Evening journal., 1891-06-01
u Reason and oonsaIenee.

"The Scriptures are not the bedrock Of
the foundation Of the faith Reason and
conscience tested them aud stamped them
as divine. "A creed must be ever brought
back to this mint of man for assaying II
must be shown not to have deprecated.
No creed can stand long 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 right
eousness. To know the creeds of other
religions IS to gain many q clew to the
meaning Of our Christian creeds. What is
the prospect for an intellectual under
standing Of its great creeds if church
practically reissues that edict of the fourth
council oil Carthage, No bishop shall read
Gentle book.
"a creed is to be read as dealing with
themes transcending all human thought.
and therefore its afiirmations are not 10
be read as exact statements. The themes
with which a creed deals are the profound
est problems which can tax mans mind,
the riddles over which successive genera
tions have puzzled themselves YEARLY.
What then must be the nature OF an his
thoughts upon such high things? Words
thrown out at transcendent mysteries.
attempts to express the inexpressible. to
define the indefniable. TO know the un-
movable.
No Use for a Dictionary.
''The true meaning of a creed is 10 be
found not in what it states, but in what
it suggests. A dictionary will not ade-
quately interpret a creed. A creed is TO be
read as including philosophy, which can
be rightly interpreted only by the phiIo-
sophically 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 technical terms Of metaphysics.
They can be traced up to the philosophers
of paganism by whom they were minted.
The popular prejudice against the doctrine
OF the trinity is mainly due to this failure
to recognize it as philosophy. A creed
dealing with transcendent themes must
not only philosophize, it must poetic
thus TO interpret through the imagination
the mysteries Of the faith. God is declared
% be the maker Of heaven and earth.
1et is the Almighty no celestial carpenter
Creation is not q manufacture. but a
growth OF Christ it is declared that He
ascended into heaven and sitteth on the
right hand Of the Father The most
high has no right hand Tho throne Of
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 iiguratively.s
Different Measures for Different Minds
Continuing, the speaker said that a
creed was to be read differently by differ
ent minds 1t was by their changing
meanings that the words of great creed
prove to be beams from that God who is
ever before the human soul as the infinite
truth, whose light falls on the myriad
spirits turning heavenward toward him.
breaking into the myriad hued beauties OF
the thoughts which are arrested in the
minds summing themselves in his rays
When the apostles speak under inspira-
tion, every man hears them speaking in
his own language. "When you find a
creed which has only one meaning. YOU
may be sure there is no deep meaning in
1t whatsoever. To insist on one and the
same reading of a creed is possible only in
the case of machine men reading machine
creed. A chain gang is not the type of the
march of man after the spirit of truth
"A creed must be read as having growing
meanings. The creed which is to make
room for a growing man must be roomy,
must have large thoughts to grow into
and elastic words TO admit of such expan-
sion. II must be reread with every new
knowledge. This need not necessitate a
change of creeels Before q country bov's