The Globe-republican., 1892-03-03
DIR. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
IT'S ONE SUGGESTED BY THEO-
LOGICAL DISCUSSION.
No Matter How Uncertain 10 the Belief OF
the So-Calied Advanced Clergy, DR.. Tai
IMAGES Faith 10 Secure and Easily Under
aAooSl nv All

tho So-Calied Advanced Clergy, DR.. Tai
IMAGES Faith 10 Secure and Easily Under
stood BY All. .
Taimass's Creed.
DR.. Talmage's text was taken from
Luke vi, II, 'And He came down with
them and stood in the plain"
Christ on the mountains is q frequent
study. We have seen Him on the Mount
of Olives, Mount of Beatitudes, Mount
Moriah Mount 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 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 loosened
stone rolling down the steep sides ahead
of Him. until He gets in 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 elsa
Crist on the level, easy to get at, no as
cending, no descending, apprOachable
from all sides-Christ on the plain. The
question among consecrated people
to-day is. What is the matter with the
ministers? Many of them are engaged
in picking holes IN the Bible and apollo
giving for this and apologizing for that
In an age when the whole tendency is to
pay too little 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, so that people will not fall
up hill. of which there is no danger.
There is no more danger of Bibliolatry,
or too much reverence for the Scrip
lures, than there is that astrology will
take the place of astronomy, or al
chemy the place of chemistry, or the
canal boat the place of the limited ex-
press rail train. What q theological
farce it is Ministers fighting against
too much reverence for the Scriptures;
ministers making apology for the Scrip
lures; 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 mountain in fight above the
clouds about things which they do not
understand. Come down on the plain
and stand beside Christ, who never
preached technicality or a didacticism.
What do you, o wise headed ecclesiastic,
know about the DEGREES of God? Who
cares fig about your sublapsarianism
or your supralapsarianism?
What spectacle we have in our de-
nominations 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 out of
the garrets the coal scuttle hats which
your Observation-Disclosures wore and try
to fit them on the head of the modern
maiden? You cannot fix up three
hundred-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 is done
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.
going to let the babies in. Thank you.
the hills of Heaven look like q Sunday
school anniversary. Now what is the
use of fixing up creed which left any
doubt on the subject? No man ever
doubted that all infants dying 20 to
Heaven, unless he be Herod or q
Charles Guiteau. 1 was opposed to over
4 L. ~ Ill
that it has been lifted mp and its imper-
fections set up in the sight of the world.
say, Overheard with it and make a
new creed. There are to-day in our de-
nomination 500 men who could make a
better one. l could make better one
myself.
As we are now In process of changing
che creed, and no one knows what we
are expected to 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 l intend to OBJ
serve the rest of my life. 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 Hin and obey Him is all that
is required. To that creed invite all
mankind. T. De Witt 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 re-
quired 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 from
each other are the rings Of Saturn? or,
how many teeth there were in the jaw
bone with which Samson smote the
Philistines? believe 10. 900 things, but
none of them have anything to do with
my salvation, except these two-I am
. sinner aud 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 Haydns