St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-01
Rev. Heber Newton Says All
Creeds Eust Rest Square,
1y Upon 1t.
They Must Stand Plumb With
the Line of Eternal Right
BUSINESS.
True Meaning Of a Creed to
Be Found in What It
Suggests.
Many References to God and
Christ are to Be Taken
Metaphorieally.

NEW YORK, May 31.-The interest
felt IN the series of discourses on creeds
being delivered by Rev. r. Heber New
tan was attested to-dayby the presence
OF congregation which filled All Souls
church to the limit of its capacity. Mr..
NeWton's sermon was entitled How to
Read the Creed" and based on the text:
Understandest thou what thou read
est?"-Acts viii, so. He said: LET me
try to help you to recognition of the
simple principles by which we are apt
TO interpret our form of faith, and read
Alright our creed. A creed is to be
read as understanding its true au-
thorlty. No creed rests upon the au-
thoritY of Christ himself. Creeds do
rest apparently on the authority of the
councils which issued them. But this is
not all that might be desired. A uni
VerSal council is not synonym for the
Almighty. Creeds are not transcripts of
some heavenly manuscript set up from
copy brought down by little angels.
Constantine indeed commanded the
assembled to receive the dictates of the
Holy Spirit. The story of many of the
councils is a tale of violent and acri-
monlouS disputes, of metaphysical hair
splitting and theological jugglery. of
political intrigue and ecclesiastical
mungery, of bitter passions breaking
forth into words of eXecration, with an
athemas instead of benedictions,
Scene Of Clenched Fists
and drawn swords. of soldiers Keeping
bishops from leach others throats, of
bloody maSSacres and Stealthy asSaSsi-
nations. The DEGREES of such councils
are plainly not matters of plenary in
SplratlOn by any spirit, whose dominat-
ing characteristic is holiness. One
thing is thus made providentially clear,
that the truth of the, creed rests not on
the authority of the body setting it
forth, but on its own intrinsic truthful
ness, its Interpretation of the Christian
consciousness. Its authority will last
so long and only so long as it continues
t. eAD.GsS The Christian consciousness.
ana to interpret satisfactorily the prob
lens Of nature and man in the light of
the spirit of Jesus Christ. A
creed is dead Alright as it
IS continually carried back
to its source. The Nicene creed was an
attempt to state logically and philO-
sophically the teachings OF the new
stand as it is seen to rest Enthusiastically
on this foundation. This forces on the
church the continual duty of showing
that every affirmation of the creed caf-
not be proven from scripture. and of
stretching herauthority generally when
ever there is any question on this point
The scriptures are not the bed rock of
the foundation of the faith. Reason
aud conscience tested them and stamped
them as divine. A creed must be ever
brought back to this mint of man for as
saying. 1t must be shown not to have
deprecated. No creed can long stand
which does not square with fact, which
does not rest on the granite rock of
reason. which does not stand plumb
with the line of eternal righteousness.
a creed to be read Alright must be read
in the light of the
larger Life of Faith
out of which it springs, of which it is
a part. AS you see the truth in your
neighbors' creed you will better see the
truth in your own. To know the creedS
of other religions is to gain many a clue
to the meaning of our Christian creeds.
What is the prospect for an intellectual
understanding Of its great creeds if
church practically reissues that edict of
the fourth council of Carthage, "No
bishop shall read a gentle book" A
creed is to be read as dealing with them
and tranScending all human thought,
and therefore its affirmations are not to
read as exact statements. The themes
with which creed deals are
the profoundest problems which
can tax mans mind. the most
massive mysteries which fascinate
his intellect the riddles over which sue
cessive generations had puzzled them
selves wearily. What then must be the
nature of all his thoughts upon such
high things? Words thrown out at
transcendent mysteries" attempts to ex-
press the ineXpressible, to define the in
defnable, to know the unknowable.
The true meaning of creed is to be
fond not in what it states but in what
it suggests. A dictionary will not ade-
quately interpret creed. a creed is TO
be read as including philosophy, which
can be rightly interpreted only by the
rhilOsophically minded. The language
Of
The Nicene Creed
concerning the incarnation is pure
philosophy. We know this from the
character of the words employed. They
are the technical terms of metaphysics.
They can be traced up to the philoso-
pliers of paganIsm by whom they were
minted. In the works of the Nicene
fathers we see men of acute and some
times deep metaphysical powers wrest-
ling with the very problems which have
always furnished the materials for
philosophy, reaching philosophical con-
clusions by philosophical methods and
expressing them in philosophical terms.
Technical terms turned out of their
native region and used in the every day
speech of men must not be expected to
convey much meaning. The popular
prejudice against the doctrine of the
trinity is mainly due to this failure to
recognize it as philosophy. A creed
is to be read as a form of sound
words, which may not only be said but
sung. A creed dealing with transcend
ent themes must not only philosophiZe,
it must poetiZe = thus to interpret
through the imagination the ministeries
of the faith. God is declared to be "the
maker of heaven and EARTH" Yet is the
Almighty no celestial carpenter. Gre
ating is not manufacture, but
HE ascended into heaven and sitteth
on the right hand of the Father. The
most high has no right hand. The
throne of God is OF naught which can be
seen. 1t is a poetic statement of the
truth that Christ is enthroned in power
in the spirit spheres. Such metaphors
are plainly to be read, not literally, but
figuratively. A sensible man does not
charge child with insincerity in using
the
Language OF Imagination.
Such intelligences and amenities are
reserved for the saints in dealing with