Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-03-08
REVISION OF CRHHDS.
REV. DIR. TALMAGEss SUNDAY
SERMON.
Preached at the Brooklyn Academy
Of Music.
TEXT. Loose him, and let him go.n-John


Of Music.
TEXT: Loose him, and let him John
III, "A.
Ny Bible is, at the place of this text writ
ten 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 spending the day in the hot city OF
Jerusalem He would come out there almost
every evening to the house of His three
friends think the occupants Of that house
were orphans for the father and mother are
not mentioned. But the son and two daugh-
tiers must have inherited property, for
it must have been, Judging from what
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
everybody liked him, and these girls were
splendid girls Martha first rate house
keeper and Mary a spirituelle. somewhat
dreamy. but affectionate, and as good girl
as could he found in all Palestine But one
day Lazarus got sick. The sisters were in con-
sternation. 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 otherwhere de-
veloped, ] judge that Martha prepared the
medicines aIul 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 be 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 sympathizers into the adj
joining room, nll 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 unfortuu-
ate that this omnipotent Doctor had not
been at that domestic crisis in Bethany.
When at last Jesus arrived in Bethany Laza-
rus had been buried four days and dissolu-
ton had taken place. In that climate the
breathless body disintegrates more rapidly
than in ours If, Immediately after decease,
that body had been awakened into life,
unbelievers might have said that he was
only III conlatose state, Or in sort
I of trance, and by some vigorous
manipulation or powerful stimulant vital
ity had been renewed No, Four days
dead. AT the door of the sepulcher is a
crowd of people, but the three most memoir
able are Jesus, Who was the family friend,
aud the two bereft sisters We went into
the traditional tomb in December. and il 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 viii 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 deeper! The hot tears of Jesus
roll over His cheeks and plash upon the back
of His hands. Were there ever so m1ny sor-
rows compressed into so small a 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 sound of shuffiing
feet stopped. IL 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 hospitalities of the
village home came back to His tongue and
with pathos and au almightiness of which
the resurrection of the last day shall be only
an echo, He cries: Lazarus come forth !"
The eyes of the slumbcrer 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 are fast and his hands are fast and
the impedlnents to all his movements are 50
great that Jesus commands: Take off these
cerements; remove these hindrauces; unfas-
ten these grave clothes, loose him and let
him go" Oh, / am SO glad that after the Lord
raised Lazarus He went on and commanded
the loosening of the cords that bound his
feet SO that he could walk and the breaking
off of the cerement that bound his hands SO
that he could stretch out his arms in saluta-
ton, and the tearing off of the bandage
from around his Jaws so that he could speak
What would resurrected life have been to
Lazarus if he had not been freed from all
those cripplements of his body | am glad
that Christ commanded lis complete eman-
cipation, saying: Loose HIM and let him
go
The unfortunate thing now is that so many
Christians are only half liberated. They have
been raised from tle death and burial of sin
into spiritual life but they yet have the grave
clothes on them They are like Lazarus, hob
bling 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 try to obey the Masters command
that comes to me and comes TO every minister
Of religion: Loose him, and let GO" First
many are bound hand aud foot by religious
creedS. Let no man mlsnterpret as an
tagonizing creeds. have eight or ten of them;
a creed about religion, a creed about art, a
creed about social life, creed about govern
ment. and 50 on. A creed is something that
man believes, whether it be written or I'M
written The Presbyterian Church is now
agitated about its creed. Some good men in
II are for keeping it because it was framed
from the belief OF John Calvin. Other good
men in it want revision | AM with neither
party. Instead of revision ] want substitu-
ton. was sorry to have the question dis
turbed at all. The creed did not
hinder us from Offering the pardon and
the comfort of the Gospel to all men and the
Westminster Confession has not interfered
with me one minute. But now the electric
lights have been turned on the imperfections
of that creed-and everything that man fash
lons IS unprecedented us put the old creed re-
spectfully aside aud get brand new one.
1t is impossible that people who lived hun
dredS of years ago should fashion an appro-
pirate creed for our times. John Calvin was
a great and good man, but he died
three hundred and twenty-six years
| ago The best centuries of Bible study have
| come since then, and explorers have done
\ their work, and you might well have the
| world go back and stick to what Robert Full
| ton knew about steamboats, and reject the
! subsequent improvements in navigation: and
] go back to John Gutenberg, the inventor of
| the art of printing and reject all modern
! newspaper presses and 60 back to the time
! when telegraphy was the elevating of signals
| or the burning of bonfires on the hilltops and
| reject the magnetic wire, which is the
tongue of nations, as to ignore all the
exegetes and the philologists and the theo-
logians of the last three hundred and twenty
years auu pun ltttl uto't uliutN tlS SieeNe
! of the gown of a sixteenth century doctor.
could call the names of twenty living
Presbyterian ministers Of religion who could
make better creed than Johu Calvin The
Nineteenth century ought not TO be called to
sit at the feet Of the Sixteenth.
"But,n you say, sit is the same cid Bible,
and John Calvin had that as well as the pres
ent student Of the Scriptures" Yes; so it is
the same old sun in the heavens but in our
time il has goue to making daguerreotypeS
and photographs. 1t is the same old water
but 10 our century it has gone to running
steam engines. 1t is the same old electricity,
but 10 our time it has become lightning
footed errand boy. Sc it is The old Bible,
but new applications, new uses new
interpretations You must remember
that during the last three hundred years
words have changed their meaning and some
of them now mean more and some less do
not think that John Calvin believed. as soma
say he did in the damnatlon of infants, al
though some of the recent hot disputes would
seem to imply that there is such thing as
the daunation of infants.
man VINO believes in the daInnation OF
infants himself deserves to lose heaven. l
do not think any good man could admit
such q possibility, What Christ will do with
all the babies in the next world conclude
from what He did with the babies in Pales-
| tine when He Rugged them and kissed them.
When some of you grown people go out OF
this world your doubtful destiny will be an
embarrassment 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
| ttifsu tshutsS ouesspS We rnuSt