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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 48

The Preachers Don't Believe

page 16

The Preachers Don't Believe

what they preach in the pulpit. The people in the pews don't believe what they hear preached." "Oh," they say to me, "you are fighting something that is dead—that is all form. We don't believe a solitary creed. We signed it, and swore that we believed it, but we don't, and none of us do." (Laughter.) "And all the ministers," they say, "in private admit that they don't believe in it—not quite." I don't know whether it is so or not; I take it that they believe what they preach. I take it that when they meet and solemnly agree to a creed, I take it that they are honest, and believe in that creed. The Evangelical Alliance, composed of all the orthodox denominations in the world, met only a few years ago, and here is their creed: "The Divine inspiration, authority, and sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures; the right and duty of private judgment in the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures." But if you interpret wrong, you are damned. They believe in the unity of the Godhead, and the trinity of the persons therein. They believe in the utter depravity of human nature; and there can be no more infamous doctrine than that. They look upon a little child as a lump of depravity; I look upon it as a bud of humanity—(applause)—that will, under proper circumstances, blossom into rich and glorious life. (Applause.) Total depravity of human nature! Here is a woman whose husband has been lost at sea, and the news comes that he has been drowned by the ever-hungry waves. She waits, and something in her heart tells her he is alive. She waits, and years afterwards, as she looks down towards the little gate, she sees him; he has been given back by the sea, and she rushes to his arms, covering his face with kisses and with tears. If that infamous doctrine is true, every tear is a crime and every kiss a blasphemy. It will not do. (Applause.) According to that doctrine, if a man steals, and repents, and takes back the property, the repentance and the taking back of the property are two other crimes, if he is totally depraved. It is an infamy. What else do they believe? The justification of the sinner by faith alone; not any works, just faith—believing something that you do not understand. Of course, God cannot afford to reward a man for believing anything that is reasonable; publicans and sinners believe what is reasonable; God rewards you only for believing something that is unreasonable. If you believe something that you know is not so, you are a saint. (Laughter.) But what else? They believe in the eternal blessedness of the righteous and in the eternal punishment of the wicked. Tidings of great joy! They are so good that they will