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

DRooKL7N, January 27.-The Rev. T. De
ID Witt Taimage's sermon 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 1 bad eaten it my
belly was bitter. Aud he said unto me,
Thou must prophesy again before many
peoples, and nations, and tongues, aud
kings REV. X, 10, II. The reverend.
gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman Emperor, had in
his realm troublesome evangelist who
would keep preaching, and SO he exiled him
to barren island, as now the Russians
exile convicts to Siberia, Or as sometimes
the English government used to send pris
oners to Australia The island l speak of
is now called Patmos, and is SO barren and
unproductive that it's inhabitants live by
fishing.
But one day the evangelist of whom l
speak, sitting at the mouth of cavern on
the hillside, and perhaps half asleep under
the drone of the sea, has supernatural
dream, and before him pass as in panorama
time and eternity. Among the strange
things that he saw was an angel with lit
tie 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 il
up. AS in dream things are sometimes
homogeneous, the evangelist took the little
book aud ate it up. The angel told him be-
forehand that il would be very sweet in the
mouth, but afterward he would be troubled
with indigestion. True enough, the evan.
| gelist devours the book, and it becomes to
| him sweetness during the mastlcation, but
afterward physical bitterness.
| Who the angel was and what tho book
was no one can tell. The commentators dc
not agree, and I shall take no responsibility
of interpretation, but will tell you that il
suggests to me the little book of creeds
which skeptios take and chew up and find a
very luscious morsel to their witticism, bu
after while it is to them great distress
The angel of the church hands out this lit
tie book of evangelism, and the antagonists
of the Christian Church take it and eat il
up, and it makes them smile at first, bu,
afterward it IS to them a dire dyspepsia.
All Intelligent people have crecds-tha
is, favorite theories which they have adopt
ed. Political creeds-that is, theurle,
about tariff, about finance, about civil ser
vice, about government. Social creeds-
that is, theories about manners and customs
and good neigboThood. Esthetc4l creeds
|
brio a. brac, about styles of ornamentation
Religious cieeds-that is, theories about the
Deity, about the soul, about the great fu.
ture. The only being who has no creec
about anything is the idiot. This scoffiue
against creeds is al ays sign of profou q
ignorance on the part of the scoffer, for he
has himself hundred ciceds in regard tt
other things. In cur time the beliefs O
eyappelistic churches are under fusilade
of carcatuIe and Misrepresentation. Men
set up what they call orthodox faith, anG
they rake it with the musketry of theil
depunciation. They falsify what the Chris
tian Churches believe. They take evaa-
geical doctrines and set them in harsl
aud repulsive way, and put them out of ths
association with other truths. They arr
like mad anatomist who, desiring to tel
what man is, dissects a human body ant
hangs UP in one place the heart, and in an
other place the two lungs, and in another
place an ankle bone. and says that is a man
They are only fragments of man wrench
ed out of their God appointed places.
Evangelical religion is a healthy, symmet
rical, well jointed, r. seate, bounding life
and the scalpel and the dissecting knife o
the iufldel or the atheist cannot tell yoI
what it Is. Evangelical religion is as diff
ferent from what 1t is represented to be b.
these enemies as tie scarecIOw which
farmer puts in the carufield to keep off th
ravens is different from the farmer himself
For instance, these enemies of eyangel
ism say that the Presbyterian Church be
lieves that God is a savage sovereign, an
ttat He made some men just to damn them
and that there are infants in hell spa