St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1900-05-26


er it be written or unwritten. The
Presbyterian church is now agitated
about its creed. Some good men in
il are for keeping it because it was
framed from the belief of John CAL
win. Other good men in it want re-
| vision. l am with neither party. In
stead of revision / want substitution.
i was sorry to have the question dis
turbed Mt all. The creed did not him
der us from offering the pardon and
The comfort of the Gospel to all men,
and the Westminster Confession has
| not interfered with me one minute.
But now that the electric lights have
been turned on the imperfections of
that creed-and everything that man
fashions is imperfect-let us put the
old creed respectfully aside and get
a brand new one.
What time we have had with the
dogmatics. the apologetics and the
hermeneutics. The defect in some of
the creeds is that they try to tell us all
about the DEGREES of God. Now the
only human being that was ever COM
petent to handle that subject was
Paul, and he would not have been CON-
petent had he not been inspired. be-
l;eve in the sovereignty Of God and be-
lieve in mans free agency, but no one
can harmonize the two. 1t is not neces-
sary that we harmonic them. Every
sermon that i have ever heard that at
tempted such harmonization was to me
as clear as London fog, as clear as
| mud. NY brother of the nineteenth
century, my brother of the sixteenth
century. give us Paufs statement and
leave out your own. Better one chap
ter Of Paul on that subject than all of
Calvin's institutes. abl6and honest and
mighty as they are. Do not try to meas
ure either the throne of God or the
thunderbolts of God with your little
steel pen. What do you know about the
DEGREES? You cannot pry open the
door of Gods eternal counsels. You
cannot explain the mysteries of God s
government now; much less the mys-
teries of His government five hundred
quintillion years ago.
l move for a creed for all our de-
nominations made out of Scripture
quotations pure and simple. That
would take the earth for God. That
would be impregnable against infidel-
ity and Apollyonic assault. That
would be beyond human criticism.
The denomination, whatever it's name
be. that can rise up to that will be
the church of the millennium. will
swallow up all other denominations
and be the one that will be the bride
when the Bridegroom cometh. Let
us make it simpler and palmer for
people to get into the kingdom of
God. Do not hinder people by. the
idea that they may not have been
elected. Do not tag on to the one cs-
sential of faith in Christ any Of the
innumerable nonessentials. A man
who heartily accepts Christ is a
Christian, and the man who does not
accept Him is not q Christian, and
that is all there is of it. He need not
believe in election or reprobation. He
need not believe in the eternal gen.
Grafton of the Son. He need not be-
lieve in everlasting punishment. He
need not believe in infant baptism.
He need not believe in plenary in
spiration. Faith in Christ is the cri-
terion. is the test, is the pivot, is the
Indispensable.
But there are those who would add
unto the tests rather than subtract
from them. There are thousands who
would not accept persons into church
membership if they drink wine of if
they smoke cigars or if they attend
the theater or if they play cards or
il they drive fast horse But do not
substitute tests which the Bible does
not establish. There il one passage Of
Scripture wide enough to let all in
who ought to enter and to keep out
all who ought to be kept out: BE
lieve in the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved" Get mans
heart right, and his life will be right.
But now that the old creeds have been
put under public scrutiny, something
radical must be done. Some would
split them. some would carve them,
some would elongate them. some
would abbreviate them. At the pres
ent moment and in the present shape
they are a hindrances Lazarus is alive,
but hampered with the old grave
clothes. If YOU want one glorious
church, free and unincumbered, take
of the cerements of old ecclesiastical
vocabulary. Loose her. and let her go!
Again. there are Christians who are
under sepulchral shadows and fears
and hoppled uy doubts and fears and
sins long ago repented of. What they
need is to understand the liberty of
the sons OF God. They spend more
time under the shadow of Sinai than
at the base of Calvary. They have
been singing the only poor hymn that
Newton ever wrote:
IT'S point / long to know:
Oft IL causes anxious thought;
Do love the Lord or no?
Am His or am l not?
Long to know, do you? Why do you
and you will very soon find out. The
man who is all the time feeling his
pulse and looking at his tongue to see
whether it is coated is morbid and
cannot be physically well. The doctor
will say: Go out into the fresh air
and into active life and stop thinking
Of yourself, and you will get well and
strong" So there are people who are
watching their spiritual symptoms,
and they call it determination. and
they get weaklier and sicklier in their
faith all the time. Go out and Do
something nobly Christian. Take holy
exercise and then examine yourself.
and instead Of Newton's saturnine and
bilious hymn that l first quoted You
will sing Newton's other hymn:
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound
That saved wretch like me,
/ once was lost. but now am found:
Was blind but now I see.
What many Of you Christians most
need is to get your grayeclothes Oh. /
rejoice that you have been brought
from the death of sin to the life of
the Gospel. but you need to get your
hand loose, and your feet loose. and