Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-03-14
lowed the huge humpbacked camel Of
m orally Wrong.

obey the law Of the state to the letter
and yet be as dishonest as any Grim.
inal behind iron bars wearing the con
vict's stripes. If you are conversant
with history, you know that gold went
up to high premium during the civil
war. short time after the civil war
a tax collector was elected for one Of
the counties Of Illinois. BY the law OF
that county all taxes must be 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 pscketed the differ
ence. He was properly arrested as a
public defaulter. The case was tried
before competent Judge and jury.
That tax collector was acquitted on
the legal technicality that the law Of
the country did not specifically state
that the tax collector was required TO
pay that money into the treasury in
gold Legally that recreant tax collect
or was an honest man, but morally he
was thief and a swinder SO the
Pharisees by legal technicalities cir.
cumvented the spirit of the Hebrew
laws. They climbed over the laws
They crawled through the loopholes OF
the laws. They broke the laws Of God
just the same as some astute citizens
are breaking the laws of their country
| today.
When the pharlsaical order began to
grow, the rabbinical leaders did not
think the Bible statements of what
God wanted his people to do were
strict enough and full enough and ex-
piicit enough in their teachings. SO
these pharlsaical leaders, or rabbis,
year after year, century after century
began to form a companion to the BIZ
bic, which was not so much common
taries of the Bible as extensions of the
Bible. They filed up their pages with
commandments which God was sup
posed to have forgotten to tell Moses
and Joshua and jeremiah and David
and Ezekiel Thus this Talmud Is
nothing more or less than the tradi
tons or the oral sayings Of the old
pharisaical rabbls. 1t told the Jews
what kind of clothes they We're to wear
on the Sabbath day, and how they
We're to cut their finger nails, and how
they were to feed their cattle and how
they were to unite their ropes I am
literally speaking the truth about The
Talmud. 1t is filed with childish triv.
iallues and with the greatest amount
of unmtigated nonsense which was
ever compacted between the covers OF
any book SO with our Bible today
! The learned theologians have been at
work. They have covered the leaves
with a mass of traditions. They have
evolved out Of its pages a conglomer
ate mass of meanings which ten
year-old child ought to have sense
enough TO see are not there. And in
stead of our opening the leaves of our
sacred Bible and reading the simple
parallels of Jesus Christ and interpret
ing them as they ought to be inter
| preted we are hedging our Sectarian
churches around with the sayings Of
theologans that Christ would at once
repudiate II he were upon earth. The
cardinal and essential doctrines taught
! in the Bible are two-the one, man is
sinner; the other, Christ Is Saviour.
Let us beware OF traditional creeds
which should have been burned up
long ago IN the fires of the dark ages
OF sectarian strife.
Clinchins the Argument.
| Now, like carpenter driving his
nail into board and clinching it upon
! the other side, we would clinch the ap-
plications of this sermon. There are
two truths here which we want you to
| carry home. The one IS positive; the
| other is negative The first Is this: We
should adopt the Bible as our only in
fallible rule of faith and practice.
When you try to live that Bible, will
you practice its spirit and not simply
cling to the letter of the law? Will
you do this no matter what problems
of life you have TO face? For instance.
when a man lies about you and mis-
represents you and says all manner of
! evil against you falsely, will you try to
win that man to Jesus Christ by the
law Of love and not by the law OF
hate? Will you follow the spirit of the
Bible and not the letter of the Mosaic
law? Will you show forgiveness to
those who have done you a personal
injury?
subject as we'll as a positive. We must
not disObey any of the commands God
has given. We must not suppose that
the gifts we make to Christs cause or
our regular attendance at church or
our Bible reading or our prayers will
cover over and atone for lying, steal
ing and cheating. Sins of the social
world. sins Of business life and sins of
the home must be repented Of and re-
nounced. The Pharisees were so par.
ticular about their beliefs that they
used to have the law written on very
small form and compressed it into
small box, called phylactery, and tied
this box as plaster upon their fore
heads and wore It ms they went around |
the street that everybody could see 1t. |
SO there are many church members |
who make great parade of their Or
thodoxy and their Christian beliefs. |
But they are nor honest in business, |
and they are not true to God In their |
home relations, and they neglect their |
duties to God and devote themselves |
to pleasure. When you confront them
with the question. as that right 2" |
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