The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-05-31
TALMAGE ON CREEDS.
Preacher Would Rid Humanity Of
Ecclesiastical Dogma.
Moves for q Greed for All DenOnaina.
ti0ns Made Out of Scripture Quo
tatiOns-Things That Ham-
Der ChFistians.

what bitterly revived this discourse
of DR.. Talmage has a special interest.
The text is John XII, A.: "Loose him
and let him CO."
My Bible Is at the place of tAiA text
written all ever with lead pencil
marks made 1t Bethany on the ruins
of the house of Mary and Martha and
Lazarus. We dismounted from our
horses on the way up from Jordan to
the Dead sea. Bethany was the sum-
mer evening retreat of Jesus. After
spending the day in the hot city of
Jerusalem he would come out there al
most every evening to the house of
his three friends. I think the occu-
pants of that house were orphans,
for the father and mother are not
mentioned. But the son and two
daughters must have inherited prop
erty. for it must have been, judging
from what I saw of the foundations
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,
frst-rate housekeeper, and Mary,
spirituelle, somewhat dreamy, but af-
fec,i~nate and as good girl as could
be found in all Palestine. But one
day Lazarus got sick. The sisters
were il CONSERVATION. Father gone,
and mother gone, they felt very nerv-
GUS 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 pre-
pared the medicines and made tempt
ing dishes of food for the poor appe-
tite of the sufferer, but Mary prayed
and sobbed. Worse and worse gets
Lazarus until the doctor announces
that he can do no more. The shrek
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 had so
| often been? Far away in the country
districts, preaching, healing other
sick, how unfortunate that this ON
| nipotent Doctor had not been at that
domestic crisis in Bethany. When
at last Jesus arrived in Bethany, Laz-
arus had been buried four days and
dissolution had taken place. In that
climate the breathless body disin-
tegrates more rapidly than in ours.
If, Immediately after decease, the
body had been awakened into life, un-
believers might have said he was only
| in a cOmatose state OF in sort of
trance and by some vigorous manipu-
lation or powerful stimulant vitality
had been renewed. No! Four days
! dead.
At the door of the sepulcher is a
crowd of people, but the three most
memorable are Jesus, who s.es the
family friend, and the two bere: sis
| tiers. We went into the traditional
tomb one December day, and it is deep
down and dark. and with torches we
explored it. We found it all quiet
| that afternoon of our visit, but the
day spoken of in the Bible there was
der 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 back of His
compressed into SO small space as
in that group pressing on down after
Christ, all the time bemoaning that
He had not come before?
The unfortunate thing now is that
SO many Christians are only half-lib-
Grated. They have been raised from
the death and burial of sin into spirit
ual life, but they yet have the grave
clothes on them. They are, like Laz-
arus, hobbling 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 com.
mand that comes to me and comes to
every minister of religions: Loose
him, and let him go!"
Many are bound hand and foot by re
ligious creeds. Let NO man misinter.
pref me as antagonizing creeds.
have eight or ten of them-a creed
about religion, creed about art
q creed about social life. creed abou
government. and so on. A creed Il
something that man believes, wheth
er it be written or unwritten. Ths
Presbyterian church is now agitatee
about its creed. Some good men II
IT are for keeping it because It VA
] framed from the belief of John Cal
vim. Other good men n It want rs