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Presented by the Author

The Apostles' Creed

By David James Burrell

The Apostles' Creed

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The
Apostles' Creed
By
David James Burrell, D.D., LL.D.
Author of "We Would See Jesus," "The Home
Sanctuary," "The Evolution of a Christian," etc.

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY
Park Avenue and Fortieth Street
New York City

Copyright, 1915, by
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY

CONTENTS Section I PAGE
" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth."  i
Section II
" And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord." 47
Section III
" Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of
the Virgin Mary."  73
Section IV
" Suflfered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead and buried. He descended Into Hell." 83
Section V
" The third day he rose again from the dead." . 1 17
Section VI
" He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right
hand of-God the Father Almighty." . . .125

CONTENTS Section VII PAGE
" From thence he shall come to judge the quick
and the dead."  137
Section VIII
" I believe in the Holy Ghost."  161
Section IX
" The holy catholic Church, the communion of
saints."  171
Section X
" The forgiveness of sins."  203
Section XI
" The resurrection of the body."  213
Section XII
" And the life everlasting : Amen."  223

VI

The voice of Monica
Calls to thee from Paradise, " Augustine, come :
Lo, at the gates of day
Thy destined home ! "
What though the tempest roar
In fury round thy Church's tottering wall?
From the eternal shore
Her voice doth call.
The Master Architect
Will shield, against the advancing gates of Hell,
The Church of his elect
He loves so well.
He died to lay that stone.
Elect and precious, bathed in his life-blood.
That it may stand alone
Against the flood.
In waves the quicksands swim:
Fear not the Syrtes' shift, the tempest shock:
Thy faith is built on Him
Who is the Rock. — Saint Augustine, a. d., 430.

vu

INTRODUCTION
The most important things in our experience are
commonplace; for example, home, and daily bread,
and mother's love. We are sufficiently informed
about them ; yet — and possibly for that very reason
— we fail to appreciate or duly emphasize them.
So it is with the Ten Commandments and the
Lord's Prayer, which we have repeated ever since
we learned them at our trundle-beds. They are like
coins passing from hand to hand until they lose the
image and superscription of the king.
In like manner the thoughtless repetition of the
Apostles' Creed is likely to dull our apprehension of
the tremendous truths involved in it.
Let it be observed, at the outset, that the Apostles'
Creed is not really apostolic. The liturgical
churches hold and affirm that its Twdve Articles
were written by the twelve apostles, each of them
contributing one. The most careful investigation,
however, has not traced the symbol in its present
form beyond the year 450.
Observe, also, that it is not inspired.* There is
only one document in the world that is inspired;
namely, the Bible, which claims to have been " writ-
* In the original the word inspiration is Theopnustia, which
means literally " breathed of God." ix

INTRODUCTION
ten by holy men as they were moved by the Spirit
of God." It is not claimed for any of the great
formularies of the Church — such as the Nicene
and Athanasian Creeds, the Westminster Confes
sion of Faith, the Heidelberg Catechism and the
Thirty-nine Articles — that they were written in
that way.
This does not signify, however, that the Apostles'
Creed is without a very definite value. There are
good and sufficient reasons for regarding it as a
most important contribution to the spiritual welfare
of the Church and to the upbuilding of all true fol
lowers of Christ.
To begin with, it serves as a Manual or Com
pendium of Religious Truth. It may be likened to
the digest of the Roman Law which was compiled
in the sixth century by order of the Emperor
Justinian and known as the Justinian Pandect. No
lawyer would for a moment regard this corpus juris
civilis as a substitute for the great body of the
Roman Law ; but it serves as an indispensable guide,
table of contents, or summary of it.
So the Apostles' Creed is not to be taken as a sub
stitute for Scripture. The man who allows a
prayer-book or Confession of Faith or anything else
to take the place of his Bible is inviting an impover
ishment of soul. Our Lord said, " Ye search the
Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have
eternal life, and these are they which testify of me."
The two things here indicated, namely, Christ and

INTRODUCTION
Life, are to be found in Scripture as at the foun
tain-head. The probability is that the Apostles' Creed was
originally based upon the baptismal formula, " In
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost." We find accordingly that it falls
naturally under three heads. First, " I believe in
God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and
earth "; second, " I believe in Jesus Christ his only
Son, our Lord " ; and third, " I believe in the Holy
Ghost" as the Executive of the Church. It thus
binds us to an implicit faith in the Triune God and
to all the great verities which center in Him.
It is valuable also as a Resultant of the Con
troversies of the Early Church. The first centuries
of the Christian era were characterized by doctrinal
debate. The Church believed but had not as yet
formulated its belief.
It is natural that we should lament the heresies
of our time: although, in point of fact, there is no
modern heresy which was not current in those early
days. The denial of the personality of God, of the
deity of Christ, of the influence of the Spirit, and
of the truth of Scripture were all discussed pro and
contra in the early Councils ; and the Apostles' Creed
marks the conclusion arrived at by the fathers in
these premises.
It does not follow, however, that we are absolved
from the individual responsibility of determining
upon the doctrinal questions at 'issue. Human na-
xi ^- —

INTRODUCTION
ture must be reckoned with as a constant factor in
the disposition of things. The experience of the
gray fathers does not prevent the children from
" ganging their ain gait." It is always in order,
therefore, to call for the previous question.
The fact that a dwarf — the Present — can see
further than a giant if he stand on the shoulders of
the Past, is no stumbling-block in the way of a willful
schoolboy who insists on proving the axioms. Tell
him that a straight line is the shortest distance be
tween two points, and he will want to know why.
Tell him that if he puts no confidence in the self-
evident truths of geometry he will never reach the
Pons Asinorum, and he will persist in his original
investigations as ardently as many do who place no
value on the results of past controversies with re
spect to religious truth.
It thus appears, further, that the Apostles' Creed
is valuable as a Standing Memorial of the Ancient
Faith. It is the foundation upon which the early
Christians built the superstructure of their heroic
lives. Their belief is here reduced to its lowest
terms. A subscription to this formula was required of
novices on entering the Church. Is there not a
peculiar sacredness in a document with such asso
ciations? The words which we oftentimes too
lightly and thoughtlessly repeat fell reverently from
the lips of those who worshiped in catacombs and
lonely conventicles at peril of life. This was their
xii

INTRODUCTION
confession of faith as they passed through the gate
way of the Colisseum to be " ground as God's fine
wheat by the teeth of lions."
Furthermore, this Creed is valuable as a Per
manent Test of Orthodoxy. I am aware of the fact
that the word " orthodoxy " is offensive to many in
these days. It has been put in the stocks, with its
face smeared with phosphorus, for the derision of
passers-by ; nevertheless it is a blessed, blood-stained
word. It means " straight teaching." Why then
should we shrink from it ? The word is a synonym
for honesty in pulpit and pew, since it stands for
loyalty to ordination vows and fealty to the teaching
of Christ.
Again, this historic symbol is valuable as a Source
of Spiritual Power. The man who believes is the
man who does and who wins out. " All things are
possible," said Jesus, " to him that believeth." Here
is the secret of a successful life: "According to
your faith be it unto you."
The man who believes is the one who invents and
discovers, plans, executes and makes good. He
leads armies across the Alps and builds roadways to
connect the remote ends of the earth. He under-
girds the seas and navigates the skies.
An agnostic dreams no dreams and sees no
visions; he banks on nothing that lies beyond the
circumspection of his finger-tips, goes out after no
Eldorados and accomplishes nothing worth speaking
of. xiii

