The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-02-08
TALMAGE's SERMON.
a Discourse on Answers to SLAM
ders Against Religion.
The Enemies og Evangelism Rebeked-
The ReEeneEating Influences Of the
Religion OF Jesus-The Fate
Of the Seeptic.

The Enemies og Evangelism Rebeked-
The Regeneratlng Influences OF the
Religion OF Jesus-The Fate
Of the seeptic.
The following sermon on ISLANDERS
Against Religion Answered" was deliv-
cred by Rev. r. Dewitt TaImage at the
Brooklyn Tabernacle. 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
nay belly was bitter. And he said unto me,
''Thou must prophesy again before many peo-
pies, and nations, and tongues, and Kings-"-
| Revelations, K. f0-11.
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, or as some-
times the English Government used TO
send prisoners 20 Australia. The island
speak of is now called. Patmos, and is so
barren and unproductiYe that its inhab-
itants live by fishing.
But one day the evangelist Of whom
| speak, sitting at the mouth of cavern on
/ the hillside, and perhaps half asleep un-
| der the drone of the sea, has = supernat-
ural dream, and before him pass, as in
/ panorama, time and eternity. Among tbs
/ 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 il to him, and
told him to eat it up. As in q 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
! Hfterward he would be troubled with in
| digestion. True enough the evangelist
devours the book, and it becomes to him
q sweetness during mastieation, but after
ward physical bitterness.
Who the angel was and what the book
! was no one can tell. The commentators
do not agree, and I shall take no respon :
| sibility OF Interpretation, but will tell you
] that it suggests to me the little book OF
creeds, which skeptics take and chew up
/ and find a very luscious morsel to their
| witticisIn, but after awhile il is to them q
! great distress. The angel of the chuT ch
/ hands out this little book OF evangelism,
and the antagonists of the Christian
church take it aud eat it up, and it makes
| them smile at first but afterward 1t is
to them dire dyspepsia
/ All intellectual people have creeds-
that is, favorite theories which they have
adopted. Political creeds-that Is, theo-
Ries about tariff finance, about civil sew
| ice, about government. Social rcreeds-
| that is, theories about manners and GUS
toms, and good neighborhood. Esthet-
tcaI creeds-that is, theories about tapes
try, about bric-a-b -brac, about styles OF or.
] namentation. 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
iscoh1ng against creeds is always a
! sign of profound ignorance on the part Of
the scoffer, for he. has himself hundred
creeds in regard to other things. In our
times the beliefs Of evange1istio churches
are under fusillade of caricature and
MISREPRESENTATION Men set up what they
call orthodox faith, and then they rake
/ it with the muSketry. Of their de-
/ nunoiatfon. They falsify what the GhriS-
tian churches believe. They take evan
gelican doctrines and set them in harsh
and repu4sive way, and shut them ont Of
the association with other truths. They
are like 8 mad anatomist who, desiring o
tell what a man is, dissects human body
and hangs up in. one place the heart, and
in another place the two lungs. and in an
other place an ankle bone, and says thai
is a man. They are only fragments Of 8
man wrenched out of their God-ap-
pointed places.
Evangelical religion is a healthy, SYM
metrical, well l-jointed, roseate, bounding
life, and the scalpel and the dissecttng
knife of the infidel or the atheist can moi
tell you what it is. Evangelical religion
Is as different from what it is represented
to be by these enemies as the scarecrOv
which farmer puts in the cornfeld *
keep off the ravens different FROM the
farmer himself.
4 For instance these enemies of evangel'
ism say that the Presbyterian Church be.
IIeves that God is a savage sovereign, and
that He made some men to dann them
I hot inf in a
long. These old ISLANDERS come dowr
from generation to generation. The Pres
byterian church believes no such thing
The Presbyterian church believes thai
God. is a loving and just and
that we are free agents.. 4s'Np, no. thai
can not be-" say these men who have
~chewed up the creed and have the conse-
quent embittered stomaehs. THAT Is i'm
possible. If Godis asovereign we can't bs
free agents" !" Why. my friend, we admit
this in every other direction.r + zDe.Wit
} Talmage, am free citizen of Brooklyn
! | I go when please and / come when
please, but I have at least four sovereigRs
The church court Of our denomtn atom
}, | that is my ecclesias tical soverei gn. ThC
MAYOR Of this city; he is my municipa
sovereign. The Governor of New York;
/ be is my State sovereign. The Presiden
Of the United States; he Is nay. National
sovereign. -Four soveTeigns have /, and
{ yet in every faculty Of body, mind and
} soul am free man. So, you see, IL Il
! possible that the two doctrines go side By
side, and there is Q comn1on-sense way O
presenting it, and there Is way that il
. repulsiye. If you have the two doctrines
, Ii q worldly direction, why not In
. / religious direction? : II 4 choose to
I morrow morning to walk into tn
. Mercantile library and improv'
y my miRd, ors to go through th'
= conservatory of u1Y friend from Jamaica
/ who has flowers HON all lands growing
: under the arches Of glass, AID who has al
aquarium all asquirm with troflt and goI'
ash. and there are trees bearing orange
. and bananas--if / wanted to go there
; could. am. free to GO. If I want to 9
over to Hoboken and leap into the furn acl
of an oil factory; if I want TO jump from
the platform Of Philadelphia expires
? train; IL Lwaut co leap from the BroOklyl
$ Bridge. may. But suppose / should g
Q to morrow and leap into the furnace a
? Hobokep. who would be to blamef lTha
, is all there Is about sovereignty and fre
3 agency. God rules and reigps and He ha
e conservatories and He has blast furnaces
r II you want to walk ia the gardens, wal
3 there. ~ You want 20 leap IN the furnac
d you may.
$ Suppose, now, q man had acliarmed ke
: with which he could open all the 56ils; an
Q he should open Raymond Street. jail an
the New York Touabs, and all the prison
=. on the continent. In. three weeks whs
kind Of a country would this be- All n
inmates turned out Of these prisons an
: penitentlaries. Suppose all the repro
: bates, the bad spirits, the outrageot
spirits, should be turned into the Ne
Jerusalemg Why, the next morning Il
s gatsa OF pearl would be found of L
) hinge, the Iinchpin would be gone out
the chariot wheels, the "house
" many mansions" would be burglai
i lzed Assault and battery, arso
IN