The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-02-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Weekly Discourses Of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
suSjecs: =" Slandcrn Against
Religion Answered"


Religion Answered"
:, TEXT: "ANd took the TITLE book out of
hs angels hand, aud ate e up, and 10 tods
W my mouth sioeet cs honey; and as soon
az Ihad eaten Il my belly ioas bitter. And
ne said unto me: Thou must prophssy
again before maay peoples and nations,
ana tongues, aud kin0s."-Rev. T., l0-ll.
Domitian. the Roman Emperor, had In his
realm a troublesome evangelist who would
keep preaching, and so he sxiled him to a
barren island, as now the Russians exile con-
victs 10 Siberia, or as sometimes the English
government used to send prisoners to Aus
tralia. The island speak of Is now called
patmos, 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 cavern on
the hillside, 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 it
to him. and told him to eat it up.
congruous, the evangelist took the little book
and alto 1t up. The angel told him before
hand that 1t would DO very sweet in the
mouth, but afterward he would be troubled
with indigestion. True enough, the evangel-
list devours the book, and it becomes to him a
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 shall take no responsibility of
interpretation, but will tell you that
~ suggests to me the little book
OF creeds which skeptics take and chew
up and find a very luscious morsel
70 Their witticism, but after while it Is to
them great distress. The angel Of the
enurch hands out this little book OF evangel-
Ism, and the antagonists OF the Christian
Church take it and eat it up, and 1t makes
them smile at first, but afterward it is to
them dire dyspepsia.
All intelligent people have creeds-that is,
Iavorite theories which they have adopted.
fohticai 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
borhooi. Esthetical creeds-that is theories
ABOUT tapestry, about bric-a- brac, about
Styles OF ornamentation. Religious creeds-
That IS, theories about the Deity, about tho
soul, about the great future The only being
VINO mas no creed about anything Is the
IDIOT. This scofilng against breeds Il always
q a,r sign OF profound ignorance on the
himself hundred creeds in regard to other
tnlnSs. In our time the beliefs Of evangelis-
NC churches are under fusilade Of carica-
lure and Misrepresentation. Men set up
what they call orthodox faith. and they rake
II with the musketry of their denunciation.
They falsify what the Christian churches be-
heve. They take evangelical doctrines and
set them in harsh and repulsive way, and
than M Of tha nioti xxif oil
truths. They are like mad anatomist, who,
desiring to tell what a man is, dissects 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
man wrenched out of their God appointed
places.
cal, we'll jointed, roseate, bounding life, and
the scalpel and the dissecting knife of the in
ndel or the atheist cannot tell you what it is.
Evangelical religion is as different from
what 1t is represented to be by these enemies
as the scarecrow which farmer puts in the
corntield 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 savage Sovereign, and that He
made some men just to damn them, and that
there are infants in hell span long. These
old ISLANDERS come down from generation to
generation. The Presbyterian Church be-
lieves no such thing The Presbyterian
Church believes that God is a loving and just
Sovereign, and that we are free agents.
mo, no; that cannot be, say these men who
sequent embittered stomach. "rhat is fmpos.
sible; II God is Sovereign, we can't BE- fres
agents" Why, my friends, we admit this
In every other direction. l, De Witt Tall
mage, am free citizen of Brooklyn. / 60
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; be 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 faculty
Of body, mind and soul am free man. So,
you see, it is possible that the two doctrines
60 side by side, and there is a common-sense
way of presenting it, and there is way that
Is repulsive. If you have the two doctrines in
. worldly direction, why not in a religious di-
rection If l choose tomorrow morning to
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 who
has an aquarium all asquirm with trout and
gold fish, and there are trees bearing
oranges and bananas-if want to go there,
1could. am free 10 20. If | want to 90
over to Hoboken and leap into furnace OF
an oil factory, il ! want to jump from the
platform OF the Philadelphia express train,
II want to leap from the Brooklyn Bridge,
may. But suppose should go tomorrow
and leap into the furnace at Hoboken, who
would be to blame That is all there ii
about sovereignty and free agency. GOD
rules and reigns, and He has conservatorie;
and He has blast furnaces. If you want tc
walk in the gardens, walk there, If yor
want to leap in the furnaces, you may.
Suppose now man had a charmed key
with which he could open all the jails, anc
he should open Raymond Street Jail and thu
New York Tombs and all the prisons on thu
eonunenu. In unree weeks what klnd or u
country would this bes all TIA inmates
turned out of those prisons and penitentiar.
ies. Suppose all the reprobc.J,s,. 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 gono
out of the chariot wheels the ''house
of many mansions" would be burg.
larized. Assault and battery, arson.
libertinism and assassination would
reside in the capital of the skies. Angels Of
God would be ii,su,ted 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 wor Z
20 right into glory-I wonder if in th'
temple of the skies Charles Guiteau ant
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 vol
will bring me e Presbyterian of good morals
and SQUAD mind who will say that he believe