The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-03-19

s'Looss him and let CO." First many
aro bound hand and foot By religious
sseeds. Let no man mipinterpret me -
creeds. I hive eight Or
ton Of them; creed about religion.
creed about srt, . creed about social life,
> creed about government, and 20 on. A
creed . something that man believes
whether Il be written or unwritten. The
Presbyterian Church 10 now agitating
shout its creed. Some good men In 1t
are for keeping It because 1t was framed
from the belief Of John Calvin. Other
good men In it want revision. I am with
neither party. Instead Of revision
want substitution. / was sorry TO have
the question disturbed ct all. The creed
did'not hinder W from Offering the par
don and the comfort Of the Gospel to all
men, and the Westminster Confession
has not interfered with me one minute.
But now that the electric lights have
been turned ON the imperfections Of the
creed-snd every thing that man fash
ions il imperfect--let us put the old
creed respectfully aside and get . brand
new one.
It is impossible that people who lived
hundreds Of years ago should fashion
an appropriate creed for our times. John
Calvin was . great and good man, but
he died 1926 years ago. The best con-
turtles Of the Bible study have come
since then, and. explorers have done
their work, and you might as we'll have
the world 60 back and stick to what
Robert Fulton knew about steamboats,
and reject the subsequent improvements
in navigation; and 60 back to John Gut
tenburg, the inventor Of the art Of
printing, and reject all modern news
paper presses, and 60 back to the time
when telegraphy was the elevating Of
signals or the burning Of bond Ares on
the hilltops and reject the magnetic
wire, which Is the tongue Of nations,
~ to ignore all the exegetes and tho
philologists and all the theologians Of the
last s2e years and put your head under
the sleeve Of the gown OF sixteenth
century doctor. could call the namea
Of twenty living Presbyterian ministers
Of religion who could make better
creed than John Calvin. The nineteenth
century ought not TO be called to sit at
the feet Of the sixteenth.
But" you say, 1T is the same old
Bible, and John Calvin had that as we'll
- the present student of the Scriptures. {"
Yes; 90 It Is the same old sun in the
heavens, but in our time it has gone to
making daguerreotypes and photo
graphs. It 10 the same old water, but in
our century it has gone to running
steam engineA It Is the same old cleo
tricity, but in our time it has become ,
lightning-tooted errand-boy. So it IL
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, - some say
be did, in the damnation OF. infants, al
though some Of the recent hot disputes
would seem TO imply that there is such
thing y the damnation Of infants.
A man Who believes in the dsmnation
Of infants himself deserves to lose
Heaven. do not think any good man
could admit such possibility. What
Christ will do with oil the babies in the
next world conclude from what He did
with the babies In Palestine whom He
Rugged them and kissed them. When
some Of you grown people 60 out Of this
world your doubtful destiny will b an
embarrassment to ministers officiating
1t your obscquies. who will have to be
cautious so a. not to hurt surviving
friends. But when the darling children
60 there are no IFS" or "buts" or
guesses. We must remember that good
John Calvin was logician and meta
physician, and by the proclivities Of his
nature put some things in an unfortun-
ate way. Logic has its use and meta
| physics has its use, but they are not
good 1t making creeds.
Agardener hands you blooming rose,
dewy fresh, but severe botanist comes
to you with rose and says: ~ will
show you the structure of this rose. "
And he proceeds to take 1t apart and
pulls Of the leaves and he says: There
are the petals" and he takes out the
anthers and he says: ".Just look at the
wonderful structure Of these floral pill.
lars," and then he cuts the stem to show
you the juices Of the plant. So logic OF
metaphysics takes the aromatic rose out
Of tho Christian religion and says: n
will just show you how this rose Of re.
liglon was fashioned;'' and IL pulls Oh Of
1t piece and says: THAT is the human
will, /" and another piece and says: This
Il Gods WILL" and another piece and
says: "This is sovereignty" and an.
other piece and says: This Is free
agency" this Is this and that is that
And while I stand looking At the frag-
ments Of the rose pulled apart. one
whom the Marys took for gardener
tcomes in and presents me with . Grim.
son rose, red as blood, and says: I'm.
hale the sweetness OF this, wear IL on
your heart, and wear It forever" must
confess that I prefer the rose In full
bloom TO the rose pulled apart.
What . timc we have had with the
dogmatics, the apologetics and the her
meneutics! The defect in some OF the
creeds is that they try to tell us oil
about the DEGREES Of God. stt -
Now. the only human being that wa
aver comnetont IN hand1A that anhioct
was Paul, and he would not have been