The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1897-01-04
IAN MAcLAREN.s CREED.
DIR. BIanchard's Sermon at Congress
Square Church.

book entitled ''The Mind of the Master"
The text of the sermon was the Sermon
on the Mount. DR.. Blanchard spoke sub
stantially as follows. Let us salute the
New Year with reverence, with courage
and with good cheer Let us take the
lessons of 1895 and set them deep in our
hearts for guidance in 1897. Let US love
God and man under the leadership of
Jesus Christ our Lord. Let us believe
God will be with US in the year to come
as He has been with us la the past. He
brought to his people message of good
cheer for the new year. His theme was,
'Dr. Watson's Creed Clan Maclarsn's)--a
Sign of Theological Progress"
: That creed runs as follows:
81 believe in the Fatherhood of God
l believe In the words of Jesus;
| believe in the clean heart;
/ believe in the service of love;
/ believe in the unworthy life;
I believe in the Beatitudes;
| promise to trust God and to follow
Christ, to forgive my enemies and to
seek after the righteousness OF Cod"
DR.. Watson is the pastor of large
church in Liverpool He has much to do
with education in that city and in Lon
don. He is man of much reading. His
books show how much he loves man and
God,
The announcing of this creed is great
sign of theological progress. 1t shows
that men, in union of church life should
base their creeds on Ethics and not on in
Ill
of the Master-"No church since the
early centuries has had the courage to
formulate an ethical creed, for even those
bodies of Christians which have now
written theological creeds, yet have i'm
plicit affirmations or denials of doctrine
as their basis. : For three short
years the Church of Christ had none else
(than an ethical greedy and it was by
holy living and not by any metaphysical
subtleties, the Primitive Church lived,
and suffered, and conquered. Later on
in the same book, in his chapter on
'Fatherhood, the Final Idea of God"
(page 265) he says-"One is aghast to
discover that the doctrine which Jesus
put in the forefront Of His teaching and
labored at with such earnestness did not
leave a trace on the dominant theology
of the early church, and for long CEN
turtles passed out of the Christian con-
seriousness. Had it not been for the
Lords Prayer, and, in sense. the three
Oreeds, no witness had been left for the
Fatherhood in Christian doctrine and
worship. The Anglican communion has
thirty nine articles, with one on oaths,
one on the descent into hell, one on
marriage of priests, one on how to avoid
people that are excommunicated, and not
one on the Fatherhood. The Presbyterian
communion has confession with thirty
three chapters, which deal. in trenchant
manner, with great mysteries, but there
God.' DIR. Watson 8 creed is being wide
ly honored. Some. however, denounoe it.
But it is showing what men in the
future will demand of oreeds.
1t is sign of and help towards the
foundation which is being laid on which
built Men are still striving to secure
the union of Christendom on other than
ethical beliefs. They will fail. The Pope
invites in vain. The Archbishops in
England, with their quadrilateral, invite
in vain. The Congregationalists invite
in vain. Mon will not unite in
metaphysical statements. They will only
unite on statements of ethics, and these
must be very few.
Will not this church, on this first
Sunday Of the year, accept this creed
At Chicago, in October. the debate on
oreeds will be renewed. He had creed
he would like to have accepted. 1t Isl
believe in God, Creator of the Universe
and Father of all mankind.
1 believe in Jesus Christ, the worlds
supreme spiritual leader
I believe in the final blessedness of all
mankind"
We might have three creeds. Would
that the Universal,st denomination |
might adopt Maclaren's creed
II now, we all adopt this creed this !
morning, il is for US, on this New Years |
Sunday, to say-fWe will use it. y See |
what it will do in the church-the home |
the place of business-the community
the country.
DR.. Blanchard, in this closing part, |
dwelt earnestly on the need of emphasis |
on "the service of love, +" "the unworldly |
life, - "the Beatitudes, - ''the forgiveness |
of enemies % s'the trust in God and fol-
lowing Christ and the seeking of the
of Cod
He said, among other things. that he
hoped the new charter for Portland
would be adopted He besought men to
see that nation can only prosper as it is
righteous. He pleaded for respect and
owe for all our countrynsen. He praised |
Hon. Thomas e. Watson's letter to Ion. |
Theodore Roosevelt in the January |
Review of Reviews. He asked for earnest
of thu belief that money |
and brains are used for the benefit Of the
few-the disregard of the many.
=sgIn all this great work, Jesus is ever
tbo rogpJaudaut Iaadav nr Watson belp |