The Yale expositor., 1900-04-27

on them. They are, like Lazarus, hob
bling up the stairs of the tomb bound
hand and foot, and the object of this
sermon is to help free their body and
free their souls, and shall try to obey
the Masters command that comes to
me and comes to every minister OF re-
ligion, "Loose him, and let him go!"
Many are bound hand and foot by
religious creeds Let no man misinter-
pref me as antagonizing creeds. have
eight or ten of them-a creed about
religion, a creed about art, creed
about social life, a creed about govern
ment, and SO on. A creed is something
that a man believes, whether it be
written or unwritten. The Presbyterl-
an church is now agitated about it's
creed. Some good men in it are for
keeping it because it was framed from
the belief of John Calvin. Other good
men in it want revision. 1 am with
neither party. Instead Of revision l
want substitution. / was sorry to
have the question disturbed at ALL The
creed did not hinder us from offering
the pardon and the comfort Of the gos-
pei to all men, and the Westminster
Confession has not interfered with me
one minute. But now that the cleo
trio lights have been turned on the
imperfections of that creed-and
everything that man fashions is i'm
perfect-let us put the old creed re-
spectfully aside and get a brand new
one.
1t is impossible that people who
lived hundreds of years ago should
fashion an appropriate creed for our
times. John Calvin was a great and
good man. but he died 1886 years ago.
The best centuries of Bible study have
come since then, and explorers have
done their work, and you might ds
we'll have the world go back and stick
to what Robert Fulton knew about
steamboats, and reject the subsequent
improvements in navigation, and go
back to John Gutenberg, the inventor
of the art of printing, and reject all
modern newspaper presses, and go
back to the time when telegraphy was
the elevating of signals or the burning
of bonflres on the hilltops and reject
the magnetic wire which is the tongue
Of nations as to ignore all the exegetes
and the philologists and the theo-
logians of the last 1886 years and put
your head under the sleeve of the
gown Of a sixteenth century doctor l
could call the names OF twenty living
Presbyterian ministers of religion who
could make a better creed than John
Calvin. The nineteenth century ought
not to be called to sit at the feet of the
sixteenth.
Change In Conditions.
But" you say, at is the same old
Bible, and John Calvin had that as
we'll as the present student of the
Scriptures" Yes; SO it is the same
old sun in the heavens, but in our time
it has gone to making daguerreotypes
and photographs. 1t is the same old
water; but in our century it has gone
to running steam engines. 1t is the
same old electricity; but in our time
it has become a lightning footed err
rand boy. So it is the old Bible, but
new applications, new uses, new in
| terpretations. You must remember
that during the last 300 years words
have changed their meaning, and some
of them now mean more and some less.
l do not think that John Calvin be-
lieved, as some say he did, in the dam
nation Of infants, although some of the
recent hot disputes would seem to i'm
! ply that there is such a thing as the
! damnation of infants. A man who be-
lieves in the damnation of infants him
! self deserves to lose heaven. l do not
| think any good man could admit such
a possibility. What Christ will do with
! all the babies in the next world l con-
clude from what he did with the
babies in Palestine when he Rugged
them and kissed them. When some Of
you grown people go out of this world,
your doubtful destiny will be an en-
barrassment to ministers officiating at
your obsequies, who will have to be
|
friends. But when the darling children
go there are no "ifs" or butts" or
guesses.
We must remember that good John
Calvin was logician and a metaphysi-
clan, and by the proclivities of his ma
ture put some things in an unfortun-
ate way. Logic has its use and meta
physics has it's use, but they are not
good at making creeds. A gardener
hands you a blooming rose, dewy
fresh, but severe botanist comes to
you with a rose and says, 81 will show
you the structure of this rose," and he
proceeds to take it apart and pulls off
the leaves and he says, There are the
petals" and he takes out the anthers
and he says, Just look at the wonder
full structure of these floral pillars!'
and then he cuts the stem to show
you the juices of the plant. So logic OF
metaphysics takes the aromatic rose
of the Christian reliOion and saws "l