The Washington weekly post. (Washington, D.C.) 1878-1916, 1899-02-14

IDIOT This scofTiHg against creeds is al
ways sign of profound ignorance on the
part of the scoffer, for he has himself
hundred creeds in regard TO other things.
OF course there are no perfect creeds. Our
denomination five or six years ago at
tempted TO revise the old creed and make
1t perfect. The attempt was a dismal
failure. You might as well try to revise
your grandmotheTs love letters.
Campaign of Misrepresentation.
'In our time the beliefs of evangelistic
churches are under a fusillade of carica-
ture and Misrepresentation. Men set up
what they call orthodox faith, and then
they rake it with the musketry of their
denanciation. They. falsify what the
Christian churches believe. They take
evangelical doctrines and set them in a
harsh and repulsive way, and put them
out OF the association with other truths
They are like a mad anatomist, who, de-
string to tell what d man is dissects a
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 healthy, symmetrical. we'll
Jolnted, roseate, bounding life, and the
scalpel and the oissecting knife of the in
fidel or the athesist cannot tell you what
IL Is. Evangelical religion is as different
from what IL is represented to be by
these enemies as the scarecrow which
farmer puts in the cornfield to keep off
the ravens is different from the robust
farmer himself
For instance, these enemies of evan
gelisn say that the Presbyterian Church
believes that God is a savage sovereign
and that He made some men just 10 damn
them, and that there are infants in hell
a span long. These old ISLANDERS come
down from generation TO generation. The
Presbyterian Church believes no such
thing. The Presbyterian Church believes
that God is loving and just sovereign.
and that we are free agents. NO, no.
That cannot be- say these men, who
have cheWed up the creed and have the
consequent embitteTed stomachS. That is
impossible; II God is a sovereign. We
can't be free agents Why, my friends.
we admit this in every other direction. ].
De Witt Talmage, am d free citizen.
go when please and come when / please,
but have at least three sovereigns. The
church court of or denomination; that is
my ecclesiastical sovereign. The govern
ment Of this city; that Is my municipal
sovereign. The President of the United
States; he is my national sovereign. Three
sovereigEs have l. ami yet in every fac
ulty or body, mind, and soul | am free
man. SO, you see. IT Is possible that the
Two doctrines go side by side. ana there
IS a cOmmCn-sense way of presenting il.
and there is 4 way that Is repuisive. II
YOU have the two doctrines in a worldly
direction. why not in a religious direc-
walk into the Congressional Library and
improve my mind. or TO go through the
conservatory OF my friend in the suburbs,
who fas flowers from all lands growing
under the arches OF glass, and who has
an aquarium all asquirm with trout
and gold nsh, and there are trees
bearing oranges and bananas-if |
want 10 go there, can. | am
free 20 go. II I want TO go out OF
town and leap into a furnace of an oil!
factory; IL l want 10 jump from the plat
form 81 an express train, | may. But
suppose ! should 90 tomorrow and Lean
into the fagnace. who would be 10 blaneP
That is all there is about sovereignty ana
free agency.
Heaven Needs He'll.
God rules and reigns. and He has con-
serVatories and He has biasL furnaces.
II YOU want 10 walk in the gardens. walk
there. II you want 10 leap into the fur
nacee Won may SuppOse now a man had