The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1890-03-19
REV, DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: .sRevisior OF Crceds."


NV Bible is. at the place of this text, writ
ten all over with lead pencil marks made
last December at Bethany on the ruins or
the house of Mary and Martha and Lazarus.
We dismouuted from our horses on the way
in from Jordan to the Dead Sea. Bethany
was the summer evening retreat OF Jesus:
After spending the day in the not city OF
Jerusalem He would come out there almost
every evening to the house Of His three
friends. think the occupants OF tnaG mouse
were orphans, for the father and mother are
NOT mentioned. But tho son and two daugh-
ters must have inherited property, for
it must have been, judging from what
saw of the foundations and the Size OF tne
rooms an opulent home. Lazarus, the
brother. was now the head Of the household
and his sisters depended on him and were
proud of him, for he was very popular ana
everybody liked him, and these girls were
splendid girls. Martha a first rate mousse
keeper and Mary spirituelle, somewhat
dreamy. but affectionate. and as good glrl
as could be found in all Palestine. But one
day Lazarus got sick. The sisters were in con-
sternation. Father gone and mother gone
they feel very nervous lest they lose their
brother also. Disease did its quick work.
How the girls hung over his pillow? Not
much sleep about that house, no sleep at all.
From the characteristics otherwhere de-
veloped, I Judge that Martha prepared the
medicines and made tempting dishes OF
food for the poor appetite OF the suherer, ou1
Mary prayed and sobbed. Worse and worse
gets Lazarus, until the doctor announces
that he can do no more. The Shrek that
went up from that household when the last
breath had been drawn and the two sisters
were being led by sympathizers into the ad-
Joining room, all those of us can imagine who
have had our own hearts broken.
But why was not Jesus there as He so often
had been? Far away in the country districts
preaching, healing other sick, how untortun-
ate that this omnipotent Doctor had not
been at that domestic crisis in Bethany.
When at last Jesus arrived in Bethany Laza-
rus had been buried four days and dissolu-
ton had taken place In that climate the
breathless body disintegrates more rapidly
than in ours IT. Immediately after decease,
that body had been awakened into life,
unbelievers might have said that he was
only in a comatose state, or In SORT
of trance, and by some vigorous
manipulation or powerful stimulant vital
dead. At the door Of the sepulcher is a
crowd of people, but the three most memor-
able are Jesus, who was the family friend,
and the two bereft sisters. We went into
the traditional tomb in December, and it is
deep down and dark, and with torches we
explored it. We found it all quiet that after
noon of our visit, but the day spoken OF IN
the Bible there was present an excited multi
tude. 1 wonder what Jesus will do. He
orders the door of the grave removed, and
then He begins to descend the steps:
Mary and Martha close after Him, and
the crowd after them. Deeper down into the
shadows and deeperI The hot tears Of Jesus
roll over His cheeks and plash upon the back
of His hands. Were there ever so many sor-
rows compressed into so small space as IN
that group pressing on down after Christ, all
the time bemoaning that He had not come
before? Now all the whispering and all the
crying and all the sound Of shutf1lng
feet are stopped. It is the silence of e1-
pectancy. Death has conquered, but now the
vanquisher Of death confronted the scene
Amid the awful hush of the tomb the
familiar name which Christ had often
had upon His lips in the hospitalities Of the
village home came back to His tongue and
with pathos and an almightiness of which
the resurrection of the last day shall be only
an echo He cries: "Lazarusl come forth" !"
The eyes of the slumberer open and he rises
and comes to the foot of the steps and with
great difficulty begins to ascend. for the
cerements of the tomb are yet on him and
his feet are fast and his hands are fast and
tho impediments to all his movements are so
great that Jesus commands: ''Take of these
cerements; remove these hindrances; unfas-
ten these grave clothes, loose him and let
him gop Oh. am so glad that after the Lord
raised Lazarus he went on and commanded
the loosening Of the cords that bound his
feet so that he could walk, and the breaking
OFF Of the cerement that bound his hands so
that he could stretch out his arms in saluta-
tion, and the tearing off Of the bandase
from around his jaws so that he could speak.
tod Pa hou n
Lazarus If he had not been freed from all
those cripplements of his body? am glad
that Christ commanded his complete eman.
cipation, saying: Loose him. and let him
60"
The unfortunate thing now is that so many
Christians are only half liberated. They have
been raised from the death and burial Of sin
into spiritual life, but they yet have the grave
clothes on them. They are like Lazarus, hob
bling up the stairs Of the tomb, bound hand
and foot, and the object Of this sermon is to
help free their body and free their soul, and
shall try to obey the Masters command
that comes to me and comes to every minister
Of religion: ''Loose him, and let CO." First,
many are bound hand and foot by religious
creeds. Let no man misinterpret me as an
tagonizing creeds. have eight or ten Of them
a creed about religion, creed about art, q
creed about social life, creed about govern
luent, and so on. A creed is something that
man believes, whether it be written or un-
written The Presbyterian Church is now
agitated about its creed. Some good men III
it are for keeping it because it was framed
from the belief of John Calvin. Other good
men in it want revision. l am with neither
party. Instead Of revision l want substltl-
tion. was sorry to have the question dis
turbed at all. The creed did not
hinder us from Offering the pardon and
the comfort of the Gospel to all men and the
Westminster Confession has not interfered
with me one minute. But now the electric
lights have been turned on the imperfectlons
of that creed-and everything that man fash
ions is imperfect-let us put the old creed re-
spectfully aside and get a brand new one.
It is impossible that people who lived hur-
dreds of years ago should fashion an appro-
pirate creed for our times. John Calvin was
q great aud good man, but he died
three hundred and twenty-six yesrs
apo The best centuries of Bible study have
come since then, and explorers have done
their work, and you might as well have the
world 90 back and stick to what Robert Full
ton knew about steamboats, and reject the
subsequent improvements in navigation: and
20 back to John Gutenberg, the inventor OF
Che art OF printing, and reject all modern
newspaper presses and go back to the time
when telegraphy was the elevating OF signals
or the burning of bonfres Oh the hilltops and
reject the magnetic wire, which is the
tongue Of nations, as to ignore all the
exegetes and the philologsts and the theo-
logians of the last three hundred and twenty
six years and put your head under the sleeve
Of the gown of sixteenth century doctor
could call the names of twenty living
Presbyterian ministers OF religion who could
make better creed than John Calvin. The
Nineteenth century ought not to be called 70
sit at the feet of the Sixteenth.
'But." you say, lit is the same old Bible
~...i LII a.: ,rlll tho r,,nS-