The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1890-03-13
TALMAGES SERMON.
Weekly Discourse of the Great
BROOKLYN Preacher.
sunice,. "s.vi.,on o, Creed-"

'rExr, "Loose him, and let him go,"-John
1i., a.
Ny Bible is, at the place Of this text, writ
tea all over with lead pencil marks made
last December at Bethany on the ruins of
tae house of Mary aud Martha and Lazarus.
We dismounted from our horses on the way
up from Jordan to the Dead Sea. Bethany
was the summer evening retreat of Jesus.
After spending the day in the hot city Of
Jerusalem He would come out there almost
every evening to the house of His three
friends. think the occupants OF that house
We're orphans, for the father and mother are
not mentioned But the son and two daugh-
tiers must have Inherited property, for
1t must have been, judging from what I
saw of the foundations and the size OF the
rooms, AN opulent home. Lazarus the
brother, was now the head of the household
aud his sisters depended on him and were
proud OF him, for he was very popular and
everybody liked him. and these girls were
splendid girls. Martha a first rate house,
keeper and May spirituelle, somewhat
dreamy, but atfectionate, and as good girl
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
II.
From the characteristics otherwhere de-
veioped, judge that Martha prepared the
medicines and made tempting dishes of
zoos Tor the poor appetite of the sufferer. but
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 adj
.ll nc
have had our own hearts broken.
But why was otJesus there as He so often
had beens PARKWAY in the country districts
preaching healing other sick, how unfortun-
ate that this omnipoaent 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 dssou-
ton had taxen place. In that climate the
breathless body disintegrates more rapidly
than in ours. If, Immediately after decease,
that body had been awakened into life,
unbelievers might have said that he was
only III comatose state, or in sort
OF trance, and by some vigorous
manipulation or powerful stimulant vital
ity had been renewed. MOI Four days
dead AT the door of the sepulcher is a
crowd of people, but the three most memoir.
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 1t. 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. | 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 Hi IL, and
the crowd after them. Deeper down into the
shadows and deeper! 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
befores Now all the whispering and all the
crying and all the sound of shutting
feet are stopped. 1t is the silence of ex-
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 i'll 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; 'Iazarusl come forthn'
The eyes of the slumperer 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
the implements to all his movements are SO
great that Jesus commands: Take off these
cerements; remove these hindrances, unfas-
ten these grave clothes, loose him and let
him gom 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
on OF the cerement that bound his hands SO
mat he could stretch out his arms in saluta.
U.H. and the tearing off of the baudage
from around his jaws so that he could speak.
What would resurrected life have been to
Lazarus II he had not been freed from all
those cripplenents of his body? am glad
that Christ commanded his complete eman-
cipasion, 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
l Shall try to obey the Masters command
that comes to me and comes to every minister
OF religion: Loose him, and let 60" 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;
creed about religion, "a creed about art, a
creed about social life, creed about govern
ment, and so on. A creed is something that
man believes, whether it be written or un-
written The Presbyterian Church is now
agltated about its creed. Some good men in
1T are for keeping it because it was framed
from the belief OF John Calvin. Other good
men Ill 1t want rsysIion. | am with neither
party. Instead of revision | want substitute
ton. was sorry to have the question dis
turbed at all. The creed did not
N 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 imperfections
OF that creed-and every thing that man fash
ions Is imperfect-let us put the old creed re-
spectfully aside and get brand new one.
1t Is impossible that people who lived hum
dreds of years ago should fashion an appro-
pirate creed for our times. John Calvin was
great and good man. but he died
three hundred and twenty-six years
ago The best centuries of Bible study have
come since then, and explorers have done
their work, and you might as well have the
world go back and stick to what Robert Full
ton knew about steamboats, and reject the
subsequent improvements in navigation: and
go back to John Gutenberg, the inventor of
the 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 bonfires 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 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.
I 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 to
sit at the feet of the Sixteenth
But you say, it is the same old Bible,
and John Calvin had that as well as the pres
ent student of the Scriptures" Yes so it is
the same old sun in the heavens but in our
time it has gone to making daguerreotypes
and photographs. 1t is the same old water,
but in our century it has gone to running
steam engines 1t is the same old electricity,
but in our time it has become lightning
footed errand boy. So it 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
saw he did, in the dan1nation of infants, al.
thourh soma of the racent hot diSDutpS would