New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1890-03-12
ent student Of the scriptures. = Yes; SO 1t is
the same old sun in the hen vana h,1t in fnr

: T..
but in our century it has gone to running
j steam engines. 1t is the same old electricity,
but in our time it has become q lightning
4 footed errand boy. So it is the old Bible,
but new applications, new uses, new inter-
i pretatlons You must remember that dur
I ing Jhe last oUO years words have changed
| Their meaning and some of them now mean
more and some less II do not think that
John Calvin believed, as some say he did, In
the dc mnatlon OF infants, although some OF
4 the recent hot disputes would seem to imply
that there is such thing as the damnation
of infants.
man who believes in the damnation of
| infants himself deserves to lose heaven. I
| do not think any good man could admit such
| q possibility. What Christ will do with all
| the ba bles in the next world conclude from
what he did with the babies in Palestine when
| ne Rugged them and kissed them. When
some ofyou grown people go out of this
world your doubtful destiny will be an en-
1 bnrrassment to ministers officiating at your
obsequies. who will have to be cautious SO as
not to hurt surviving friends. But when the
darling children go there are no ''ifs'' or
butts or guesses. We must remember that
good John Calvin was alogician and me-
taphysician and by the procliyities of his
nature put some things in an unfortunate
way. Logic has it's use and metaphysics has
| Its use, but they are not good at making
creeds gardner hands you a bloomy rose,
wv - eou, OuV ~ 6eFeIo DOUdntSGs comes TO
you with a rose and says: 81 will show you
the structure OF this rose" And he proceeds
to take it apart and pulls off the leaves and
says There are the petals" and he takes out
the anthers and he says: "Just look at the
wonderful structure OF these floral pillar. y
and then he cuts the stem to show you the
juices of the plant. So Logic or Metaphysics
takes the aromatic rose Of the Christian re-
lle1on and says: 81 will just show you how
this rose OF religion was fashioned, and it
pulls OFF oft piece and says: THAT is the
human WILL and another piece and says:
This is Gods will, = and another piece ard
says: This is s'oeyereignty, and another
is this and that is that And while i stand
looking at the fragments of the rose pulled
apart, one whom the Marys took for gar-
dener comes in and presents me with crimson
rose, red as blood, and says: sInhale the
sweetness OF this, wear it on your heart and
wear it forever" Unjust confess that pre-
Ter the rose IN full bloom to the rose pulled
apart. What a time we have had with the
hdogmatics, the apologetics and the hermen-
entlcs. The defect in some of the creeds is
that they try to tell us all about the DEGREES
OF God. Now the only human being that was
ever competent to handle that subject was
Paul. and he would not have been
competent had he not been inspired
i believe in the sovereignty of God,
and believe in mans free agency, but no
one can harm onize the two. 1t is not neces-
sary that he harmonic them. Every SER
mon that have ever heard that attemp ted
| such harmonizatlon was to me as clear as a
London fog, as clear as mud. My brother
OF the 18th century, my brother OF the 10Th
century, give us Paul ssta tement and leave
out your own. Better one chapter Of Paul
on that subject than all of Calvin s institutes,
able and honest and mighty as they are
Do not try to measure either the throne Of
God or the thunderbolts of God with your
little steel pen: What do you know about
the DEGREES? You cannot pry open the door
OF Gods eternal counsels. You cannot ex-
plain the mysteries of Gods government
now, much less the mysteries of his govern
ment i've hundred quintillion of years ago.
move for a creed for all our denominations
made out OF Scripture quotations pure and
mat would be impregnable against infidel-
| ity and Apollyonic assault. That
would be beyond human criticism.
The denomination, whatever it's name be,
| that can rise up to that will be the church Of
| the millennium, will swallow up all other
denominations and be the one that will be
the bride when the bridegroom cometh Let
! US make it simpler aud palmer for people
| to get into the kingdom of God Do not
hinder people by the idea they may have not
been elected. Do not tag on to the one es-
sential OF faith in Christ any of the in
Vulnerable non-essentials. A man who
heartily accepts Christ is Christian and the
man who does not accept him is not a
Christian, and that is all there ID to it. He
need not believe in election or reprobation
He need not believe in the sternal genera
ton OF the Son. He need not believe in
everlasting punishment. He need not be-
! lieve in infnnt baptism. He need not be-
liese in plenary inspiration. Faith in Chris
/ IL the criterion, is the test, is the pivot, is
the Indispensable. But there are those who
would add unto the tests rather than sub
tsact from them. There are thousands
who would not accept persons into church
membership If they drank wine if they
smoke cigars or if they attend the theater or
il they play cards or if they drive a fast horse.
Now do not drink wine or smoke or attend
the theater, never played o game Of cards
and do, not drive q fast horse, although [
would il owned one but do not substitute
tests which the Bible does not establis
to let all in who ought to enter and to keep
out all who ought to be kept out: Believe
IN the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be
| saved. Get mans heart right and his life
will be right. But now that the old creeds
have been put under public strutiny, some
thing radical must be done. Some would
/ split them, some would carve them some
would elongate them, some would abbreviate
them. At the present m oment and in the pres
ent shape they are hindrance Lazarus is
alive, but hampered with the old grave
clothes. If you want one glorious church
1 free and unencumbered take off the cere-
ments of old ecclesiastical vocabulary Loose
/ her, and let her gol
| Again, there are Christians who are under
! sepuichral shadows and hindered and hop
| pied by doubts and fears and sins long ago
repented of. What they need is to under
stand the liberty of the sons of God They
/ spend more time under the shadow of Sinai
than at the base OF Calvary. They have been
T singing the only poor hymn that Newton ever
/ wrote:
4 IT'S point long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought
Do I love the Lord or no,
/ Am his or am i not?
Long to know, do yon? Why do you not
find out? Go to work for God and you will
very soon find out. The man who is all the
time feeling of his pulse and looking att his
tongue to see whether it is coated, is morbid
and cannot be physically WE'LL The doctor
4 will say: go out into the fresh air and
into active life and stop thinking of yourself
and you will get we'll and strong. So there
4 are people who are watching their spiritual
ymptoms, and they call it seize amin att on
and they get weaker and sicklier in their
faith all the time Go out and do some.
thing nobly Christian. Take holy exercise