Republican news item. [volume] (Laport, Pa.) 1896-19??, 1898-01-20

Christ had washed. Was that more Won
derful than the manhood miracle by which
the woman. twelve years a complete IN n.
touching the fringe OF Christs coat? Is
that more wonderful than the manhood
miracles by which Christ terminated the
dead again and again without going where
they were or even seeing them!
From the naturalness, the simplicity,
the freshness of His parallels and SMILES
and metaphors in manhood discourse l
know that He had been boy OF the fields
and had bathed in the streams and heard
the nightingales call, and broken through
the fiowery hedge and looked out OF the
embrasures of the fortress, and drank
from the wells and chased the butterflies"
DR.. Talmage referred to Christ in the
mechanics shop, having been taught the
carpenters trade by His father, Joseph.
ellis hammer pounding, His saw vacil-
lating, His axe descending and the per-
spiration from His work standing on His
brow"
Then said the preacher: 81 show you q
more marvellous seene-Christ, the smooth
browed lad, among the long-bearded,
white-haired, high-foreheaded ecclesias-
tics Of the Temple
Following other events recorded in the
apocrypha, the preacher asked IL they
were more wonderful than events recorded
in the New Testament.
''If Christ were divine was He not able
at ten or twelve years to describe the
human system as well as though He had
been fifty years standing ut an operating
table or in dissecting room? In other
words, while do not believe that any part
ofithe so-called apocryphal New Testament
is inspired, believe much Of it is true, just
as believe thousand books, none OF
which is divinely inspired"
ga child twelve years old, surrounded by
septuagenarians, He asking His own ques-
finnc aOd ancunriury fhairc Let m inf
duce you to some of these ecclesiastfcs.
This is the great Rabbin Simeon! This is
the venerable Hillell This Is the famous
Shammail These are the sons of the dis
tinguished Betirah. The first time in all
their lives these religionists have found
their match, and more than their match.
Though so young, He knew all about that
Temple under whose roof they held that
most wonderful discussion OF all history.
He knew the meaning of every altar, OF
every sacrifice, Of every golden CANDLE
stick. Of every embroidered curtain, OF
every crumb Of shrew bread, Of every drop
of oil in that sacred epihce. He knew all
about God. He knew all about man. He
knew all about heaven, for He came from
it. He knew all about this world, for He
made it. He knew all worlds, for they were
only the sparkling morning dewdrops on
the lawn in front of His heavenly palace.
"Put these seven Bible words in wreath
of emphasis: Both hearing them and ask
ing them questions l am not SO much
interested in the questions they asked Him
as in the questions He asked them. He
asked the question not to get information
from the doctors, for He knew it already,
but to humble them by showing them the
height and depth and length and breadth
of their own ignorance. The radiant boy
with any one of "a hundred questions about
theology, about philosophy, about astrono-
my, about time, about eternity, may have
l,o ,a1 faA han pnI, al
the boy Christ asking questions, and listen
when your child asks questions. He has
the right to ask them. The more he asks,
the better. Alas for the stupidity of the
child without inquisitiveness! 1t is Christ
like to ask questions. Answer them II you
can. Do not say: I can't be bothered
now It's your place to be bothered with
questions. If you are not able to answer,
surrender and confess your incapactty, as
have no doubt did Rabbis Simeon, and
Hillel, and Shammai, and the sons of Be-
tirah when that splendid boy, sitting or
standing there, with garment reaching
from neck to ankle, and girdled at the
waist, put them to their very wits end.
1t is no disgrace to say Il don't know
The only being in the universe who never
needs to say L don't know is the Lord
Almighty.
''But while I see the old theologians
standing around the boy Christ, 1 am i'm
what theology most wants is more OF
childish simplicity. Why should you and
perpleX ourselves about the DEGREES of
God? Mind your own business and God
will take care of His. In the conduct Of
the universe think He will somehow man
age to get along without us. If you want
to love and serve God, and be good and
useful and get to heaven, warrant that
nothing which occurred eight hundred
quintillion of years ago will hinder you a
minute. 1t is not the DEGREES of God that
do us any harm; it is our own DEGREES of sin
and folly.
"You need not go any further back in
history than about one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four years. Something
occurred on that day under an eclipsed
sun that sets us all forever free. If with our
whole heart and life we accept the tre-
mendous proifer. Do not let the Presby-
terian Church, or the Methodist Church,
or the Lutheran Church, or the Baptist
Church, or any of the other evangelical
churches spend any time in trying to fix
up old creeds, all Of them imperfect, us
everything man does is imperfect. Our
own denomination made itself absurd by
trying to revise it's creed made hundreds
of years ago. You might as we'll try to re-
wise your grandmother's love letters. 1
move a new creed for all the evangelical
churches of Christendom, only three arti-
cles in the creed, and no need of any
more.
''If had all the consecrated people of
all denominations OF the earth on one great
plain, and had voice loud enough to put
it to vote, that creed of three articles
would be adopted with a unanim Gus vote.
This is the creed propose for all Christen-
dom:
"Article first God so loved the world
that He gave His only begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life'
"Article second-'This is u faithful say
ing, and worthy of all acceptation, that
Jesus Christ came into the world to save
sinners, even the chief
Article third-'Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive blessings and riches
and honor and glory and power, world
without end'
But you 60 to tinkering up your old
creeds, and patching and splicing and
interlining and annexing and subtracting
and adding and explaining. and you viii
lose time and make yourself target for
earth and hell to shoot at. Let us have
creeds not fashioned out of humanlin-
genuities, but out Of scriptural phrase
ology, and all the guns of bombardmient
blazing from all the port holes of infi-
deity and perdition will not in thou
sand years knock off the church of good
a cnlipfpr hitp h-;a