Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-02-15
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Di8coursss Of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
Subject: - ISLANDERS Against
Religion ABswered.'


Religion Answered.
TEXT; dad I took the Rttle bool: out of
the angels hand and ate it 10: and 10 tOdS
IN my mouth slOsst rs honey, and as soon
g had eaten Il nlU belly t0dS bitter. and
ne said unto me: Thou must propheSy
ugdtn before nldRg peoples and nations,
ind tongues, and kings. Rev. 4, 10-1l.
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 the Russians exile con-
Nlcts to Siberia or as sometimes the English
Goyernment used to send prisoners to Aus
,tralia. The island speak of is now called
Hatmos, and is so barren and unproductive
that its Inhabitants live by fishing,
But one day the evangelist of whom !
speak, sitting at the mouth Of a cavern on
the hillside, and perhaps half asleep under
the drone of the sea, has a supernatural
dream, and before him pass as in panorama,
time and eternity. Among the strange
things that he saw was an angel with
dream the evangelist asked for
this little book, and the angel gave it
to him, and told him to eat it up.
AS in dream things arr sometimes in
congruous, the evangelist took the little book
and ate 1t up. The angel told him before
mouth but afterward he would be troubled
with indigestion. True enough, the evangel-
ist devours the book, and it becomes to him
sweetness during the mastication, but after.
ward physical bitterness.
Who the angel was and what the book was
no one can tell The commentators do not
agree, and l shall take no responsibility of
Interpretation, but will tell you that
1t suggests to me the little book
Of creeds which skeptics take and chew
up and find a very luscious morsel
TO their witticism, but after while it is to
them a great distress The angel of the
church hands out this little book of evangel-
ism, and the antagonists of the Christian
Church take it and eat it up and it makes
them smile at first, but afterward it is to
them dire dyspepsia,
All Intelligent people have creeds-that is,
favorite theories which they have adopted.
Political creeds-that is theories about tariff,
about finance, about civil service, about
government Social creeds-that Is, theories
about manners and customs and good neigh
borhood. Hsthetical creeds-that is theories
about tapestry, about bric-a- brac, about
styles of ornamentation. Religious creeds-
that is, theories about the Deity, about the
soul, about the great future The only being
who has no creed about anything is the
idiot. This soothing against creeds is always
sign of profound ignorance on the
part of the scofer, for he has
things. In our time the beliefs Of evangelis-
tic churches ara under fusilade Of carica-
cure and Misrepresentation. Men set up
what they call orthodox faith, and they rake
U with the musketry of their denunciation.
They falsify what the Christian churches be-
iieve. They take evangelical doctrines and
set them in harsh and repulsive way, and
put them out of the association with other
truths. They are like a mad anatomist, who,
desiring to tell what a man Is, dtssects hui
man 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 man. They are only fragments Of
a man wrenched out of their God-appointed
places.
Evangelical religion Is healthy, symetrt-
cal, we'll ointed, roseate, bounding life, and
the scalpel and the dissecting knife of the iu-
Edel or the atheist cannot tell you what it is.
Evangelical religion is as different from
what it is represented to be by these enemies
as the scarecrow which farmer puts in the
cornfeld to keep OFF the ravens is different
from the farmer himself
For instance, these enemies Of evangelism
say that the Presbyterian Church believes
that God is a savage Sovereign, and that He
made some men just to damn them, and that
there are infants in hell a span long. These
old ISLANDERS come down from generation to
generation. The Presbyterian Church be-
lieves no such thing. The Presbyterian
Sovereign, and that we are free agents.
mo- no; that cannot be-, say these men who
have chewed up the creed and have the con-
sequent embittered stomach "Ihat is impOs-
sible; if God is Sovereign, we can't be free
agents" Why, my friends, we admit this
in every other direction /, De Witt Tai
mage, am a free citizen Of Brooklyn. l go
when please and come when please, but
have at least four sovereigns. The Church
court of our denomination; that is my
ecclesiastical sovereign. The mayor of this
city; he is my municipal sovereign. The
sovereign. The President of the United
States he is my national sovereign. -Four
govereignS have |, and yet in every faculty
of body, mind and soul I am free man. So
you see, it is possible that the two doctrines
go side by side, and there is a common-senst
way of presenting it, and there is a way that
is repulsive. If you have the two doctrines II
a worldly direction, why not in a religious di
recton If | choose tomorrow morning tx
walk into the Mercantile Library and I'm
prove my mind, or to go through
the conservatory of my friend at ia
maica, who has flowers from all lands
growing under the arches of glass, and WHIT
has an aquarium all asquirm with trout anC
gold fish, and there are trees bearing
oranges and bananas-if want to go there
could. am free to 90. If want to q
over to Hoboken and leap into furnace Of
an OIL factory IL Wanb 10 jump from Iut
platform of the Philadelphia express train
IL want to leap from the Brooklyn Bridge
may. But suppose l should go tomorrow
and leap into the furnace at Hoboken, who
would be to blame That is all there il
about sovereignty and free agency. Goo
rules and regns, and He has conservatorie:
and He has blast furnaces. If you want tt
walk in the gardens, walk there, If yol
y want to leap in the furnaces, you may.
Suppose now a man had a charmed key
with which he could open all the iaiIs, anC
he should open Raymond Street Jail and thu
New York Tombs and all the prisons on thu
conUlneirU. In Unree weeks what kind or q
country would this be-! all tia inmates
turned out of those prisons and Denitentiar.
aes. Suppose all the reprobC.Jes, the bad
spirits, the outrageous spirits, should be
turned into the New Jerusalem. Why, the
next morning the gates of pearl would be
found off hinge, the linchpia would be gone
out OF the chariot wheels. the "houst
of many mansions" would be burg
larized. Assault and battery, arson
iibertinism and assassination would
reside in the capital of the skies Angels Of
God would be iilsulted on the streets Heaven
would be a dead failure if there were ii,
great lookup. If all people without regard
to their character when they leave this worlt
go right into glory-I wonder if in tn,
temple of the skies Charles Guiteau. an(
John Wilkes Booth occupy the same pew
Your common sense demands two destinies
And then as to the Presbyterian Church be
lieving there are infants in perdition, if 20,
will bring me Presbyterian Of good morals
and sound mind who will say that he believe
ther~ 9ver was baby in the lost world o
ever viii be, will make him deed to I'll
house live in and he can take possessio
tomorrow.
So the Episcopalian Church is misreprt
scented by the enemies of evangelism The
say that church substitutes forms and cert
monies for heart religion, and it is all mai
ter for liturgy and genuAexion. Falls
aunin All Evicno,oI iaY mill to1I al,