The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-02-24
DIR. TALMAGE'SCR Fed
a SERMON SUGGESTED BY Current
THEOLOGICAL DIScUSSi ON.

No Matter How Uncertain Is he Belief
of the So Called Advanced leroy, DIT.
TaImage's Faith Is Secure md Easily
Understood by All.
BROOKLYN, Feb l4.-At the Tabernacle
service this morning, after the usual read
Ding of the Scriptures, the congregation
sang
Jesus shall reign where'er ne sun
Doth his successive journe! $ run
The sermon which fOllowe was appar-
emily suggested By the storm of theological
controversy now raging in she churches
In these times, when IL IS O. lite uncertain
what many of the clergy rea lily DO believe
this sermon makes it very Iain what the
pastor of the Brooklyn Table nacle believes
His text was taken from Lu Ike vi. Il, And
he came down with them ~ Id stood in the
plain"
Christ on the mountain is a frequent
study. We have seen him on the Mount of
Olives, Mount Of Beatitut les, Mount Mo
riah, Mount Calvary. Mou MT of Ascension,
and it is glorious TO study him on these
great natural elevations. But how is it
that never before have VIZ noticed him on
the plains Amid the rock !, high up on the
mountain. Christ had pass ed the night but
now. at early dawn, he is coming down
with some especial friends, stepping from
shelving to shelving. here and there loos-
ened stone rolling down the steep sides
ahead of him, until he gei in "A level place,
so that he can be apr reached without
climbing from all sides. He is on the level.
My text says. He came down with them
aud stood in the plain"
CHRIST on TIE LEVEL
Now that is what the world wants today
more than anything els "a Christ on the
level, easy TO get at. no ascending. no de-
scending. approachabe from all sides
Christ on the plain Tile question among
all consecrated people L ,dayis, What is the
matter with the minister's? Many of them
are engaged in picking holes in the Bible
and apologizing for this and apologizing
for that IN an age W hen the whole ten
dency IS 10 pay too Hu5le reverence to the
Bible, they are fighting against l}ibliolatry,
OF too much reverence Tor the Bible. They
are building fence n the wrong side of
The road not on the side where the preci-
pice Is and of which .nultitudes fall
ing. but on the uppes side of the road so
that people will not fall up hill. of which
there Is no danger.
There II no more dfmger of Bibliolatry.
or too much reverence for the Scriptures,
than there Is that asst rology will take the
place OF astronomy. Or alchemy the place
of chemistry or the c;snal boat the place of
the limited express rail train. What a
Theological farce 1t is. Ministers fighting
against too much reverence for the Scrip
lures. ministers milking apology for the
Scriptures. ministers pretending TO be
friends Of the Bible. yet doing the Book
more damage than all the blatant infdels
on all the earth.
The trouble IS our theologians are up in
the mountain in a fight above the clouds
about things which they do not under
stand Come down on the plain and stand
beside Christ. who 2ever preached a tech
nicality or IA didact cism What do you.
o wise headed ecclesiastic, know about
The DEGREES of God? Who cares a fig about
your sublapsGrianism or your supralapsa-
rianism?
What "A spectacle we have in our denomi-
nations today; committees trying to patch
up an old creed made two or three hundred
years ago so that It viii fit on the Nine
teenth century. Way do not our millinery
establishments take out of the garrets the
coal scuttle hats which your great-grand-
mothers wore and try to fit them on the
head OF the modera maidens You cannot
nix up a three hun& red year-oId creed so as
to fit our time. Princeton will sew on a
little piece, and Union seminary will sew
on a little piece. and Allegheny seminary
and Danyille seminary will sew on other
pieces. and by the time the creed is done it
Will be ~ varieg;Ited as Joseph's coat of
many COlOrs. Think of having TO change
an old creed TO make it clear that all in
fants dying 90 TO heaven!
| am glad that the committees are go
ing to Let the babies in Thank you. So
many Of them are already in that all the
hills Of heaven look like ii Sunday school
anniversary Now what Is the use of fix
ing upa creed which left any doubt on
that subject? 40 man ever doubted that
all infants dyinl; go to heaven, unless he be
Herod or Charles Guiteau. | was OPP
posed to oyerhaL-iing the old creed at all,
but now that it mas been lifted up and it's
imperfecJions set up N the sight of the
world ! say, Overheard with it and make
new creed. Hhere are today in our de-
nomination five hundred men who could
make better one. | could make better
one myself
As we are ow in process of changing
the creed, and nO one knows what we are
expected 10 believe. or will two or three
years hence be expected to believe | could
not wait, and 50 have made a creed of my
own which int end TO observe the rest of
my life. wrot it down in my memoran-
dunn book some six months ago, and it reads
rs follows: Ny creed: The glorious Lord
To trust him. 10 sc him and obey him is all
that IS required. To that creed invite all
mankind I. Z Witt Talmage"
THE PEOPLE I SIX TOO MANY QUESTIONS.
The reason Christianity has not made
more rapid adva nee Is because the people
are asked TO ilelieve too many things.
There are, | Relieve, today 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
believe. 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 yolca noes are in the moon? or,
How far apart from each other are the
rings of Satur12 or How many teeth
there were IN the jawbone with which
Samson smote the Pnilistines2 | believe
ten thousand things, but none of them
have anything 70 do with my salvation,
except these twtS-l am a sinner and Christ
came TO save ms
Musicians tell us that the octave consists
only Of five tOnes and two semitones. and
all the Handles and Haydns and Mozarts
and Wagners and Schumanns OF all ages
must do their york within the range of
those five tones and two semitones So |
have to tell you that al the theology that
will be OF prac ticai use in our world is
made out Of the twofacts of human sinful
a-.H "a