The Dickinson press., 1892-02-27
TALMAGE's CREED.
The Great Brooklyn Divine Tells His
Congregation What He
Believes.
The Church Will Have to Change Its
Tactics Or 1t Will Run on the
Rocks of Demolition.

DNOOhAANJ ~. LIZ OpcCAdl."<at Iu0
Tabernacle service the text was taken
from Luke 6:17, "And he came down
with them and stood in the plain"
Christ on the mountains is a fre-
quent study. We have seen him on
the Mt. OF Olives, Mt. of Beatitudes,
Mt. Moriah, Mt. Calvary. Mt. of AS
cension, and it is glorious to study
elevations. But, howis that never be-
lore we have noticed him on the plain2
Amid the rocks, high up on the noun
tain, 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 u loosened stone rolling down
the steep sides ahead of him, until he
gets in a level place, so that he can be
approached without climbing from all
sides. He is on the level. My text
says, "He came down with them and
stood i'll the plain"
Now, that is what the world wants
today more than anything else-a
Christ on the level, easy to get at, no
ascending, no descending, approach
able from all sides-Christ on the
plain. The question among all conse-
Grated people today is what is the
matter with the ministers? Many of
them are engaged in picking holes in
the Bible and apologizing for this and
apologizing for that. In an age when
the whole tendency is to pay too lit
tie reverence to the Bible, they are
fighting against Ribliolatry or too
much reverence for the Bible. They
are building fence on the wrong side
of the road; not on the side where the
precipice is and off which multitudes
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 Bibliola-
try, or too much reverence for the
Scriptures, than there is that astrol-
ogy will take the place OF astronomy,
or alchemy the place OF chemistry,
or the canal boat the place of
the limited express rail-train. What
A THEOLOGICAL 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, yetdoing the book
more damage than all the blatant
infdels on all the earth. The trouble
is our stheologians are up in the
mountain in q fight above the clouds
about things they do not understand.
Come down on the plain and stand be-
side Christ, who never preached a
technicality or didicticism. What do
you, o wise headed ecclesiastic, know
about the decreos ofGod2 Who cares
a fig about your sublapsarianism or
your suplapsarianism?
What spectacle we have in our
denomination today; committees try
ing to patch up an old creed made two
or three hundred years ago, so that it
will fit on the 10th century. Why do
not our millinery establishments take
out OF the garret the coal scuttle
bonnets which your great grand
mothers wore and try to fit them on
the head OF the modern maiden? You
cannot fix up q 800 year old creed so
as to fit our time. Princeton will sew
on q little piece, and Union
Seminary will sew on a little piece,
and Allegheny Seminary and Danville
Seminary will sew on other pieces and
by the time the creed isdone it will be
as variegated as Joseph's coat OF
many colors. Think OF having to
change an old creed to make it clear
that all infants dying go to heaven! ]
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 hills OF heaven look like
A SUNDAY SCHOOL ANNIvERsARY.
Now, what is the use OF fixing up q
creed which left any doubt on that
subject? AS we are now in process ol
changing the creed and no one knows
what we are expected to believe, OF
will two Or three years hence be ex
pected to belieYe, | couldnot wait anG
SO / have made creed OF my own
which intend to observe the rest O
my life. l wrote it down in my mem
orandum book some six months ago
| and it reads as follows:
"My creed: The glorious Lord. Tc
trust Him, love Him and obey Him is
all that is required. To that creed
invite all mankind. II. Dewitt Tai
mage"
The reason Christianity has not
made more rapid advance is because
the people are asked to believe toe
many things. There are, believe, to.
day millions OF good Christians who
have never Joined the church, and are
not reckoned among the Lords
friends, because they cannot believe
all the things that they are required
to believe. One-half the things q man
is expected 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 in the moon? or, How far apart
are the rings OF Saturn? or How many
teeth were there in the jaw-bone with
which Samson smote the Philistines
believe 10000 things, but none Of
them have anything to do with my
salvation, except these two, l am a
sinner and Christ came to save me.
Is there not some mode of getting
out OF the way OF these nonessentials,
these superhuities these divergencies
from the main issue? Is there not some
way of bringing the church down out
OF the mountain OF controversy anO
conventionalism and to put it on the
plain where Christ stands?
The Christian church will have to
CHANGE ITS TACK
or it will run on the rocks of demoli
ton. The worlds population annu.
ally increases 15,OOO,OOO. No one
pretends that half that number o.
people are converted to God. There
are more than twice as many Bud
dbists as protestants; more thar
twice as many Buddhists as ROM
an Catholics; Protestants, 135,OOO,-
900; Catholics, 195, 100000; Budd-
hists, 4OO,OOO,OOO. There are 49,
900, 900; Mohamedans and O,OOO,-
900 Brahmins. Meanwhile, manyoft the
churches are only religious club houses,
where a few people go on Sunday
morning, averaging one person to a
pew or one person to half dozen
pews, and leaving the minister at
night to sweat through a sermon with
here and there lone traveller, unless,