Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1892-02-26
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S sun.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: standing on the Plain
With Christ"

TEXT: "And He came dotCn aCith them
aud stood in the pla,m."-Luke vi. Il.
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 nat
ural elevations. But how is it that never be-
fore have we noticed Him on the plain?
Amid the rocks, high 10 on the mountain,
Christ had passed the night, but now, at ear
y dawn, He is coming down with some es-
pecial friends, stepping from shelving to
shelving, here and there a loosened stone
rolling down the steep sides ahead of Him,
until He gets in a level place, so that He can
be approached without climbing from all
sides. Hell 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
level, easy to get at, no ascending, no de-
scending. ,apProacha6ie 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 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
a fence on the wrong side of the road; not
on the side where the precpice 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 Bibliolatry, 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 lin
tied express rail train. What a theological
farce it is; ministers fighting against too
much reverence for the Scri ptures; ministers
making apology for the Scriptures; ministers
pretending to be friends of the Bible, yet
doing the Book more damage than all the
blatant infdes 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 technically or a didacti-
cism. What do you, O wise headed eccles-
astic, know about the DEGREES of God? Who
cares a fig about your sublapsarlanism or
your Supralaparianism?
What spectacle we have in our denomi-
nation to-day-committees trying to patch
up an old creed made two Or three hundred
years ago, SO that it will fit on the Nine
teenth century. Why DO not our millinery
establishments take 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 maiden? You cannot fix up
a Observation-Disclosures creed SO as to fit
our time. Princeton will sew On little
piece, and Union seminary will sew on a lit
tie piece, and Allegheny seminary and Dan
vile seminary will sew on other pieces, and
the time the creed is done it will be varie-
gated 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 going to let the babies in. Thank you.
So many of them are already in that all the
hills of heaven look like Sunday-school an
niv"rsary. Now what is the use of fixing up
I .eed which left any doubt On that sub
Ject? No man ever doubted that all infants
dying go to heaven, unless he be Herod or
Charles Gulteau. L was opposed to over
hauling the old creed at all, but now that it
has been lifted up and its imperfections set
up in the sight of the world, l say, Over
board with it and make a new creed.
There are to-day in our denomination five
hundred men VINO could make a better one.
L could make 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, | could not wait, and so
| have made creed OF my own which I in
tend to observe the rest of my life, l wrote
1t down i'll my memorandum beck 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 re-
quired. To that creed invite all mankind.
1. 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 Chris
tianS who have never Joined the church and
are not counted among the Lords friends
bee use they cannot believe all the things
that they are required to believe. One-half
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 question. How many volcanoes are there
in the moon? or, How far apart from each
other are the rings of Saturn? or, How
many teeth there We're in the jawbone with
which Sampson smote the Phillstines? be-
heve ten thousand things, but none of them
have anything to do with my salvation ex-
cept these twO-l am & sinner and Christ
came to save me.
Musicians tell us that the octave consists
only Of five tones and two semitones, and all
the Handles and Eaydns and Mczarts and
Wagners and Schumanns of all ages must do
their work within the range of those five
tones and two semitones. So have to tell
you that all the theology that will be OF
practical use in our world is made out Of
the two facts of human sinfulneSS and
divine atonement Within that octave
swing The Song OF Moses and the
Lamb" the Christmas chant above
Bethlehem and the HalIelujah of all tho
choirs standing on seas Of glass.
Is there not some mode of getting out of
the way of these nonessentials, these super
fuities, these Emergencies from the main
issue? Is there not some way of bringing the
troversy and conventionallsm and to put it
on the plain where Christ stands? The pres
ent attitude of things is like this: In famine
struck district a table has been provided and
is loaded with food enough for all. The
odors of the meats fill the air. Everything