News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-02-07
SUNDAYS SERMON.
ONE OF REV. DIR TALMAGES
STERLING DISCOURSES.
Subject; ISLANDERS Against ReIig-
ION Answered"

TEXT: "And Ttooa the little book ont OF
tse angels hand, and ate it Up: and it Icds
IN my mouth stCset rs honey; and as soon
as Ihad eaten Il ma belly toas bitter. And
he said unto me: Thou mast propheSy
again before Raag peoples. and nations,
and tongues. and kings. Rev. K. 10-1l-
Domitian, the Roman Emperor. had in his
realm troublesome evangelist who would
keep preaching, and so he exiled him to a
barren island, as now the Russians exile con-
ElctS TO Siberia, or as sometimes the English
Government used to send prisoners to Aus
tralia. The is and 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 a cavern on
the hillside, and perhaps half asleep under
the drone OF the sea, has a supernatural
cream and before him pass as in panorama,
time and eternity. Among the strange
things that he saw was an angel with a
little hook IN his hand, AMI in his
dream the evangelist asked for
this little book, and the angel gave it
to him, and tod him to eat it up
As in dream things arr sometimes in
congruous, the evangelist took the little book
and ate it up. The angel told him before
hand that it would be very sweet in the
mouth, but afrerward he would be troubled
with indigestion. True enough, the evangel-
ist devours the book, and it becomes to HIM a
S&SClusSS UuTluA I09 QdSClCdIlOQ, DUE AFTER
ward physical bitterness
Who she angel was and what the book was
no one can tell Tbs commentators do not
agree, and shall take no responsibility of
Interpretation but will tell you that
it suggests to me the little fook
OF creeds which s&epsics take and chew
up and find a very luscious morsel
TO their witticism. but after white it is to
them a great distress. The angel of the
church hands out this little book OF evangel-
Ism, and the antagonists or the Christian
Church teke it and eat it up, and it makes
them smile at first, but afterward it is to
them dire dyspepsia.
All intelligent people have cree6s-that is,
fayorlte theories which they have adopted.
Political crsegis-that is theories about tariff,
aooue finance, about civil service, about
government. Social ersedS-that is, theories
about manners and customs and good neigh
oorhooi. 4sthetical cIeeds-that is theories
about tapestry, about bric-a-brac, about
styles of characterization. Religious creeds-
that is, theories acout the Deity, about the
soul, about the great future. The only being
who has no creed about any thing is the
idiot This soothing against creeds is always
sign OF profound ignorance on the
part of thu scoffer, fer he has
nimselt hundred creads in regard to other
things. in cur time the beliefs Of eyangeis-
nc churches are under a fusilade Of carica-
ture and misrepresentation. Men set up
what they all orthodox faith, and they rake
It with the muske,ry of their denunciation.
They faisify what the Christian churches be-
heFe. 1hey take evangelical doctrines and
set them IN harsh and repulsive way, and
put them out of the association with other
truths They are like mad anatom st, VINO,
desiring TO tell whata man is, dissects hu-
man body and hangs up in enc place the
heart, and in another place tie two lungs,
aud IN another place an ankle bone, and says
that IS man. They are only fragments of
a man wrsnched out of their God -appointed
places.
Evangelical religion is a healthy. symetri
cal, vel sointed, roSaate. bounding life, and
the scalpei and tue dissecslug knife OF the in
fidel or the atheist cannot tell you what it is.
Evangelical rel gion is as different from
what it IS represented to be by these enemies
as the scsrecrow which farmer puts in thu
cornteld to keep of the ravens IS different
from the farmer himself.
For instance, these enemies OF evangelism
say that The Presbyterian Church believes
chat God Is a savage So ereign, and that He
made some men Just t. damn Iham, and that
there are infants in he'll span long. These
cd SANDERS come down from generation to
generation The Presbyterian Church be-
heves no such thing. The Presbyterian
Church believes that God is a loving aud just
Sovereign, and that we are free agents.
