Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-02-06

agents. "No, no! that cannot be-" say
these men who have who have chewed uI
the creed and have the consequent embit
tered stomachs, 'sThat is impossible; il
God is sovereign, we can't be free agents. y
Why, my friends, we admit this in every
other direction. I. Do Witt Talmage, am
free citizen of Brooklyn. go when
please and come when please, but have
!, at least four sovereigns. The Church court
of our denomination; that is my ecclesiasti
cal sovereign. The Mayor of this city; he
is my municipal sovereign. The Governor
> of New York; he is nv State severe gn.
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 a free man. So, you
see. it is possible that the two doctrines go
side By side, and there is common sense
way of presenting it, and there is way
that is repulsive. If you have the two doc
trines in worldly direction, why not in a
religious direction? If I choose to- morrow
morning to walk into the Mercantile Libra
Try and improve my mind, or &c go through b
the conservatory of my friend at Jamaica
who has flowers from all lands growing un-
der 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. could
am free to go. If I want to go over to
Hoboken and leap into furnace of an oil
factory, if l want to jump frorn the plat
form of the Philad-lphia express train, if
want to leap from Brooklyn bridge, may
BuG suppose I should 60 to morrow and
leap iuto the furnace az Hoboken, who
would be to blame? That is all there is
about sovereignty and free agency. God
rules and reigns and He has Conservatives
and He has blast furnaces. If you want to
WALK in the gardens, walk there. If you
want to leap in the furnace you may.
Suppose now man had charmed key
with which he could open all the jails, 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 country would this be ? all the inmates
turned cut of those prisons and penitentia-
ries Suppose all the Teprobates, the bad
spirits, the outrageous spirits, should be
turned into the New Jerusalem. Why, the
next morning the gates of pearl would be
found eff hinge, the lInch-pin would be gone
out of tho chariot wheels, the ''house of
many mansions" would be burglarized.
Assault and battery, arson, libertinism and
assassination would reside in the capital of
the skies. Angels of God would be insult
ed on the streets. Heaven would be dead
failure if there were no great lookup. If
all people without regard to their character
when they leave this world 90 right into
glory-I wonder if in the temple of the skies
Charles Guiteau and John Wilkes Booth
occupy the same pew! Your common sense
demands two destinies! And then as to the
Presbyterian Church believing there are in-
fants in peldition, if you will briug me
Pres byterisn of good morals and sound
mind who will sag that be believes there
ever was baby in the lost world, or ever
will be, / will make him deed to the house
| I live in and he Can take possession to-mor-
row.
So the Episcopalian Church is misrepre-
sented by The enemies of evangelism. They
say that Church substitutes forms and
ceremonies for heart religion, aud it is all
matter of liturgy and genufiexion. 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.
| SO also the Baptist Church has been mis-
represented. The enemies of evangelism
say the Baptist Church believes that unless
man is immersed he will never get into
heaven. False again. All the Baptists,
close communion and open communion, bs-
| lieve that if a man accept the Lord Jesus
Christ he will be saved, whether he be bap
| tized by Que drop of water on the forehead
or be plunged into the Ohio or Susquehan-
La, although immersion is the only gate By
which one enters their earthly communion.
The enemies of evangelism also misrep-
resent the Methodist Church. They say
the Methodist Church believes that man
can convert himself, aud that conversion in
that Church is a temporary emotion, and
that all man has TO do is to kneel down at
the altar and feel bad, and then the miUis-
ter pats him on the back and says: SIT is
all right" and that is all there is of it,
False again The Methodist Church be-
lieves that the Holy Ghost alone can con-
vert heart, and in that Church conversion
is an earthquake of conviction aud sun
burst of pardon. And as to mere "tempo-
rary emotion" wish we all had more of
the Temporary emotion" which lasted
Bishop James and Matthew Simpson for a
half century, keeping them on fire for God
uutil their holy enthusiasm consumed their
| bodies.
So all the evangelical denominations are
| misrepresented. And then these enemies
of evangelism GO on and hold up the great
doctrines of Christian Churches as absurd,
dry and inexplicable technicalities. "There
is your doctrine of the Trinity" they say.
"Absurd beyond all bounds. The idea that
there is a God in three persons Impossi-
BILE. Ifi is one God He can't be three,
and if there are three, they can't be one.'
| At the same time all of us-they with us
acknowledge tiinities all around us
Trinity in our own make-up-body, mind,
soul. Body with which we move, mind
with which we think, soul with which we
love. Three, yet one man. Trinity in the
air-light, heat, moisture-yet one at
mosphere. Trinity in the court-room--
three judges on the bench, but one court.
Tiiuines all around about US, in earthly
government and in nature. OF course, all
the illustrations are defective for the reason
that the natural cannot fully illustrate the
j spiritual. But suppose an ignorant man
should come up to chemist and say =: 9!
deny what you say about the water and
about the air; they are not made of differ
ent parts The air is ore; breathe it
every day. The water is one; drink it
every day. You can't decisive me abOut
the clements that go to make up the cir
and the water" The chemist would say !:
you come up into my laboratory and
will demonstrate this W hole thing to you"
The ignorant man goes into the chemists
laboratory and sees fol- himself. He learns
that the water is one and the air is one;
but they are made up of different parts
So here is man who says: 81 can't under
stand the doctrine of the trinity" God
says: "You come up here into the labora-
tory after yoar death, and you will see
you will see it explained, you will see il de-
moustrated." The ignorant man csnuot
understand the chemistry of the water aud
the air until he goes into the laboratory,
and we will never understand tho Trinity
until we go into heaven. The 'guorance of
the man VINO cannot understand the chem
istry of the air and water does not change
the fact in regard to the composition of air
and water Because we cannot understand
the Trinity. does that change the fact?
"Aud there is your absurd doctrine
about justification by faith" say these
antagonists who have chewed up the little
book of evangelism, and have the cnnse-
quent embttered stomach classification
by faith: you can't explain IT, I can ex-