The Bossier banner., 1892-04-21
A SIMPLE CREED.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks Upon the
True Christian Doctrine.
Doctrinai Theories and Eogmas Mer,
Hampers to True Religion - The
People Asked to Believe
Too Many Things.

The following discourse by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage was delivered in the
Brooklyn tabernacle, from the text:
And He came down with them and stood in
the plain.-Luke vi. Ia.
Christ on the mountains is a frequent
study. We have seen Him on the
Mount of Olives, Mount of Beatitudes,
Mount Moriah, Mount Calvary, Mount
OF Ascension, and it is glorious to study
Him on these great natural elevations.
But, how is it that never before we
have noticed Him on the plain? Amid
the rocks, high 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 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 else-a
Christ on the level, easy to get at, no
ascending, no descending, approachable
from all sides-Christ on the plain.
The question among all consecrated
people to-day is, what is the matter
with the ministers? Many of them are
engaged in picking holes in the Bible
and apologizing for this and apologize
ing for that. In an age when the whole
tendency is to pay too little reverence
to the Bible, they are fighting against
blbllolatry, or too much reverence for
the Bible. They are building a 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 bibliolatry, 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 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 our theo-
logians are up in the mountain in a
flight ABOVE the clouds about things
which they do not understand Come
down on the plain and stand beside
Christ, who never preached techni-
callty or didacticism. What do YOU,
o Wlse-headed Ecclesiastic know about
the DEGREES of God? Who cares flo
about your sublapsarianism or your
upralapsarianism.
What a spectacle we have in our de-
nomination to-day; committees trying
to patch up al old creed made two or
three hundred years ago, so that it
will fit on the nineteenth century.
why do not our millinery establish
ments take out of the garrets the coal
scuttle bonnets which YOUR great
grandmothers wore and try to fit them
on the head of the modern maiden?
You can not fix up a three hundred
year-old creed SO as to fit our time.
Prlnceton will sew on little piece.
and Union Seminary will sew on a lit
tie piece. and Allegheny seminary and
Danvllle seminary will sew on other
pieces, and by the time creed is done
1t 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 90
ing to let the babies in. Thank Won.
So many of them are already in that
all the hills of Heaven look like a Sun-
day-school anniversary. Now, what
is the use of fixing up creed which
lett any doubt on that subiectp
No man has ever doubted that all in
fants dying go to Heaven, unless he be
Herod or Charles Guiteau. I was
opposed to overhauling the old creed at
all, but now that it has been lifted nm
and its imperfections set up in the
sight of the world, 1 say overheard
with it and make new creed. There
are to-day in our denomination five
hundred men who could make a better
one. l could make better one mvself
AS we are now in progress of changing
the creed and no one knows what we
are expected to believe. or will two or
three years hence be expected to be-
lieve, l could not wait and so I have
creed OF my own, which / intend to
observe 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 Him, and obey Him is
all that is required. To that creed I
invite all mankind. t. De Witt Tai
mage"
The Christian church will have tn
change its tack, or it will run on the
rocks of demolition. The worlds
population annually increases fifteen
million. No one pretends that half
that number of people are converted to
God. There are more than twice as
many Buddhists as Protestants: more
than twice as many Buddhists as Roman
Catholics Protestants, one hundred
and thirty-five million; Catholics. one
hundred and ninety-five million: Budd-
hists, four hundred million. There are
one hundred and seventy-fve million
Mohammedans and two hundred and