Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-02-09
DR.. Talmage Takes for His
Subject ISLANDERS Against
Religion Answered.
The Atheist or Infldel Cannot
Tell What Evangelical
ReligionI Is.
All the Church Denominations Are
Grossly Misrepresented by Enc
mics OF Evangelism.

DhobhIIN, JIM. Gi.-lnc lNeV, L. Ie-
Witt Talmage's sermon this morning was
on ISLANDERS Against Religion An
swered." His text was: and | 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, and nations and tongues,
and kings. Rev. 10: 10, II.
The reverend gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman emperor, had in
his realm a troublesome evangelist who
would keep preaching and SO he exiled
him to a barren island as now Russians
the English government used to send
prisoners to Australia. The island |
speak of is row called patmos and is so
barren and unproductive that It's inhabit-
ants live by fishing.
But one day the evangelist Of whom |
speak sitting at the mouth OF a cavern on
NJ HliASlAC htAh INAIANP 10 hO~A4 aolNNB hiipt
the drone Of the sea, has a supernatural
dream and before him pass ar in panor-
oma time and eternity. Among the
strange things that he saw was an angel
with "A little book in his hand and in his
dream the evangelist asked for this little
book and the angel gave it 10 him and
ynll him ia 900 IL mn Az in "A I-peEp
things are sometimes homogeneous, the
evangelist took the little book and ate it
up. The angel told him beforehand that
it would be very sweet in the mouth, but
aftcrward he would be troubled with IN
digestion. True enough the evangelist
devours the book and * becomes TO him
a sweetness during the mastication, but
afterward a physical bitterness.
Who the angel was and the book was
no one can tell. The commentators do
not agree and ! shall take no RESPONSE
bility Of Interpretation, but viii tell you
that il suggests 10 lac tbe little book
of crccds which skeptlcs take and chew
up and md q very luscious worsel TO
lltII NLlAlt4tlli, blt AliNi q "uA'b ~ 10 ~
them q great distress. The angel of the
church hands out this little book Of
evangelism. and The antagonists Of the
Christian q urch. take il and cat il up,
and II makes them emile II FIRST, but
aftcrwards IL is to them a dire dyspepsia.
All intelligent people have creeds- that
is. f|alorite theories which they have
adopted. Political crccds-that is,
theories about tariff, about finance, about
civil service. about government. Socla!
creld-that is, theories about manners
and CUSTOMS and good reiChborhood.
H1sthetical ~Crccl5-that IS theories abOuf
tapestry. about brio ahrac, about styles 0f
u~rHamrrtGtion. Religions crcCds-that
is, theories of the Deity, about the soul,
about the great future The only being
who hiss no creed about anything is the
idiot. This sCoiling against Crccds is al
WAYS a sound OF profound ignorance on
the part OF the scOflcr, for he has him
self a hundred creCds in regard 10 othe.
thjngs. IN u time the behef of Cvange-
listic churches are under "A fusllade OK
caricature and misrepresentation. Mea
set up what they call orthodox faith, ans
then they rake il with the musketry Of
their dcnunciatiOn. They falsify what
the Christian churches believe. They
take evangelical doctrines and set theR
in n harsh and repulsivc way, and put
them out Of the association with other
truths. They are like mad anatomist who
desiring to tell what a mSa is, dissects
a human body and hangs up in one place
the heart, and in another place the two
lungs, and in another place an ankle
bone, and says that is a man. They are
only fragments of a man wreDched out OF
their God appointed places.
Evangelical religion is a healthy, sym
metrical, well-jointed, %1oseate, bounding
life. and the scalpel and the dissectins
knife OF the inidel or the atheist cannot
tel, you what il is. Evangelical religion
is 81 different from what it is represented
to be by these enemies as the scarecrow,
which a farmer puts in the corn field TO
keep off the ravens is different from him
self.
Fog instance, these enemies of evangel-
ism say that the Presbyterian church be-
lieves that God is a savage sovereign,
and that He made seine meR just TO damn
them. aAd hat there are infants in hell
a span long, These old ISLANDERS come
down from generation to generation.
The p~rcshyterian church believes no
such thing. The Presbyterian church
believes that God is a loving and just
sovereign. and that we are free agents
NO. no, that cannot be" say these men,
who have chewed up the creed and have
the consequent embittered stOmachs.
That is impossible; if Gods a sovereign
we cant be free agents. Why, my
friends, we adalit this in every either di-
~rection. !, De Witt Talmage, am a free
citizen Of Brooklyn. | go when | please
and | come whca | please, but ! have at
Least four sovereigns. The church court
OF Il denomination; that is my e~cclesi-
asticai sovereign. The mayor of this
city: he is my municipal sovereign. The
governor Of New York; he is my state
sovereign. The president Of the United
States, he is my national sovereign. Four
sovereignS have /, and yet in every facul-
tv of body, mind and soul am a free
man. So, you see, ii is possible that the
two doctrines go side by side, and there is
a common.sense way Of presenting it,
and there is a way that is repulsive. If
YOU have the two doctrines in Il worldly
direction, why not in a religious direc-
tionP Ii I choose tomorrow morning to
walk into the Mercantile library and i'm
prove my mind, OF to 90 through