The Opelousas courier., 1890-05-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
mr. RR0OkLFN BIVlNE's SUNDAY
SERMON.
s,hiect: 'sRevision of Creeds."

HtHA Is Hn1SR Ul HUI v uttNt Auukt Lo o1l0 us,
NJ dismounted from our horses on the way
"a from Jordan to the Dead Sea. Bethany
,Tas tho summer evening retreat of Jesus.
1fiar spending the day in the hot city Of
Jerusalem He would come out there almost
sysry evening to the house of His three
friends. | think the occupants OF that house
epre orphans, for the father n mother are
uat mentioned. But the son and two daugh.
taTs must have inherited property, for
Ii must have been, judging from what I
seW Of the foundations and the size of the
voornS an opulent home. Lazarus. the
brother, was now the head of the household
ard his sisters depended on him and were
everybody liked him, and these girls were
sldendii girls. Martha a first rate house.
keeper and Mary a spirituelle, somewhat
dreamy, but a~ffectionate, and os good q girl
es could be found in all Palestine. But one
day Lazarus got sick. The sisters were in CON
stgrnation. 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 o~therwhere de-
yeloped, l judge that Martha prepared the
medicines and made tempting dishes of
food for 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
we're 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 unfortun-
ate that this o~mnipotent Doctor had not
Leen at that domestic crisis in Bethany.
when at last Jesus arrived in Bethany Laza-
Jus had been buried four days and dissolu-
ton had taken place. In that climate the
hrcathless body disintegrates more rapidly
.i,an IN ours. Ii, Immediately after decease,
that body had been awakened into life,
anbelievers might have said that he was
only in a comatose state, or in a sort
manipulation or powerful stimulant vital
lily had been renewed. MOI -Four days
dead. At the door of the sepulcher is q
crowd of people, but the three most memoir
able are Jesus, who was the family friend,
and the two bereft sisters. We vent 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. / wonder what Jesus will do. He
orders the door of the grave removed, and
then lie begins to descend the steps.
Nary and Martha close after Him, and
~fP0 Vi AuItSA p4OAA DVCHC1 ON1 AARtC OAIO
frradows and deeperi The hot tears of Jesus
1s.tl over His cheeks and plash upon the back
q lis hands. Were there ever so man. sor-
JeTs compressed into so small a space as in
Fat group pressing on down after Christ, all
Inc time bemoaning that He had not come
befores Now all the whispering n 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
bad upon His lips in the Inequalities of the
village home came back to His tongue and
with q pathos and an ~almightiness of which
the resurrection Of the last day shall be only
saecho, He cries: sLazarusi come forth p
he eyes of the slumberer open and he rises
and comesffsp the foot of the steps and with
gtsat difficulty begins to ascend. for the
treinents of the tomb are yet on him and
IS feet are fast and his hands are fast and
the iiDpediments to all his movements are so
kteat that Jesus commands: Take Off these
serefnents; remove these hindrances; unfas-
YIN these grave clothes, loose him and let
ldm gor' Oh. 1 Inn so glad that after the Lord
raised Lazarus He went OF n commanded
Ibid i~oosening of the cords hat bound his
sset so that he could walk, and the breaking
gf Of the cerement that bound his hands so
nat he could stretch out his arms in saluta-
Ion, and the tearing off of the banaage
froni around his jaws so that he could speak.
What would resurrected life have been to
Lazarus if he had not been freed from all
2hosa supplements of his body? | am glad
THAT Christ commanded bis complete oman
upation, saying. 'Loose him, and let him
70
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
slothes on them: They are like lazarus, hob,
hing 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 trg to obey the Masters command
thatcomest to me and comes to every minister
ut religion. Loose him, and let 60" First
mAny are bound hand and foot by religious
GIRLS. Let no man nlisiuterpret me as an
taganizing creeds. / have 81 sht OF ten OF them
Aerssd about religion, 4 creed about art, 9
creed about social life, Il cssNl about govern.
NlenE and So on, A :" O. IS som thing thai
man believes, whether it be written or TN
written The Presbyterian Church Is nov
agitated about it's creed. Some good men il
from the belief Of John Calvin. Other goot
men In it want revision. / am with neithea
party. Instead Of revision / want substltu
MQH. I was sorry to have the question dis
Aarbed ait ell. The creed did no
hinder us from offering the pardon and
the eonlfort Of the Gospel to all men and tn
Westminster Confession hes not interferet
With me one minute. But now the electr1'
klEhtg have been turned on the imperfectiont
q laat creed-and everything that man fasas
sens lB imperEect-Iet us put the Old creed re
eleetfuiIy aside and get q brand new one
10 . impossible that people who ivea nun
dfeds Of years ago should fashion an aPpro
pirate creed for our hines. Jonn GAVIN NJ M
great and good man, bat ne aie'
three hundred and twenty-six year
a9o. The best centuries of Bible study hay
core since then. and explorers nave don
their work, and you might as welt have tn
world 60 back and stick to what hopeft Fui
fon knew about steamboats, n felecb IN
subsequent improvements in navigation: an
rs back to John Gutenberg, the inventor Q
fha art Of printing, and reject all moaer1
newspaper presses, and 60 back to the timl.
when teiegraphy was the elevating OF signal
e he Burning Of bonfires on the hlHtops an
reject the magnetic wire, which Is 90
tongue Of nations, as to ignore an Tn
ssseses and the philologists aud the thee
leRIans Of the last three hundred and twenty
Ill years and put your head under the sseev
yK she gown OF o sixteenth century doctor
I ennS1 call the names Of fwar6g III as.ai
Presbyterian ministers OF religion VINO co "
rake d better creed than John Calvin: 10
Nineteenth century ought not to be called 9
slt q the fest of the Sixteenth.
But Won say. sit is the same old Blpls
AMd John Calvin had that as well as the pre-:
nj student of the Scriptures Yes; SO it
tha am old sun in the heavens, but in GU
tine ii has gone to making daguerreotypt
And photographs. It is the same old watel
but ID our century it has gone to runnin
steam engines. tt is the same old electricity
A ssue lib our time IL has become Q IghfIll
looted eTrand boy. SO ID lis the CID b1Di
but new applications, new uses, ne
Interpretations. You must remembt
that during the last three hundred veal
FNn<z4n Anrs II, .,.raI thar meaning and SON