INTRODUCTION
Tell me what you believe and I will tell you what
you amount to. If you believe in gold as your
sine qua non, you will pursue it until your soul turns
yellow. If you believe in pleasure as the one thing
needful, you will keep on chasing butterflies and
thistledown as if there were nothing else worth
living for. If you believe in the emoluments of
worldly honor with all your heart, you will move
heaven and earth to crown yourself with laurel that
will fade at sunset. For belief is the thing we live
by.* " As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he."
By the same token, he who really believes in God
as his Father will be pervaded by the sense of God.
He who really believes in Christ as his Saviour will
hold him first, last, midst and all in all. He who
truly believes in the Holy Spirit as his Sanctifier
will be " coy and tender to offend," ever watchful
lest by sin he grieve Him.
Finally, the Apostles' Creed is important as a sub
stantial Basis of ultimate Union among the various
branches of the Christian Church. In this simple
Confession of Faith we have, indeed, a platform
upon which the evangelical Denominations are stand
ing to-day. However they may differ as to minor
matters, they are knit together in one Lord, one
Faith, one spiritual Baptism, one God and Father
of all. Church union is a fact accomplished in the
great enterprises at home and abroad which make
*The word "belief" is by some derived from hy-Ufian,
meaning "to live by." xiv

INTRODUCTION
for the spread of the gospel and the ultimate reign
of the Saviour in this world of ours.
The question has been raised whether we are los
ing our faith in these days. Oh, no; impossible!
A man may lose a spurious faith or an empty and
superficial confession of faith; but not genuine
faith. For faith gets hold of the innermost fiber of
one's being; it has such a vital grip on mind and
conscience and heart and sovereign will that to lose
it would be as impossible as to live without a beating
pulse. The faith that can be lost is not worth keep
ing; one is better without it.
The pronoun " I," with which the Creed begins,
commits us to a personal appropriation of its truths.
Its last word, "Amen," sets the seal of sincerity
upon our affirmation : as if one said, " So be it in
my walk and conversation ; so be it in all my rela
tions with God and my fellow-men." We are thus
bound in solemn covenant to prove our faith by our
works, which can only be done by translating our
Creed into the familiar terms of life.

XV

Section I
" I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of
heaven and earth."

ATHANASIUS CONTRA MUNDUM
They call me hasty, of opinion proud.
Untaught to bend a stubborn will ;
Ah! little dreams the shallow-hearted crowd
What thoughts this bosom fill.
What loneUness this outer strength doth hide,
What longing lies beneath this calm
For human sympathy so long untried.
Our earth's divinest balm.
Biit more than sympathy the truth I prize ;
Above my friendships hold I God ;
And stricken be these feet ere they despise
The path their Maker trod.
So let my banner be again unfurled.
Again its cheerless motto seen :
" The world against me, I against the world ! "
Judge thou, dear Christ, between !
— Huntington.

THE APOSTLES' CREED

So then, at the outset, this is an individual mat
ter. Alone I came into the world; alone I
make my journey over the undulating country
called Life; alone I must pass on into the Beyond;
alone I must stand at the judgment bar of God.
It follows by inevitable logic that I must for my
self alone lay down my platform of principles for
guidance along the way.
The difference between I and we — between credo
and credimus — is the difference between a man and
a manikin in a crowd. ,Which is better : to be swept
along by fashion — thinking, believing and acting
as others do — or to stand braced against the rock
of personal conviction and let the crowd sweep by?
In the ninth volume of Bancroft's " History of the
United States " we come upon this passage : " The
most stupendous thought that ever was conceived by
man, such as had never been dared by Socrates or
the Academy, by Aristotle or the Stoics, took pos
session of Descartes in his meditations on a Novem
ber night on the banks of the Danube. His mind
separated itself from everything besides and, in the
3

THE APOSTLES' CREED
consciousness of its own freedom, stood over against
tradition, all received opinion, all knowledge, all
existence except itself, thus asserting the principle
of Individuality as the key-note of all coming phi
losophy and political institutions. Nothing was to
be received as truth by man which did not convince
his reason. A new world was opened up in which
every man was to be his own philosopher."
That " new world " is the world we are living in.
The first and greatest commandment is. Think ; think
for yourself ; let no man do your thinking for you.
There are people to-day, as in Cowper's time, who
farm out their thinking and follow on,
" Crooked or straight, through quags or thorny dells,
True to the jingling of their leaders' bells."
But, good people, by the divine franchise of man
hood let no man or body of men, no priest, caucus
or Sanhedrin, do your thinking for you. Quit you
like men!

"BELIEVE"
A MAN without a creed is a mere makeshift
sort of man.
The word " creed " is from credo, mean
ing " I believe." And the word " belief " is traced
to the Saxon by-lifian, meaning " the thing we
live by."
The reason why nobody believes in a man who
believes nothing is because faith is the substratum
of life. Thus it is written: "As a man thinketh
within himself, so is he."
A grocer who does not believe that it takes sixteen
ounces to make a pound soon puts up his shutters.
A candidate with no definite opinions as to the
fundamental principles of government, though he
may succeed for a while as a demagogue, is doomed
to failure in the long run.
But if a well-formulated code of facts and princi
ples is necessary in these common walks of life, how
much more in the province of religion in which are
involved the issues of the eternal ages !
There is a difference between knowing and be
lieving. One may know much and believe little, and
vice versa. A man may know that " honesty is the
best policy," but unless he is an honest man he does
5

THE APOSTLES' CREED
not believe it. A citizen of New York may know
that municipal righteousness is a desirable thing, but
unless he casts his ballot accordingly he does not
really believe it. Moses knew, beyond all possi
bility of doubt or peradventure, that God spoke to
him from the burning bush ; and he showed that he
believed it when, in obedience to the divine com
mand, he stood up in the audience chamber of
Pharaoh with his commission on his lips : " Thus
saith Jehovah, Let my people go ! " The prodigal
knew from the beginning of his downward career
that in his father's house there was plenty and to
spare, but his knowledge was not vitalized and trans
muted into faith until he said, " I will arise and go."
The touchstone of orthodoxy is not knowing but
appropriating. The confessor who says, " I believe
in Christ," and does not worship and follow him in
labor of love and patience of hope, is no better than
a lay-figure. His creed is as empty as a last year's
cocoon. This is that " faith without works " which,
being dead, is no faith at all. In other words, be
lief must be resolved, amplified and converted into
terms of common life.
This is what Christ meant when he said, " Except
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his
blood ye have not life in yourselves."
As food is without value unless it be assimilated
and transmuted into blood and sinew and physical
energy, so our knowledge of Christ and of the
spiritual truths which radiate from him is as mean-
6

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ingless as a painted ship upon a painted ocean except
as it finds its way along the vital tissues of the soul
and is transmuted into the practical graces of charac
ter and usefulness. It is thus that our lives become
" hid with Christ in God."

