The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-02-15
DR.. TALMAGE'S CREED.
THE BELIEF OF THE BROOKLYN
PASTOR MADE PLAIN.


proachable By the The Efforts
Made To-day to Patch Up Old Creedss
BROOKLYN, n. Y, Feb. 14-At the Tabt
ernacle service this morning, after the usual
reading Of the scriptures. the congregation
sang:
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun,
Doth his successive journeys run.
The sermon which followed was appar-
EMILY suggested by the storm of theological
controversy now raging in the churches.
In these times when it is quite uncertain
what many of the clergy really do believe,
this sermon makes it very plain what the
pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle believes.
His text was taken from Luke vi, II: "And
he came down with them and stood In the
plain
Christ on the mountains is a frequenb
study. We have seen him on the Mount of
Olives Mount of Beatitudes, Mount Mo-
riah, Mount Cavalry, Mount of Ascension,
and 1t is glori Gus to study him ON these
great natural elevations. But, how is IL
that never before we have noticed him on the
plainl Amid the rocks, high up on tho
mountain, Christ had passed the night, but
now, at early dawn, he is coming down
with some especial friends, stepping from
shelving TO shelving, here and there a loos-
ened stone rolling down the steep sides
ahead Of him, until he gets In a level place.
so that be can be approached without climb
Ing from all sides. He is on the level MY
text says, "He came down with them and
stood In the plain"
Now, that Is what the world wants to-day
more than anything elsa Christ on the
level, easy to get at, no ascending. no de-
scending. approachable from all sides
Christ on the plain. The question among
all consecrated people to-day is: What IS
the matter with the ministers9 Many OF
them are engaged IN picking holes in the
Bible and apologiztng for this and apologize
ing for that. In an age when the whole
tendency Is 60 pay too little reverence to
the Bible, they are fighting against bibliol-
airy, or too much reverence for the Bible
They are building a fence on the wrong side
OF the road; not on the side where the preci-
pice Is and off which mutitudes are falling.
but on the upper side of the road so that
people will not fall uphill, of which
there Is no danger. There Is no
more danger of bibliolatry, or too
much reverence for the scriptures, than
there is that astrology will take the place
of astronomy, or alchemy the place of
chemistry, or the canalboat the place of
the limited express rail train. What theo-
logical farce it is; ministers fighting against
TOO much reverence for the scriptures:
ministers making apology for the scriptures;
ministers pretending to be friends Of the
| Bible, yet doing the book more damage than
all the blatant Inidels on all the earth. The
trouble Is our theologians are up in the
mountain In a fight above the clouds about
thlng5 they do not understand. Come down
on the plain and stand beside Christ, who
never preached technicality or IA didacti-
cIsm. What do you, q WISE Headed
Ecclesiastic, know about the DEGREES OF
God9 Who cares fig about your sublap-
sarianism or your supralapsarianIsml
What spectacle we have in our denomi~
nation to-day; committees trying TO patch
up an old creed made two or three hundred
years ago, so that IL will fit on the Mines
teenth century. Why do not our millinery
establishments take out of the garrets the
| coal-scuttle bonnets which your great
grandmothers wore and try to fit them ON
the head Of the modern maiden You can
not fix up a three hundred year old creed
50 as to fit our time. +, Princeton will sew on
"A little piece, and Union Seminary will sew
on little piece, and Allegheny Seminary
| and Danville Seminary will sew on other
pieces, aud by the time the creed is done i5
coat OF many colors. Think OF
having to change an old creed
to make it clear that all infants dying go to
heavenl am so glad that the committees
are going to let the babies In. Thank you.
So many OF them are already In that all the
lille VI uohNeu ioOh llk6 u sunday school
anniversary. Now, what is the use of fix
ing up creed which left any doubt on that
subjectf No man ever doubted that all in
fants dying go to heaven, unless he be a
Herod or a Charles Guiteau. was opposed
to overhauling the old creed at all, but now
that it has been lifted up and its imperfec-
tions set up In the sight OF the world. / saw.
Overheard with II and make a new creed.
There are to-day In our denomination
FIVE hundred men who could make a better
one. could make a better one myself. As
we are now IN process of changing the
creed and no one knows what we are ex@
pected 10 believe, or will two or three years
hence be expected to believe, could not
wait and so 1 have made creed Of my own.
which intend to observe the rest of nv
life. l wrote it down In my memorandum
book some six months ago, and it reads as
follows: "My creed: The glorious Lord.
To trust him. love him, and obey him is all
that is required. To that creed invite all
mankind. 7. Dewitt Talmage"
The reason Christianity has not made
more rapid advance is because the people
are asked TO believe too many things.
There are, | believe, to-day millions of
good Christians who have never joined the
church and are not counted among the
Lords friends, because they cannot believe
all the things that they are required to be-
lieve. One half the things a man is ex-
pected to believe in order to enter the
church and reach heaven have no more to
do with his salvation than the question.
How many volcanoes are there in the
moon? How far apart from each other are
the rings Of Saturn7 or, How many teeth
there were in the jaw-bone with which Sam
son smote the PhIlistines. Ihelieve ten thou
sand things, but none of them have any
thing to do with my salvation, except these
two, am sinner and Christ came to save
me. Musicians tell US that the octave con.
sists only Of five tones and two semi-tones,
and all the Handles and Haydus and Moz.
arts and Wagners and Schumans Of all ages
must do their work within the range of
those FIVE tones and two semi-tones. SO
have to tell you that all the theology that
will be Of practical use in our world is made
out Of the two facts of human sinfulness
and divine atonement. Within that octave
swing ''The Song Of Moses and the Lamb"
the Christmas chant above Bethlehem, and
the Alleluia OF all the choirs standing on
seas Of glass
Is there not some mode of getting out Of
the way these non>essentials, these super
fiuities, these Emergencies, from the main
tssuef Is there not some way Of bringing
the church down out of the mountain OF
controversy and oonventionalisp and to
put it on the plain where Christ stands9
The present attitude of things Is like this:
In a famine-struck district, a table has been
provided and it is loaded with food enough
for all. The odors OF the meats fill the air.
a-