The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1892-01-23
DANIEL WEBSTER'S CREED.
The Avowed Religious Belief Of
the Great Statesman.

LII LueSe ClmeS OF CQeOlOglcal Un-
rest" and shifting definitions of doc
trine the following, reprinted from
a newspaper Of twenty -fonr years
ago, will be read with interest:
DR.. Smith of Concord, N. H., has
published the following letter of
Daniel Webster to the Rev. Thomas
Worcester, formerly pastor of the
Congregational church in Salisbury,
N. H., which is accompanied with
a confession of his religious faith,
both of which are in his own hand
writing:
BoscAwEN, Aug. 8, 1807-Dear Sir:
The other day we were conversing re-
specting confessions Of faith. Some time
ago I wrote down for my own use few
propositions in the shape of articles, in
tended to exhibit very. short summary
of the doctrines of the Christian religion
as they impress my mind. / have taken
the liberty to inciose copy for your Pc
rusal. am, sir, with respect, yoara, ETC.,
s4 DANIEL WEBsrER.
81 believe in the existence of Al
mighty God, who created and gov
erns the whole world. / am taught
this by the works Of nature and the
word of revelation
II believe that God exists in three
persons; this l learn from rvvela-
ton. Nor is it any objection to
this belief that I cannot compre-
hend how one can be three or three
one. I hold it my duty to believe,
not what can comprehend or ac-
count for, but what my Maker
teaches me.
II believe the Scriptures of the
Old and New Testaments to be the
will and word of God.
~ believe Jesus Christ to be the
Son of God. The miracles which
he wrought establish in my mind
his personal authority, and render
it proper for me to believe whatever
he asserts. l believe, therefore, all
his declarations, as when he declares
himself the Son of God, as when
he declares any other proposition.
And / believe there is no other way
of salvation than through the mer-
it's of his atonement.
II believe that things past, pres
ent and to come are all equally
present in the mind of the Deity ;
that with him there is no success
sion of time, nor of ideas; that,
therefore, the relative terms past,
present and future, as used among
men, cannot, with strict propriety,
be applied to Deity. l believe in
the doctrines Of foreknowledge and
predestination as thus expounded.
I do not believe in those doctrines
as imposing any fatality or neces-
sity on mems actions, or any way
infringing free agency.
81 believe in the utter inability
of any human being to work out
his own salvation without the con-
slant aids of the Spirit of all grace.
IL believe in those great pecu-
liarities of the Christian religion
a resurrection from the dead and a
day of judgment.
II believe in the universal prov
idence of God, and leave to Epicu-
rus and his more unreasonable fol-
lowers in modern times the incon-
sistency of believing that God made
a world which he does not take the
trouble of governing.
although | have great respect
for some other forms of worship, l
believe the Congregational mode,
on the whole, to be preferable to
any other.
II believe religion, to be q matter
not of demonstration, but of faith.
God requires us to give credit to the
truths which he reveals, not because
we can prove them, but because he
declares them. When the mind is
reasonably convinced that the Bible