Connecticut western news., 1895-02-21
A GLORIOUS GOSPEL.
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF MUSIC
 THRONGsD.

Dr. Talmsge-The Great Edifioe Crowd
 Turned Away.
 NEW YORK, Feb l7-Several tLou- sand persons were turned away tkis afternoon from the doors of the Acad. emy of Music after the huge building had been filled to overfiowing. the crowds having begun to assemble fully two hours before the time fixed for opening tue services. Rev. Dr. Talmage took for his subject "The Glorious Gospel, the text chosen being, "Ac- cording to the glorious gospel of the blessed God. which was committed to my trust" q Timothy i, lll
 The greatest novelty of our time is the gospel It is so old that it is new. As potters and artists are now attempt ing to fashion pitchers and cups and curious ware like those of 1900 years ago recently brought mp from buried Pompeii, and snch cups and pitchers and curious wnre are universally admir- ed, so any one who can unshovel the real gospel from the mountains of stuff under which it has been buried will be able to present something that will at- tract the gaze and admiration and adoption of all the people. It is amazing what substitutes have been presented for what my text calls ''the glorious gospel" There has been hemispheric apostasy.
 Able Theological Preachers.
 There are many people in this and all other large assemblages who have no more idea of what the gospel really is than they have Of what is contained in the fourteenth chapter of Zend .Avesta. the Bible of the Hindoo, the first copy of which ever saw purchased in Cal outta last September. The old gospel is 50 feet under, and the work has been done by the ahovels of those who have been trying to contrive the philosophy of religion. There is no philosophy about it It is plain matter of Bible statement and of cbildlike faith. Some of the theological seminaries have been hotbeds of infidelity because they have tried to teach the philosophy of reli- zion" By the time that many yonng theological student gets half through his preparatory course he is so filled with doubts about plenary inspiration, and the divinity of Christ, and the questions of eternal destiny, that he is more fit for the lowest bench in the infant class of Sunday school than to become teacher and leader of the people. The ablest theological professor is Chris tian mother, who out of her own expe- rience can tell the 4-year-old how beau tiful Christ was on earth, and how beautiful he now is in heaven, and how dearly he loves little folks, and then she kneels down and puts one arm around the boy, and with her somewhat faded cheek against the roseate cheek of the little one consecrates him for time and eternity to him who said, Suffer them to come unto me. What an awful work Paul made with the D. D. E, and the ILL. D. s, and the F. R. & 8, when he cleared the decks of the old gospel ship by saying, Not many wise men, not many noble, are called, but God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.
 A Theological Dude.
 There sits the dear old theologian with his table piled rp with all the great books on inspiration and exegesis and applogetics for the Almighty and writing out his own elaborate work on the philosophy of religion, and his lit tie grandchild coming up to him for good night kiss he accidentally knocks of tho biggest book from the table, and it falls on the head of the child, of whom Christ himself said, "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. An, my friends. the Bible wants no apologetics The throne of the last judgment wants no apollo getica Eternity wants no apologetics. Scientists may tell us that natural light is the propagation of undulations i'll an elastic medium, and thus set in yibra- tory motion by the action of luminous bodies" but no one knows what gospel light is until his own blind eyes by the touch of the Divine Spirit have opened to see the monday of pardon and peace. Scientists may tell us that natural sound is "the effect of an impression made on the organs of hearing by an impulse of the air. caused by collision of bodies, or by other means, " but those only know what the gospel sound is who have heard the voice of Christ directly. saying: "Thy sins are forgiven thee. Go in peace. The theological dude unrolls upon the plush of the exquisitely carved pulpit 8 learned discourse showing that the garden of Eden was an allegory. and Solomon's Song 8 rather indelicate love ditty, and the book of Job drama in which satan was the star actor, and that Renan was three-quarters right about the miracles of Jesus, and that the Bi- ble was gradually evoluted and the best thought of the different ages, Moses and David and Paul doing the best they could under the circumstances, and therefore to be encouraged Lord of heaven and earth, get us out of the Lon- Ion fog of higher criticismi
 The night is dark, and the way is rough, and we have a lantern which tiod has put in our hands, but instead of employing that lantern to show our selves and others the right way we are discussing lanterns, their shape, their size, their material, and which is the better ight-kerosene, lamp oil or can dle-and while we discuss it we stand all around the lantern, so that we shut out the light from the multitudes who are stumbling on the dark mountains of sin and death. Twelve hundred dead birds were found one morning around Bartholdi's statue in New York harbor
 They had dashed their life out against the lighthouse the night before. Poor :hingsi And the great lighthouse of the gospel-how many high soaring think CTS have beaten all their religious life out against it, while it was intended for only one thing, and that to show all na- tions the way into the harbor of Gods mercy and to the crystalline wharves of the heavenly city, where the immortals