The Penn's Grove record., 1889-06-29

- Wy w ttAA Wihht coA thot6htf "hN
God planned, what God did five hun
OF which we live was created. 1 have
had many a sound sleep under sermons
about the DEGREES of God and the eternal
generation of the Son, and discourses
showing who Melchisedec wasn't, and /
give a 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 + 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. Ii you want to love
and serve God, and be good and useful
and get to heaven, l warrant that moth
ing which occurred eight hundred quin-
tillion of years ago will hinder you a
minute. 1t is not the DEGREES OF God
that do us any harm, it is our W de-
crees of sin and folly.
You need not go any further back in
history than about 1856 years. Some
thing occurred on hat day under an
eclipsed sur. that set 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 orany of
the other evangelical Churches spend
any time in
TRYING TO FIX UP OLD CREBDs,
all of them imperfect, as everything
man does is imperfect. 1 more a neU
creed for all the evangelical Churches of
C~hristendom, only three articles in the
creed, and no need of any more- If /
had all the consecrated people of all de-
nominations of the earth on one great
plain, and / had voice loud enough to
put it to a vote, that creed of three
articles would be adopted with a unani-
nous vote. This is the creed 1 propose
for all Christendom:
Article First--"God soloved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son.
that whatsoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life"
Article Second-''This is u 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"
But you go to tinkering up your old
creeds, and patching and splicing and
interlining and annexing and subtract
ing and adding and explaining. and you
will lose time and make yourself atarget
for earth and hell to shoot at. Let us
have creeds not fashioned out of human
ingenuities but out of scriptural phrase
ology, and all the guns ofbombardment
blazing from all the portfolios of inf
deity and perdition will not in a thous-
and years knock off the church of God
a splinter as big as a cambria needle.
WHAT IS MOST NEEDED NOW
is that we gather all our theologies
around the boy in the Temple, the
Celebrations around the simplicities,
and the profunditiesaroundt clarifies,
the octogenarian of scholastic research
around the unwrinkled cheek of twelve
year juvenesence. ''Except you become
as a little child you can in no wise enter
the kingdom" and except you become
as a little child you cannot understand
the 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 ruddy of cheek
by the breath of the Judean hills and
on the way to the mechanics shop
where he was soon to be the support OF
his bereaved mother, stopped long
enough to grapple with the venerable
dialecticians of the Orient ''both hear
lug them and asking them questions"
Some referring to Christhave exclaimed,
Ecce Deusl Behold the God. Others
have exclaimed, Ecce homo! Behold
the man. But to-day in conclusion of
my subject 1 cry, Ecce adolescens!
Behold the Boy,