The Penn's Grove record., 1892-02-19
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BRooKxxN DfvENE'S SUN
DAY SERMON.
subject: Standing on the Plain
With Christ"

and stood IN the plain Luke vi, IL.
Christ on the mountains is q frequent
study, We nave seen Him on the Mount OF
Olives, Mount Of Beatitudes. Mount Mortah,
Mount Calvary, Mount Of Ascension, and IL
IL glorious to study Him on these great nat.
urN elevations. But how il IL that never be-
fore have we noticed Him on the plaini
Amid the rocks, high up on the mountain,
Christ had passed the night, but now, at ear
ly dawn, He Is coming down with some es-
pecial friends stepping from shelving to
shelving, here and there q loosened stone
rolling down the steep s~ideslahead Of Him,
until He gets In q level place, so that He can
be approached without climbing from all
sides Reis on the level. Ny 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
1--we, easy to get at, no =sscending' no de-
Christ on the plain. The question among all
consecrated people to-day is, What Is the
matter with the ministersf Many of them
are engaged in picking holesin the Bible and
apologising for this and a~pologizing for
that. In an age when the whole tendency is
to pay too little reverence to the Bible, they
are fighting against ~BibIolatry, 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 OH
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 nc more danger of Bfbliolatry, or
too much reverence for the Scriptures, than
there is that astrology will take the place Of
astronomy, or alchemy the place Of chemis-
try, or the canal boat the place of the linn
tied express rail train. What a theological
farce it Is; ministers fighting against too
much r~everence.for the Scriptures; ministers
unotipn opslnpp for tho Sortpf.uv.as. fnfpicfaro
pretending to be friends of the Bible, yet
doing the Book more damage than all the
blatant infideis 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 understand. Come down
on the plain and stand beside Christ, who
never preached a technically or q didacti-
cism. b do you, o wise headed ~ecclesi-
astic, now aboutrthe decrees,of Godf Who
cares q fig about your sublapsarianism or
your supralaparianism?
What a spectacle we nave in our denomi.
nation to-day-,conmittees trying to patch
up an old creed made two or three hundred
years ago, SO that 1t will ft on the Nine
tesnth century. Why do not our millinery
establishments TAX out of the garrets the
coal scuttle hats which your great-grand-
mothers wore and try to fit them on the head
of the modern maidenf You cannot fix up
Q ACKNOWLEDGMENT old creed SO as to at
cuA tAAlC AhuNSkCh Will bcw I'll = Atbt1t
piece. and Union seminary will, sew on a lit
tie piece, n Aheghany seminary Inc Dan
Vile seminary will sew on other pieces, and
the time the creed Is done it willibe as varie
gated as Joseph's coat Of many colors.
Think OF having to change an old creed II
make it clear that all infants dying go K
heaveni l am so glad that the committees
are going to let the babies in. Thank you,
So many Of them are already in tina all the
hills OF heaven look like q Sunday-school an
niversary. Now what is the use of1ixing VI
o creed which left any doubt on that sub
jecti No man ever doubted that all infants
dying go to heaven, unless he be a ,Hsrod OF
q Charles Guiteau. l was opposed, to over.
hauling the old creed at all, but now that il
has been lifted up and its imperfections sci
up in the sight of the world, / say, VOver.
board with It and make a new creed.
There are to-day in our denomination five
hundred men who could make a better one.
l could make a better one myself. As We
are now in process Of changing the creed,
and no one knows what we are expected to
believe, or will two or three years hence be
expected to believe, l could not wait, and SO
/ have made a creed OF my own which l in
tend to observe the rest of my life. 1 wrote
1t down In my memorandum book some six
months ago, and 1t reads as follows: my
creed; The glorious Lord. To trust Him,
love Hi. and obey Him is all hat is re.
quired. To that creed l invite all mankind.
I. De Witt Talmage."
The reason Christianity has not made
more rapid advance is becausetthe people
are asked to believe too many things. There
are, I believe, to-day millions ofigood Chris
tians who have never Joined the;church and
are not ounted among the Lords friends
because they annot believe. all the things
that they are required to believe. One-half
the things q man is expected to believe in
order to enter the church aud reach heaven
H., - - Il ...NI - I. A.
the question. How many volcanoes are there
in the moonf or, How far apart from each
other are the rings Of Saturn? or, How
many teeth there were in the jawbone with
which Sampson smote the Phiiistinesf be-
lieve ten thousand things, but non of them
have anything to do with my salvation ex.
cspt these two-I am a sinner and Christ
came to ave me.
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 work within the ang OF those five
tones and two semitones. So / have to tell
practical use in our world is made out Of
the two facts of human sinfuiness and
divine atonement. Within that octave
swing The Song of Moses and the
Lamb" the Christmas chant above
Bethlehem and the Hallelujah Of all the
cnorS stanulnR on seas OF glass.
Is there not some mode of getting out of
the way of these nonessentials, these super
fiuities, these Emergencies from the main
issuef Is there not some way of bringing the
church down out of the mountain of con-
troversy and conventionalsm and to put it
on the plain where Christ standss The pres
emit attitude of things is like this: In a famine
struck district a table has been provided aud
Is loaded with food enough for all. The
odors of the meats fill the air. Everything
Is ready. The platters are full. Thu chalices
are full. The baskets Of fruit are full. Why
not let the people inI b door isopen. Yes,
but there is cluster OF wise men blocking
up the door, discussing the contents of the
caster standing midtable. They are shaking
their fists at each other.
One says there is too much vinegar in that
caster, and one says there Is too much sweet
oil, and another says there is not the proper
proportion OF red pepper. l say, 'Get out
of the way and let the hungry people come
in" Now our blessed Lord has provided a
great supper, and the oxen and the fatlings
AVE been killed, and fruits from all the vine
yards and orchards of heaven crown the
table. The world has been invited to come,
and they look in, n they ara hungry. n
the people would pour in by the millions TO
this world wide table, but the door is blocked
up by controversies, and men with whole
libraries on their backs are disputing as to
what proportion Of sweet oil and cayenne
pepper should make up the creed. L cry,
"Get out of the way and let the hungry
world com in"
The Christian church will have to change
its tack or it will run on the rocks of demo-
lition. The worlds population annually in
creases fifteen millions. No one pretends
that half that number of people are con
verted to God. There are more than twice
as many Buddhists as Protestants; more
than twice as many Buddhists as Roman
Catholics. Protestants, 1886, 600, 900; Catho-
lies, 1876, 600, 900; Buddhists, 400, 100000.
There are 175, 600, 900 Mohammedans and
220, 0O0,O 900 Brahmans.
Meanwhile, many of the churches are only
religious ~clubhouses, where a few people go
on Sunday morning, averaging one persol
70 Q pew or one person to o half dozen pews
and leaving the minister at night to sweal
through q sermon with here and there a lon,
traveller, unless. by a Sunday evening sacred
concert, be can get out q audience of re-
spectacle size.
The vast majority Of the church member.
ship around the world put forth no direct
effort for the salvation OF men. Did 1 say
There would nave 70 be q chsnget I correct