The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1889-02-07
1'ALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse on Answers to Sian.
ders Against Religion.


Against Religion Answered. was deliv-
cred by Rev. 7. Dewitt Talmage at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle. His text was;
And took the little book out OF the angels
hand. and ate it up, aud il was In my mouth
sweet as honey: and as soon IS had eaten q
my belly wac bitter. And he said unto me,
Thou must prophesy again before many PEG,
pies. and nations, and tongues and Kings. u
Revelations, 4, 10-li.
Domitian, the Roman Emperor, had 70.
his realm a troublesome evangelist whd
would keep preaching, and so he eXilcd
him to barren island, as now the Rus
SLAMS exile convicts 60 Siberia, or as some
times the English Government used TO
send prisoners to Australia. The island
I speak of Is now called PatmOs, and Is so
barren and uuproductive that its inhab>
itants live by fishing.
But one day the evangelist Of whom
speak, sitting at the mouth of cavern on
the hillside, and perhaps half asleep un-
der the drone of the sea, has supernat-
ural dream, and before him pass, as In
panorama time and eternity. Among the
strange things that he saw was an angel
with little book in his hand, and IN his
book, and the angel gave 1t to him, and
told him to eat It up. As In q dream
things are sometimes incongruous, the
evangelist took the little book and ate It
mp, The angel told him beforehand that
1t would be very sweet in the mouth. but
afterward he would be troubled with in
digestion. True enough the evangelist
devours the book, and it becomes to him
a sweetness during 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 I shall take no respon-
sibility 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 awhile 1t Is to them
great distress, The angel OF the church
hands out this little book Of evangelism,
and the antagonists of the Christian
church take 1t and eat it up, and it makes
them smile at first, but afterward it Is
to them a dire dyspepsia.
All intellectual people have creeds-
that is, favorite theories which they have
adopted. Political creeds-that Is, theo-
ries about tariff, finance, about civil sew
ice, about government, Social creeds-
that is, theories about manners and GUS
toms, and good neighborhood. Esthet-
tcal creeds-that is, theories about tapes
try, about bric-a- brac, about styles OF or
namentation. Religious cresds-that
Is, theories about the Deity, about
the soul, about the great future.
The only being who has no creed
about any thing Is the idiot. This
scoffing against creeds is always q
sign of profound ignorance on the part Of
che scoffef, for he has himself a hundred
creeds In regard to other things. In our
times the beliefs Of evangelistic churches
are under a fusillade Of caricature and
Misrepresentation. Men set up what they
call orthodox faith, and then they rake
it with the musketry of their de-
nunciation. They falsify what the Chris.
tan churches believe. They take evan
gclican doctrines and set them in harsh
and rrpulsive way, and shut them out of
the as ISOLATION with other truths. They
are like a mad anatomist who, desiring to
tell what man is, dissects human body
and hangs up In one place the heart, and
in auC Their place the two lungs, and in an |.
other place an ankle bone, and says that
Is man. They are only fragments Of q
man vrefehed out of their God-ap-
point ed places,
Evangelical religion is a healthy, SYM
metrioa,, we'll jointed, roseate, bounding
life. and the scalpel and the dissecting
knife Of the infidel or the atheist can not
tell you what it is. Evangelical religion
Is as different from what il is represented
TO be by these enemies as the scarecrow
which farmer puts in the cornfield to
keep off the ravens is different from the
farmer himself.
For instance these enemies OF evangel-
ism say that the Presbyterian Church be.
lievcs that God is a savage sovereign, and
that He made some men to damn them,
and that there are infants in hell span
long. These old SANDERS come down
fr"rt generation to generation. The Pres
hyter3an church believes no such thing.
rho Presbyterian church believes that
Ged is a loving and just sovereign, and
That we are free agents. mo, no, that
rin not be-" say these men who have
rlewcd UP the creed aud have the conse-
1u2nt cmbittered stomachs. THAT is i'm
r"ssible. II God is sovereign we can't be
fcee agents." Why, my friend, we admit
us Iii every other direction. I, De Witt
ratmagc, am free citizen OF Brook yn
GO when | please and come when
lease, bat / have at least four sOvereigns.
The church court OF Our danOmnati
tart Is my ecclesiastical sovereign. The
hayor of this city; he is my municipal
sovereign. The Governor of New York;
10 /; my State sovereign. The Presiden
O. thSUnited States; he Is my National
soverei IN. Four sovereigns have |, and
get in every faculty of body, mind and
soul am free man. So, you see, it is
POSSIBLE that the two doctrines go side by
sidn, and there is a common sense way Of
presenting it, and there is way that Is
r"pulsive. If you have the two doctrin es
Ia worldly direction, why not in a
religious direction. II choose to-
borrow morning to walk into the
Mercantile Library and improv g
iy mind, or to 60 through the
conservatory of my friend from Jamaica,
Who has flowers from all lands growing
Inder the arches of glass, and who has an
aquarium all asquirm with trout and gold
G h, and there are trees bearing oranges
and bananas-if wanted to go there |
could. l am free to go. If want to &c
over to Ho5oken and leap into the furnace
OF an oil factory; II | want to jump from
the platform Of q Philadelphia express
train; if want to leap from the Brooklyn
B.idge, may. But suppose should go
tomorrow and leap into the furnace al
Hoboken, who would be to blame? That
IL all there is about sovereignty and free
agency. God rules and reigns, and He has
conseryatories and He has blast furnaces
II you want to walk in the gardens, wall
there. If you want to leap in the furnace
YOU may.