The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-02-16
ISLANDER OF THE CHURCH.
DR.. Talmage Replies to Certain I'm
truths Uttered by Infdel Lecturers.
The FaIsehoods and Misrepresentation Pre-
sented by the Enemies of Evangelical Re-
Iigion-Beauty of Christ's Character.
e,.o,al to the Indianapolis journal.


BROOKLYN, N. Y, Feb. 15-Another install
ment of complimentary letters on Dr. Talmage's
birthday comes through the Brooklyn Magazine.
Among the more remarkable are the letters of
Senator Colquitt, Ex-Governor Blackburn and
DR.. Spear. Senator Colquitt writes as follows:
SENATE CHAMBER, WASHINGTON.
''Rev. t. Dewitt Talmsge. D. D.:
by Dear Sir-l beg to tender you my sincere
congratulations on the event of your birthday
anniversary; a day that gave to the world
preacher of the Christian faith whose eloquence
Is unrivaled, whose weekly congregations en-
brace the people OF Al entire continent, with
whom every sentiment and religious prejudice
are subordinate to Christian love for the human
Tace-whose highest ministerial ambition is 10
make men better, and compel them to love one
another. Such day deserves cordial recog-
milton from every good man In the lana, ana
with all my heart tender you my own
"a. FL. CoLQUITT'
Elk Governor Luke P. Blackburn of Ken
4ncky, writes to the editor of the Brooklyn Maya
zine as follows:
81 sympathize most heartily with the friends
and admirers of DR.. Talmage, in their desire to
make his fifty-third anniversary occasion for
congratulation, and gladly embrace the opportu-
nifty of extending to him my most cordial greet
ing. The day of his nativity one fraught,
indeed, with the rich bounty of God to this gem
Grafton, and pregnant with intellectual and
moral force and power distined 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 fanatacism and big
oiry within and the evil and blasphemous ten
denotes Of the age without whenever and
wherever skepticism and science, falsely socalled,
have reared their sacrilegious heads, the sword
of the Lord and of Talmsge has srnitten and
driven them to confession and shame esteem
ib high privilege to know him and call him my
tribute to his genius and godliness, the embodi
msnt of all that is elevating, manly and emo
bling in life. pray that his life may long be
spared as an ornament to his profession and a
blessing and an honor to his race"
DR. S. T. Spear says:
Though not an habitual attendant upon his
church | have within the last five years heard
him preach as many as a hundred sermons and
hence think / know what he is in the pulpit
as well as out of it. Ny Judgment is that,
taken all in all, he is the most remarkable, i'm
pressive attractive and profitable preacher of
the gospel to whom ever listened. He is, in
deed, a marvellous man when standing before
popular congregation, and his history in this city
proves this fact beyond the possibility of reason
able doubt He is, by the constitution of his
mind, genius of the highest order being poet
and dramatist at the same time; and his great
powers in both respects he utilities for the glory
of God and the good Of mankind, alike in the
pulpit and elsewhere"
THE SERMON.
At the Brooklyn Tabernacle, to-day. DR.. Tai
mage publicly announced the receipt Of $50 sent
him in an anonymous letter, for charitable OBJ
jeets, and said that half had 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
n The opening hymn in the services was:
Salvation oh, the joyful sound,
IT'S pleasure to ears;
A sovereign balm for every wound,
cordial for our fears"
The subject of the sermon was reply to
FLANDERS against evangelical churches recently
uttered by infdel pulpits and platforms. The
text was from Revelation K, 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 prophesy again
before many peoples" DR. Talmage said:
Domitan, the Roman emperor, had in his
realm troublesome clergyman who would
keep preaching, and he exiled him to rocky
island used for punishment, as Russia sends
convicts 60 Siberia and England sent prisoners
TO Australia. That island, now called Patmo,
is so rocky and barren that the inhabitants live
by fishing. But one Sunday while the exiled
clergyman OF whom | speak sat at the mouth of
a cavern in the hillside, perhaps hummed half
asleep by the drone of the sea, he had super
natural dream, and time and eternity passed in
panorama before him. Among other strange
speetacles, he dreamt he saw an agel with a
little book and he asked the angel if he
might have it. Well you know that things
are sometimes incongruous in dream, and so
he - 1;tt In hnoly IN md MI
him to eat it up and that while it would be
luscious to his taste, after he got it down he
would suffer from indigestion. Obeying the
angel, the evangelist in his dream deyoured the
little book, and, as had been foretold it was
sweet while being masticated, but afterward a
physical distress and bitterness. Who the angel
was and what the little book that he gave was
is uncertain to commentators; and sc. I take NO
responsibility of interpretation but will say
that it suggests to me the creed of the evan
gelical churches which skeptics in our time find
sweet to chew un, but never digest The
little book Of evangelism which the angel of the
church hands out is TO them a luxurious morsel
of wittcism but lies in them afterward a dry
dyspepsia.
All intelligent people have creeds, either writ
ten or unwritten that is. a class of theories
which you have adopted. Political creeds that
b, beliefs about tariffs, about currency, about
civil service, about governments; social creeds.
that il, opinions about manners, and customs,
and good neghborhood; aesthetic creeds, that
U.s. belief about tapestries and ornamentation
aye, religious creeds, that is, group of sent
ments about deity, and about the soul, and
about the unseen future. The only being who
has no creed about anything is an idiot Re-
Gently the beliefs of evangelical churches have
been under fusillade of caricature and misrep
resentation. Men in pulpits and on platforms
have Set up certain things as the orthodox faith,
and then have leveled at them all their mus
kerry of denuncation. They put up mere