The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-02-06
SLANDERING THE CREEDS.
DEFENSE BY THE REV. DIR. TALMAeE.
Some OF The Various Attacks Upon orthO-
doxy Explainea-The Sneers of Scot
fers and Infdels Considered
BY The Preacher.

the tabernacle. He gave notice OF the
especial communion TO be held, when
over two hundred new members will be
formally received as the result of the re-
vival services which have been carried on
ut the church during the past three weeks.
He preached a sermon from the story of
John and the angel with the book on Pat
mos.
"And took the little book out of the
angels hand and ate it up; and it was In
my mouth sweet rs honey; and as soon
as | had eaten 1t nv belly was bitter.
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy
again before many peoples and nations
and tongues and kings. "-ReVelatlon X:
10 II. Who that angel was, and what
that book was, no one understands. As
commentators differ in regard to 1t, j
shall not take the responsibility OF inter
pretation; but / will tell you that
it suggests TO me the little book OF
cTeeds which the skeptlc, the
infdel, the atheist, takes, and he chews it
mp with his witticisms and afterward he
has a dreadful mental dyspepsia. 1t is
sweet at the first, and he smiles upon MS;
but after that he is full OF distresses. All
intelligent people have creeds. Political
creeds-that is, favOrite theories about
tariff, about finance. about civil service,
about government. Social creeds-that Is,
theories about manners and customs and
good neighborhood. Hlsthetic creeds-that
Is, theories about tapestry and bric-a-brac
and STYLES OF ornamentatiOn. Theological
creeds-that Is, theories about God,
about the soul. about the great fu-
ture. The only people who have no
rreeds are idiots. And vet there IS
great denunciation OF creeds. as though
man might have a creed about everything
except that which pertains to his souls
advantage creed about everything eX-
cept that which he IS most Interested IN
or ought to be most interested IN. And
50 all evangelical churches are under carl
nature and misrepresentation Orthodox
faith is set up in 4 Tepulsive way and
then raked with the musketry OF denun-
ciation. Truths that are beautiful stated
in common sense way become
disgusting stated IN wrong way
and as though an insane an
atOmist, wishing 10 demonstrate what a
man is. should dissect human body and
then put up in one place the heart and IN
another place the two lungs and IN an
other place an ankle-bOne and say: Now,
that is a MANI All these things wrenched
from their GOd-appointed place. Evan
Ceical religion Is beautiful, Is rOseate, Is
well iointed, Is bounding life. and the
scalpel and the dissecting knife cannot tell
what it is. The sCarecrOw that a farmer
plants in his cOrnfeld TO keep Oft the
ravens Is no more different from the
farmer himself than the theories OF re-
ligion which men set up and then scott at
are different from the real and the
grand and the glorious Christianity
which You and l believe. the enc
mics of evangelism, for instance, attack
Il 81 4.
ierians believe that God is q savage SOW
rreign and that He made some people
Just to damn them, and that there are
Infants in hell span long And these
FLANDERS come down from generation to
generation and roll on through century
alter century, all OF them ISLANDERS. The
PRESBYTERIAN church believes that God is
! loving and just sovereign and that we
IRE free agents. oh" SAYS the
enemy of Christianity, that is
impossible; II God is sovereign,
then YOU are not q free agent" But they
believe the possibility in other direc-
hons. /, Dewitt Talmage, am free citi-
gen OF Brooklyn. / go when / please and
come when l please, but 1 have four
Sovereigns: The church court of my de-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS is my ecclesiastical
sovereign; the mayor of the city-he is my
municipal sovereign ; the governor OF New
Nork-he is Inv state sovereign; the pres
ident of the United States-he is my ma
tional sovereign. l, free in every nerve,
muscle and bone of my body, and
In every faculty of my mind, and
vet have four sOvereigns. And yet,
there are men who in matters of
religion pretend to say they cannot
understand how a man can believe in God
rs q sovereign aud the man be a free
agent ] could, If ! wanted TO, tomorrow
morning 20 into the mercantile library
and improve my mind. OR / could. if l
wanted to- 90 out into the conservatory
OF my friend at Jamaica and look at the
flowers under the arches of glass and see
the aquarium all asqulrm with trout and
gold fish, and look at the trees full OF
oranges and bananas in midwinter. Or i
can, if please, 90 over to Hoboken and
jump into the furnace OF an oil factory,
or ] can Jump from the steps of Phila-
delphia express train, or / can leap
off the Brooklyn bridge. ] am a free
agent ii / should choose to 20 over to
IIobOken and leap into the furnace, whose
fault would it De2 Oh, OF course it would
be the fault of the man who built the fur
mace. Laughter Ii | should leap from
the Brooklyn bridge, whose fault would it
be- OF course, the fanit OF the man who
built the bridge. Laughter. Men have
IgHlUlDu 5Ell1.t III w u llllllE GAtEDb ICllG-
ion. Every man free agent and vet
tod is a sovereign. And as to the theory
that / have heard announced and as COM
ing down from age to age as one of the
theories of the presbyterian church, that
there are infants in hell a span long, If
you will bring me 4 presbyterian OF good
morals and common sense say, OF
good morals and common sense-who
believes that there ever was an in
FAINT in perdition, or ever will be, | will
hand over t. that man any property may
happen to have, and he can take possession
tomorrow. God sovereign. Man free
agent. Suppose there was a charmed key
by which you could open all the prisons
and penitentiaries, and you should turn
out upon the country all the thieves, vag-
abonds and Outragers OF public law, in
two or three years what kind of country
would this be to live in? suppose that
all the OuIagers Of society, all the liber-
tines. all tie thieves, ali the vagabonds
of the ages were turned into
the streets of the New Jerusa-
Iom on high, the next morning
YOU would find the gates OF pearl Oft their
hinges laughter and YOU would find the
Inch pins gone out OF the chariots of sal