The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-07-29

{ DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON
BY THE REV. FRANK DE WITT TALmAeE, D. D.


asserting that the sins of the palate are
among the very worst-of all sins. They
are the sins which are often the forerun-
ners Of all other sins. They are the sins
which will turn man into beast and may
unkennel all the tigers and the wolves
and the hyenas and the jaekals of his
lower nature. Beware 0 man, of the
kings meats and wines, which satan is
ready to spread for us in many. a BAN
quet hall, The Sicilians erected an altar
in Ceres to Adephagia. the goddess of
gluttony. May we. as servants of the
this brutalizing, this mental and physi-
cal and moral and spiritual depicting
shine.
Ten Thousand Gods.
But. stepping into this banquet hall,
where is spread the unclean food of the
royal kitchen. I find another startling
fact. The kings meat and the king 5
wine are served amid the vitiating atmos-
phere of religious liberalism. The Baby
ionish people were not atheists, so-called.
They were dests, like the Greeks or the
Romans or the modern Hindoos. who
have 10000 gods They not only had 10000
gods, but they could make a new god
whenever they so willed. They could make
him of. stone or wood or clay or even of
a man himself. 1t was just as easy for
the Babylonish inhabitants to make new
god as 1t is for the British ministry to
create peers for the upper house of par
lament You remember Benjamin Dis
raeli's biting sarcasm. He was attending
public banquet. BY the social law of
English prestige the members of the
English house of lords marched in first.
After the members of the nobility had
gone in Disraeli turned and took a gem
tleman's arm to march in. and he said:
Come on, my friend. 1t is our turn
now. We must follow in after my lords.
But I am going to manufacture a dozen
of these same kind of lords next week, If
live" So the Babylonish inhabitants
were not atheists. They could manufac-
ture a new god easily as Benjamin Dis
raeli could create a new lord for the upper
house Of parliament
During the French revolution, on the
motion Of Pierre Gaspard Chaumette, who
was afterward guillotined the Cathedral
Notre Dame was turned into the Temple
of Reason" Then, on the 10th of Novem-
Der, 1893, the young and beautiful wife of
a Jaeobin printer, Nine. Momoro by name
was carried through the streets of Paris
in an ivory chair. She was borne upon
the strong arms of men. There she was
crowned within the cathedral which in
few years was to see the coronation OF
Napoleon and Josephine. She was sa-
luted as the Goddess OF Reason Similar
to the deifying of a poor printers wife in
tempt to defy King Darius in the Baby
lonish capital in 53S B. C. All the pres
idents and governors and the princes and
the counselors and the captains of the
kingdom came to the king and said; "Es-
tablsh royal statute and make firm
decree that whosoever shall ask petition
of any god or man for thirty days, save
of thee king. he shall be cast into the
den of lions" Thus. as we hear the Pa
risian mobs cry: Hall. thou Goddess of
Reason, hail. hailr we hear the Baby
lonish inhabitants in the year 53S B. c.
crying Hail, thou god king Darius.
Thou art king of kings and lord of lordsl
HALL HALT Halw oh, the Babylonish
inhabitants were not atheists. Far from
it. They were deists. They were the
most liberal kind of deists, BY the stroke
of a kings pen they could make q new
god whenever they wished. Now it was
into such vitiatng atmosphere of relig
ious liberalism as this that Daniel and his
three comrades were to live.
The UncIean Food.
can hear his friends talking to him
and trying to persuade him to eat this
unclean food "Oh" they say, Daniel
of course your God Is all right. But what
is the good of being a blgot? Why are
YOU so hdebound ABOUT this food? Why
do you not worship the Babylonlsh gods?
Why do you not theologically broaden
out? Why do you stick so close to your
Jewish laws. Why do you not become a
student OF the new thought? But what
is the new thought? says Daniel
why say the Babylonish friends
Don't you know? Have you not been
reading our new theology? Why the new
thought is beautiful belief. This is it
in substance: God Is goodness. God Is in
us We are all part OF God Just try to
think of God as a good being and try to
Al. fr,
will grow better and grow like God
But" says Daniel, what has that to do
with the first commandment, which Moses
gave to the children of Israel: | am the
Lord thy God. which brought thee out of
the land of Egypt and out of the house
of bondage; thou shalt have no other
gods before me?r "Oh, Daniel Daniel
Daniel" say the Babylonish friends, I'VE
have outgrown all that superstltious stuff
We have outgrown all the commandments
and the Jewish dietary laws. We are the
advocates of tho new thought In that
new thought we Just try to be good and
that is all one needs to do" nay friends
cannot you hear Daniels friends trying
to get him to eat the unclean food and
adopt the religious liberalism of the Baby
lonish capital?
Is not Satan trying to get you TO eat
Of the unclean food in our modern Baby
Ions by the same pernicious argument Of
theological liberalism?i 1 am not the least
bit afraid that will become a blatant
atheists. l am not afraid that you will
turn your back upon Christ or upon the
Bible. But / am afraid lest the insidious
advance of the new liberal thought should
undermine the foundations of your faith.
| find it doing its deadly work in the
church and in society. Men are giving up
their anchorages and are drifting out on
the sea of doubt toward the rocks of
eternal disaster Never let go your faith
in the essential truths of Christianity
The divinity of Christ, his sinless life and
his atonement on the cross. his resurrec-
ton and ascension the work of the Holy
Spirit, the necessity of the new birth and
the Inspiration of the Bible--these are the
distinguishing doctrines of our faith. To
abandon these is to surrender all that has
made our religion a power in the world;
It is to turn Christianity into dry, dead
system of ethics In Christ alone have we
life The Bible declares it. If you de-
liberately go forth to eat of the unclean
food in the Babylonish capital you must
perish. o God, may we never become so
liberal that we cannot make the words
of Jesus Christ the center. the circum-
ference. the all in all of what we should
believe and how we should lvel
A National Prejudice.
But there is still another fact which
would have made the eating of the king s
meat easy for Daniel The kings food
was spread in the presence of the young
mans enemies. If Daniel did not eat the
meat and drink the wine which came
from the royal kitchens and wine cellars
at once. in all probability the refusal
would be reported to the kings higher
officials and Daniel's bright nolifical