The Jewish outlook., 1907-11-22

recede further and further into the
background. Belief in a Christ hin-
ders faith in God; it positively de-
grades faith and makes trust impOs-
sible. The advance from belief to
faith is process of the individual
mind or will, and no erte,mal agent
outside the individual enters into the
arrangement or the process. Here is
realm where even the influence of en-
vironment is inconsequential, and
largely unsuccessful. For the transi-
tiOn from belief to faith, from the neg
ative to the positive, must come from
true knowledge and experience. Jesus
Christ himself no doubt went through
such process, and he needed not the
aid of mediator. How, then, could
he have declared that the people
should believe in God and in Himself
also, when his own experience refutes
it. What we have to conclude is that
either his experience was faulty and
his faith weak, or else that he has been
shamefully misquoted and misihter-
preted. We would fain incline to the
latter assumption. If, then, in asking
the people to have faith in Him, He
did not desire their assent to a Christ
illogical creed, then why are the arti-
cles of such creed preached at and
enforced on all Christians in the name
of Jesus when Jesus himself would
have none of them. And, indeed.
when we regard Jesus as the Jew he
was, the plain, everyday disciple of
the rabbis, living the Jewish life and
acting it, we cannot think of him as
ordering and ordaining what those
who lived long after His death have
credited Him with SO ordering and Or
daining. 1t is easy-and | say this
with no thought of blasphemy toward
the feelings of Christians nor out of
any disrespect to protesting and te-
l,cving Christians lay tn" blame
for degeneration and retrOgres.
sion on the inOffensive shoulders of an
individual who is not present to de-
fend himself, and who. if he were
present. would throw far different
iigit upon the situation.
We may now discuss tn. value. or
rather the danger and the ,lsrlessness
of creed. What the author of the
article has to say about creed is
very true, but he does not go
far enough. Greed is "doctrinal
church law" frozen stiff. The ten
dency is for immature belief to be-
come dOgmatic and for faith to be for
mulated. creedalized. Here lies dan
ger. Religion requires plenty of oxy-
gen to give it life, and to permit il
growth. Greed, however, acts like
carbonic acid gas: it kills religion.
Furthermore, creed, by thus annihilat-
ing religion, creates religions and
blinds people to the essentials of re-
ligion. 1t separates not alone all
mankind, but even the men and wom-
en- of the same religious system, aye!
even of the same household, who may
happen to possess divergent views. A
formulated creed is had, especially
when the spirit of religion has out
grown the form. This is continually
taking place. An indefinite creed is
likewise confusing and cruel. Since
it is wrong for the intellect to be fet-
tered with any rigid creed, some other
scheme must be devised This is diff
cult, especially since creed is but
temporary expedient to concrete alb
stractions and to aid people, if posi-
bic, to faith and trust. The early
Christian church laid down creed
for its followers, and unkindly