The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-03-12

commandments Of that law. i'p.' in
stance 10y the old 'iaiin'I;iic law il wa
not right for a Hebrew IL :, fHrt;2e
from his doorstep Oh the Sahha,'l DAY
! than one neutrality-suspicious. lHil2S The
PhariSee riG;tily oEcFeI that lA'v. Hlt
how did he TO it: He took i small
stone. which he placed ut tie fl plt of
his I39... II" called thi., his doorstep
t':'G ., .! =. wanted 10 make n lsn.s
Sa'.i;,..t J'1...2y he picked NJ tai
doors, e9 :inH pat it into his pocket AMI
went his Way. carrying his doorstep
with him, ana of course was never
away from it. Thus he was able to 90
as far as he wished and still keep the
| letter of tie Sab1utic law. He obeFed
the letter 81 the law. lie lrokn tn
spirit OF the Sabbatic law. lie strain
ell ut the gnat Of truth. and he swal
| lowed the huge h,iInphacked camel of
| error.
Morally Wrong.
AS maa Of common sense you
| know that il man may he technically
| right and yet morally wrong. He may
and yet be as dishonest as any Grim
| inal behind iron bars wearing the con
yict's stripes. If you are conversant
with history. ycu know that gold Went
up to IL high premium during the ci'i
war. A short time after the civil war
Il tax collector was elected for one of
the counties of Illinois BY the law of
that county all taxes must b" collected
in gold. This tax collector collected
all those taxes in gold. and then he paid
! the taxes into the treasury of the coun-
ty in currency and pocketel the differ
ence. He was properly arrested as a
public defaulter. The case WIS tried
before a competent judge ana jury.
That tax collector WAS acquitted on
the legal tachniGaity that the law Of
the country did not specifically state
that the tax collector WAS required to
pay that money into the treasury III
gold. Legally that Te;r1ant tax collect
or was an honest man. but morally II,
was a thief and Il SWindler. so the
Pharisecs by legal technicalities cir
cumvented the spirit Of tie Hebrew
laws. They climbed over the law.
They crawled through the loophoIH' Of
the laws They broke the laws of Cool
Just the same as some aStute citizen;
are breaking the laws of their country
today.
When the pharisaical order began to
grow. the rabbnical leaders dill not
think the Bible statements OF what
God wanted his people to do Wer"
strict enough and full enough and eX-
plicit enough in their teachings. SO
year after year, century after century.
began to form companion to the 81
bic which was not 50 much common
tarieS of the Bible as extensions of the
Bible. They filled up their pages with
commandments which God was sup
posed to have forgotten to tell Moses
and Joshua and Jeremiah ana David
and Ezekiel Thus this Talnud Is
nothing more or less than the trddi
tons or the oral sayings of the OH
pharisaical rabbis. 1t told the Jews
what kind of clothes they were to wear
on the. Sabbath day, and how they
were to cut their finger nails, and how
they were to feed their cattle, and how
they We're to unite their ropes. | am
literally speaking the truth about the
Talmud 1t is filled with childish triv
ialities and with the greatest amount
of unmitgated nonsense which was
ever compacted between the covers OF
CO wi
The learned theologians have been at
work. They have covered the leaves
with a mass of traditions. They have
evolved out of its pages conglomei'
ate mass of meanings which a ten
year-old child ought to have sense
enough to see are not there. And III
stead of our opening the leaves of our
sacred Bible and reading the simpl"
parallels of Jesus Christ and interpret
ing them as they ought to be inter
preted we are hedging our sectariah
churches around with the sayings OF
theologians that Christ would at once
repudiate If he were upon earth. Tb'
cardinal and essential doctrines taught
in the Bible are two-the one, man j.
a sinner; the other. Christ is Saviour
Let us beware of traditional creed
which should have been burned nj
long ago In the fires of the dark age.
Of sectarian strife.
ClncE1ing the Argument
Now, like a carpenter driving hi
nail into board and clinching it upon
the other side, we would clinch the ar-
Dlications of this sermon. There are
two truths here which we want yon Il
carry home The one is positive; th
other is negative The first is this: W.
should adopt the Bible as our oni% IL
fallible rule of faith and practice
When you try to live that Bible. vi
YOU practice Its spirit and not SiinPl
cling to the letter of the law? vi
YOU do this no matter what problem
of life you have to face? For in&tan.'
when a man lies about you and nj
represents you AMI says all manner "
evil against YOU falsely. VIII you tTf
win that man to Jesus Christ by Il,
I no Io-