, 1891-06-03

! u uuauuldCNuEtt uul u ElONAu. vi NuIlENr
it is declared that He assembled into
heaven and sitteth on the right hand Of
the Father" The most high has no
right hand. The throne OF Christ is OF
naught which can he seen. 1t is a poetic
statement OF the truth that Christ Is en-
throned in power in the spirit spheres.
Such metaphors are plainly to be read,
not literally but tiguratively. A sensible
nan does not charge a child with Insin-
cerity in using the language of imagIna-
ton. Such int0lllgences and amenities
are reserved for the saints in dealing with
one aDother's faith. Every truth in the
creed is all and more than all that it il
taken TOR in the literal sense by the men
who have nothing if they rave not a TACT.
Every great creed is a symbol. its sign
somewhat which it does not fully disclose.
1t is a picture writing, a sacred hero
glyph. A creed is to be read differently by
different minds. A mathematical formula
does not admit OF different renderings.
A philosophical and poetic statement con-
corning transcendent mysteries not only
allows of different meanings by the dl!-
ierent minds; it necessitates such various
reuderings. We must always take into
account the ~parallax in our observation of
celestial Phenomena. 1t is 10y then chang
ing meanings that the words of a
great creed prove to be beams from that
God who Is ever before the human soul as
infinite truth, whose light falls on the
myriad spirits, turning heavenward toward
Him, breaking into the m~yriad-hued beau
ties OF the thoughts which are arrested 10
the minds summing themselves in his rays.
When the apostles speak under inspirt-
ton every man hears them speaking 10
his own language. When YOU find a
creed has only one meaning you NAV be
sure there Is no deep meaning 10 it what
soever. TO insist on one and the same
reading of a creed is possible only in the
case of machine men reading a machine
creed. A chain gang Is not the type of
march of man after the spirit of truth.
A creed must be re I'd as having grow
ing meanings. The creed which is to
make room for a growing man must be
roomy, must have large thoughts to grow
up into, and elastic words to admit of
such expansion. a fixed and final creed
is a contradiction of terms. 1t assumes
the iniallIble whieh its origin disclaims.
and denies itself as the living growth of
the human spirit, which is its only justif-
cation. 1t must be reread with every new
knowledge. This need not necessItate a
change of creeds. Before a country boys
new trousers are bought his mother lets
down the tucks ir the old ones. A creed
cobbler's work may be dispensed with
only by a creeds being not a thing to be
monded, but an organism to grow and by
itself putting forth new shoots. A fixed
and tiual body of divinity isa dead body
of divinity, a theological corpse,
A creed Is to be read in the light of its
central truth. That heart OF the creed is
unquestionably a moral truth. In Jesus
Christ God is seen to be goodness. The
Nicene creed is then a means to an end.
and that end is character. Right belief
is a belief which helps us to right life.
DO not let your zeal of the faith cause you
to lose faith" Walk IN the trust of the
heavenly father which Christ inspires,
follow the life which Christ patterns, be-
come partakers OF the divine nature,
goodness. and SO shall you know the very
heart of your creed.
Thus reading your creed from within by
its Utmost secret, you will not read mems
lives by their beliefs, but their beliefs by
their lives. However important may be
light thinking, one thing supremacy i'm
portant is right living, Creeds have been
too generally used as clubs TO convince
heretics OF their error by stunning them.
We may not now think OF erasing the
creed from the church walls. Let 1t
stand there, the form of sound words
which we have received from our fithers
and would hand on to our children. Let
it stand oyer the altar as the pattern and
standing OF the church's thinking. after
which each OF us is to conform his own
thinking as best he can. 1t was Il lay
man, according to the ecclesiastical his.
%torian, who rose in the council of Nice
and silenced the controversial discussion
OF the bishops by reminding them that
Christ came not to teach dialcctics, but to
inculcate faith and good works"