Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1889-01-28
ANSWERED.
ALL INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE ADOPTED
CRBBDS.
Rev Dr.. Talmags Tells What the Churches Believe
How They Are Misrsprssenisd-Ths
Work Of Rsgsneneradon-An Incident
Of the Great London Plague.
special Telegram to the Register.

Special Telegram TO the Register.
BROOKLYN, January 27.-The Rev. DIR.
T. Dewitt Tslmage's this morning
was on ISLANDERS Against Religion
Answered" His text was: 'And l
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 l
had eaten it my belly was bittsr. Aud he
said unto me, Thou must prophesy again
before many peoples, and nations, and
tongues, and kings. Rev. K: 10, IL.
The reverend gentleman said:
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 Rus
slams exile convicts to Siberia, OF as some
times the English government used to send
prisoners to Australia The island / speak
of is now called Patmos, and is 30 barren
and unproductive that its inhabitants live
by fishing
Bat one day the evangelist of whom l
speak, sitting at the mouth of a cavern on
the hillside, and perhaps half asleep un-
der the drone of the sea, has a supernatural
dream, and before him pass, as in panO-
rama, time and eternity. Among the
strange things that he saw was an angel
with little hook 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. AS in a dream
things are sometimes incOngruous, the
evangelist took the little book and ate it
up. The angel told him beforehand that
it would be very sweet in the mouth, but
sfterward he would be troubled with indi
gestion. True enough, the evangelist de-
YOURS the book, ard it becomes to him
sweetness during the mastication, but AZ
terward physical bitterness.
ALL INTELLIGENT PEOPLE HAVE CREEDs.
Who the angel was and what the bOJk
was ro one can tell. TIE commentators
DO not agree, and shall take no response
bility Of Interpretation, but will tell you
thst il suggests to me the little book OF
creeds which skeptics take and chew up
and find very luscious mOrsel to their
witticism, but after while it il. TO them
great distress. The onsel OI the cnurch
Rapdo uus this little book of evangelism,
and the antagonists of the Christian Church
take it and eat it up, and it makes them
smile at first, but afterward it is to them
dire dyspepsia
All intelligent people have creeds-that
is favorite theories which they have adopt
ed. Political creeds-that is theories
about tariff, about finance, about civil ser
vice, about government. Social cIeeds-
that is theories about manners and Gus
toms and good neighbOrhOOd. Kithetical
creeds that is theories about tapestry,
about bric.a brac, about styles Of orna-
mentatiOn. Religious Creeds-that is
theories about the Deity, about the soul,
about the great future. The only being
who has no creed abOu; anything is the i'd
lot This scOfiing against creeds Is always
a sign of profound Ignorance on the part Of
the scofIer, foI he has himself hundred
cfeeds in regard to other things. In our
times the beliefs OF evangelistic churches
are under fusilsde Of caricature and mis-
-au~ssenta;io1. Men set I'd what they clll
orthodox faith, and then they rake 1t with
the musketry Of their denunciatiOn. They
falsify what the Christian churches believe.
They take evangelistical doctrines and set
them in harsh and repulsive way,
and put them out of the assOCi-
alton with other truths. They
are like mad anatomiEt who,
d esiring TO tell what msn is, dissects q
bu nan body and hangs up in one place the
heart. and in another place the two luDgs,
and in another place an ankle bone, and
SAYS that is man. There are only frag-
ments of n man, wrenched out of their Cod
appointed places.
Evangelical religion is healthy, sym
metricsl, well-jointed, roseate, bounding
life and the scalpel and the dissecting
knife of the infidel or the atheist cannot
tell you what it is. Evangelical religion
is as different from what it is Represented
10 be by those enemies as the scare-crow
which a farmer puts in the corn field 10
keep off the ravens, is different from the
farmer himself.
WHAT THE PRESBYTERIANs RErrEN H.
For instance, these enemies of evaUgel-
ism say that the Presbyterian Church be-
lieves that God is a savage sovereign, and
tbst He made some men just to damu
ll,em, and that there are infants in hell a
span long. These old SANDERS come down
from generation to generation. The Pres
byterisu Church believes no such thing.
The Presbyterian Church believes that
God is a loving and Just Sovereign, and
that we are fres agents. mo, no. that
cannot be-" say these men who have
chewed up the creed and have the conse-
quent embittered stOmachs. THAT Is I'M
possible; if God is a sovereign, we can't
ba free agents" Why, my friends, we
admit this in every other direction. l,
Do Witt Talmsge, am free citizen OF
BROOKLYN. 20 when please and come
when | please, but l have at least four
soyereigns. The Church court of our de-
nomination; that is my ecclesiastical
sovereign. The mayor of this city; is
nv municipal sovereign. The Governor
of New York; he is my State sovereign. |
The President of the United States; he Is
nv national sovereign. Four sOvereigns |
have l, and yet in every faculty /
of BODY. mind and soul am free man.
So YOU see, it is possible that the two
doctrines 20 side by side, and there IS |
common-sense way Of presenting 1t, and
there is a way that is repulsive. II you /
have the two doctrines in worldly direc' |
ton. why not in religious direction? II
I choose to morrow morning to walk into
the Mercantile Library and improve my |
mind, or to 90 through the conservatory OF
NV friend at Jamaica, who has flowers
from all lands growing under the a'chss OF
glass. and who has an aquarium oil
asouirm with trout and gold fish, aud /
there are trees bearing oranges and bananas
If want to 20 there, could. l am free
to 90. If I want to 90 over to
Hoboken and leap into far
mace of an oil factory, II
want to Jump from the platform of the .
Philadelphia exprese train, if l want to
leap from Brooklyn Bridge, l may. But
suppose should go tomorrow and leap
into the furnace at Hoboken, who would
he 10 blame? That is all there Is about
sovereignty and free agency. God rules
the reins, and He has conservatories and
He has blast furnaces. If you want TO
walk in the gardens, walk there. II you
want to leap in the furnaces You may.
RRPROBATEs IN NEW JERUSALEM.
Suppose now that man had charmed
kew with which he could open sll the Jalls,
and he should open Raymond Street jan
and the New York TOmbs and all the