Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-03-06
REVISION OF CREEDS.
DR. TALAIAGE PRESENTS A CHEER
ING VIEW FOR DoUBTERs.
His Visit to the Tomb OF Lazarus and Site
Of the House Occupied by Him and His
slsters-From That Miracle He Deduces
Lessons for the sorrowine.

sermon in the Brooklyn tabernacle,
Sunday morning, March 2, was "Re-
vision of Creeds, and he took for his
text John xi, A: Loose him, and let
him 60" DR.. 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 Jordanto the
Dead sea. Bethany was the summer
evening retreat of Jesus. After spend
ing the day in the hot city of Jerusalem
be would come out there almost every
evening to the house of his three
friends. 1 think the 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 I 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 de-
pended on him and were proud of him,
for he was very popular and everybody
liked him, and these girls we're splendid
girls. Martha frst-rate housekeeper
and Mary spirituelle, somewhat
1
| girl as could be found in all Palestine.
But one day Lazarus got sick The sis
ters were in CONSERVATION. Father gone
and mother gone, they feel very nerv-
GUS lest they lose their brother also.
Disease did its quick work. How the
| girls hung over his pillowl Not much
sleep about that house, no sleep at all.
From the characteristics otherwise
| rf7do hat ha
prepared the medicines and made tempt
ing dishes of food for the poor appe-
| tite 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 sis
sers were being led by sympathizers 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 had 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
mestic crisis in Bethany. 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 disease, that body had been awak-
ened into life, unbelievers might have
said that he was only in n comatose
state, or in g sort of trance, and by some
| vigorous manipulation or powerful stim-
| ulant vitality had heen renewed. No!
Four days dead. At the door Of the se.
| pulcher is q 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 tra-
ditional 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. I wonder
what Jesus will do. He orders the door
| of the grave removed, and then He be-
| gins 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 cry
ing and oil the sounds of shutting feet
are stopped. 1t is the silence of ex-
pectancy. Death had conquered, but
now the vanquisber 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
pitalities of the village home came back
| to His tongue and with pathos and an
almightiness Of Which the resurrection
Of the last day shall be only an echo,
1 He cries: Lazarus! come forth!" 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 vet on
him and his feet are fast and his hands
are fast and the impediments to all his
movements are SO great that Jesus COM
mands: Take off these cerements: re-
move these hindrances; unfasten these
| grave clothes; loose him and let him
| gol" Oh, I am so glad that after the
Lord raised Lazarus He went on and
commanded the loosening of the cords
shat bound his feet SO that he could
walk, and the breaking off of the cere-
ment that bound his hands SO that he
could stretch out his arms in salutation,
and the tearing off of the bandage from
4 around his jaws SO that he could speak.
What would resurrected life have been
to Lazarus if lie had not been freed from
all those cripplements of his bodyp ]
am glad that Christ commanded His
complete emancipation, 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 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 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 COM
mand that comes to me and comes to
every minister Of religion, Loose him,
| an let him go" Firrt, many are bound
hand and foot by religious creeds. Let
no man misinterpret me as antsgonizing
4 creeds. have eight or ten Of them; Q
creed about religion, creed about art, q
creed about social life, o creed about
I government and SO on. A creed is some
thing that man believes, whether it bs
written or unwritten. The Presbyterian
Church is now agitAted about its creed.
4 Some good men in it are for keeping II
because it was framed from the belief
u Of John Calvin. Other good men in il
want revision. am with neither party.
Instead Of revision want substitution.
was sorry to have the question dis
4. L. = 4. Il.