mo, no; that cannot be, say these men who
have chewed up the creed aud have the con-
sequent eInbittered stomach THAT is impos-
sioie; IT God is a Sovereign, we can't be free
agents" WHY, my friends we admit this
II every other direction !, De Witt Tai
tipce am free citizen OF Brooklyn. / go
whea please and come when please, but
L nave at least four Soveraigns. The Church
court of our denomination; that is my
ecclesiastical sovereign Tue mayor of this
city; he is my municipal sovereign The
Governor OF New y ork; 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 boiy. mind and soul am e fres man. So,
you see 1t Is possible that the two doctrines
go side by side. and there is u common-sense
way Of presenting it, and there is a way that
is repulSive. If you have the two doctrines in
a worldly direction, why not in religious di-
rection II l choose tomorrow morning to
walk into the Mercantile Library and inn
prove my mind, or to go through
the conservatory Of nv friend at ia
maica, who has flowers from all lands
growing under the arches of glass, and who
has an aquarium all aSQuirm with trc:-t and
gold fish, and there are trees hearing
oranges nd bananas-if 1 want to go there,
could. am free TO 20. If wan. to go
over to HoioKen aud leap into furnace of
an oil Factory. if | want to lump from the
platform OF the Philadelphia express train.
II want to cap from the Broosivn Bridge.
may But suppose 1 should GO tomorrow
and leap into the furnace at Hoboken who
would he TO blame That is all there is
about sovereignty AMI free agency. God
rules and reignS, ard He has conssryatories
an1 he has blast furnaces. If you want TO
walk IA he gardens, walk there If you
want to leap IN the furnaces, you NAV.
Suppose now man had Charmed kew
with which he could open al the iais, and
be should open Raymond Street Jail and the
New York Tombs and all the prisons on the
continent In three weeks what kind of a
country would this bel all the inmates
turned out OF those prisons and penitentjar.
les suppose all the reprcbatss the bad
Spirits, the outrageous spirits, should be
turned into the New Jerusalem. WHY. the
next morning the gates o. pearl would be
found OIL hinge, the linchnin would be gone |
out OF the char OF wheels the ''house
OF many Mansions would be burr /
larlzed. Assault and battery. arson. |
hoertlnlsm and assassination would |
reside IN the capital of the skies Angels of |
Tod would be nlsu ted on the streets. Heaven /
would be a dead failure if there were nc
greet ioclS-up If all people without regard
TO their character when they leave this wor,d
go right into glory-I wonder if in the
Tempe OF the SKIES Charles Guiteau and
@ohn Wilkes Pooth OCCUPY the same pewi
our common sense demands two destiniesi
And then as 70 the PRESBYTERIAN Church be-
hevlng there are infants in perdition. if Won
VIII brlny me Presbyterian of cool morals
ana sound N nd who will say that he believes
there ever was baby in the lost world or
ever will lie, viii make him a deed to tbs
house live in and he can take possession
TO morrow.
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 Tor liturgy and genuhexion. False |
again. All EplScopalians will tell you that |
the forms AMI ereeds of their church are |
worse than nothing unless the heart go with |
them.
So also the Rapts5 Church has been mis- |
represented. The enemies of evangelism say |
the Baptist Church believes that unless a |
man is Immersed be "iH never ret into
close communion and open communion, be.
leve that if a man accept the Lord Jesus
christ he VIII be saved. whether he be Dap
TIED by one drop OF water on the forehead
or be plunged into the Ohio or Susquehanna,
immersion is the only gate by
which one enters their earthly communion
The enemies of evangelism a $50 misrepre-
sent the Methodist Church. They say the
Methodist Church believes that man can
convert himself. and that conversion ia that
church Is temporary emotion. and that all
a man has to do is to kneel down at the altar
and feel bad and then the minister pats him
on the back and says: sit is all right and
that is all there is of it. False again. The
Methodist Church Believes that the Holy
Ghost alone can convert heart, and in that
church conversion is an earthquake of con-
viction and a sunburst of pardon. And as to
mere Temporary emotion" wish we all
had more of the Temporary emotion" which |
lasted Bishop James and Matthew Simpson
Tor a half century. keeping them on fire for
God until their holy enthusiasm consumed
their bodies
SO all the evangelical denominations are
And then these enemies of
evangelism 90 on and hold up the great doc
trines of Christian churches as absurd, dry
and inezplicable tschnicalities. "1here is
your doctrine of the Trinity" they say.
Absurd beyond all Lounds. The idea that
9 ere IS a Gs.tt in three persons. Impossible
IL IL IS one God He can't be three, and if thers
are three, there can't be onen At the same
-lIna oil Of tka-- It'll