"IN GOD"
WE were made in the divine likeness:
wherefore we cannot help believing in
some sort of a god.
In Irving's " Life of Columbus " he says that
when the great explorer landed on the islands off
the American coast he found the rude inhabitants,
as he supposed, without any conception of God ; but
presently he discovered that they stood in mortal
terror of an infinite Being with whom they had com
munion through the mediation of little images,
called Zemes, which they wore about their necks.
But this does not mean that everybody believes in
God. For while there are many gods there is only
one true God.
He must be one, for the good and sufficient rea
son that he filleth all in all. There is room for no
other in the universe. His presence and power so
occupy time and space as to exclude all others.
It is said of him that he " inhabiteth eternity."
He is the sempiternal One, eternal both backward
and forward ; as it is written, " From everlasting to
everlasting thou art God." His lifetime is the eter
nal Now. 8

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The earth is full of his glory. As there can be
only one King in England, one Emperor in Ger
many, one Czar in Russia, and one President in our
Republic, so in this world of ours there can be only
one sovereign God.
The heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot con
tain him. The eyes of angels and archangels are
all alike directed toward the central throne ; and all
voices unite in ascribing to its Occupant glory and
honor and power and dominion for ever and ever.
Any other than this God is a false god; and to
worship such is idolatry. The definition of idolatry
is " The worship of any other than the true God."
To the children of Israel at the foot of the flam
ing mountain God announced himself on this wise :
" I am Jehovah thy God, who brought thee out of the
land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou
shalt have no other gods before me."
It was a custom among the more scrupulous Jews
to wear a frontlet between their eyes, called a
" shema," to keep them in perpetual remembrance of
this fact. On it was inscribed the legend, " Hear, O
Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou
shalt have no other gods before me! "
The true God has revealed himself to men.
It is antecedently probable that he would do this.
If he is a Father and we are really his offspring, it
goes without saying that he would not leave us grop
ing in the dark to find him.
He has revealed himself in nature. " One dande-
9

THE APOSTLES' CREED
lion seed," says Professor Chadbourne, " has power
enough to cut up all the atheism in the world by the
root." But while nature reveals the being of God,
in doing so it " speaks a various language " ; and
as to his character, and particularly as to his grace,
it has little or nothing to say.
He has revealed himself also, and more com
pletely, in Christ. It was to this end that the only-
begotten Son of the Father came into the world,
that in him we might be able to form a just and ade
quate conception of God. " Philip saith unto him.
Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth us. Jesus
saith tmto him. Have I been so long time with you
and dost thou not know me, Philip? He that hath
seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou.
Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me ? "
It is not enough, however, that God should thus
reveal himself in Christ. Is that an unwarrantable
thing to say? A moment's consideration will
justify it.
Christ lived in a remote corner of the world for/
a brief period of thirty years and then went his way.
He was indeed a full and complete unveiling of God ;
but, in the necessity of the case, he could be so prac
tically only to such as knew him. If no provision
had been made for extending the knowledge of his
wonderful life over all lands and throughout all
ages, the probability is that none of us would ever
have heard of him. For this reason the Scriptures
ID

THE APOSTLES' CREED
must needs be given to perpetuate and universalize
the knowledge of him.
In 1853 Commodore Perry went to Japan as a
commissioner of the United States to open up com
merce with that country; but when he cast anchor
in the harbor of Yeddo, the Mikado refused to
receive him. He was required to produce his offi
cial credentials before he could gain a hearing.
That being done, a treaty was duly effected. But
that treaty would have been of no avail had the pro
ceedings been arrested then and there. The treaty
must be reported, ratified and made a matter of
public fame. This also was done; whereupon the
visit of Commodore Perry to Japan became a living
part of history and an important factor in the subse
quent welfare and prosperity of Japan by bringing
her into touch with Christian civilization.
The Son of God, coming into the world, had
behind him the Old Testament, which, as a sum
mary of his Messianic credentials, set forth prophet
ically his mission as the Saviour of men. And
when, after his passion, he returned to " the glory
which he had with the Father before the world
was," he left behind him in the New Testament a
complete record of his life, character and work. In
these two Testaments, constituting the Scriptures,
we have a full, final and authoritative setting forth
of Christ as the manifestation of the one true God.
But what of those who have no Bible? Is the
light of nature sufficient to reveal God?
:H

THE APOSTLES' CREED
It is at best a dim and ineffective light, owing to
the fact that sin has warped our vision. There is a
twist in every pair of human eyes. But God is not
an exacting God; he demands no more of any man
than that he shall bring his life up to the measure
of his light. Do the heathen thus live up to their
Ught? " They are without excuse," says Paul, " for the
invisible things of God since the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being perceived through the
things that are made, even his everlasting power and
divinity. . . . Knowing God, they glorified him not
as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in
their reasonings and their senseless heart was dark
ened. Professing themselves to be wise, they be
came fools, and changed the glory of the incorrupti
ble God for the likeness of an image of corruptible
man. . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a
lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather
than the Creator, who is blessed forever."
As to the truth of that statement, the pantheons
of the world are in evidence. The gods of Olympus
and Walhalla are mere images of men magnified and
projected on the skies.
It would be hard to find anything more pathetic
than the grim irony of Isaiah in his picture of an
idol-maker. He shows him going out into the forest
to seek a suitable tree, a sound-hearted tree " that
will not rot." He brings this to his workshop, and
there " stretcheth out a Une: he marketh it out with
J2

THE APOSTLES' CREED
the compasses, and shapeth it after the figure of a
man." Presently, being hungry, he gathers the
chips and shavings and " kindleth it, and baketh
bread; ... he warmeth himself, and saith. Aha, I
am warm ! " And then he falls down before " the
residue " of the fir-tree and " prayeth unto it, and
saith. Deliver me; for thou art my God ! "
In like manner Paul, in his address to the people
of Athens -^ a city " full of idols," whose streets
were lined with colonnades of images — put his
hearers to shame, saying, " In God we live and move
and have our being: as certain even of your own
poets have said, ' For we are also his offspring.'
Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to
think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or
stone, graven by art and device of man."
It is comparatively easy thus to expose the ab
surdity of image-worship ; but how about those who,
having the Bible, have either ignored its theology or
lost faith in it? Are there idolaters among them?
Surely; if the right definition of idolatry be " the
worship of any other than the true God." For
what difference does it make whether a god be made
out of the brown earth or out of the gray matter of
the brain? If it is a fabricated thing and not con
formable to the God who has revealed himself, then
" the workman made it, and it is no god."
There are those who speak guardedly of " an
original first cause." The materialistic scientists
of our time are accustomed to characterize their god
13

THE APOSTLES' CREED
in that way. Finding it impqssible to bar God abso
lutely out of his universe, since the present order of
things must somehow be accounted for, they reduce
him to the lowest possible terms of Law, Force, the
All-pervading Soul, or the Potency of Life. Who
made this god? The Evolutionists, who, tracing
the existing order back through the calm operation
of natural laws for an indefinite period, came at
length upon a primordial germ. But — who made
that primordial germ? As between God and
chance, they choose to refer this remote origin of
things to some sort of a god. He is the indispensa
ble Deus ex machina; that is all.
There are others who, approaching the argument
from the ethical standpoint, find it necessary to
hypothecate a god in order to account for our moral
conceptions. The best definition of this god of the
philosophers is "a something not ourselves that
maketh for righteousness." Who made that god?
A clever workman named Matthew Arnold made it ;
therefore it is not God. He, too, found himself
driven into a quandary ; which he solved by writing
on his altar : " A Something." This is only an
other form of the Athenian inscription " To an
Unknown God."
There are others who conceive of God as Justice,
pure and simple — calm, inflexible, inexorable Jus
tice; whose all-comprehensive law is written in the
terms : " Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he
also reap." There is, then, no such thing as the par-
14

