Daily Yellowstone journal. [volume] (Miles City, Mont.) 1882-1893, 1889-02-03

n rev words Tor the bepeht OF the
Enemies Of Evangelism The Plague Of
Unbelief That Is Now Rampant In the
worId-Doctrines Of the sectaL
BROOKLYN. Jan. 27.-The Rev. DIR.
T. DE Witt Talmage's sermon this
morning was on ISLANDERS Against
Religion Answered." His text was:
"And took the little book out of the
angels hand, and ate il up; and il was
in my mouth sweet as honey; and as
soon as ! had eaten il my belly was
bitter And he said unto me, Thou
must prophesy again before many
peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings" Rev. x, 10, IL. The reverend
gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman emperor. had
in his realm a troublesome evangelist
who would keep preaching, and so he
exiled him 10 barren island, as now
the Russians exile convicts 10 Siberia,
or as sometimes the English govern
ment used to send prisoners TO Aus
tralia. The island ] speak Of is now
called Patmos, and is SO barren and
uuproductive that its inhabitants live
by fishing.
But one day the evangelist of whom
j speak, sitting at the mouth Of a
cavern on the hill side, and perhaps
half asleep under the drone Of the sea,
has supernatural dream. and before
him pass, as in panorama, 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 il TO him
and told him TO eat il up. As in a
dream things are sometimes in
congruous, the evangelist took
the little book and ate il up.
The angel told him beforehand that it
would be very sweet in the mouth, but
afterward he would be troubled with
indigestion. True enough. the evan
gelist devours the book. and it be-
comes 10 him a sweetness during the
mastication, but afterward a physical
bitterness ...
Who the angel was and what the
book was no one can tell The COM
mentators do not agree, and / shall
take no responsibility of Interpretation,
but will tell you that it 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 IL is to them great dis
tress. The angel of the church hands
out this little book of evangelism, and
the antagonists of the Christian church
take il and eat il up, and it makes
them smile at first, but afterward it Is
to them a dire dyspepsia
THE REASONS WHY CRKEDs ARE NEcEs-
sARY.
All intelligent people have crceds-
that rs, 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. Esthetical creeds-that Is,
theories about tapestry, about bric-a-
brac, about styles cs 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 scofiing against creeds is
always sign of profound, ignorance
on the part Of the scoffer, for he has
himself q hundred creeds in regard 10
other things In our time the be-
iefs of eyangelistic churches are
under q fusillade OF caricature end
Misrepresentation. Men set up what
they call orthodox faith, and then they
rake 1t with the musketry Of their do
nunciation. They ,falxify what tho
Christians churphes believe. They take
ryangelisal doctrines and set them IN
. harsh ana repuisive way, and put
them out Of the association with other
truths. They are like mad anatomist
who, desiring 10 tell what a man 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 .
man. They are only fragments Of Q
man wrenched out Of their God ap-
pointed placeA
Evangelical religion is a healthy,
symmetrical, we'll jointed, roseate,
bounding life, and the scalpel and the
dissecting knife Of the iniidel. or The
atheist cannot tell you what Il u.
Evangelical mligion is as different
from what IL is represented TO be by
these enemies as the scarecrow which
. farmer puts in the cornfeld TO keep
Of the ravens Is different from The
farmer himself.
For instance, these enemies of evan
gelism say that the Presbyterian
church believes that God Is savage
sovereign, and THAI he made some men
lust 10 damn them, and that there are
infants in hell q span long. These old
ISLANDERS come down from generation
70 generation. The Presbyterian
church believes no such thing. The
Presbyterian church believes that God
IL . loving and just sovereign, end
that we are free agents. mo, mol
that c;-nnot be-" say uAnse men vho
have chewed up the creed and havo
the consequent embittered stomacbk
That il impossible; if God is q soysf-
eign, we can't bs. free agents" Why,
my friends, we admit this In every
other direction. I, De Witt TalmAge,
am free citizen Of Brooklyn. e9
when 1 please and eomb when !
please, but l have II least four sover
eigns. The church court ,cf our 90,
nomination; that = my. ecclesiastical
soveeign. Tho mayor o. fhis cityi he
my municipal p S :oyss'is.; 9 !. In The GOV GOV