The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-14
The FUTILITY OF CREED
SERMON BY REV. j. CUMMING SMITH.
OF TABERNACLE CHURCH.
Century Needs Abolition of Denomi-
natiOnaIism and Infusion of
Essential Spirit.

The Rev. J. Cumming Smith, of the
Tabernacle Church. preached yesterday
morning on Greed and Life He said:
1--WE are puzzled by these words 1.-THE
| text; We have not much heard
! whether there be any Holy Ghost Acts.
| TX, y, because We are prone to think that
| the doctrine OF the Holy Trinity certain
| to us must always have been certain to
| the church; and that no man could know
a change in his life without knowing who
! wrought the change: We are wrong, how
ever, in both these impressions. Doctrines
/ that now loom up to us like near noun
! tains were once like hills on the smoky
! horizons wrapped in haziness, and many
| changes are effected in the world without
distinct knowledge of the mere process
| of change. Every day people use forces
whose nature is occult. Who knows cleo
| tricity? Who can define life or light?
| Mystery is too real part of all progress
| for us to disown or repudiate power just
| because we cannot fathom its secret.
| However, we read these words and won
| der what meaning they carry to us. Let
! me put il this way: Whenever a truth
! is conceived simply as an appeal to the
/ intellect. something to be dissected like an
| organism, something to be taken to pieces
! like piece of furniture, something TO be
! analysed and classified as a plant, then
/ it lacks the spirit. When. however, "A
! truth is vivific, kinetic, productive, when
! il moves TO action corresponding to its
own nature, then it throbs with the Holy
| Spirit.
Spiritual truth has this distinctive pc
| culiarity that it reaches the deeper life
| and moves to action. 1t is doctrine dynam-
| ic. 1t Is creed vital and vitaliZing. The
| first apostles preached theology or philos
| Ophy that kindled ardor and gave birth
/ to every form of virtue or freedom. The
| present-day tendency to defame creed in
| the interest of life has just enough truth
| in Ii to lend IL weight and enough falsty
| in il to drain the world of every virtue
| If the world ever came to accept it as
! true statement. The fact is that truth lies
under all ethical inspiration, and progress
| Il~g,,
selves in life. Ideas determine life. Life
draws out ideas that lie at the base of ev
| erything.
FORM OF WORDS.
'On the other hand, the temptation besets
us all to receive intellectually critical doc
! trines and plume ourselves on being sound
! in the faith because we hold a form of
words. We proud of doctrines and ig-
more their power. We attend churches and
| come away self-satisfed and benumbed for
| another week.
1.-THE doctrines of our churches have lost
! their inspiring power. Too often, as the con-
/ ductor of the car calls out in dead routine
! the avenues without spark of enthusiasm
Il as if he had never StrOlled along them nor
noted their charms OF lawn or architecture
! so we recite the most mysterious verities
| of the universe in an irreverent or COM
| monplace manner. Not so when Christian
/ ity came as something new and life-giving
i'm the world Paul talks about the power
| of God, the power of Christ, the power of
| the Holy Spirit, the power of the cross.
| the power of endless life, the power of
| revelation, the power of sorrow. The Cos
| pei not then threadbare and devitalized
| by custom or frittered with controversy
1t marked a new era. 1t flung open Won
| drous universe of love. 1t was fraught
with rich surprises as a lightning cloud
| to the child looking out at the window
| 1t the fresh and magical warning time
of our history, and each disclosure of the
| fatherhood of God and the purpose of re-
| demption begot an enthusiasm and courage
| that no cruel death could daunt and no
| failure could quench.
Now. then whenever truth settles shall
| lowly in a man and makes him eager for a
| fray, or makes him proud of his ortho-
| doxy or tempts him to dwarf God into a
narrow being who can love only a few
| and save only few, then you have truth
| without the Holy Spirit. 1t is truth skel-
| etonized 1t is doctrine without inspira-
ton, and belongs to the museum. When,
| however, the messages unlock the deeper
| life of a man, appealing to his magma
ton and affection and entering the court
| room of conscience and enriching every
| faculty of his soul to its entire emancipa-
ton, then the truth becomes reproduc-
winged and weighted with the spirit of
God. When you lay sod on the ground in
a loose, slovenly manner it loses its life.
When you lay sod and snugly pack IL so
that its roots reach down into the soil be-
! beneath and bind them, then it ceases to
/ be a layer and becomes one with the rich
] loan L..
| thin layer. and it dies. Spread it over the
| mind so as to become a part of 1t, so that
| a hundred roots reach down into the con-
viction and draw strength from it, and then
| truth becomes life and operative with per-
| sonal faith and conservation.
SUPERFICIAL FERVOR
'"This, then, is the meaning of the en-
dowment of the Holy Spirit. At once you
remove a stigma and hurtful idea Too
often the descent of the spirit is asso-
ciated with the flaming qualities Of fervor
| and excitement, and at times even has
this mysterious influence been asso-
| ciated with what shocks our best sense
! and finer feelings. the shrinks, the frances,
| the pitiable cOntortons. the wild and i'm
| practical visions and other false manifesto
! tons by which the weak are beguiled The
| Bible is not responsible for its carica-
| lures or its counterfeits The gospel is a
| message of loving intelligence God knocks
| at the front door of manhood. a his COM
mon Sense and large, well-established views
/ or human life. He courts our most stall
| wart thought. He asks US to reason il out.
| But when we open TO truth we must not
allow it an outside room, like a transient
| boarder in our equipment. or confine it to
| our cold intellectual life, reserve IL as
| a convenient CONSIDER when we lose our
friends or our money; it might go deeper
| and become warp and woof of our life; il
! must become a governing power within us.
| each truth being valued first of all be-
cause it is truth and then because it
| God and man. II a man is not full OF love
ne must only cant when he claims to be
full OF the Holy Spirit who is overbrim-
ming with love.
THE need of the century is the gentle
abolition of denominatiOnalism and the in
fusion Of the larger. deeper Christ into all
| spheres OF modern life. No longer can
men carry their religious views the out
side like a garment. No longer will the
world brook any vulgar controversies over
matters that are too deep except for ten
der reverence. No longer will il be possible
TO perch a creed on the top of our life and
| the mere intellectual cognition. which
would be as If a man bought a sweet sing
ing bird but hung the cage on the roof
top. rather than down in the central dwell
| ling rooms when the song might cheer the
| home. May 1 not urge YOU to heed no
| longer the cry against the principles re
| vealed by God, TO nurse your Bible to your
| bosoms and search out it's wealth of
thought: 20 bear in mind that truth lies at
the root of all enduring excellence. but still
more TO bear in mind that truth must work
its way down into the whole inner life. in
| spring. ennoblng, sweetening the life OF
! earth with the love Of God IN Jesus Christ
our Lord"