THE APOSTLES' CREED
don of sins. " The soul that sinnethj it shall die 1 "
This is Karma, "the law of consequences." Who
made this god? The Buddhists, and like-minded
devotees of justice without mercy. But this is not
the God who has revealed himself in Scripture to the
children of men. This is an idol ; and none the less
so because it is made not of " gold or silver or stone,
graven by art and device of man," but of the human
imagination. There is no such god anywhere in
the universe.
And still others conceive of God as nothing but
love. Is it not written, " God is love " ? Yes, but
nowhere is it intimated that God is nothing but love.
To speak of him as a good-natured being — Bon
Dieu — who has no possibility of holy indignation
in his nature, who can look upon sin and all its at
tendant abominations with complacency, is strangely
illogical. The least that could be expected of God
is that he should be as perfect as an ideal man. But
if a man were constructed on the lines of this weak
caricature it would be impossible for us to respect
him. |Who made this lop-sided, amiable god ? The
sentimentalists made him. And all soimd thinkers,
not to say devout worshipers, are bound to reject
him. For " God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and
unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness,
justice, goodness and truth." His character is a
perfect symmetry of all right attributes. To reduce
him to one attribute only is to make a monstrosity
of him. IS

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The practical question, however, is this: Where
did you personally get your God? Out of current
opinions? Out of your inner consciousness? Out
of some personal prejudice in favor of this or that?
Then you, yourself, are the workman ; you made it,
and it is not God.
If we would avoid idolatry, it behooves us not to
go groping after God like blind men, but to betake
ourselves to the Oracles where God speaks for him
self. If, having the Scriptures, the revelation, the
showing forth of God in his many-sided character,
we bow at false altars and worship gods made by
human hands or imaginations, we have none to
blame but ourselves.
In the middle of the last century Sir David
Brewster went to Paris to visit his friend Arago,
the astronomer, who was finishing the long and
eventful circuit of his life. Of their interview he
says, "We conversed on the marvels of creation;
and the name of God was introduced. This led
Arago to complain of the difficulties which his reason
experienced in understanding God. ' But,' said I,
' it is still more difficult not to understand him ' ; and
he did not deny it. ' Only in this case,' said he, ' it
is quite impossible for me to understand the God of
the philosophers.' I replied, ' We are not dealing
with him, although I believe that true philosophy
conducts us with faith in God; but I wish to speak
of the God of the Christian.' Whereupon he ex
claimed, ' You mean the God of my mother! How
i6

THE APOSTLES' CREED
much comfort she had in kneeling before him ! '
He said no more ; but his heart had spoken." Thus
a man left to his better instincts, true to his con
science and the light of the Oracles, comes back to
God.

17

"THE FATHER"
OF aU the great truths of Scripture the Father
hood of God is practically the only one with
which nobody seems disposed to take issue.
The Greeks accepted it, as appears in Paul's won
derful sermon to the philosophers on Mars' Hill
when he quotes from Aratus : " As certain even of
your poets have said, ' We are also his offspring.' "
The Romans also accepted it, as appears in their
worship of Jupiter, whose name, Zeus-pater, means
the universal Father. In like manner the Norse
men bowed before Al-fadir, " the Father of all."
In current controversy the brotherhood of man is
usually based upon the Fatherhood of God. It is
not an uncommon thing to hear men who prac
tically repudiate God, blaspheme his name, tread
upon the blood of his covenant, desecrate his holy
day and habitually violate his law, discourse in elo
quent terms on their filial relation with him. It is
important, therefore, that we should understand
what this means, the Fatherhood of God.
I. At the outset the proposition rests upon the
fact that God created us.
The record runs on this wise, " And God said.
Let us make man in our image, after our like-
i8

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ness." So the Lord formed man out of the dust
of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life ; and man became a " living soul."
In being thus animated by the divine breath man
is distinguished from the lower orders of life and
well qualified to have dominion over all. At the
moment of his creation he stood erect with his face
toward the sky: endowed with a mind to contem
plate great verities, a conscience to " distinguish be
twixt the worse and better reason," and a sovereign
will to do his own choosing even in defiance of God.
" Oh, mighty brother soul of man !
Where'er thou art, or low or high,
Thy skyey arches with exultant span
O'er-roof infinity ! "
We are warranted thus in tracing our lineage back
to God; and in doing so we must needs renounce
what Carlyle calls "the religion of frog spawn."
Our family tree is outlined on this wise, "the
son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God."
This tree of genealogy has obviously no point of
contact with that other tree in which our remote
ancestry is traced through the lower to the primitive
forms of life. As for me, I am glad to have my
family pride saved in this way.
But, after all, there is only a sort of qualified son-
ship in the fact that man is God's masterpiece.
When a sculptor says of a beautiful statue, " This is
the child of my brain," he is using a figure of speech ;
19

THE APOSTLES' CREED
but if a youth enter the studio saying, " My father,"
you recognize a vital difference between the statue
and the artist's son. One is the offspring of his
inventive mind, while the other is bone of his bone
and flesh of his flesh and has a corresponding claim
upon him.
It is a great thing, nevertheless, to be the master
piece of the Creator. By so much is a man better
than a sheep! And by so much is human responsi
bility above that of the lower orders of life.
II. The second ground upon which our divine
filiation might be assumed is that of generation.
But this is out of the question. God never begat
but one Son. ,When you hear the co-equal divinity
of our Lord and Saviour called in question — as oc
curs not infrequently in these days — I beg you to
remember that he consistently claimed to be the
only-begotten Son of God. So it is written, " Thou
art my Son, this day have I begotten thee." And
thus it is formulated in the Nicene Creed, " He was
begotten before all worlds." There he stands, soli
tary and alone in all the universe! God the Father
bare witness to this singular sonship of Jesus when
both at his baptism and his transfiguration he said
from heaven, " This is my beloved Son in whom I
am well pleased."
Our Lord spoke frequently of his Father, and to
the disciples of their Father; but he never con
fused his filiation with theirs. A hundred times or
thereabouts he said "my Father"; much less fre-
20

THE APOSTLES' CREED
quently " your Father " ; on one occasion " my
Father and your Father " ; but he never included
himself in the words " our Father." When his
disciples asked him to teach them how to pray, he
answered, " When ye pray say, Our Father " ; but
he himself did not pray that way. How could he,
in view of his singular relation with the Father as
the only-begotten, on which he based his stupen
dous claim of equality with God?
III. But there is a third ground on which we
may venture to call God our Father, namely, the
Spirit of adoption : as it is written, " When the full
ness of the time came, God sent his Son, born of a
woman, born under the law, that he might redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive
the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons,
God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying Abba, Father. So that thou art no longer
a bondservant, but a son; and if a son, then an
heir through God." And again, " Ye received not
the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye re
ceived the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba,
Father. The Spirit himself beareth witness with
our spirit that we are children of God."
We are thus advised of our alienation from God
through sin, and of our vital need of restoration to
holiness, because "without holiness no man shaU
see God." It is elsewhere said that we were " sold
under sin," and therefore in need of redemption,
which literally means a " buying back," if we would
21

