The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1889-01-28
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CHEWING UP THE CREEDS
SWEET TO THA TASTE BUT Diff.
CULT OF DIGESTION.

Who Passed His Banishment on the
Island OF Patmos.
BROOKLYN, Jan. 2z-Rev Dr. 7. De-
witt Talmages sermon this morning was
on ISLANDERS Against Religion Answered"
His text was: "And | took the little book
out OF the angels hand and ate it up; and
IL was IN my mouth sweet as honey; and as
soon as 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.n-Rev. K, 10, Ii,
The reverend gentleman said:
Domitian, the Roman emperor. had in
his realm a troublesome evangelist who
would keep preaching, and SO he exiled him
10 barren island, as now the Russians
exile oonvicts to Siberia, or as sometimes
the English government used to send r.s-
oners to Australia. The island | speak Of
is now called Patmos, and is so barren and
u1productIye that its inhabitants live by
fishing.
But one day the evangelist of whom I
speak. sitting at the mouth Of a cavern on
the MIL side, and perhaps half asleep under
the drone of the sea, has a supernatual
dream, and before him pass as In panorama.
Tune and eternity. Among the strnnge
Things that he saw was an angel with little
| book IN his hand and in his dream the
evangelist asked for tbis little book, and the
angel gave 1t to him, and told him to & it
| up. AS IN dream things are sometimes
| lncongruous, the evangelist took the little
book and ate it up. The angel told him be-
torehand that IL would be very sweet in the
mouth, but afterward he would be troubled
with indigestion. True enough, the evan
ge1st devous the book, and Il becomes TO
him sweetness during the mastication, but
| atterward physical bitterness
Who the angel was and what the book
was no one can tell. The commentators do
not agree, and | shall take no responsibility
| OF Interpretation, but Will tell YOU that jt
| suggests TO me tho little book of creeds
which skeptics take and chew up and find a
| very luscious morsel to their witticism, but
after while 1t is TO them "A great distress
The angel of the church hands out this little
book OF evangelism and the antagonists Of
| the christian church take it and eat il up,
| and II makes them smile at first but after
ward it is to them dire dyspepsia.
All intelligent people have creeds-that
| is, taYOrlte theories which they have
adopted. Political creeds-that is, theories
about tariff, Fab vi finance, about civil serv-
ice, about government. Soc al creeds-
! that is, theories about manners and customs
and good neighborhood. Alsthetical creeds
| that Is, theories about tapestry, about
brlc-a-brac, about styles Of ornamentation.
Religious creeds-that is. theories about the
deity, about the soul, about the great
future The only being who has no creed
| about anythl! & Is the idiot. This soothing
| against creeds Is always a sign Of profound ig-
norance on the part Of the sooffer, for he has
himself hundred creeds In regard to other
things. In our time the beliefs of evange-
| listic churches are under a fusiade Of car
feature and misrepresentation Men set up
what they call orthodox faith, and then
| they rake it with the musketry of their de-
nuuciation. They falsify what the Chris
! tlaD plnTpbGq hplipVa fTbaxr faIy
cal doctrines and set them in harsh and
repulsivo way, and put them out of the as
sociaton with other truths They are like
a mad anat mist who, desiring to 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 another place
an ankle bone, and says that is a man.
They are only fragments OF man wrenched
out Of their God-appointed places.
| Evangelical religion Is a healthy, SYM
metrcal, wel-jointed, rosoate. bounding
life, a d the scalpel and dissecting knife OF
the iniidel or the atheist cannot tell you
| what it is. Evangelical religion is as diff
ferent from what it is represented to be by
these enemies as the sea ecrow which
! farmer puts In the cOrnfield 10 keep off the
ravens is different from the farmer him
self
For instance, these enemies Of evangelism
say that the Presbyterian church believes
/
made some men just 10 damn them, and
that there are infants in hell a span long.
! These old ISLANDERS come down from gener-
! alton 10 generation. The Presbyterian
church believes no such thing The Presby-
terian church believes that God is loving
and just sovereign, and that we are free
| agents. NO, mol that cannot be,n say
these men who have chewed up the creed
and have the consequent embittered
| stOmachs THAT Is impossible, If God is q
sovereign we can't bs free agents. Why,
my friends we admit this in every other
direction. !, Dewitt Ialmage, am FREQ
citizen Of Brooklyn. / 20 when / please
and come when | please, but have at
least four sovereigns Tne church court OF
our denomination; taat is my ecclesiastical
sovereign. The mayor OF this city; he is
my municipal sovereign. The governor of
New York; he is my state sovereign. The
President Of the United States;
he IL my national sovereign. Four sover-
eigns have |, and yet in every faculty
Of body, mind and soul | am a free man.
So, you soc, it is possible that the two doc
trines go side by side, and there Is com
nonsense way OF presenting 1t, and there
Is n way that Is ropulsiVe. II you have tho
two doctrines in n worldly direction why
not in a religious dlrectlonf IL / choose to-
morrow morning 10 walk into the mercan-
tile library and improve my mind, or to
go through the conservatory Of my friend
at Jamaica, who has flowers from all la Ids
growing under the arches OF glass and who
has an aquarium ali asqurm with trout
and gold tsh, aud tuero are trees bearing
oranges and bananas--if | want TO 20 there,
| could ! am free TO go. II | want to 20
over 10 Hoboksn and leap into furnace Of
an oil factory, II | want TO jump from the
platform Of the Philadelphia express train,
IL want to leap from Brooklyn bridge,
may. But suppose ! should 70 tomorrow
and leap into tho furnace at Hoboken, who
would DO 10 blamel That Is all there is
about sovereignty and free agency. God
rules and reigns, and he has conservatores
and he has blast furnaces. II you wa Il TO
walk in the gardens walk there. II you
want 10 leap into the furnaces you may.
Suppose now man had a charmed key
with " ich he could open all the jails, and
he should open Raymond s rect jail and the
New York lombs aud all the prisons on the
continent. In three weeks what kind OF a
country would this bel all the inmates
turned out Of those prisons and penItsntia-
ries Suppose all the reprobates, the bad
spirits, the outrageous spirits, should bo
turned into the New Jerusalem. Why, tho
next morning the gates Of pearl would To
found of hinge, the linchpinwould be gone
out Of the chariot wheels, the "house
of many mansions would be burglar
lied. Assault and battery, arson.
libertinism and assassination would