Milford chronicle., 1892-02-19
DIR. TALMAGESCRKE
A SERMON SUGGESTED 81 CURRENT
THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION.

A SERMON SUGGESTED . euRREN
Z THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION.
of the So Called Advanced Clergy, Di
: TaImags's Faith Is Secure and EasiI
Understood by All.
BROOKLYN, Feb. i4-At the IT, rnacl
service this morning, after the usns read
ing of the Scriptures, the congregation
sang
|, Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Doth his.successive journeys run.
The sermr- which followed was appar
emily sugge Shy the storm Of theological
controversy .Sw raging in the churches
In these ii 3 when It is quite uncertain
what manyN 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, IL. "And
he came down with them and stood in the
plain"
Christ on the mountains is frequent
study. We have seen him on the Mount Of
Olives, Mount of Beatitudes, Mount Mo
riah, Mount Calvary, Mount of Ascension,
and it is glorious to study bim on these
great natural elevations But how is it
that never before have we noticed him on
the plain? Amid the rocks high up OH the
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 loos-
y y c.ne rolling down the steep sides
q c. until he gets in n level place,
so tlss Z 2. an be approached without
climbfe r. 9. uell sides. He is on the level
Ny text sag . .e came down with them
and stood inuhe plain"
CHRIST ON Th. LEvEL
Now that is what the world wants today
more than anything else-a 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 today is, What is the
matter wi. he ministers? Many of them
are engag ricking holes in the Bible
and apolon r this and apologizing
for that. In zen the whole ten
dency is to paA reverence to the
Bible. they are fighting against Bibliolatry.
or too much reverence for the Bible. They
are building fence on the wrong side of
the road; not on the side where the preci |
pice is and off which multitudes are fall |
ing, but on the upper side of the road, so |
that people will not fall up hill. of which |
there is no danger.
There Is no more danger of Biblioatry
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 canal boat the place of
the limited express rail train What II
theological farce it is. Ministers fighting
against too much reverence for the Scrip
tures; ministers making apology for the
ministers pretending to be
friends of the Bible, yet doing the Book
more damage than all the blatant infidels
OH all the earth.
The trouble is our theologians are up in
the mountain in fight above the clouds
about things which they do not under
stand. Come down on the plain and stand
beside Christ, who never preached II tech
nicality or didacticism What do you,
D wise headed ecclesiastic, know about
he DEGREES of God, Who cares fig about
7our sublapsarianism or your supralapsa
'ianism. ;
What spectacle we have in our denomi /,
nations today; committees trying to patch
Up an old creed made two Or three hundred :
ears ago so that it will fit on the Nine !
eenth century. Why do not our millinery
take out Of the garrets the /
oal scuttle hats which your great-grand ,
Mothers wore and try to fit them on the u
ead OF the modern maidenS You cannot
* up a three-hundred-year-o creed so as 4
o fit our time Princeton will sew on a n
ttls piece. and Union seminary will sew n
4 a little piece, ana AlleghanY seminary !;
nd Danville seminary will sew on other
u,,I Irvf fI,a b., te IL
ill be rs yariegated as Joseph's coat Of v
lany colors. Think of having to change tt
u old creed to make it clear that all in o.
lnts dying 90 to heavenl k
| am so glad that the committees are 20 a,
Ig to let the babies in. Thank you. So C
ANY of them are already in that all the I'll
Ills of heaven look like a Sunday school q
lniversary. Now what is the use of fix H.
e up creed which left any doubt OH NJ
lat subject2 No man ever doubted that nc
| infants dying go to heaven, unless he be m
Herod or Il Charles Guiteau. | was op- Ia
,sed to overhauling the old creed at all, re
1t noY that 1t has been lifted up an8 its Sc
lperfecriops set up IN the sight Of he ur
orld say Overheard with it and make be
new creed. There are today in our de De
i've hundred men who could oh
AXE n better one. | could make better
e myself. ha
As we are now in process Of changing fir
Q creed, and no one knows what we are TO,
pected to believe, or will two or three hi
ars hence be expected to believe, ! could i'm
I wait and 50 have madea creed OF my rel
n which intend to observe the rest of off
: life. ! wrote it down in my memoran die
m book some six months ago, and it reads tn,
felloYs: MY creed; The glorious Lord cal
trust him, love him and obey him is all soi
Vt is required. To that creed invite all on,
.nkind. T. De Witt Falmage." ord
HE PEOPLE ASK TOO MANY QUESTIONS. thi
he reason Christianity has not made ter
ne rapid advance is because the people TIL
asked to believe too many things. be
ere are, | believe, today millions of wa
ID Christians who have never joined the y
lrch and are not counted among the tina
rd's friends because they cannot believe, lar
the things that they are required 20 eve
ieye One-half the things a man is ex hot
ted to believe in order to enter the the
lFch and reach heaven have no more to hen
With his salvation than the question Ter
" many volcanoes IRE in the moous or the
" far apart from each other are the tie
ys of Saturn2 or, How many teeth the
re were in the jawbone with which des
nson smote the Philistines? believe get
thousand things, but none Of them yea
e anything to do with my salvation, sert
ept these two-I am sinner and Christ kno
10 tn save me too
usicians tell us that the octave consists %
Of FIVE tones and two ssmitones, and II t
,he Handels and Haydns and Mozarts the
Wagners and Schumanns of all ages and
It do their work within the range of thrt
,e five tones and two semitones- So | is d
e to tell you that all the theology that viol
be of practical use in our world is and
Ie out of the two facts of human sinful 80
and divine atonement. Within that they
we swing 1.-The Song of Moses and the blar
,b." the Christmas chant above Beth Oh,
m and the Hallelujah of all the choirs tax,
ding on seas Of glass NOR
there not some mode OF getting out of not
way these nonessentials these super she
les. these Emergencies from the main had
es Is there not some way of bringing and
church down out of the mountain of ticir