Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-02-10
THE TRUE AND FALSE.
Dreamers and Theorists VS.. the Truths Of I
Christianity.


At st. Pauls Church yesterday the rec
tor, Rev. ]. F. Won Herrlich, preached an
interesting sermon from the text: 1.-THE
prophet that hath dream, let him tell il
as dream but he that hath my words,
let him speak. Speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the
Lord. xiii, IS.
Before this text was uttered by the
prophet JEREMIAH said the speaker, pop
ular faith in everything worthy ofthe name
of God had gone out of favor in Israel.
Just as in this city, or anywhere, when
people are living low and unworthy lives,
they try to persuade themselves that Divine
justice does not prevail, and that there is
not much in religion. judah had drifted
into doubt and skepticism and dropped
down into that agnosticism which has ever
been the favorite refuge of those who
would comfort sinners by silencing con-
science"
The speaker said that in all that land
Jeremiah-then thirty-four years of age
was the only man who implicitly believed
that God had spoken to mankind. and that
His word must be obeyed if the people
would obtain His blessing and favor. The
people said that jeremiah was mistaken,
and asked: Who hath heard the word of
the Lord? Who is sure that God hath
revealed himself?'' But they knew that if
they broke down the faith of the masses in
God, they must find substitute, for man
must believe in and worship something.
He must have some kind of God and
some kind of Bible. He will either
worship sticks and stones, suns and plan
cts, or NEUROLOGICAL deities. He will
read Gods will from flying birds, or burn
ing entrails, or from the augur, the altar,
the oracle, or the seething cauldron-from
the manifestations of matter. or the rap
pings of so-called spirits So, when the
people of Judea lost faith in the word of
God, they took to dreams and all sorts of
theories, until jeremiah, yexed in soul,
cried out the warning quoted in the text.
After vigorous criticism of those who
attempt to palm off their mental vagaries
and empty theories as authority in relig-
ious matters, the reverend speaker went on
to show that-bad as our national and re-
ligious lives may seem-things are better
now than IN the dark days of the valiant
son of Helkiah; purer and nobler than
when Judea was under the sway of Zede-
kiah. To-day Gods word is revered and
bowed to by the masses.
There are dreemers and scoffers yet, how
ever, and the speaker went on to analyze
the several classes atheistic, the pam
theistic, the gnostic-illustrating the
weakness of each by comparisons with the
evidences of Gods existence and wonder
full power. "Our faith" he said, docs not
stand on mere theory and speculation-it
is a matter of knowledge, of conviction and
experience. The great laws of God and
life have proven that men reap what they
SOW, both here and hereafter; and it is veri-
fed in the blighted lives-in the sorrows,
the wrecks and suicides we see about us l'
He then drew charming picture of the
Christian home, with its love and light,
its joy and brightness-where the very at
mosphere seems to throb with holy tender
ness-the result of our blessed religion, the
religion of Jesus !"