Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-03-13
GOOD CHRISTIANITY.
A Discourse By Rev. T. De Witt
Talmage on Creeds.
Too Many Persons Bound BY Narrowly In
terpreted Creeds-Faith In Christ the
Great Observation-Disclosures
Views Needed.

Creeds," and he took for his text John
II. a: 'Loose him and let him CO."
He said:
By Bible is, at the place of this text,
written all over with lead pencil marks
made last December at Bethany on the
ruins of the house of Mary and 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 spend
ing the day in the hot city of Jerusalem
He would come out there almost every
evening to the house of His three friends.
1 think tho occupants of that house
were orphans, for the father and
mother are not mentioned. But
the son and two daughters
must have inherited property, for it
must have been, Judging from what l
saw of the foundations and the size of
the 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 and every body liked him,
and these girls were splendid girls.
Martha a first rate housekeeper and
Mary a spirituelle, somewhat dreamy,
but affectionate, and rs good girl as
could be found in all Palestine. But
one day Lazarus got sick. The sisters
were in CONSERVATION. Father gone
and mother gone, they feel very nervous
lest they lose their brother also Dis
ease 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
developed Judge that Martha prepared
the medicine and made tempting dishes
of food for the poor appetite of the suf-
ferer, 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 be-
ing led by sympathizers into an ad Join
ing room, all those of US can imagine
who have had our own hearts broken.
But why was not Jesus there as He so
soften had been? Far away in the coun-
try districts preaching, healing other
sick, how unfortunate that this ON
nipotent doctor had not been
at that domestic crisis in Beth
any. 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 rapidly than in
ours. If, Immediately after decease,
that body has been awakened into life,
unbelievers might have said that he was
only in a comatose state, or in a sort of
trance, and by some vigorous manipula-
ton or powerful stimulant vitality had
been renewed. No! Four days dead.
At the door of the sepulcher is a crowd
of people, but the three most memorable
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 afternoon of our visit but the
day spoken of in the Bible there was pres
ent an excited multitude. 1 wonder what
Jesus will do He orders the doors 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 deeper! The hot tears of Jesus
roll over His cheeks and splash upon
the back of His hands. Were ever
so many sorrows compressed into so
small a space as in that group pressing
on down after Christ, all the time be-
moaning 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 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 in the hos !
FATALITIES of the village home |
came back to his tongue, and with
pathos and almightiness, of |
which the resurrection of the
last day shall be only an echo, he cries: |
Lazarus! come forthr' 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 and hands are fast and the |
impediments to all his movements are |
so great that Jesus commands; take |
off these cerements; remove these him |
ORANGES; unfasten these grave clothes;
loose him and let him go!''
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, hobbling up the /
stairs of the tombs, bound hand and |
foot, and the object of this sermon is to
help free their soul, and 1 shall try to
obey the Masters command that comes |
to me and comes to every minister of re-
HgiOn, Loose him, and let him GO"
First, many are bound hand and foot
by religious creeds. Let no man misin-
terpret me as antagOnizing creeds. 1
have eight or ten of them; creed about
religion. creed about art, a creed about
social life, a creed about government
and so on. A creed is something that
man believes, whether it be written or
unwritten. The Presbyterian Church is
now agitating about its creed. Some
good men in it are for keeping it be-
cause it was framed from the belief of
John Calvin. Other good men in it want
revision. lam with neither party. In
stead of revision l want substitution. 1
was sorry to have the question disturbed
at all. The creed did not hinder us
from offering the pardon and the COM
fort of the Gospel to all men, and the
Westminster confession has not inter
fGred with me one minute. But now
that the electric lights have been turned
on the imperfections of that creed-and