and said that half
mad been given to the RefOrmatOry for
ConVicts, Houston street, New York. and
the other half through the deacOns to buy
winter coal for poor woman.
Inc opening hymn in the services was:
salvation, oh, the joyful sound,
us pleasure to our ears:
A sovereign balm for every wound,
A cordial for our fears"
The subject of the sermon was a reply
to ISLANDERS against Evangelical churches
recently uttered by infidel pulpits and
platforms. The text was from Revelation
x, 10 and IL: 81 took the little book out
OF the angels hand and ate it up, and it
was IN my mouth sweet as honey: and as
soon as had eaten it my belly was bitter,
and he said unto me, Thou must proph-
esy again before many peopIes'1 DR..
Talmage said:
Domitan, the Roman Emperor, had in his
realm Troublesome CLERGYMAN who would
keep preaching, and he exlied him to a rocky
island used for punishment as Russia send-
conY1cts to Siberia and England sent prisoners
10 Australia. Ihat island, now allied Patmos.
IS SO ROCKY ana barren that the inhabitants
i've by hsh1ng. But one Sunday. while the
eXlled clergyman of whom / speak sat at the
mouth OF a. cavern in the hillside, perhaps
hummed half-asleep by the drone of the sea
ne had supernatural dream, and Time and
Eternity passed in panorama before him.
Among other strange spectacles, he dreamt
ne saw saw an angel with little book, and he
ASKED the angel II he might have it. Well
you know that things are sometimes incOn-
gruous IN dream. and so the angel gave
the little book to him, and told him to eat it
up, and that while it would be lusciOus to hia
taste after he got it down, he would suffer
from Indigestion. ObeyIng the angel, the
evangelist In his dream deVoured the little
book, and, as had been foretold, it was sweet
WhHe Delng nastlcated, but afterward q
physical distress and bitterness. Who the
angel was and what the little book that be
gave was IS uncertain to commentators, and
so take no responsibility of Interpretation.
but Will say that it suggests to me the creed
OF the evangelical churches, which skeptics
In our time lind sweet to chew up but never
can digest. The little book of EVANGELISM
which the angel of the church hands out is to
them LUXURIOUS mOrsel of WitticIsm, but lies
in them afterward dry dyspepsia.
II Intelligent people have creeds. either
written or unwritCen, that is a class of
theories, which you have adopted
political creeds, that is, beliefs about
tariffs. about currency, about civil
creeds, that is, opinions about manners and
customs and good neighborhoOd; aesthetic
creeds. that is belief about tapestries and or
lamentations; aye, religious creeds, that's a
group OF sentiments about deity and about
the soul and about the unseen future The
only being who has 10 creed about any
thing Is an idiot. Recently the beliefs of
evangelical churches have been under q fusi-
lade of caricature and Misrepresentation
Men in pulpits and on platforms have set up
certain things as the orthodox faith, and then
nave leveled at them all their musk etry of de-
nunciatiOn. They put up a mere effigy of
shoot They mic 10
and falsify the evangelical churches They
take some of the gospel theories and set them
IN harsh and repulslVe way and put them ont
OF association with other truths. They are
ike mad anatOmlst, who, wishing to demon
strate what man is. dissects a human bodv
and hangs up heart in one place and a pair
OF lungs In another place and the spleen in
another place and an ankle bone in another
place and says: "That is a man." They are
only fragments OF man and wrenched from
their God appointed places. Evangelical re-
llglon Is healthy, symmetrical. well -jOInted
roseate, bounding life, and you cannot by the
scalpel and dlssecting knife of inidelity dis
cover what 1t is. 1t is no more what its enc
mics represent 1t than the scarecrow which
the farmer puts in his cornield to keep off the
ravens is the farmer himself.
They say, for instance, that the Presbute-
rlans hellevG that God Is savage sovereign
who made some men just to damn them and
that there are infants in hell a span long
There Is not an infidel on earth Though ne
had retainer of thousand dollars a day,
to make an honest, fair and accurate reDre-
sentaton of what the Presbyterian Church
believes. 1t believes that God is loving and
just sovereign and that man is a free agent.
mo, no." says the antagonist who has chewed
up the little book of creeds and has the con-
sequent emblttered stomach: ''if God ia a
sovereign we cannot be free agents" But we
acknowledge that possibility everywhere
else. l, Dewitt Talmage, am free citizen
of Brooklyn. That is. 1 go where / please
and when please. Yes, but l have four
sovereigns over me, The highest court Of my
denomination is my ecclesiastical sovereign
The Mayor OF the city is my municipal SOW
ereign. The Governor of New York is nv
State sovereign. The President of the United
States Is my national sovereign. Yet with
these four sOvereigns IN every faculty of BODY
mind and soul am free man.
If l would tomorrow walk in the corridor
of Mercantile Library and improve nv mind
or go through the conservatory of nv friend
at Jamaica, who has blooming under the
arches of glass, flowers from all zones and anna.
RUINS asqulrm with trout and goldfish. and
l wish 10 pluck ripe oranges and bananas
from the branches may do so. And il want
to go up to the furnaces Of one of the oil fac
tories IN HOboken and jump into the flames or
leap of the platform of Philadelphia ex-
press train or from he deck of Fulton street
ferry boat, / can do so. If l leap INTO the
HobOken furnaces, who is to blame2 Ny
friend out at Jamaica who offers me his con-
servatoryI That Is all there is in Presbyteri-
anism about Gods sovereignty and mans free
agency. God rules and relgns and has con-
servatories and he has blast furnaces. II you
want to walk in the gardens you may and if
YOU want to leap into the red hot cauldrons
you may. If you choose the cauldron rather
than the conservatory, who is to blame? OF
course the one who made the conservatory
and sent you q written invitation to come and
spend your life among the cactus and palm
trees. We simply mean that the empire of
the future will have palace and a penIten-
tiary.
All our cities have their penitentiaries.
Suppose some one had a charmed key by
which he could go through the United States
and open Raymond street jail and New York
Tombs and Moyamensing prison Of Philadel-