Sharp County record., 1890-03-20


and so on. A creed is something that
man believes. whether it be written OF
The Presbyterian church
is now agitated about its creed some
good men in it are for keeping IL De.
cause it was framed from the bellet Oh
John Calvin. Other good men IN IL
want revision. ] am with neither party
Instead of revision l want substitution
was sorry to have the question as
turbed at all. The creed did not htnaef
us from offering the pardon and tne
comfort of the Gospel to all men, anu
the Westminster Confession has not IN
terfered with me one minute. But now
that the electric lights have been turned
on the imperfections OF that creeo-ahu
every thing that man fashions IS lmper-
fect-let us put the old creed respect
fully aside and geta brand new one.
1t is impossible that people who llVeu
hundreds of years ago should fashion al
appropriate creed for our times Jonh
Calvin was great and good man, buthe
died three hundred and SWenty-SlX
wears ago. The best centuries of Blble
study have come since then, and eX-
plorers have done their work, and you
might as well have the world go back
and stick to what Robert Fulton kne"
about steamboats, and reject the SuoSe-
quent improvements in navigation; ana
90 back to John Gutenberg, the invent
or of the art of printing, and reject all
modern newspaper presses, and go Dack
to the time when telegraphy was the
elevating of signals or the burning OIL
bonfres on the hilltops, and reject the
magnetic wire, which is the tongue OF
nations, as to ignore all the eXegeteS
and the philologists and the theolo-
gians of the last three hundred and
twenty-six years and put your head un-
der the sleeve of the gown OF a SIX
teenth century doctor. l could call the
names of twenty living Presbyterian
ministers of religion who could make a
better creed than John Calvin. The
nineteenth century ought not to be
called to sit at the feet of the sixteenth.
"But," you say, sit is the same old
Bible, and John Calvin had that as well
as the present student of the Script
ures"
Yes; 50 it is the same old sun in the
heavens, but in our time it has gone to
making daguerreotypes and photo
graphs. 1t is the same old water, but
in our century it has gone to running
steam engines. 1t is the same old cleo
tricity, but in our time it has become a
lightning-footed errand boy. So 1T is
the old Bible, but new applications,
new uses, new interpretations. You
must remember that during the last
three hundred years words have changed
their meaning and some of them now
mean more and some less. | do not
think that John Calvin believed as
some say he did, in the damnation OF in
fants, although some of the recent hot
disputes would seem to imply that there
is such thing as the damnationp2t in
fantS.
A man who believes in the damnation
of infants himself deserves ar lose
Heaven I do not ti,nl1 aRy sas man
could admit such possibility. What
Christ will do with all the babies in the
next world l conclude from what He
did with the babiesin Palestine when
He hugged them and kissed them
When some of you grown people go out
of this world your doubtful destiny will
be an embarrassment to ministers otii-
ciating at your obsequies, who will
have to be cautious so as not to hurt
surviving friends. But when the dar'
ling children go there are no 'ffs' OF
"buts" or guesses. We must remember
that good John Calvin was a logiciar
and metaphysician and by the pro
clivities of his nature put some things
in an unfortunate way. Logic has its
use and metaphysics has its use but
they are not good at making creeds.
A gardener hands you blooming
rose, dewy fresh, but severe botanist
comes to you and says: 81 will show
you the structure of this rose" And he
proceeds to take it apart and pulls of
the leaves, and he says: There arc
the petals" and he takes out the an
theirs and he says: Just look at the
wonderful structure of these floral pill
lars" and then he cuts the stem to show
you the juices of the plant So logic or
metaphysics takes the aromatic rose of
the Christian religion, and says: 81 will
just show you how this rose of religion
was fashioned;" and it pulls off of it a
piece and says: THAT is the human
will, and another piece and says: "ThiS
is Gods WILL" and another piece and
says: "This is sovereignty" and an
other piece and says: This is free
agency" this is this and that is that
And while stand looking at the frag.
ments of the rose pulled apart one
whom the Marys took for a gardener
comes in and presents me with Grim
son rose, red as blood, and says: Inhalt
| tho sweetness of this, wear it On your
heart and wear it orever." must con
Tess that prefer the rose in full bloom
to the rose pulled apart,
What time we have had with the
dogmatics, the apologetics and the her
meneutics. The defect in some of the
creeds is that they try to tell us al
about the DEGREES of God. Now, the
| Il /. =.