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ever be restored to God. We are said to be " lost "
by reason of sin; not irretrievably lost like a ship
sunk in unfathomable sea, but like a ship driven
upon a reef, which is still salvable by speedy and ef
fective intervention. Furthermore we are said to
be " dead in trespasses and sins " — dead because
all the functions of our spiritual life are arrested —
and therefore in need of a quickening, or "'gain-
birth," which can only be effected by the Spirit of
life. The next thing disclosed in the Scripture quoted
is the fact that God sent his Son into the world to
redeem us. So comes the intervention of divine
grace. The only-begotten Son of God bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. He paid the ransom
for all, " tasting of death for every man." Whether
we are saved or not, he died to make us salvable.
It is for us to say, each for himself, whether or no
that divine interposition shall spell salvation for us.
The darkest day in David's life was when he
learned of the death of Absalom. He staggered up
the winding stairway to his chamber on the house
top wringing his hands and crying, " My son Absa
lom, my son, my son Absalom! would I had died
for thee ! " He would, indeed, have gladly given
his life to reclaim that wayward son. That, how
ever, was impossible. But what David could not do,
our Father has done. And what more could he do
to redeem us?
The resultant fact is the possibility of adoption
22

THE APOSTLES' CREED
into the family of God. Our Father's house is open
to all. But whether we enter or not depends on us.
It is written of Christ, " He came unto his own, and
they that were his own received him not. But as
many as received him, to them he gave the right to
become the children of God." This is the sole con
dition affixed to adoption, that we shall receive
Christ as our Saviour : as it is written, " Neither is
there any other name under heaven that is given
among men, wherein we must be saved " ; and as he
himself said, " No one cometh unto the Father but
by me."
Faith in Christ is the touchstone of life. There
are no true sons and daughters of God among those
who reject God's well-beloved Son. This is the cru
cial test, "If God were your Father, ye would love
me. Not long ago this advertisement appeared in the
personal column of one of our newspapers : " The
public are warned against the representations of my
son Ira, whose unnatural conduct has driven him
from home and deprived him of the confidence of
those who still love him. The door is open, and he
may return at any moment when he is ready to de
port himself as a loyal son. If this should fall
under his eyes let him know that, under these condi
tions, a welcome awaits him. Meanwhile aU are
warned against trusting him." What a tragedy
may be read between those lines !
The world is full of such desolated homes, such
23

THE APOSTLES' CREED
injured love, such secret sorrow and futile tears.
A missionary was called to a wretched dive in the
Tenderloin to visit a young woman who lay des
perately ill. She told him her story; how she had
run away from the restraints of home and plunged
into the dissipations of a reckless life. " Oh, if I
could only get back! " she cried; " I'm so tired of it
all. Spring is coming on the old farm, and I'm
homesick. But they never, never would take me
back." The missionary wrote to her father and a
letter came back like this : " Tell her our hearts are
hungry for her: tell her no matter what has hap
pened we will give her a loving welcome. The door
is always open for her." On the outside of that let
ter was the word " Immediate." Alas, it came too
late! It's the old story over again of the boy who asked
for his patrimony and crossed the hills into the far
country where he wasted all in riotous living : until,
at length, forlorn and forsaken, he hired himself out
as a swineherd ; — it always comes to that ! — and,
sitting upon the trough in the swinefield, he came to
himself, saying, " In my father's house there is
plenty and to spare, and lo, I perish with hunger!
Fool that I have been ! I will arise and go ! " No
sooner said than done. When next we see him, the
father's house is bright with music and laughter, and
the retumed prodigal, clothed in the best robe and
wearing the signet ring, is sitting at a feast of fat
things and wine upon the lees.
24

THE APOSTLES' CREED
So runs the gospel of our Father's love. When
once we say, " I will arise and go," he comes out
to meet us while we are yet a great way off. And
" there is joy in the presence of the angels of God
over one sinner that repenteth."
But the story does not end here. In one of John's
Epistles he says, " Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be
called children of God ! " It is related that a na
tive helper at Malabar, who was employed in the
translation of the Scriptures, on coming upon this
passage in John's Epistle, said to the missionary,
" I cannot write that. It cannot be true ! Let me
rather translate it, ' Behold what manner of love is
this, that we should be permitted to kiss his feet ! ' "
But this is only the beginning of wonders. The
next verse reads, " Now are we children of God,
and it is not yet made manifest what we shaU
be. We know that if he shall be manifested, we
shall be like him, for we shall see him even as he

IS

Thus we are left to dream dreams and see visions
of things that cannot be uttered. A great surprise
awaits the adopted sons and daughters of God at
the lifting of the veil. "If children, then heirs;
heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ," to " an
inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fad-
eth not away." Shade your eyes, beloved ; for these
are things beyond us. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man
25

THE APOSTLES' CREED
the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him ! "
But the way to the realization of all such visions
of glory ineffable is Christ. The Spirit of Christ
is the Spirit of adoption. The mind that was in
Christ Jesus is loyalty to the Father's will. The
countersign at the doorway of the Father's house is
" In his name." He is the first-born among many
brethren. And the one condition of reconciliation
with God is faith in Christ ; as he said : " I am the
way ; no one cometh unto the Father but by me."

26

" ALMIGHTY "
AT the close of a religious conference at Man
chester, England, in which current ques
tions in theology were discussed with great
license. Dr. Dale said to his friend Dr. Berry, " I
wonder if there is anybody left who fears God?"
The latter replied, " It would, indeed, appear that
we are accustomed to take great liberties with
God." If so, a plea for reverence wiU not be amiss. The
barriers that were set about Sinai were there for a
good purpose. It was little wonder that the people
" trembled and stood afar off." So terrible was
the sight that even Moses said, " I exceedingly fear
and quake." On being called up into the mountain
he obeyed, but was charged to return immediately
and "let not the priests and the people break
through to come up unto Jehovah." Why so?
Why must they keep their distance from Sinai, when
every other mountain could be approached at will?
Who is this God that we should be required to
draw near with such reverent awe? He is the Al
mighty ; the Infinite One. Our breath is in our nos
trils. He is like the sun ; while we are, in compari
son, as motes flying in a sunbeam. It was this con-
27

THE APOSTLES' CREED
sideration that led David to cry, " When I consider
thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which thou hast ordained, what is man,
that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man,
that thou visitest him ? "
The angels and archangels are represented as
veiling their faces before him while they sing,
" Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty ! "
In one of Isaiah's visions he saw the Lord, " sit
ting upon a throne high and lifted up " ; whereupon
he cried, " Woe is me ! I am undone ; because I
am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen
the King!"
In the desert of Midian where Moses was keeping
his flocks he saw a flame bursting from an acacia-
bush, and said, " I wiH turn aside now and see this
great sight, why the bush is not burnt." But a
Voice called to him, " Draw not nigh hither : put
off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy ground."
Yes, but is it not written, " Ye are not come unto
a mount that burned with fire, and unto blackness
and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trum
pet; . . . but ye are come unto Mount Zion, and
unto the city of the living God, ... to the general
assembly and Church of the firstborn . . . and to
Jesus the mediator of a new covenant." All true;
but read on : " Once more will I make to tremble
not the earth only, but also the heavens. . . .
28

