The Penn's Grove record., 1900-04-27
las is use. and metaphysics has its ass

| uo6mottUcs tu0 upoLOkoblCS dau bu0 u0p
meneuticsl The defect in some OF the
creeds Is that they try to tell us all about
the DEGREES OF God. Now, tho only humat
being that was ever competent to handle
that subject was Paul, and he would moi
have been competent had he not been In.
spired. I believe In the sovereignty Of God.
and / believe In mans free agency, but nd
one ia harmonize the two. It is not
necessary that we harmonic Them.
Every sermon that / have ever heard
that attempted such harmonization was to
me as clear as q London fog, as clear as
mud. NY brother of the nineteenth CEN
fury, my brother OF the sixteenth century,
give US Pauls statement and leave out
| your own.
Better one chapter OF Paul on that SUBJ
ject than all OF Calvin's institutes, able
and honest and mighty as they are. Do
not try to measure either the throne OF God
or the t~hunderbolts Of God with your little
| steel pen.
What do You know about the decreesf
You cannot pry open the door OF Gods
eternal %counsels. You annot explain the
mysteries OF Gods government now, much
less the mysteries OF His government five
hundred quintillion years ago..
move for a creed for-hll our lenomina-
tions made out Scripture quotations pure
and simple. That would take the earth for
God; that would be impregnable against
infdeiity and ~ApoAyonic assault; that
would be beyond human criticism. The de-
nomination, whatever It's name nay be,
that can rise mp 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 1t simpler and palmer for peo-
pie to get into the Kingdom Of God. Do rot
hinder people by the idea that they MAJ
not hav been elected. Do not tag ON to
the one essential 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 a Christian, and that Is all there is OF
1t. He need not believe In election or rep
rotation. He need not believe in the eter-
nal generation OF the Son. He need not be-
Heve In everlasting punishment. He need
not believe In infant baptism. he need
not believe In plenary inspiration. Faith
in Christ is the criterion, Is the best, is
the pivot, IL the indispensable.
But there are those who would add unto
the tests rnther than subtract from them.
There are thousands who would not accept
persons into church membership II they
drink wine or II they smoke cigars or II
they attend the theatre or II they play cards
or II they drive q fast horse. But do not
substitute tests which the Bible does not
establish. There Is one passage Of Scrip
ture wide enough to let all In who ought
to enter and to keep out all who ought to
be kept out, believe In the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved" Get q
mans heart right, and his life will be right.
Blu now that the old creeds have been
put under public scrutiny something radi-
cal must be don Some would split them,
some would carve them, some would eIon-
gate them, some would abbreviate them.
At the present moment in the present
| shape they are o hindrance. Lazarus is
alive, but hampered with the old grave
clothes. II you want one glorious church,
free and unincumbered, taxi of the cere-
ments OF old ecclesiastical vocabulary.
| Loose her, and let her gol
Again, my text has good advice concern
ing any Christian hampered and bothered
and bound by fear OF his own dissolution.
| To such the book refers when It speaks of
those who through fear Of death were all
their lifetime subject t. ndags. The
most OF us, even ii We have Christian
hope, are towards about death.
Backed up by the teachings OF your Bible.
just look through the telescope some bright
night and see how many worlds there are
and reflect that all you have seen, COM
pared with the number OF worlds In exist
| 0nce, are less than the fingers OF your right
hand as compared with all the fingers OF
the human race. How foolish, then, for us
to think that ours Is the only world fit for
us to stay in.
One of our first realizations in getting
out Of this world, / think, will be that In
this world we we're very much pent up n
had cramped apartments and were kept on
the limits. The most, even OF our small
world, is water. and the water says to the
| human race, Don't some here or you will
drown" A few thousand feet up b at
mosphere Is uninhabitable, and the at
mOSphero says to the human race, Don't
come up here or you cannot BREATHE" A
lew miles down the earth is a furnace of
fire. and the FIRE says, Don't come here or
you will burn" The caverns Of The mount
aims are full OF poisonous gases, n the
gases say, "Don't come here or you will be
asphyxiated."
Ant pneumon1as and pieurisies n con-.
sumptions and a~poplexies go across this
earth In focka, in droves, IN herds, and 1t
is a world OF %equinoxes aud cyclones and
graves. Yet We are under the delusion
that it Is the only place fit to stay In. We
want to stick to the wet plank in midocean
while the great ship, the City OF God, OF
the Celestial line, goes sailing past and
would gladly take US up In a lifeboat. My
Christian friends, let Inc tear off your de-
~spondencies and flights about dissolution.
Ny Lord commands me regarding you,
saying, "Loose him. and let him Co."
Heaven is ninetY-i1ve per cent. better
than this world, a Thousand per cent. bet
ter, a million per cent. better. Take the
giaddest, brightest. most jubIlant days
you ever had on earth and compress them
all into one hour, and that hour would be
a requiem, q fast day, q gloom, a horror,
as compared with the poorest hour they
have had in heaven since the first tower
was built or its first gates swung or its
first song caroIed.
"Oh," you say. .tthat may be true, but I
am so afraid Of crossing over from this
world to the next, and / fear the swapping
of the cord between soul and body" Well,
all the surgeons and physicians and sci
entists declare that there is no pang at the
parting of the body n soul, and all the
restlessness at the closing hour OF life is
involuntary and no distress at all.
But" you say, Il fear to 60 because
the future is so full of mystery" Well, /
will tell you how to treat the mysteries.
The mysteries have ceased bothering me,
for I do as the judges of your courts often
do. They hear all the arguments In the
papers and give you my decision next
week." So / have heard all the arguments
In regard to The next world, and some
things are. uncertain and full OF mystery,
and SO / fold up the papers n reserve
until the next world my decision about
them. I can there study all the mysteries
to better advantage, for the light will be
better n my faculties stronger, and I
Will ask the Christian philosophers, who
have had all the advantages of heaven for
centuries, to help me, int I mny be per-
mitted myself humbly to ask the Lord, and
/ think th3re will be only one mystery left:
that will be how one so unworthy as myself
got into sue an enraptured place.
The only part OF the journey I made
years ago to Palestine that / really dread
ed was the landing at Joppa. That is the
port of entrance for the Holy Land, and
there are many rocks. and In rough wealth
or people cannot land at all. The boats
taking the people from the steamer to the
docks must run between reefs that looked
to me to be about afty feet apart, and one
misstroke Of an oarsman or an unexpected
wave has sometimes been fatal, and
hundreds ave persisted along those
reefs. Besides that, MS we left Port
Said the evening before, an old! trav-
eler said: s'The wind Is just right to
give you a rough landing at Joppa; indeed
I think you will not be able to land at ALL
The fact was that when our Mediterranean
steamer dropped anchor near Joppa and
we put out for shore In the small boat, the
water was as stifl as though 1t had been
sound asleep a hundred years, and we
landed as easily as / entered this pulpit.
Well, your fears lave pictured for you an
appalling arrival at the end Of your voyaR
, | OF life. and they aay that the seas will run