The Russellville Democrat., 1889-06-20

surrounding hills fhet most ulainai
 sound, "A lost childi A lost childw
 And To, after three days they discover
 Him in the great Temple, seated among the
 mightiest religionists of all the world,
 The walls of no other building ever looked
 down on such Q scene. child twelve years old surrounded by septuagenarians,
 He asking His own questions and answer
 ing theirs. Let me introduce you to some of these ecclesiastics. This ss thS Raboir Simeoni This Is the venerable Hil1eli This IS the famous Shammai. These are
 the sons of the distinguished Betirah.
 What can this twelve-year lad teach
 them, or what questions can He asR
 worthy their cogitationY An, the First
 time in all theif lives these religion 'ste have found their match and
 moro than their match Though so
 young, He knew all about that famous Temple under whose roof they held that
 most wonderful discussion cf all history.
 He knew the meaning of every altar; of every sacrifice, Of every golden candls; stick, of every embroidered curtain, of every crlirnb of sheg- ss..Sad, of every drop of oil Il astat sacred edifice. He knew all afeat 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 sparkling morning dew
 drops op the lawn iii front of His heay' snly palace. Put tisese seven Bible words in wreath Of emphasis: Both hearing
 them and asking shem questions"
 am not so much interested in the qtiesA tions they asked Hiln as in the questions l 16 asked them. He cSked the questions,
 not to get information from the doctors, for He knew 1t already, but to humble | them by showing them the height and | depth and length and breadth of their own ignorance, While the radiant boy ! thrtists these self -conccited philosophers with the interrogation point they put the 1 forefinger of tho right hand to the temple 1 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 an- swer the interrogatory, While any
 one ot hundred questions about
 theology, about philosophy, about astron-
 oIny, about time, about eternity, He may have baked them, disconcertej them, flung them flat Behold the boy Christ
 asking questions and listen when your child asks questions. He has the right to
  Alas for the stupidity of the child without inddisitiveness It is Christianliks to ask questions. Answer them if you can. Do not say: II can't be bothered now" It is your place to be bothered with ques- tions. If you are not able to answer, surrender aud confess your inoapacity, as l have no doubt did Rabbin, Simeon
 and Hillel and Shammai and the sons of 1 fetirah when that splendid boy, sitting
 or standing there with a garment reach 1 ing from neck to ankle, and girdled at the waist, put them to their very
 wits end. It is no disgrace to | say: II don't know" The learned doc | tors who environed Christ that day in the | Temple did not know, or they would not | have asked Him any questions. The only | being in the universe who never needs te 1 say: 'I do not know" is the Lord Al. mighty. The fact that they did not know
 sent Keppler and Cuvter and Columbus
 and Humboldt and Herschel and Morse and Sir William Hamilton and all the others of tho worlds mightiest natures
 into their lifelong explorations. Tele. | scope and microscope and stethoscope
 and electric battery and all the scientific
 apparatus of all the ages are only aues tions asked at the door of mystery. Be- | hold this Nazarene lad asking questions, giving everlasting dignity to earnest in | terrogat1on.
 But while I see the old theologians l standing around the boy Christ I am im'
 pressed as never before with the fact that what theology most wants is more of
 childish simplicity. The world and tho Church have built up immense systems of theology. Half of them try to tell what Al. ,.l.. hot | God did five hundred millions years l before the small star on which We live was created. l have had
 many a sound sleep under sermons | about the decrees of God and the eternal generation of the Son. and discourses l showing who Melchisedek wasn't, and
 give fair warning that if any minister
 ever begins sermon on such a subject ib
 my presence I will put my head down op | the pew in front and go into the deepest l slumber I can reach. Wicked waste Of l time, this trying to scale the unscalabls | and fathom the unfathomable while tho | nations want the bread of life and to be l told how they can get rid of their sins and | their sorrows. Why should you and ] l perplex ourselves about the decrees of | God? Mind your own business and God | will take care of His. In the conduct of the universe 1 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, I warrant that nothing which occurred eight hum
 dred quintillion of years ago will hinder you minute. It is not the decrees of l God that do us any harm; 1t is our own l decrees 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 Ss | years of age. You substract R from 1889
 and that makes 1t 1856 years. That is as
 far back as you need to go. Something occurred on that day under an eclipsed 1 sun that sets us all forever free if with our whole heart and life we accept the l tremendous proffer. Do not let the Pres | byterlan 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 im- perfect, as every thing man does is inn perfect. move a new creed for all the Evangelical churches of christendom; only three articles in the creed, and no
 need of any more. If had all the con- secrated people of all denominations of the earth on one great plain, and had voice loud enough to put 1t to vote, that
 creed of three articles would be adopted
 with a unanimous vote and a laundering aye that would make the earth quake and
 the heavens ring with hosanna. This Is
 the creed propose for all christendom;.
 Article 1. God so loved the world that
 He gave His only begotten Son that who-
 soever beliveth in Him should not perish,
 but have everlasting life.
 Art. ?. This faithful saying and worthy
 of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came
 into the world to save sinners, even the
 chief.
 Art. 8. Worthy is the Lamb that was
 slain to receive blessing and riches and
 honor and glory and power, world with
 out end. Amen.
 But you go to tinkering up your old
 creeds and patching and splicing and in-