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be
shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer
service well-pleasing to God, with reverence and
awe ; for our God is a consuming fire ! "
We are come to Calvary, where God reveals him
self in the person of his only-begotten Son. But
this mountain also is enveloped in darkness. The
sun goes out at noon ! For three mortal hours the
Saviour groans and agonizes under the burden of
the world's sin. At length he cries, " It is fin
ished! " and the veil of the Temple is rent asunder,
signifying that henceforth the way is open for sin
ners to approach God. Thus we, " who were afar
off, are brought nigh by the blood of Christ."
It still remains, however, that God is to be ap
proached with holy awe. The distance between the
finite and the Infinite is not affected by the Cross.
God is still God and man is still man.
"Be bold; be bold; be not too bold!" Christ
did not come into the world to destroy the salutary
barriers, but to open up a way of reconciliation, so
that men in a filial spirit might penitently, believ-
ingly and lovingly return to God.
It is recorded that when John the Evangelist saw
the Saviour in a vision, walking in the midst of the
golden candlesticks clothed in his divine glory, he
" feU at his feet as one dead." This was the same
disciple who had lain with his head on the bosom
of Jesus in the upper room; but between him and
the divine Son in his transcendent glory there was
29

THE APOSTLES' CREED
a distance so great that even grace could not bridge
it! " My God, how wonderful thou art ;
Thy majesty how bright 1
How beautiful thy mercy-seat
In depths of burning light !
Oh, how I fear thee, living God,
With deepest, tenderest fears ;
And worship thee with tender hope
And penitential tears !
Yet I may love thee too, O Lord,
Almighty as thou art;
For thou hast stooped to ask of me
The love of my poor heart.
Father of Jesus, love's reward,
What rapture will it be.
Prostrate before thy throne, to lie
And gaze and gaze on thee ! "

30

" MAKER OF HEAVEN AND EARTH "
IT is appropriate that the Scriptures should at
the very outset give an account of the origin
of things : wherefore it is written, " In the be
ginning God created the heavens and the earth."
In some quarters this is called " The Poem of
Creation," or "The Creation Legend," or "The
Genesis Fable." It is not the scientists, however,
but the neophytes of science, who speak on this
wise. Your true scientists — such as Newton and
Faraday and Dana and Agassiz and Henry and
Gray and Dawson and Kelvin — have been accus
tomed to refer to the cosmogony of Genesis in rev
erent terms. Tiieir acquisitions of wisdom have
not been so illimitable as to prevent their sitting at
the feet of God.
It is frequently affirmed that " the Bible is not a
scientific book." Granted; but it is a true book;
and whatever it affirms in the domain of science
must therefoi^e be scientifically correct.
The majesty of the Genesis story is instantly ap
parent when contrasted with corresponding records ;
for of making many cosmogonies there is no end.
If there is any appreciable value in mere human
wisdom the Greeks should have been able to speak
31

THE APOSTLES' CREED
advisedly in these premises. The starting-point in
their cosmogony, as elucidated by Thales, was wa
ter; which in process of time was so wrought upon
by an all-prevailing energy as to produce in some
inscrutable manner the present order of things. But
this offers no solution of the mystery. We are still
left to inquire. Whence the water and whence the
all-pervading force?
The starting-point of the cosmogony of the
Egyptians was a promiscuous pulp, from which the
elements separated of their own accord; whereupon
the mass took fire and the upper portion warmed
the lower into life. From beneath crept forth rep
tiles, and from the rising smoke the fowls of the air :
while the ooze of the river-bed, like the evolution
ists' bathybius, furnished the raw material for man.
The Hindus began with darkness, in which was a
golden egg. The egg was broken and Brahma
issued forth. He, turning, made of one portion of
the shell the heavens and of the other the earth. His
body then fell asunder, and from its parts proceeded
the various castes of men.
The Babylonians set out in much the same way.
In the darkness was born a giantess, who contribu
ted half of her body to make the heavens and the
other half to make the earth ; while her blood, mix
ing with the dust, produced the human race.
The starting-point of the Norse mythology was
a vast chasm wherein a conflict was going on be
tween fire and ice. Out of that conflict was bom
32

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Ym)rr, the giant. His flesh produced the earth,
his bones the mountains, his hair the forests, his
blood the seas and rivers, his skull the dome of
heaven; and from his eyebrows was made a wall
around the earth to prevent its inhabitants from fall
ing off.
Such are the cosmogonies of the false religions.
How instantly do all thoughtful men, , not to say
scientists, take issue with such puerilities. Yet
these are the results of the best efforts of human
wisdom to produce a rational theory of origins!
They leave unanswered the great question : Whence
came I, and whence came the present order of
things ?
We turn from all such speculations to science ; and
it is science that speaks in the Genesis record. Here
are three stupendous facts, set forth in the words:
B'reshith Elohim Bara; that is, " In the beginning
God created." And these facts are distinctly sci
entific facts. For science means " to know " ; and
in the three words referred to we have substantially
all that is known, all that has been thus far dis
covered and all that is likely ever to be found out
respecting the origin of things.
In the first of these words we are advised that
there was a beginning.
Let it be observed that there is no beginning in
any other cosmogony. There is always something
beyond : and that something is inscrutable. To un
dertake to solve the problem as Plato did, by hy-
33

THE APOSTLES' CREED
pothecating the eternity of matter, is simply a beg
ging of the question by the introduction of a guess.
Science makes no guesses. If, in tracing things
back to their beginning, it comes up against an in
superable obstacle it stops there, saying, " I know
not." But the Genesis record does not stop there.
It carries us back beyond man, organic life, cosmos,
chaos, matter and nebula into the primal silence and
solitude. Nor does it leave us there, in a blank
domain of vacuity or nothingness. It brings us to
the doorway of the King's audience-chamber, say
ing, " Before the mountains were brought forth, or
ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world,
even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art
God!" So the second of the great words of Genesis
brings us face to face with God, " source of all be
ing, throned afar." And God, like " the begin
ning," is distinctly a scientific fact.
The choice lies between three alternatives.
The first of these is Law. But law yields no an
swer to the problem; for law itself is an effect and
demands a cause. There must be a lawgiver be
hind it. In one of the classic poems we have
an account of a philosopher who, being ship
wrecked on the island of Rhodes, as he walked
along the beach found a geometrical figure traced
in the sand. " Here," said he, " are vestigia hom-
inum/' the traces of man. He did not need to be
told that some one had been there before him, since
34

THE APOSTLES' CREED
the geometrical figure forced the conclusion that
somebody had made it.
The second alternative is Chance. Can the pres
ent order of things be accounted for as " a fortui
tous concourse of atoms " ? Let us see. There
are twenty-four letters in the sentence, " In the be
ginning God created ; " suppose we shake them to
gether and cast them out. Now calculate, by the
law of permutations and combinations, how many
such castings it would take to produce the words
" In the beginning God created." The chances are
infinitely against it. What likelihood is there, then,
that the infinitude of atoms which constitutes our
earth, cast forth to the mercy of fortuitous circum
stance, would produce a world of vales and forests
and mountains, of birds and beasts and men? The
suggestion is obviously preposterous.
The third and last alternative, the only one which
is left by the rule of residues, is God. If this does
not solve the problem, and solve it scientifically, I
know not where a thoughtful man can look for any
solution of it.
In Westminster Abbey there is a monument to
Sir Isaac Newton, on which he is represented as
weighing the world in a steelyard, with a look of
deep perplexity on his face, as if he were asking,
"Whence came it?" In the Poets' Corner of
the same Abbey there is a monument to Joseph
Addison, who proposed the answer in these
words : 35

