The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1889-06-27
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pidity Of the child without inquirtivsfsessl
u Is Christlike to ask questions. Answer
them II you can Do not say; ~ can't be both
bred now,H tits your plhcs ID be bothered with
questions. II you are not able to answer,
surrender and confess your incapacity, a. ]
have no doubt did Rabbin Simeon and
Hillel and Shammai and the sous of Betirah
when that splendid boy, sitting or standing
ankle and ssded al t hSv ~aiss put them hem C
their very wits end. 1t Is no Disgrace 10 sayi
II don't know" The learned doctors who
environed Christ that day in the Temple
Old not know or they would hot Rave, asked
Him any questions The only being I'D the
universe who never needs to say; II do
not know" Is the Lord Almighty. The
fact that they did not know sent Keppler
and Culver and Columbus and Humboldt and
Horschel and Morse and Sir William Hamil
ton and all the other p5 the worlds mightiest
natures into their lifelong explorations
Telescope and microscope and stethoscope
and electric battery and all the scientific ap-
paratus Of all the ages are only questions
asked at the door Of mystery. Behold this
Nazarene lad asking questions, giving ever.
lasting dignity to earnest interrogation.
But while see the old theologians standing
around the boy Christ l am impressed as
never before with the fact that what theology
most wants Is more Of childish simplicity.
The world and the church have built Up I'M
nense systems 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. have had many a sound sleep
s under sermons T about the DEGREES q God end
-vu,i,a, svnerauep. OF .tne sen and dis
courses showing who Melchisedek wasn't and
give fair warning that II any minister
ha0tn fStSo uuxk yofsti In, u
presence win put my head down on the pew
In front and 60 into the deepest slumbor can
reach. Wicked waste of time, this trying to
scale the unscalable and fathom the un-
fathomable while the nations want the bread
Of life and to be told how thsy can get rid Of
their sins and their sorrows Why should
You and ! perplex ourselves about the DEGREES
Of Gods Mind your own business and God
will take care Of His. In the conduct Of the
universe I think He will somehow
manage to get along without US. II
you want to love and serve God and be good
and useful and get to heaven. warrant
that nothing which occurred eight hundred
quintillion of years ago Will hinder you min
ute. 1t is not the DEGREES Of God that do US
any harm, It is our own DEGREES Of sih and
folly. You need not 90 any further back In
Is the year 1889. Christ died about thirty
three years of age You subtract thirty. three
from 1889 and that makes it only
1856 years. That is as far back
as you need to go. Something oc-
Cured on that day under an eclipsed
sun that sets us all forever free if with our
whole heart and life we accept the tremen-
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. move q new creed
s sS' al al t th1 oSsIgeiics, churches u Chris
tendon, only three articles in the
creed and no need Of any more II I had
all the consecrated people Of all denomina-
aens OF the earth on ono great plnin and l
had voice loud enough to put it toe vote that
creed of three articles would be adopted with
unanimous vote and thundering aye that
would mako the earth quake and this heavens
ring with hosanna. This Is the creed pro-
pose for all Christendom:
Article First-"God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believeth in Him should not per-
ish but have everlasting life."
Article Sseond-"This is faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation that Christ
Jesus came INTO this 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 old creeds
and patching and splicing and interlining and
apnexing and subtracting and adding and e1-
planning and you will lose time and make
| yourself target for earth and hell to shoot
at Let us have creeds not fashioned out Of
human ingenuitjes but out of scriptual phrase
ology, and all the guns of bombardment
blazing from all the port holes of infdelity
and perdition will not in thousand
years knocked off the Church of God a splin-
| ter as big as a cambria needle. What is most
needed now is that We gather all our theolo-
gies around the boy in the Temple. the elabo-
rations around the simplicities, and the pro
fundities around the clarieties, the octogena-
rian Of scholastic research around the
unwrinkled cheek of twelve year juven-
escence. Except you become as lit
| tie child you can in no wise enter
the kingdom;" and except you become as a
Christian religion. The best thing that
Rabbin Simeon and Hillel and Shammai and
the sons of Betirah ever did was in the Temple,
to bend over the lad, who first made rudy
Of cheek by the breath of the Judean hill.
and on His way to the mechanics shol
where He was soon to be the supper.
of His bereaved mother, stopped long enough
to grapple with the venerable dialectieians Of
the Orient "both hearing them and asking
them questions" Some referring to Chris
have exclaimed Ecce Deus Behold the God
Others have exclaimed Ecce homo! Behold
the man. But to-day in conclusion Of my
subject cry, Ecce adolescence Behold tn
Boy.