Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-04-10
OLD CREEDs
May Weaken Our Chances for a
Home in Heaven.
The Man Who Heartily Accepts Christ Is a
Observation-Disclosures He Is Not, and
That's All There Is in It-TaI-
IMAGES Sermon.


At the Tabernacle Sunday morning
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage, d. D., said he
thought the new Brooklyn Tabernacle
would be dedicated in September, and
the idea would be carried out of build
ing the church by subscription to the
Christian Herald, of which he has be.
come editor, all the subscriptions up to
$3.50, 900 to be paid to Mr.. John Wood,
treasurer of the Tabernacle, Fulton
street, near Concord, Brooklyn. The
subject of his discourse was Revision
of Creeds," and he took for his text
John XII. Al: ''Loose him, and let him
co. DIR. Talmage said
My 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 como 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 daughters must have
inherited property, for it must
have been, judging from what /
saw Of the foundations and 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 everybody liked him,
and these girls were splendid girls.
Martha first-rate housekeeper and,Mary
spirituelle, somewhat dreamy, but af-
fectionate, and as 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. Disease did its
work quick. How the girls hung over
his pillowl Not much sleep about that
house, no sleep at all. From the char
acteristics otherwhere developed 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 were being led by sympa-
thizers into 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 has 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 Larazus 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 had been awak-
ened into life, unbelievers might have
said that he was only in a comatose
state, or in a sort of trance, and by some
vigorous manipulation or powerful slim
ulant vitality had been renewed. mol
-Four days dead. At the door OF the
is a crowd of people, but the
three most memorable are Jesus, who
was the family friend, and the two be-
reft 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 af- /
ternoon of our visit but the day spoken |
OF in the Bible there was present |
an excited multitude. 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 Him, and
the crowd after them. Deeper down
into the shadows and deeperI The hot
tears Of Jesus roll over His cheeks and
splash upon the back of his hands.
We're ever so many sorrows compressed
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
feet are stopped. 1t Is the ST
lence of expectancy. Death had con-
luered. 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 Inequalities of the vii
age home came back to His tongue,
ind with a pathos and an almighti-
less OF which the resurrection Of
he last day shall be only an echo, He
.ries: Lazarus, come forthi" The
yes of the slumberer open, and he rises
md comes to the foot of the steps, and
With great difficulty begins to ascend,
or the cerements of the tomb are yet I
N him, and his feet are fast and his
lands are fast, and the impediments TO I
II his movements are so great that Je-
us commands: Take off these cere-
nents; remove these hindrances; unfas- I
en- these grave clothes; loose him and !
ct him goF' OH am so glad that after {
he Lord raised Lazarus He went on and
the loosening Of the cords
hat bound his feet so that be could
Falk, and the breaking of Of the eere-
1ent that bound his hands so that he {