The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1892-02-26
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
Doctrinal Theories the Bane Of
True Christianity.
To Trs~t. Love and Obey God the Re-
quiremenfs OF Christlnns-ChrIst
f. ON the Plain Not I'm the
Mountains.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage delivered
the following discourse in the Brook
lyn tabernacle, talingfor his text:
And He came down with them and stood I'm
the plain--Luke W.. IL.
Christ on the mountains Is N frequent
study. We have seen Him on the
Mount of Olives. Mount of Beatitudes,
Mount Moriah. Mount Calvary. Mount
of Ascension, and il 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 lie gets in a 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
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
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 wifi not fall uphill. of
which there is no. danger. There is
no more danger Of bibholatry. 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 Che 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
fight above the clouds about things
which they do not understand. Come
down on the plain and stand beside
Christ, who never preached techni-
cality or a didactiSism. What do you,
WIse-headed Ecclesiastic know about
the DEGREES of God? Who cares fig
supralapsarianism.
What a spectacle we have in our de-
nomination to-day; committees trying
20 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 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 at our time.
Princeton will sew on little piece,
and Union Seminary win sew on lit
tie piece. and Allegheny seminary and
Danville seminary will sew on other
pieces, and by the time creed is done
it will be as variegated as Joseph's
coat of many colors Think of having
10 change an old creed to make it clear
that all infants dying go to HeavenI
am so 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 Sun
day-schoof anniversary. Now, what
is the use Of fixing up p creed which
left any doubt on that subject?
No man has ever doubted that all in
fants dying go to Heaven, unless he be
a Herod or a Charles Guiteau. was
opposed to overhauling the old creed at
all, but now that it has been lifted up
and its imperfections set up. in the
sight of the world, say overheard
with IL and make new creed. There
are to-day in our denomination five
hundred men who could make a better
one. could make better one myself
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, could not wait and SO have
a 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
invite all mankind. T. De Witt Tai
mage"
The Christian church will have to
change its tack, or IL 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 aud seventy-five million
Mohammedans and two hundred and
twenty million Brahmins. Meanwhile,
many of the churches are onlyreligious
club houses. where n few people go on
Sunday morning, averaging one person
TO pew or one person. to a half dozen
pews, and leaving the minister at night
20 sweat through a sermon with here
and there lone traveller, unless, by a
Sunday evening sacred concert, he can
get cut an audience of respectable size.
The vast majority of the church MEM
bership round the world put forth
no direct effort for the saliva
ton of men. Did / say there would
have to be a change? I correct that