The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-13
sRFVIsION OF CREEDS.'
,,, bv Rev. T. Dewitt Tai
Sol aTa on Old and New Creeds.
.,.or. Must be swept Away and q
Ois D pounded on the Sovereignty
.tcod and the Humanity OF Man
erected In Their stead.

r,o following sermon on Revision OF
,idS.n IA was delivered by Rev. L. De-
W;tt Talmage at the Brooklyn Academy
,,Music, the text being:
,oose him and let him go.-John xL' a.
Nc Bible is, at the place Of this text
-.;t,en all over with lead pencil marks
Va last December at Bethany on the
Hn;Us % of the house Of Mary and Martha
uaIsyarus. We dismounted from our
Snrses n on the way up from Jordan to the
no.d Sea. Bethany was the summer
avoripc retreat of Jesus. After spend
,.r the day in the hotcity OF Jerusalem
uo would come out there almost every
aroninp to the house Of His three
t-;onds. | think the occupants OF that
house were orphans, for the father and
mother are not mentioned. But the son
and two daughters must have inherited
.,onartv. for it must have been, judging
t-om what | saw of the foundations and
tho size of the rooms, an opulent house.
Iazurus. the brother, was now the head
of the household, and his sisters de-
randed on him and were proud of him,
for he was very popular and every
bodv liked him, and these girls were
splendid girls. Martha, q first-rate
bousekeeper, and Mary, a spirituelle,
someyhat dreamy, but affectionate, and
as good girl as could be found in all
Palestine. But one day Lazarus got
sck The sisters were in consterna-
ton. Father gone and mother gone,
tbey feel very nervous lest they lose
their brother also. Disease did its quick
work. How the girls hung over his pill
low! Not much sleep about that house,
no sleep at all. From the characteris-
tics otherwise developed, / judge that
Martha prepared the medicines and made
tempting dishes of food for the poor APP
petite of the sufferer, but Mary prayed
and sobbed. Worse and worse gets Laza-
rus, 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 Sis
ters we're being led by sympathizers in
to the adjoining 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 coun-
try districts preaching, healing other
sick, how unfortunate that this omnip-
Otent Doctor had not been at that do
nestle crisis in Bethany. When at last
Jesus arrived in Bethany Lazarus had
been buried four days and dissolution
had taken place. In that climate the
breathless body disintegrates more
readily than in ours. If Immediately
after decease that body had been awak-
ened into life, unbelievers might have
said that he was only in comatose
state or in sort of trance, and by some
vigorous manipulation or powerful slim
ulant vitality had been renewed. Nc!
-Four days dead. At the door of the
sepulcher is crowd of people, but
the three most memorable are Jesus,
who was the family friend, and the two
bereft sisters. We went into the tradi-
tional tomb in December, and it is deep
down and dark, and with torches we ex-
plored it. We found 1t all quiet that
afternoon Of our visit, but the day
spoken of in the Bible there was pres
ent an excited multitude. l wonder
what Jesus will do. He orders the door
OF the grave removed, and then He be-
gins to descend the steps, Mary and
Martha close after Him, 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.
We're ever so many sorrows COM
pressed 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 sounds of
shutting feet are stopped. 1t is the
silence of expectancy. Death had con-
quered, 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 a
pathOS and an almightiness of which
me resurrection of the last day shall be
only an echo cries:
Lazarus! come forthr'
The eyes of the slumberer open and
ue rises and comes to the foot Of the
seps and with great difficulty begins to
ascend, for the cerements of the tomb
arc yet on him and his feet are fast, and
MS aands are fast, and the impediments
%al his movements are so great that
Jesus commands:
4. iake OF these cerements; remove
.uese hlndrances; unfasten these grave
''Osnes; loose him and let him go!"
on, ! am so glad that after the Lord
.aised Lazarus He went on and ordered
sae ioosening of the cords that bound
40 teet so that he could walk, and the
b;s OSAihg OIL OF the cerement that bound
hio ' nahds so that he could stretch out
' arms In salutation, aud the tearing
~ ~ VI tne bandage from around his jaws
~ ,O.' snat ne could speak. What would
Isu'rected Iouted life have been to Lazarus If
o,;I uSu not been freed from all those
tbat tbppiements ea Of his body? 1 am glad
sm". enrlst commanded his complete
Emancipation, saying:
Loose him and let him 90.
n.a lug unfortunate thing now is that so
Thas CHRISTIANS are only half liberated
And 9aVe been raised from the death
thsr Ourial OF sin into spiritual life, but
thsy YET have the grave clothes on
m ~ they are like Lazarus. hobbling
,ps '4e - stairs OF the tomb, bound hand
issaue 'Soe and the object of this sermon
sonl .eip Iree their body and free their
SVui, and shall rv+- eL..l 49,