The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1889-06-21

made 1T. He knew all worlds, for they
were only the sparkling morning dew
drops on the lawn in front of His heav-
emily palace. Put these seven Bible words
in wreath of emphasis: Both hearing
them and asking them questions"
am not so much interested in the ques-
tons 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-conccited philosophers
with the Interrogation point, they put the
forehnger of the right hand to the temple
as though to start their thoughts into more
v1gor, 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 OF a hundred questions about
theology, about philosophy, about astron-
omy, about time, about eternity, He may
have baked them, disconnected them,
flung them fat. Behold the boy Christ
| asking questions and listen when your
child asks questions. He has the right to
ask them. The more he asks the better.
Alas for the stupidity of the child without
ask questions. Answer them if you can.
Do not say: 81 can't be bothered now.''
1t is your place to be bothered with ques-
tions. If you are not able to answer,
surrender and confess your incapacity,
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 a garment reach
ing from neck to ankle, and girdled
at the waist, put them to their very
Wits end. It is no disgrace to
say: 81 don't know" The learned doc
tors who environed Christ that day in tho
Temple did not know, or they would not
have asked Him any questions. The only
being in the universe who never needs to
say: 81 do not know" is the Lord AL
mighty. 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
others of the 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 Ques-
tIOns asked at the door of mystery. Be-
hold this Nazarene lad asking questions,
giving everlasting dignity 10 earnest in
terrogation.
But while / see the old theologians
standing around the boy Christ l am inn
pressed as never before with the fact that
what theology most wants is more Of
childish simplicity. The world and the
Church have built up immense systems
of theology. Half of them try to tell what
God thought, what God planned, what
| God did FIVE hundred millions years
| before the small star on which
we live was created. have had
many a sound sleep under sermons
about the DEGREES of God and the eternal
generation of the Son. and discourses
showing who Melchisedek wasn't, and /
| give a fair warning that if any minister
ever begins sermon on such q subject in
my presence I 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 aud to be
| told how they can get rid of their sins and
| their sorrows. Why should you and ]
! perplex ourselves about the DEGREES of
| God2 Mind your own business and God
will take care of His. In the conduct of
| the universe / 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, warrant
| that nothing which occurred eight hun
| dred quintillion 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 &c
years of age. You suDstract 80 from 1882
| and that makes it 1856 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 Pres
bvterIan church, or the Methodist church
or the Lutheran church, or the Baptis'
church, or any of the other evangelical
churches, spend any time in trying
to fix up old. creeds, all of them i'm.
perfect, as every thing man does is i'm
perfect. move new creed for all the
Evangelical churches of christendom;
only three articles in the creed, and no
need of any more. If I had all the con.
secrated people of all denominations OF
the earth on one great plain, and / had
voice loud enough to put it to vote, that
creed of three articles would be adopted
with a unanimous vote and laundering
ave that would make the earth quake and
the heavens ring with hosanna. This il
the creed 1 propose for all christendom:
Article 1. God so loved the world thai
He gave His only begotten Son that who
soever beliveth in Him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Art. 2. This faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, even the
chief.
Art g. 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 Ole
creeds and patching and splicing aud
terIining and aunexing and subtracting
and adding and explaining and you will
lose time and make yourself target for
earth and hell to shoot at. Let rs have
creeds not fashioned out of human inge
nuities but out of scriptuTal phrase ology,
and all the guns of bOmbardment blazing
from all the port holes of infdelity and
perdition will not in a thousand years
knock off the church of God a splinter a.
big as a cambria needle. What is most
needed now is that we gather all our the
oloeies around the boy in the temple
the Celebrations around the simplicities,
and the profundities around the clarifies,
the octogenarian OF scholastic research
around the uuwrinkled cheek OF
twelve year juvenescence. Except
YOU become as a little child you
can in no wise enter into the
kingdom - and except you become as a
little child you can not understand the
Christian religion. The best thing that
Rabbin Simeon and Hillel and Shammai