The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1911-04-07

America. publish his weekly dis
courses He took for bis text. ~ an,
NOT esAomed Of the Gospel Of CAvtst'
(Romans l 16l. He said:-
Let 10 approach our subject rever-
emily! With reverence. because many
Of our creeds are white with centuries.
They were the creedy Of our fathers
and mothers. They must not So han
died ruthiessly. unkindly. But w
must approach the subject With cour.
age because Il 10 a Christian duty. For
long centuries Gods people have been
divided into sects and parties. separat-
ed BY creedai fences. At one dime
they gloried In their difference, and
destroyed one another In their zeal for
what they believed to be the Truth.
Now we zee moro clearly that none
Of q creeds are without 1aw. Now
we are willing. yea. glad. { take the
Truth wherever We lnd It and to &C.
knowledge the error. though It be our
own. The oneness Of the Church re-
quires that we should have this cour.
age! The interests Of the world de-
mand It! We have come here realiz-
ing that the time for covering errors.
Of which we are ashamed. Is past; that
the time for reverencing God and His
Word has come.
Are We Not All Christians?
Our topic must be, What is the Cos.
pei Of which st. Paul was not ashamed
the faith once delivered unto the
saints"-'one Lord, one Faith, one
Baptism" Ephesians iv. 81.
The speaker showed that the Roman
Catholic Church. in order to unite with
others, would need to cut out Of her
creed everything not found in the BIZ
bie-prayers to saints. homage to pic
lures and images. the sacrifice Of the
mass. holy candles. holy water, Pur-
gatory, the infallibility of the Pope
and the general theory that the clergy
alone are the Church and brethren of
Christ, and the laity the children of
the Church.
The Protestant Episcopal creed next
had attention. Little that was objection.
able was found therein. One point alone
could cause any hesitancy, he was sure
Apostolic Succession. He urged that
no Scripture could be found sustaining
this theory In clear terms. On the
contrary. he gave numerous citations
in proof that the twelve Apostles only
possessed plenary inspiration and were
directly under Divine control-St. Paul
taking the place Of Judas.
Election
The Westminster Confession. the
foundation Of the majority of Protes-
tant creeds. distinctly emphasizes the
teachings of Brother Calvin. We can
all agree that the words elect and
election. predestlnated and foreordain-
ed. are Scriptural terms and that a
truth must underlie and pervade them.
But 1t will give zone Of Us any pain
to repudlate entirely the peculiar def
nitions attached to these words by
Brother Calvin. Surely we are all
prepared to deny that a God Of JUS
tice. Wisdom. Love and Power fore
ordained and predestinated from be-
fore the foundation Of the world that
everybody but the ''elect" should 90
to eternal torment.
Baptists and Disciples. Pastor Rus
sell declared. have something further
to surrender. Surely they may keep
water immersion. Surely they may
claim that. more fully than s%prinkling.
1t represents the underlying thought
expressed in the symbol. But the I'M
reasonable and u~nscriptural thing
which they must renounce in favor
OF union is that water immersion ID
q test Of membership IN the Church Of
Christ. They must admit that Corne-
Illus. at least. was accepted Of the
Lord and begotten Of the holy Spirit
before his baptism in water (Acts Z.
~.
Baptists and Disciples should zee
the absurdity Of claiming that only
the water immersed are members of
the Church of Christ, for thus. accord
ing to their theory. they would be
booming to eternal torture as unsaved
all of their Christian brethren who
had not been immersed. Surely Bap-
lists and Disciples. therefore. may be
expected to promptly and heartily re-
pudiate these test features Of their
theories.
The Methodist Greed was next ex-
amined. It was commended for the
prominence It gives to the Love Of
God and His forbearance with the
Misrepresentation Of those who hon
estly seek to be His children. The
speaker asked the Methodist brethren
to forego the worship Of their Church
and to give the moro homage 10 the
Lord. He admitted the mastsrfulness
Of their organization. but reminded
them that their D~pascopacy b not
modelled aftss anything shown ~ IN
ths New Testament Il doeo not Svon
pretend to b any suthoEity aJong ne
HAS Of Apostolic euseuuuoon. Il mast
admit that the sstabllshmeot o. IT.
Dtshopesc was. ct lease semi-1taudu-
lsns-a suppossd smsrgsncy. horn q
Asoe inst an Dplseooal eedinatlon
W. necessary 20 Authority - penneh