The Cairo bulletin., 1904-04-17
THE BULLETINS SUNDAY SERMON
BY REV. FRANK De WITT TALMAoE, D. D.

~
health yet faith curists blind their
eyes ana stop their ears to these Bib
lical teachings. They get a hold on
one little passage Of Scripture aud
separate it from all It's surrounding
connections. As Il sweet morsel they
turn it over and over and over again
They magnify it, They distort it, and
then they rest their entire belief upon
it, These people may be good ut heart,
but they treat Scripture somewhat as
4 famous reformcr did IN the noted
meeting he had With John Calvin in
Munich, | believe i'll about the year
1910. After he had yaiantly helped
to fight the battle of the reformation
to a glorious and Il successful issue
he still clung tenacioCsly 70 the doc
triue Of transubsantia. That doe
trine, in plain language, means that
when we drink Of the communion wine
ana cat Of the communion bread we
literally are drinking Of Christ's blood
and eating of Christs body. The other
school Of theological thought held that
when we assemble at the communion
table we only eat of ChriSt'S body and
drink Of Christs blood in symbol We
eat and drink in symbol, as the lambs
blood shed upon the Jewish altar was
the symbol of Chrst's blood about to
be shed for us This battle over tran
subStantiation ragged bitterly for years
between the two schools of religious
thought.
In order to bring this theological con-
nict to close the two schools per
suaded the two leaders, John Calvin
and this mighty man, to meet and dis
cuss the theological questions ut issue
What did this famous reformer do at
that conference History tells MS that
he brought along tablecloth, upon
which were embroidered these six
words, taken from the tWenty-slXth
chapter of Matthew Take, eat; this
IS my body" Then he placed that
cloth over table and simply rested
his hand upon it and said nothing.
No matter what arguments were
brought forward he answered moth
ing. All that he did was to point TO
the one sentence written upon the Ia
bic. Take, eat, this is my body"
But" said John Calvin, Christ also
said, 4 am the vine, ye are the
branchesf Are you going to take that
sentence literally? Does that sentence
imply that Jesus is a stick" But the
reformera Would answer nothing. All
that he IT'D was 10 point 70 the one
sentence upon the table, which read.
Take, eat; this Is my body SO in
the same way the faith curists pure
and Simple will not accept the trend
of the Bibles teachings, They will not
compare passage with passage. They
will not see that every leaf Of every
chapter of every book of the Bible
teaches that faith must go hand in
hand with works. They will not see
that il is almost impossible to find an
incident where Christ healed the sick
unless at the same time he compelled
action upon the part of those whom
he would physically help.
The Divine Physician.
Did not Christ compel action upon
the part of him that was blindI After
he had anointod the blind eyes with a
moist clay did he not say unto the
young man, Go wash In The pool Of
Slloan?" lie went his way, therefore
and washed and came seeing. Did not
Christ compel action upon the part OF
the ten lcpers? Go show yourselves !
unto the priests. And it came to pass
as they went they were cieansed.' Did |
not God compel the leper Naaman TO I
leave the faroh Damascus and dip sew
en- times in the Jordan before his flesh /
became like unto that of q little childI /
am not here advocating any heretical /
idea that Christ cannot and VIII not /
In many cases heal our physical dis |
eases, but | assert that as y people we I
have no more right to expect the lii- /
vine Physician to answer our prayers /
for health without any cooperative Of I
fort on our part than we have n right /
TO expect our Divine Commlssary to /.
give us our daily bread without OR t
working for IT, We have Just as much 4
right to kneel down at night ana say /
the Lords Prayer Give us this day /
our daily bread. and then III our en- +
gerness to expect next morning a vi /
sionary breakfast TO jump oft Of Vi
si0nary fire and sizZlc upon a vision .
lry broller and the water faucet to fill /
the pot with visionary coffee or the /
yeast TO tumble the empty bread tray /
Town the dummy filed with visionary I
hot toast ms we have TO expect the sick /.
10 he made wen without our own eff /.
fort upon which divine blessing has +
been invoked faith to react upon
works: works always in the invalid's /
room to 20 hand in hand with faith!
Jobs Comforters.
Faith cure teachings, pure and sim
Die, are not only contrary to Scriptural I
common sense. but also antaconlstic .
% the concentrations with which the /
Bible again and again honors human /
and the physicians pre- /
scriptions. The only passage in the .
Bible which in any way might he con
strued by the casual reader as a Slur
lpon doctors and drugs Is that one so .
)ften quoted by faith curlsts from the I
words found in the book of Job: "Ye /.
ire forgers Of lies Ye are all physi- !
clans of no value" Eut Job is not +