The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-12-03

merce. lie does not promise thdt nc
may not become an agitator for the
repeal of some clause, or the addition
of some amendment to the constitu
ton; he may not approve all the laws
made under it; but he takes the free
mans oath as the sign of his allegiance
above all to the supreme principles of
democracy, as a declaration of his de-
votion to government, law, liberty, and
an orderly progress. I would subscribe
to a great Christian creed as l take
the freeman's oath, not as a literalist,
but as a loyalist.
1t is pre-eminently aus a symbol of
common faith in the gospel that in our
Congregational form of confession of
faith we use the Apostles creed.
Secondly, This creed has use for
call to belief. In their origin the early
Christian creedls We're for purposes of
instruction. They were means of relig-
icus education. They were testimonies
to the faith but they were testimonies
for teaching, We should not ignore
this fundamental purpose in our creeds.
The Apostles creed was developed
from baptismal formulas. 1t was used
for the instruction of catechumens. A
church without creed Is not fit to
have a Sunday school. A creedless
church may be sufficient for the tired
religious man; it is not enough for lit
tie children. To fall back into creed
1essness is to return toward chaos and
night, not to advance into the light.
The Crapsey case raises a question of
belief; it relates, however, to a Sec
ondary point, and does not necessarily
involve the primal and essential faith
of the creed. 1t is interesting to note
the fact that in the earlier forms of
the creed the words of this article were
not precisely the phrase of the COM
pleted creed of the fifth century. In
the older Latin creed the, phrase was
MARY, the Virgin" That was her
name; by that appelation She was
known. And the original intent of this
article, so our historical scholars are
quite agreed in telling us, was not 50
much to affirm the miraculous birth of
Jesus, but rather to affirm the fact
that He was born, and really lived as
a man; that He did not merely appear
as a full grown man. The creed is a
witness to the personal reality Of the
Lord Jesus "A doctrine of His miracu-
l3us birth lies implicit in it, but it is
not its explicit affirmation, Matthew's
gospel and Luke's seemingly contain it;
but Mark, who records Jesus mighty
acts, and John, in whose gospel is con-
tanned the fullest declaration of the In
carnation, are silent with regard to the
| miraculous birth; and scholars who
confess the Lord Christ Of the creed,
may we'll refrain from regarding as
essential belief concerning which
Mark and ST. John were silent, reserv-
ing their beliefs on this as well as
many other questions, as Erasmus once
said not until the next general council
| OF the church, but for the judgment
seat ~ Cod
Thirdly. The creed has a use as a
waymark for Christian thought In
| their best uses the Christian creeds are
as guide posts marking the ways which
have been found and traversed by the
earnest thought Of the past, and point
ing in opening ways along which
thought may follow on and on, as
the spirit leads into all truth. The
Apostles' creed thus marks three great
directions in which men ought to think
God, the Father Almightythe life
and person of Christine spirit, and
the consequences for us men both in
this world and in the eternal life.
Men in mind ought to think out their
personal creeds in these directions, ]
remember how a scholar of great rep
utation once said to me almost sadly:
1.-THE trouble with me is not that I do
not have the courage of my convictions,
| but that | do not have convictions"
He did not indeed full justice to him
self in that remark; but there Is great
need of convictions, and of religious
convictions among men. l trust that
this church, holding its symbol of faith
aloft in all honesty of individual inter-
| pretatlons, and in the publicly avowed
liberty of the spirit, may never sink
| into a. creedlessness from which no sus-
| tanned devotion to humanity may flow
From the mighty past of this ancient
church comes the call to a greater fu-
| ture, 'In mind be men,"