Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1889-02-07
SCOFFERS ANSWERED.
Dr.. Talmage Defends the Christian
Religion.
Creeds Among Intelligent People-Atheists
Answered-The Churches Misrepre-
sented-Justification by Faith De-
fended-Power OF Prayer.

text was: "And l took the LITTLE
book out OF the angels hand and att
1t up; and it was in my mouth sweet al
honey; and as soon as I 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 "-Revelations Z. 10-1L The rev.
erend gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman Emperor, had in
his realm a troublesome evangelist who
would keep preaching, and so he exiled
him to a barren island, as now the Rus
SLAMS exile convicts to Siberia, or as some
times the English Government used tc
send prisoners to Australia. The island
speak of is now called Patmos, and is sc
barren and unproductive that its inhabit-
antz 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
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. As in a dream things are
sometimes incoDgruous, 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 afterward he
would be troubled with Indigestion. True
enough, the evangelist devours the book,
and it becomes to him a sweetness during
the mastication, but afterward physical
bitterness.
Who the angel was and what the book
was no one can tell. The commentators
do not agree, and l shall take no response
bility of Interpretation, but will tell you
that it suggests 10 me the little book OF
creeds which skepticI take and chew up
and find a very luscious morsel to their
witticsm, but aTtor a while it is to them a
great distress. The Angel OF the Church
hands out this little book of evangel-
ism, and the antagonists of the Christian
church take it ana eat it up, and it makes
them smile at st, but afterward it is to
them dire dyspepsia.
Ali the 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 anu good neighborhood. IEsthet-
ical creeds - that is, theories about
tapestry, about bric-a brac, about styles
Of ornamen.ation. Religious creeds--
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 soothing
against creejs is always sign of pro-
h., ~ fhe.c Tnr
for he has himself hundred creeds in re-
gard to other things. In our time the be-
liefs of evangelistic churches are under a
fusilade of caricature and msrepresenta-
ton. Men set mp what they call orthodox
faith, and then they rake it with the mus
kerry of their depunciation. They falsify
what the Christian churches believe.
They take evangelical doctrines and set
them in a harsh and repulsive way, and
put them out of the association with other
truths. They ara like a mad anatomist
who, desiring to tell what a man is, dis
sects a 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-appcinted places.
Evangelical religion is healthy, SYM
metrical, well-Jointed, roSeate, bounding
life, and the sCaipel and the dissecting
knife of the infidel or the atheist can not
tell you what 1t is. Evangelical religion
is as different from what it is represented
to be by these enemies as the scare-crow
which the 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-
lieves 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 slanderers come down
from generation 10 generation. The Pres
byterian Church believes no such thing.
The Presbyterian Church believes that
aod is a loving aud just sovereign and that
we are free agents. mo, no, that can not
be, "say these NJ en- who have chewed up the
creed and have the consequent embittered
stomachs. THAT is impossible; if God is
a sovereign Ge can't be free agents."
Why, friends, W.T. admit this in every
other direction. J, Dewitt Talmage, am
free citizen Of Brooklyn. l go when
please. but have at least four sovereigns.
that is my ecclesiastical sovereign; the
mayor OF tbs city-he is my municipal
sovereign; The Governor of New York-he
is my STATE sovereign; the President of
the United States is my National SOW
ereign. Fou- soyereigns have l. and yet,
in every facs ;ty CT body, mind and soul, l
am a free ma 4. SO you see it is possible
that the two doctrines go side by side, and
there is a common sense way of presenting
it, and there is way that is repulsive.
If you have two doctrines in worldly
direction why not in a religious direction:
If l 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 arches of
glass and who has an aquarium all
asquirm with front and gold fish and there
are trees bearing oranges and bananas
if | want to go there / could. / am free TO
go. If want to go over to Hoboken and
leap into furnace of an oil factory, if
vant to jump from the platform of the
Philadelphia express train, if l want to
leap from Brooklyn bridge, 1 may. But
suppose should go tomorrow and leap
into the furnace at Hoboken, who would
be to blame: That is all there is about
sovereignty and free agency. God rules
and reigns and He has conservatories and
He has blast furnaces. II you want to
walk in the gardens, walk there. If you
want to leap into the furnaces you may.
Suppose now q man had a charmed kew
with which he could open all the jails, and
he 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 be: all the
inmates turned out of those prisons and
Suppose all the repro
bates, the bad spirits, the outrageous
spirits, should be turned into the New