The Iola register., 1900-04-27

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 religion: Loose
him, and let him go!"
Many are bound hand and foot by re-
ligious creeds. Let no man misinter-
pret me as antagonizing creeds. |
have eight or ten of them-a creed
about religion, a creed about art.
creed about social life, creed abou
government, and so on. A creed is
something that man believes, wheth
er it be written or unwritten. The
Presbyterian church is now agitated
about its creed. Some good men in
it are for keeping it because it was
framed from the belief of John Cal
win. Other good men in IL want re-
vision. l am with neither party. In
stead of revision / want substitution.
was sorry to have the question dis
turbed at 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
brand new one.
What n 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 com
petent had he not been inspired. i be-
lieve in the sovereignty of God and be-
lieve in mans free agency, but no one
can harmonic the two. 1t is not neces-
sary that we harmonize them. Every
sermon that have ever heard that at
tempted such harmonization was to me
as clear as London fog, as clear as
mud. My brother of the nineteenth
century, my brother of the sixteenth
| century, give us PAul's statement and
leave out your own. Better one chap
ter of Paul on that subject than all of
| Calvin's institutes. able and 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 Gods
| government now; much less the mys-
teries of His government five hundred
| quintillion years ago.
| move for n 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 its 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 ii 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 es-
sential of faith in Christ any of the
innumerable nonessentials. man
who heartily accepts Christ is n
Christian, and the man who does not
accept Him is not Christian, and
that is all there is of it, He need not
| ha1ta,.a L., a.
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
if they drive a fast horse. But do not
substitute tests which the Bible does
not establish. There is 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 hindrance. Lazarus is alive,
but hampered with the old grave
clothes. If you want one glorious
church, free and unincumbered. take
off the cerements of old ecclesiastical
vocabulary. Loose her, and let her go!
Again, there are Christians who are
| under sepulchral shadows and fears