Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-02-02
CHANGES CREED TO F.
/. SUIT PENSIONERS
South Orange Pastor omits
Hell" Phrase From
Prayer in Church.

Maintaining that members of hts
congregation stumble" over that part
of the Apostles Greed which concerns
the descent of Christ into hell, Rev.
David De Forest Burrell, pastor of
the First Presbyterian Church, of
South Orange, announced at the
morning service yesterday that He
descended into hell" will be omitted
when the creed is said in his church.
The announcement was made in the
pastors weekly letter to his flock.
He writes at length on creeds and as
serts that much being said regarding
the elimination of creeds is nonsense.
"A creed" the village cleric says,
is definite summary of what one
believes. Just as man lives by
faith, guides himself by convictions
and axioms in every side of his life,
by the same token he must have a
creed for every side of it. l have my
creed in politics, in business, in social
life, in religion. If l do anything in
the way of thinking before l act L
am sure to have such creeds. Presi-
dent Emeritus Eliot, of Harvard, de-
fines his new religion, explicitly bar
ring creeds and dogmas; but that very
definition is a creed, of which that
prohibition is part! Thinking men
must formulate their thought, and
must summarize it.
And, beyond the fact that creed
making is thus spontaneous, 1t has
great positive value. My creed clari-
f1es my faith and strengthens It as
well; for the very process of assemb-
ling my beliefs does for them as a
whole what the assembling room does
for wheels, rods and cylinders; 1t puts
them in working order 1t puts me
where belong, too. 1t will put me, if
1t Is the creed of a Christian, in the
church, among those who agree with
me on all essentials, who will be
therefore the most congenial and help
full company.
TT stiffens my backbone, enabling
me to find in myself greater degree
OF moral courage than the man of
vague ideas and many doubts can
possess, and then, it helps me to do
better work for Christ If you look
abroad over the church you will find
that its best work has throughout
the centuries been done by men and
women of the strongest evangelical
convictions.
Speaking of the Apostles Greed,
Rev. Mr.. Burrell says "It is the
simplest and most comprehensive Of
the great creeds the church has pro-
duced. In 1t are to be found most of
the fundamentals of the Christian
faith. 1t is for this reason more widely
used today that at any time in the
fifteen centuries since its birth We
use ii, not for any magical value in
such things, not in mere slavish repe-
tition of our fathers words, but be-
cause we think it an exceptionally ac-
curate statement of the great saving
truths of Scripture.
1.-THE only statement over which we
stumble concerns Christ's descent
into hell We need not stumble here,
for the word hell to our forefathere
of early England meant the whole
realm of departed spirits-the very
realm described by the New Testa-
ment word 'Hades.' For this reason
many are today using the word
'Hades' in repeating the creed"
Rev. Mr.. Burrell declares that the
task of doing away with creeds is inn
possible and inconeeivable. If such
were possible it would be a fatal
thing to do, he holds, adding that
God give us men and women who
know the great truths which are in
the Bible; who think clearly enough
on religious matters to be able to
summarize them and who are moi
afraid to repeat the creed of their
fathers if it happens to be their own. y