The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-03-03
REVISION OF THE CREEDS.
AGRAPHIC STORY OF THE RAISING
OF LAZARUS.


Where the Miracle Was Performed.
The Lesson Drawn From the Story.
BROOKLYN, March AT the tabernacle
this morning the Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage,
d. D., said he thought the New Brooklyn
tabernacle would be dedicated in Septem-
Der, and that the idea would be carried out
Of building the church by subscription to
the Christian Herald, of which he has be-
come editor, all the subscriptions up to a
hundred and fifty thousand to be paid to
Mr.. John Wood, treasurer Of the taber-
nacle, Fulton street, near Concord, Brook
lyn, N. Y. The subjsct of his discourse
was Revision Of the Creeds, and he took
for his text John XII. A: "LOose him, and
let him CO." 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 Laza-
rus We dismounted from our horses on
the way up from Joi dan 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. I 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 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 sis
ters depended on him and were proud of
him, for he was very popular, and every
body liked him, and these girls were splen-
did girls. Martha a frstrate housekeeper,
and Mary a spirituelle, somewhat dreamy,
but affectionate, and as good q girl as could
be found in ali 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 quick work. How the girls hung
over his pillowl Net much sleep about
that house, no sleep at all From the
characteristics other here 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 Laza-
rus, 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 sympathizers into the adj
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 been9
Far away in the country districts preaching,
healing other sick, how unfortunate that
this omnipotent Doctor had not been at that
domestic 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
dlslntegrates more rapidly than in ours.
II, Immediately after decease, that
body had been awakened into life, I'M
believers m ght have said that he was
only in a comatose state, or in a sort
Of trance, and by some vigorous manipula-
ton or powerful stimulant vitality had
been renewed. Mol Four days dead. At
the door of the sepulchre is a crowd of peo-
pie, Tut the three most memorable are
Jesus, who was the family friend, and the
two bereft sisters. We went into the ira
ditional tomb in December, and it is deep
down and dark, and with torches we ex-
that afternoon 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 20 descend the steps, Mary and
Martha close after him, and the crowd
after them. Deeper down into the shadows
and deeperl The hot tears of Jesus roll
over his cheeks and plash upon the back of
his hands. Were ever 80 many sorrows
compressed into SO small space as in that
group pressing on down after Christ, all the
time bemoaming that he had not )me before?
Now all the whispering and all the crying
and all the sounds Of shutting feet are
stopped 1t is the silence of expectancy
Death had conquered but now the vanqusher
Of death confronted the scene. Amid tue
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
an almightiness Of which the resurrection of
the last day shall be only an echo, he cries:
"Lazarusi come forthln The eyes of the
slumberer open, and he rises and comes to
the foot of the steps, and with great diff
Guilty 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 i'm
pediments to all his movements are so great
that Jesus commands: "Take off these
| cerements; remove these hiudrances; un-
fasten these grave clothes; loose him and
let him gol" 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
Ln6 DT6dkluR OIL VI Lu6 CcT6Iuoub budb
bound his hands so that he could stretch out
his arms in salutation, and the tearing off
of the bandage from around his jaws so
that he could speak. What would re ~
rected life have been to Lazarus if he had
not been freed from all those cripplemsnts
of his body? am glad that Christ COIL
manded his complete emancipation, saying i:
"Loose him, and let him 60"
The unfortunate thing now Is that so
.I.x 81 OnIrv hal <o1
| 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, MODELLING up the stairs. of the
| tomb, bound hand and lot, and the object
of this sermon is to help freo 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, an let him CO." First, many are bound
hand and foot by religious creeds. Let no
man misinterpret me as antagonizing
creeds. | have eight or ten Of them; a
creed about religion, creed about art, a
creed about social life, a creed about gov
| eminent, and 50 on. A creed Is something
tina a man believes, whether 1t be written
| or unwritten. The Presbyterian church Is
now agitated about its creed. Some good
men in it are for keeping IL because it was
| framed from the belief OF John Calvin.
| Other good men in it want revision. am
with neither party. Instead of revision l
| want substitution. ] was sorry to have the
question disturbed at all The creed did
-. go ,,fForfuor the m ri ~,