The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-02-26
RELIGIOUS CREEDS.
DR.. Talmage Makes Suggestions to
Church Disputants.
Severe Words For Creed SticItIers-rm-
plicit Trust in the Saviour the Best
Creed-Christ's Example Commend
ed to All Christians.

A late sermon preached at Brooklyn
by Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage apparently
was suggested by the storm of theolog-
ical controversy now raging in the
churches. His text was taken from
Luke vi II: "And He came down
with them in the plains" Following
is the sermon:
Christ on the mountains is frequent
study. We have seen him on the Mount
of Olives, Mount of Beatitudes, Mount
Moriah, MC1nt Calvary, Mount of AS
cension and it is glorious to study Him
on these great natural elevations.
But how is it that never before have
we noticed him CT the plain? Amid
the rocks, high up on 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 a
loose stone rolling down the steep sides
ahead of Him, until He gets into n
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 in the
plain"
Now, that is what the world wants
to-day more than anything else-a
Christ on the level, easy to get at no
ascending, no descending, approach
able from all sides-Christo on the plain.
The question among the consecrated
people to-day is, what is the matter
with the ministers? Many of them are
-, al 1l1n IN, 10
and apologizing for this and apologiz-
ing for that In an age when the
whole tendency is to pay too little
reverence to the Bible, they are fight
ing 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
precipice is and off which multitudes
are falling, 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 Bibli-
olatrv, 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 ex-
press 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, yet doing the
book more damage than all the blatant
infidels on all the earth. The trouble
Is our theologians are up IN the mount
ain in fight above the clouds about
things which they do not understand.
Come down on the plain and stand be-
side Christ who never preached a tech
nicality or a didacticism. What do
you, o Wise Headed Ecclesiastic,
know about the DEGREES of Godl Who
cares fig about your sublapsarianism
or your supralapsarianism?
What a spectacle we have of our de-
nomination to-day-committees trying
to patch up an old creed made two or
three hundred years ago SO that it will
fit on the nineteenth century. Why do
not our millinery establishments take
ont of the garrets the coal-scuttle bon
nets which your great-grandmothers
wore and try to fit them on the head
of the modern maiden? You cannot
fix up a observation-disclosures creed
so as to fit our time. Princeton will
sew on a little piece, and Union SEM
mary will sew on little piece, and Allie
gheny seminary and Danville seminary
will sew on other pieces, and by
the time the creed is done it
will be as variegated as Joseph's
coat of many colors. Think of hav-
ing to change an old creed
to make it clear that infants dying go
to Heaven! l am so glad that the COM
mittees are going to let the babies in.
Thank you So many of them are al
ready in that all the hills of Heaven
look like Sunday school anniversary.
Now, what is the use of fixing up a
creed which left any doubt on the sub
iect? No man ever doubted that all
infants dying go to Heaven, unless he
be Herod or Charles Giteau.
As we are now in progress of chang
ing the creed and no one knows what
we are expected to believe, or will two
or three years hence be expected to be-
lieve, could not wait and so l have a
creed of my own, which l intend to OBJ
serve the rest of my 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 l invite
nv mankidd. I. Dewitt Talmage."
The reason Christianity has not made
more rapid advance is because the peo-
pie are asked to believe too many
things There are, 1 believe, to-day
millions of good Christians who have
never joined the church and are not
counted among the Lords friends be-
cause they cannot believe in all the
things that they are required to believe.
One-hah the things man is expected
to believe in order to enter the church
and reach Heaven have no more to
do with his salvation than the ques-
ton, how many volcanoes in the
moon? or, how far apart from each
other are the rings of Saturn? or. how
many teeth there were in the jaw bone
with which Samson smote the Philis-
tines? l believe 10, 600 things, butnone
of them have anything to do with my
salvation, except these two, / am a
sinner, and Christ came 10 save me
Is there notsome mode of getting out
OF the way these non-essentials, these
superfiuities, these Emergencies, from
the main issue? Is there not some way
of bringing the church down out of the
mountain of controversy and conven-
tionalism and to put it on the plain
where Christ stands?
The present attitude of things is like
this: In 4 famine struck district
table has been provided and it is loaded
with food enough for all The odors