The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1889-06-26

tion OF the Son, and dlscourSes showing
who Melchisedek wasn't, and I give q
fair warning that If any minister ever
begins sermon on such a subject in my
presence, I will put my head down on
the pew in front and 60 into the
deepest slumber can reach. Wicked waste
Of time, this trying to scale the unscalable
and fathom the unfathomable while the ma
tons want the bread Of life, and to be told
how they can get rid of their sins and their
sorrows. Why should you and I perplex
ourselves about the DEGREES Of God? 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 with
out US. If you want to love and serve God,
and be good and useful and got to Heaven,
I warrant that nothing which occurred
eight hundred Quintillion of years ago
will hinder you 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 80 any further back in history than
about 1856 years. You see this is the year
1899 Christ died about thirty-three years
of age. You subtract thirty-three from
1889 and that makes it only 1855 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, II
with our whole heart and life we accept the
tremendous proffer. Do not let the Presby-
terian 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 every thing
man does is imperfect. move new creed
for all the evangelical churches OF christen-
dom, only three articles in the creed, and
no need of any more. If l had all the
consecrated 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 unanimous vote and laundering
aye that would make the earth quake and
the heavens ring with hosanna. This is the
creed propose for all christendom:
Article First-"God so loved the world
that He gave His only besotten Son that
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-''W orthy 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 annexing and subtracting and adding
and, explaining and you will lose time and
make yourself target for earth and he'll to
shoot at. Let US have creeds not fashioned
out of human ingenuities but out Of scriptur-
al phraseology, and all the guns Of lombard
ment blazing from all the port holes OF in
fidelity 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 theolo-
gies around the boy in the temple, the elso-
orations around the simplicities, and the
profundities around the clarifies, the octe-
genarian Of the scholastic research, around
the unwrinkled cheek Of twelve-year
iuvenescence. Except you become as
little child you can in no wise
enter the kingdom" and except you
become as a little child you can
not understand the Christian religion. The
best thing that Rabbin Simeon and Hill
lei and Shammai and the sons Of Betrah
ever did was in the Temple, to bend over the
lad who, first made ruddy Of cheek by the
breath Of the sudsaEl hills end sn way
to the mecharess-s;sr, 81, 80 he Eos soon
|upport' FMS bereaved mother,
s5ng enough to grapple with the
Venerable dialecticians Of the Orient, both
hearing them and asking them questions"
Some referring to Christ have exclaimed
Ecce Deus Behold the God. Others have
exclaimed Ecce homo! Behold the man.
Rnt to dar IL, connln sion of my sn hiact I CRY