Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-02-20
RELIGIOUS CREEDS.
Dr. TalmaQe Makes Suggestions to
Church Disputants.
-seveue Words For Creod sticIrlers inn
pilclt Trust In tho Saviour tho Best
Overwhelmingly Example Commend
.. cd to All Christians.

was suggested by the storm of theolog-
rical controversy now raging in the
churches. His text was taken from
Luke vi II: 'And He came down
with them in the plains" Following
lis the sermon:
Christ on the mountains Is frequent
study. We have seen him on the Mount
of Olives, Mount of Deatitudes, Mount
Moriah, Mount Calvary, Mount OF As
censiou and 1t 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 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 a
loose stone rolling down the steep sides
ahead of Him, until He gets into n
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. approach
able from all sides-Christ on the plain.
The question among the 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 fight
ing 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 will not fall
up hill, of which there is no danger.
There is no more danger OF Bibli-
olatry, 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 ex-
press rail-train. What 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
is our theologians are up IN the mount
ain in fight above the clouds about
things which they do not understand
Come down on the plain and stand be-
side Christ, who never preached tech
nicality or n didacticism. What do
YOU, o Wise Headed Ecclesiastic,
know about the DEGREES of God! Who
cares fig about your sublapsarianism
or your supralapsarianism?
What a spectacle we have of our de-
nomination to-day-committees trying
to patch up an old creed made two or
three hundred years ago SO that it will
Sit on the nineteenth century. Why do
not our millinery establishments take
out OF the garrets the coal-scuttle bon
nets which your great-grandmothers
wore and try to At them on the head
of the modern maiden? You cannot
fix up O acknowledgements creed
so rs to fit our time. Think of hav-
ing to change an old creed
to make it clear that infants dying go
to Heaven! nm so glad that the COM
mittees are going to let the babies in.
Thank you. So many of them are al
ready in that all the hills of Heaven
look like Sunday school anniversary.
Now, what is the use OF fixing up q
creed which left any doubt on the SUBJ
iect? No man ever doubted that all
infants dying go to Heaven, unless he
be Herod or Charles Giteau.
AS we are now in progress of chang
ang 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 q
creed Of my own, which I intend to OBJ
serve the rest of my life. Iwrote 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
INV mankidd. T. Dewitt Talmage."
The reason Christianity has not made
more rapid advance is because the peo-
pie are asked to believe too many
-thingA There are. believe, to-day
millions of good Christians who have
never Joined the church and are not
counted among the Lords friends be-
cause they cannot believe in all the
things that they are required to believe.
Is there not some mode Of getting out
4. of the way these non-essentials, these
.superhuities, these Emergencies, from
the main issue? Is there not some way
of bringing the church down out of the
mountain Of controversy and conven-
-tioualism and TO put It ON the plain
Iyhara Christ stands?