The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1889-02-01
.ANKATo FREE Press
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY /, 1880.
ISLANDERS ANSW Erred.
DR.. TALMAGE REFUTES THE FALSE
DOCTRINES OF ANTl-CHRlSTiANS.

DR.. TALMAGE REFUTES THE FALSE
DOCTRINES OF ANTl-cHRlsTlANs.
A Few Words for the Benefit of the Enc
niles of Evangelism-The Plague OF Un-
belief That Is Now Rampant In the
Worid-Doctrines of the Sects.
BROOKLYN. Jan 27.-The Rev Dr. 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 it up, and it
was in my mouth sweet as honey; and as
soon as | had eaten it my belly was bitter
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy
again before many peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings Rev K, 10. H. The
reverend gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman emperor, had in his
realm a troublesome evangelist who would
keep preaching, and so he exiled him to q
barren island, as now the Russians exile con-
victs to 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 ono day the evangelist of whom
speak, sitting at the mouth of q cavern on the
hill side, 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 a little book in his
hand, and in his dream tho evangelist asked
for this little book and the angel gave it to
him, and told him to eat it up AS in dream
things are sometimes incongruous, the ovan-
gelist took the little book and ate it up. The
angel told him beforehand that it would be
very sweet in the mouth, but afterward he
would 10 troubled with indigestion. True
enough, tho evangelist devours the book, and
II becomes to him a sweetness during the mas
hcation, but afterward 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 it sug-
gests to me the little book of creeds which
skeptics take and chew up and find q very
luscious morsel to their witticism, but after q
while it 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 it and eat it up, and 1t
makes them smile at first, but afterward it is
to them a dire dyspepsia
THE REASONS WHY CREEDs ARE NECESSARY.
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 neighborhood Esthetical 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 a sign Of profound ignorance on the
part Of the scoffer, for he has himself hun
dred creeds in regard to other things In our
time the beliefs of evangelistic churches are
under fusillade of caricature and misrepre-
sentation- Men set up what they call ortho.
dox faith, and then they rake it with
the musketry Of their denunciation. They
falsify what the Christian churches be-
neve. They take evangelical doctrines and
set them In a harsh and repulsive way,
and put them out of tho association with
other truths They are like a mad anatomist,
who, desiring to tell what man is, dissects
q 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 a man. They are only fragments Of a
man wrenched out Of their God-appointed
places.
Evangelical religion is healthy, symmet-
rical, well jointed, roseate, bounding life, and
the scalpel and the dissecting knife of the in
fdel 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 corn
field 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-
ieves no such thing. The Presbyterian
church believes that God is a loving and just
sovereign, and that we are free agents. mo,
mol that cannot be" say these men who have
chewed up the creed and have the consequent
embittered stomachs. THAT is impossible;
II God is sovereign, we can't be free agents.
Why, my friends, we admit this in every
other direction. l, De Witt Talmage, am q
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 governor Of New York; he is my
state sovereign The president Of the United
States; he Is my national sovereign. Four
sovereigns have l, and yet in every faculty
Of body, mind and soul l am free man.
30, you see, it Is possible that the two doc
trines go side by side, and there is a common
sense way Of presenting it, and there is a
way that is repulsive. If you have the two
doctrines in q worldly direction, why not in
q religious directionl If choose tomorrow
morning to walk into the Mercantile library
and improve my mind, or to go through the
conservatory Of my friend at Jamaica, 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, I could am free
to 90. II | want to go over to Hoboken
and leap into furnace Of an oil factory, If |
want to jump from the platform of the Phila-
delphia express train, IL | want to leap from
Brooklyn bridge, may. But suppose l
should go tomorrow and leap into the fur
mace at Hoboken who would be to blamea
That is all there is about sovereignty and free
agency. God rules and reiSns, and he has
Conservatives and he has blast furnaces. If
you want to walk in the gardens, walk there
II you want to leap in TIE furnaces you may
SOME MISCONCEPTIONS THAT FILL MEMS
MINLS
Suppose now a man had charmed key
with which he could open all the jails, and he
should open Raymond Street Jail and the
New York Tombs and all the prisons Oh the
continent. In three weeks what kind OF a
country would this bei all the inmates turned
out of those prisons and penitentiaries. Sup
pose all the reprobates, 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 linchpin would be gone out of the chariot
wheels, the 'house of many mansions" would
be burglarized. Assault and battery, arson,
hbertinism and assassination would reside in
the capital Of the skies. Angels of God would
be insulted on tho streets Heaven would be
q dead failure, if there were no great lock up
If all people, without regard to their charac-
ter. when they leave this world, go right into
glory, l wonder il in the temple of the skies
Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth
occupy the same pewl Your common sense
demands two destiniesl And then as to the
Presbyterian church believing there are in
fants In perdition, II you will bring me q
Presbyterian Of good morals and sound mind
who will say that he believes there ever was
baby In the lost world, or ever will be, /
will make him a deed to the house live in,
and he can take possession tomorrow.
So the Episcopalian church is misrepre-
sented by the enemies of evangelism They
say that church substitutes forms and cere-
monies for heart religion, and it is all a mat
ter Of liturgy and genufexion. False again.
All Episcopalians will tell you that the forms
and creeds of their church are worse than
nothing unless the heart go with them
80 also the Baptist church has been mis-