Flabby Religion by Talmage

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 7, 1877

Flabby Religion

By Talmage

Much of the religion of the day is flabby indeed. It is afflicted with a sort of Saint Vitus’s dance—now bending this way, and now that; and it is uncertain which way it will wriggle next. It is almost disposed to change our Bible for a science that, instead of tracing our origin to Adam, makes us only a better order of tadpoles; and instead of reading, “Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Joseph,” would read, “The fish begat the reptile, and the reptile begat a marsupial animal, and the marsupial animal begat the inadrummana, and the inadrummana begat the gorilla, and the gorilla begat the ape, and the ape begat Darwin.” Much of our modern religion begins with a eulogy of human nature, instead of an exposition of its utter downfall. It makes us sick to hear all this talk about the dignity of manhood. It is a heap of putrefaction, unless St. John was wrong when he described it as “wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.”—Talmage.