Dodge City times., 1889-06-27

| nrst time In all their lives these relig-
lonlsts have found their match and more
than their match. Though SO young.
He knew all about that famous Temple
under whose roof they held that most
wonderful discussisn of oil history. He
knew the meaning of every altar. of
every sacrifice, of every golden CANDLE
stick, of every embroidered curtain. Of
every crumb of shew bread. of eyery
drop of oil in that sacred edifce. He
knew all about God. He knew all about
man. He knew all about Heaven, for
He came from it. He knew all about
this world, for He made it. He knew
all worlds. for they were only the spark
| ling morning dewdrOps on the lawn in
front of his Heavenly Palace. Put
these seven Bible words in q wreath
of emphasis: Both hearing them
and asking them questions.
am not SO much interested in the
questions they asked Him as in the
| questions He asked them. He asked the
questions not to get information from
the doctors, for He knew it already, but
to humble them by showing them the
height and depth and length and
breadth of their own ignorance. While
the radiant boy thrusts these self-con-
| ceited philosophers with the interroga-
sAou POiAt, tutS put VIC lOIchuScE VI
| the right hand to the temple as though
to start their thoughts into more vigor,
| and then they would look upward and
then they would wrinkle their brows
and then by absolute silence or in posi-
tive words confess their incapacity to
| answer the interrogatory. With any one
of a hundred questions about theology,
about philosophy, about astronomy,
about time, about eternity. He may have
baked them, disconnected them, flung
them fiat. Behold tine boy Christ asking
questions and listen when your child
asks questions. He has the righ. TO ask
them. The more He asks the letter.
Alas for the stupidity of the chilc with
out inquisitiveness! 1t is Chriet;:ke to
ask questions. Answer them if you can.
Do not say: Il can't be bothered now. !"
1t is your place to be bothered with
questions. If you are not able to an
swer, surrender and confess your in
capacity, as have no doubt did Rabbin
Simeon and Hillel and Shammai and
the sons of Betirah when that splendid
boy, sitting or standing there with
garment reaching from neck to ankle,
and girdled at the waist, put them to
their very wits end. 1t is no disgrace
to say: Il don't know" The learned
doctors who environed Christ that day
in the Temple did not know or teey
would not have asked Him any ques-
tions. The only being in the universe
who never needs to say I do not know"
is the Lord Almighty. The fact that
they did not know sent keppler and
Cuvier and Columbus and Humboldt and
Herschel and Morse and Sir William
Hamilton and all the other of the
worlds mightiest natures into their life
long explorations. Telescope and
microscope and stethoscOpe and electsic
battery and all the scientific apparatus
of all the ages are only questions asked
at the door of mystery. Behold th:s
Nazarene lad asking questions, giving
everlasting dignity to earnest interroga-
tion.
But while 1 see the old theologians
standing around the boy Christ am
impressed as never before with the fact
that what theology most warts is more
of childish simplicity. The world and
the church have built up immense sys-
TENS of theology. Half Of them try to
tell what God thought, what God
planned, what God did five hundred
million years before the small star on
which We live was created. l have had
many sound sleep under sermons
generation of the Son and discourses
showing who Melchisedek wasn't, and
give fair warning that if any minister
ever begins a sermon on such a subject
in my presence l will put my head down
on the pew in front and go into the
deepest slumber l can reach. Wicked
waste of time, this trying to scale the
unscalable and fathom the unfathomable
while the nations want the bread of life
and to be told how they can get rid of
their sins and their SORROWS. Why
should you and 1 perplex ourselves
about the DEGREES of God? Mind your
own business and God will take care of
His. In the conduct of the universe l
think He will somehow manage to get
along without us. If you want to love
and serve God, and be good and useful
and get to Heaven, 1 warrant that
nothing which occurred eight hundred
4uintillion of years ago will hinder
you a minute. 1t is not the DEGREES
of God that do us any harm, it is our
own DEGREES of sin and folly. You
need not go any further back in history
than about 1856 years. You see this is
the year 1889. Christ died about thirty
three years of age. You substract 33
from 1889 and that makes it only 1,S56
years. That is as far back as you need
to go. Something occurred on that day
under an eclipsed sun that sets us all
forever free if with our whole heart and
life We accept the tremendous prOffer.
Do not let the Presbyterian Church or
the Methodist Church or the Lutheran
Church or the Baptist Church or any of
the other evangelical churches spend
any time in trying to fix up old creeds,
all of them imperfect as everything man
does is imperfect. l move new creed
for all the evangelical churches of
Christendom, only three articles in the
creed and no need of any more. If 1
had all the consecrated people of all
denominations of the earth. on one
great plain, and l had voice loud enough
to put il to a vote that creed of three
articles would be adopted with unani-
nous vote and laundering aye that
would make the earth quake and the
Heavens ring with hosanna. This is
the creed l propose for all lChristendOm:
Article First-"God so loved the world
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
Article Second-"This is faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptatiOn
that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, even the chief.
Article Third-"Worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive blessing and
riches and honor and glory and power.
world without end. Amen
But you go to tinkering up your oil
creeds and patching and splicing and
interlining and annexing and subtract
ing and adding and explaining and you
will lose time and make yourself tar
get for earth and hell to shoot at. Let
us have creeds not fashioned out of hu-
man ingenuities but out of scriptural
phraseology, and all the guns of bonn
bardment blazing from all the port holes
of infidelity and perdition will not in
thousand years knock off the church Of
God splinter as big as cambria
needle. What is most needed now
is that we gather all our theologies