Connecticut western news., 1900-04-26
: RELIGIOUS CREEDS.
DR. TALMAGE DISCUSSES THEM, GOOD AND BAD.


 Founded on Faith In Christ-That Alone to Be the Test.
 WASHINGTON, April p. At time when the old discussion of creeds Is being vigorously and somewhat bitter ly revived this discourse of pr. Tal- mage has special interest. The text Is John xii, A, Loose him and let him go."
 My Bible is, at the place of this text, written all over with lead pencil marks made at Bethany on the ruins of the house of Mary and Martha and Laza- rus. We dlsmounted from our horses on the way up from Jordan to the Dead sea. Bethany was the summer even Ing retreat of Jesus. After spending the day in the hot city of Jerusalem he would come out there almost every evening to the house of his three friends. I think the occupants of that house were orphans, for the father and mother are not mentioned. But the son and two daughters must have in- herited property, for 1t must have been, judging from what I saw of the foun- dations and the size of the rooms, an opulent home. Lazarus, the brother, was now at the head of the household, and his sisters depended on him and were proud of him, for he was very popular, and everybody liked him. and these girls were splendid girls-Martha a first rate housekeeper and Mary spirituelle, somewhat dreamy, but af- fectionate, and as good girl as could be found In all Palestine. But one day Lazarus got sick. The sisters were in consternation. Father gone and moth CT gone, they feel very. nervous lest they lose their brother also. Disease did it's quick work. How the girls hung over his pillow! Not much sleep about that house-no sleep at all.
 From the characteristics otherwise developed I judge that Martha prepar- ed the medicines and made tempting dishes of food for the poor appetite of the sufferer, but Mary prayed and sob bed. Worse and worse gets Lazarus until the doctor announces that he can do no more. The shriek that went up from that household when the last breath had been drawn and the two sisters were being led by sympathizers into the adjoining room all those of us can imagine who have had our own hearts broken. But why was not Jesus there, as he so often had been? Far away in the country districts, preach ing, healing other sick, how unfortu- nate that this omnipotent Doctor had not been at that domestic crisis In Bethany. When at last Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been buried four days, and dissolution had taken place. In that climate the breathless body disintegrates more rapidly than in ours. If immediately after decease the body had been awakened into life, unbelievers might have said he was only in a comatose state or in sort of trance and by some vigorous manipula- ton or powerful stimulant vitality had been renewed. No! Four days dead.
 Jesus wept.
 At the door of the sepulcher Is a crowd of people, but the three most memorable are Jesus, who was the family friend, and the two bereft sis ters. We went into the traditional tomb one December day, and it Is deep down and dark, and with torches we explored 1t. We found it all quiet that afternoon of our visit, but the day spo- ken of in the Bible there was present an excited multitude. 1 wonder what Jesus will do? He orders the door of the grave removed, and then he begins to descend the steps, Mary and Martha close after him and the crowd after them. Deeper down into the shadows and deeper! The hot tears of Jesus roll over his cheeks and plash upon the backs of his hands. Were ever so many sorrows compressed into so small down after Christ all the time bemoan- ing that he had not come before?
 Now all the whispering and all the crying and all the sounds of shuffiing feet are stopped. It Is the silence of expectancy. Death had conquered, but now the vanquisher of death confront ed the scene. Amid the awful hush of the tomb the familiar name which Christ had often had upon his lips in the Inequalities of the village home came back to his tongue, and with a pathos and an almightiness of which the resurrection of the last day shall only be an echo he cries, Lazarus, come forthv' The eyes of the slumber- CT open, and he rises and comes to the foot of the steps and with great diff culty begins to ascend, for the cere- ments of the tomb are yet on him, and his feet are fast, and his hands are fast, and the impediments to all his movements are so great that Jesus commands: Take off these cerements! Remove these hindrances Unfasten these graveclothes! Loose him and let him go.'
 Oh, am so glad that after the Lord raised Lazarus he went on and com. manded the lOosening of the cords that bound his feet, so that he could walk and the breaking off of the cerement that bound his hands, so that he could stretch out his arms in salutation, and the tearing off of the bandage from around his jaws, so that lie could speak. What would resurrected life have been to Lazarus If he had no1 oSeh lEccu run dii tuoSe cTlpplemeuls of his body? I am glad that Chris- commanded his complete emancipation saying, Loose him and let him go."
 Only Half Liberated.
 The unfortunate thing now Is that st many Christians are only half liberat ed. They have been raised from tn. death and burial of sin Into spiritua life, but they yet have the graveclothes on them. They are, like Lazarus, hob bling up the stairs of the tomb boun, hand and foot, and the object of thi sermon is to help free their body am free their soul, and 1 shall try to obe the Masters command that comes t me and comes to every minister of re ligion, Loose him and let him go."