The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-03-18
PULPIT.
Choose Te 77hDDay
Between Truth
and Error.
Choose You This Day Whom
Ye VIII Serve. IF Jehovah Be God,
Serve Him" Joshua xiv, 80.

twelve apostles! On the contrary let
us strive to resurrect these from the
rubbish of human traditions which
eighteen centuries have piled upon
them. Let us instead bury our man
made creeds, of which we are all
ashamed. Our Presbyterian friends
some years ago set noble example to
all Christendom in the burial of their
| Confession of Faith and their substitu-
| ton instead of Il much simpler and
much more rational statement.
| But. No. / must correct myself here.
! This is what they should have done
but did not do. Instead of burying the
old creed, not only from sight, but also
| from odor. they have merely covered
! the corpse which is admitted to be
dead and placed the briefer and better
Confession atop the winding-sheet
They assuredly declare that it is not
substitute but merely a representative
statement. Hence every time we read
the re-statement, we must hold our
noses to avoid contamination from the
odors of the carcass beneath. Not
all must do this, for, as the Apos-
tie suggests, All have not their senses
exercised to discern. But all intelli-
gent Presbyterians are being rapidly
driven not only away from Calvinism,
but, alas. away from the Bible also,
because of their erroneous supposition
that the teaching of Calvin and the
teachings of the Bible are one and the
same
These bright minds are not merely
lost to the Christian forces. They be-
come active agents in the promulga-
ton of anti-Biblical teachings. They
are engaged in pulling down the Bible
and substituting for its teachings Oar
wins Evolution theory. These sincere
men are to be found in the faculties of
all of the Colleges, in the highest pull
pits throughout the land and in the
most prominent positions in business
and social life. Their loss of faith in
the Bible has not made them murder
from the past preserves to them an up
rightnesS of character which the loss
of fear Of hell-torment has not under
mined. While they are no longer
Christians from the Bible standpoint
no longer believers in Jesus as a Re-
Jesus as a great Teacher and noble
Leader of men. They fail to discern
the fact that if he posed as the Son
of God and the Redeemer Of men, and
was not such, instead of being a noble
example. his life and teachings were
most stupendous frauds and decep-
tiOnS.
Bsptists and Disciples Awakening.
When we say that this awakening
is also reaching our Baptist and our
Disciple brethren, let it not be under
stood to mean that all of these have
would have been better for them IL
some who have gotten awake during
the past thirty years had slumbered
longer. Those long awake have prin-
cipaIly gone off into Darwinism and
Higher Criticism. Baptist and Disci-
pie schools and Colleges and Theolog
ical Seminaries, like those Of other de-
nominations, are manned with the
brightest minds of the denominations,
and all with one accord teaching High
err Criticism, Intidelity and Darwinian
Evolution. With one accord all are
engaged in overthrowing the Christian
Faith of the rising generation. They
are doing this intelligently, wisely,
cunningly, but not with evil motive.
Having gotten awake to the inconsiSt-
encies of their creeds these scholarly
men, concluding that the creeds truth
fully represented the Bible, abandoned
faith in the Scriptures to the same de-
gree that they have abandoned faith
in the creeds which their intellects
have repudiated. Now they are seek
ing to gradually help Christian people
of all denominations to what they con-
slider the higher plane of Truth. What
they have-almost anything in fact
is better than the "creeds'' they have
repudiated. They are working hard
and succeeding well in introducing
their Misunderstanding theory into the
minds of the rising generation through
the school books. From these they
not only have eliminated everything
sympathetic with Bible faith, but in
the stead have introduced the sub
versive doctrine of Evolution.
As for the rank and file of Baptists
and Disciples, probably three-fourths
Of them still hold vaguely and indefi-
nitely to the Bible and their Comics
siOns Of Faith though both Of these
denominations in their innocency of
mind think that they have no creeds--
that they take the Bible only. AS
these dear friends awaken to the in.
constituencies of their Confession and
teachings they are in great danger of
following their leaders into a repudia-
ton Of everything pertaining to the
past-into Higher Criticism-Infidelity
and Darwinism.
"Choose You This Day Whom We Will
Serve"
Joshua's words to the Israelites, aft
or they had come into Canaan, consti-
tute our text. Joshua perceived that
the Israelites were in trying position
and that it was their duty to decide
promptly and thoroughly which course
they would take. So we may see to-
day that Christians Of all denomina-
lions are in trying position and that
a prompt decision to stand by God and
IL. HI