THE APOSTLES' CREED
" The spacious firmament on high.
With all the blue ethereal sky.
And spangled heavens, a shining frame.
Their great Original proclaim.
" The unwearied sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's power display.
And publishes to every land
The work of an almighty hand.
" Soon as the evening shades prevail.
The moon takes up the wondrous tale.
And nightly to the listening earth
Repeats the story of her birth ;
" While all the stars that round her bum.
And all the planets in their turn.
Confirm the tidings, as they roll.
And spread the truth from pole to pole.
" What though in solemn silence all
Move round the dark terrestrial ball ;
What though no real voice nor sound
Amid their radiant orbs be found ?
" In reason's ear they all rejoice.
And utter forth a glorious voice.
Forever singing, as they shine,
' The Hand that made us is divine ! ' "
The last of the three initial scientific words of
Scripture is Bara, that is, " created." The word is
defined as the making of something out of nothing.
36

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Do you say "impossible"? Do you quote the
venerable maxim, " Out of nothing, nothing
comes"? But how do we know that? All that
we mean is that we never saw it. In the nature of
the case there can be no analogy for Creation. No
man ever made anything; all we can do is to trans
form one thing into something else. We live on a
ball of matter eight thousand miles in diameter;
and no scientist has ever yet been able to produce a
single grain of sand. Air and earth and water are
teeming with life, yet no scientist has ever been able
to originate a bioplasmic cell or to reanimate a dead
fly. It is not strange, therefore, that the creative
act is called in question. But let us not undertake
to measure God by finite analogies. We cannot
take his stature with a yardstick or his girth with a
tape measure. Creation is his prerogative. All
things are possible with God, and " nothing is too
hard for him."
We are like schoolboys in the playground at re
cess, talking in great swelling words about the " in
finite " and " unconditioned " and " indetermina
ble," when suddenly the Master appears upon the
scene. What a scampering then! So when we,
in our boasted wisdom, have spoken our latest word
God enters to say, "Ye do err, not knowing my
power ! "
But, assuming the truth contained in the three
scientific words of Scripture, there are questions
which still remain to be answered.
37

THE APOSTLES' CREED
One of these is, " When did the creation occur? "
How long ago ?
In the margin of the first chapter of Genesis we
find the date, 4004 B. C. But this is no part of
the inspired text. All that we can gather from the
record itself is that the creation occurred " in the
beginning," a beginning which was indefinitely long
ago. And is not that precisely what science affirms
about it?
The next question is, " How long were the suc
cessive periods of creation? "
It is written : " In six days Jehovah made heaven
and earth, the sea, and all that in them is." But ob
jectors say : " All investigations go to show that
these periods were of indeterminable length." True !
The chalk cliffs, for example, are a product of an
imal life, being composed of the shells of marine
animalculae. It is calculated that it would require
a century to produce a layer of a single foot; yet
there are cliffs on the coast of England a thousand
feet deep! How then could the world have been
framed in six solar days?
But who said that the world was " created in six
solar days " ? Certainly the Scriptures do not say
so. Such an assertion is in direct contravention of
their statement. The word translated " day " is
yom; which is used elsewhere to indicate all sorts
of definite and indefinite periods. The proof of
that statement is at hand. In Genesis 2 :4, the word
yom is made to cover the entire creative week. In
38

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Leviticus 25 •.2g it refers to the year of jubilee.
In Jeremiah 46:21, it includes one of the long cam
paigns of Pharaoh-Necho. In Ezekiel 30:3 and
elsewhere it designates the millennium or thousand
years of the earthly reign of Christ. In Psalm 2 -.7,
it covers all eternity or the lifetime of God. It
must be obvious, therefore, that when it is affirmed
that the Scriptures limit the creation to six solar
days, the statement is wholly without ground. The
Scriptural record at this point is absolutely sci
entific. God works through the immeasurable
seons. He makes no haste. The eternal years are
his. The next question has to do with the Order of
the creative epochs.
And here again we notice a marvelous coinci
dence. The fossils and footprints in the layers of
the primeval rocks are precisely in the Scriptural
order. It would not be fair to affirm that no scien
tists hold a different view ; but is quite within bounds
to say that the consensus is in favor of the follow
ing order: (i) chaos, with cosmic light; (2) the
dividing of the firmaments; (3) the appearing of
vegetable life in the palaeozoic or carboniferous age;
(4) the emergence of the heavenly bodies; (5) the
appearing of the lower orders of life in the meso-
zoic age; (6) the higher orders or mammalia in
the kinozoic age, with man as masterpiece and sov
ereign of all.
A further question, and a most important one, is,
39

THE APOSTLES' CREED
" Where did the author of the Genesis record get
his information?"
To say that the story is a patchwork of contem
porary legends and traditions is only to push the dif
ficulty further back. How could any man speak
advisedly in these premises? If God created the
world, he was alone when he did it. There was no
man there to see. Here is his challenge : " Where
wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?
Declare, if thou hast understanding. Who deter
mined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or
who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were
the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the
cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars sang
together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? "
Is it not evident, therefore, that any true cosmog
ony must be by direct revelation from God? The
word " revelation " means an unveiling. If any
man is qualified to write the story of creation it
must be because it is divinely unveiled before him.
Is it not reasonable to suppose that the method
would be that by which the prophets usually received
their communications from God? The man di
vinely chosen to record the story of creation was
wrapped in an ecstatic trance, in which he saw a
moving panorama of events, broken by intervals of
darkness, which would naturally be characterized as
night. Let us put ourselves, as Hugh Miller did,
in the seer's place and observe what passed before
him, 4Q

THE APOSTLES' CREED
First, a vision of chaos; a molten ball enveloped
in igneous vapors. There is a conflict between the
inward fires and cooling winds from the illimitable
fields of space. The surface of the earth is con
gealed again and again, only to be ruptured by the
inward heat and thrown into vast ridges of granite,
" like the ice-floes of a polar sea." The rising va
pors are condensed in torrents of falling rain, which
are thrown back again like water from a white-hot
disk. It is a hopeless battle. The fires are worsted.
The earth gradually cools. A film forms over the
molten sea and the primeval forms of continents
appear. The rains find a lodgment, and rivers race
to the lower levels to form the primal seas. All is
darkness and turmoil; reverberating artillery of the
heavens, with fierce flashes of electric fire; black
night and confusion worse confounded. Then light
appears; not in an instant, indeed, for this is cos
mic or frictional light. A glimmer here and there
reveals the unspeakable disorder of the frightful
gloom. The scene now shifts. The curtain falls ;
there is an interval of darkness. The evening and
the morning were the first day.
In the second scene the clouds are lifted. The
upper and lower firmament are parted asunder; the
outlines of the seas and continents are visible; the
great canopy is lifted overhead, and between it and
the earth beneath are sweeping tempests of corrosive
gases. Of this period alone it is not written, " And
the Lord said, ' It is very good.' " As yet the at-
41

THE APOSTLES' CREED
mosphere can sustain no form of organic life. The
world has thus far been only preparing for it. The
curtain faUs. The evening and the morning were
the second day.
The third vision is of a vast steaming greenhouse.
Out of the sluggish waters springs a luxuriant vege
tation. This is the age of bulbous plants, of gigan
tic sigillaria and lycopodia, of ferns springing aloft
like towering pines, growing rapidly and as rapidly
decaying and falling upon one another, until the
steaming earth seems like a vast tamarack swamp.
This is the carboniferous age. The forces which
are to be used in the industries of the future are now
being generated and stored away. The eyes of the
dreamer close. The evening and the morning were
the third day.
In the fourth vision are seen glimmering points
of light in the upper firmament. Thus far there
has only been cosmic light. The sun and moon and
stars now appear in clear outline. Here is the be
ginning of divisions of time; summer and winter,
seedtime and harvest. The world is getting ready
for history. Again the scene shifts. The evening
and morning were the fourth day.
The fifth vision brings in the lower orders of
animal life. The egg-bearers appear — reptiles
and fishes and birds. A visit to the Museum of
Natural History will throw light on this period.
Here are lizards a hundred feet long crawling in the
slime. Here are creatures with eye-sockets a foot
42

THE APOSTLES' CREED
in diameter. Here are birds that leave mighty foot
prints on the soft formative rocks. The curtain
falls again. The evening and the morning were the
fifth day.
The sixth vision shows the mammals or higher
forms of life. The earth is teeming with them —
beasts of the field and forest. And on this canvas,
last of all, supreme and pre-eminent, appears man,
having dominion over all living things, erect and
sovereign, with his face uplifted toward heaven,
" able to think God's thoughts after him." So ends
the Panorama of Creation. The evening and the
morning were the sixth day.
And then God entered into his rest ; as it is writ
ten, " In six days Jehovah made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the sev
enth day; wherefore Jehovah blessed the Sab
bath day and hallowed it."
How imposing is this record as compared with
other cosmogonies. What simplicity! What fine
reasonableness ! What a scientific tone of absolute
certainty! If this be not scientific, how shall we
account for the fact that Moses or somebody else
was able thus to anticipate the approved results of
modern science? And this so many thousands of
years ago!
But what is the practical bearing of such a dis
course as this? Much every way. If the story of
creation is true it furnishes an antecedent probabil
ity that the Bible is true. On the other hand, if the
43

THE APOSTLES' CREED
veracity of the author of Genesis is successfully im
pugned, what reason have we for assuming the truth
or trustworthiness of other Scriptural authors who
assume to advise us in spiritual things?
The first chapter of Genesis and the first chapter
of John go hand in hand. " In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. . . . All things were made through
him, and without him was not anything made that
hath been made. . . . And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us."
I see two thrones : one is the circle of the universe
whereon He sits, high and lifted up, with veiled
face, calling into existence things that are out of
those that were not. The other is on Calvary;
where again his face is unveiled. And, behold, the
God of creation is the God of salvation. " The God
that rolls the world along speaks all the promises."
The problem of origins is the problem of destiny.
" 'Twas great to call a world from naught,
'Tis greater to redeem."
I hear two fiats : one is, " Let there be light! " and
cosmos emerges from chaos in the glory of day.
The other is recorded in the saying, " The light shin-
eth in the darkness," and further on the words, " It
is God, that said. Light shall shine out of darkness,
who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ."
44

THE APOSTLES' CREED
It is related of Dr. Simeon of Cambridge, that
when he was dying he said, " I am not afraid; I find
my comfort in the saying that is written, ' In the be
ginning God created the heavens and the earth ' ;
for he who created is able to redeem. The God who
framed the world can uphold and save me ! "

45

Section II
" And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.''

Fairest Lord Jesus,
Ruler of nature!
O thou of God and of Mary the Son ! —
Thee will I cherish.
Thee will I honor;
Thee, my delight, my glory and my crown !
Fair are the meadows.
Fairer the woodlands,
Robed in the flowery garb of spring :
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer.
Who makes my sorrowful heart to sing.
Fair is the moonshine.
Fairer the sunlight.
Than all the starry and celestial host :
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer.
Than all the angels heaven can boast.
— Crusaders' Hymn.

"AND IN JESUS"
A CHRISTENING is a great event in any
family circle. Fond parents ponder long
and with much perplexity over a suitable
name for the little one. The old names are shop
worn, and the new are meaningless; where in the
world shall one be found to measure their devotion
to the wonderful newcomer, " feeling his way out
from the shore of the great unknown into the light
of day " ? There are suggestions from relatives and
friends; while the innocent, wide-eyed, wondering
stranger who is destined to carry his name for better
or worse through all the joumey of life is the only
one who has nothing to say about it.
But however important such an occasion may be
with us, it was still more so among the Jews, because
they endeavored to put their prayers and hopes and
aspirations into their children's names.*
The parents of the wonderful Child of Bethlehem
* To the Jews the names of their children were omens and
prophecies of character and destiny. For example, Isaac,
meaning "Laughter" (see Gen. 17:15-19, also 18:9-15) ; Icha-
bod, meaning " Departed Glory" (see I Sam. 4:10-22) ; Naomi,
meaning "Pleasant" (see Ruth 1:19-21); and Job's three
daughters, " The Door," " Cassia " and " Plenteousness " (Job
42:13, 14). The Jews hoped, moreover, to transmit their re
ligion to succeeding generations in this manner ; hence the fre-
49

THE APOSTLES' CREED
were not perplexed as to the choosing of a suitable
name, since God had already provided it. He had
sent his angel Gabriel, in the annunciation to Joseph
and to the virgin mother, directing that he " should
be called Jesus " ; and Joseph and Mary were glad
to acquiesce in the divine will.
But what's in a name ? In the tragedy of " Julius
Csesar " one of the conspirators asks of Brutus,
" Why should his name be sounded more than yours ?
Write them together : yours is as fair a name ;
Sound them, it doth become the mouth as well ;
Weigh them, it is as heavy."
That is, however, far from being true. Call the
name of Csesar; and straightway you hear the foot
fall of an army. Call the name of Plato; and a pro
cession of scholars is seen walking under the plane-
trees by the Ilyssus. Call the name of Milton; and
you hear the rippling of Siloam's brook that flows
fast by the oracles of God.
But of all the names that were ever named in
heaven or on earth there is none like that of Jesus.
Sound it forth, and lo, there are voices of a heavenly
multitude singing, " Worthy art thou ... to re
ceive the glory and the honor and the power ! " And
from tens of thousands of earthly sanctuaries comes
the echoing song:
quent occurrence in Hebrew names of " El " and " Je," the
initial syllables of Elohim, the most common title of God, and
of Jehovah, the "incommunicable name," which was never
uttered except in this way. 50

THE APOSTLES' CREED
" All hail the power of Jesus' name ;
Let angels prostrate fall ;
Bring forth the royal diadem
And crown him Lord of all I "
This was our Lord's " baptismal name." He was
taken to the sanctuary by his parents to be circum
cised on the eighth day and was there entered as a
member of the Jewish Church and placed in cove
nant relations with God.
The name is the Greek form of Joshua, which is
an abbreviation of Jehoshua, meaning, " God my
Saviour." Its rationale is given in the words, " For
it is he that shall save his people from their sins."
Joshua of old did for the children of Israel what
Moses could not do. The latter led them out of
Egypt to the borders of the land flowing with milk
and honey and left them there ; but Joshua brought
them into it. So it is written, " What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God,
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the
ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us " ; that
is, grace succeeded where the law had failed in mak
ing possible a deliverance from the penalty and
power of sin.
This is also his most familiar name. His kins
folk and townsmen knew him that way. The scribes
and Pharisees said, " Is not this Jesus, the carpen
ter, whose father and mother we know?" The
51

THE APOSTLES' CREED
blind man in the ninth of John said, " The man that
is called Jesus anointed mine eyes." The beg
gar on the way to Jericho addressed him as " Jesus,
thou son of David." The name inscribed upon the
titulum of the cross was, " Jesu Nasaret Rex Ju-
dcEorum," that is, " Jesus of Nazareth, King of the
Israel of God." He wrote better than he knew;
for the time is coming when all the kings of the
earth shall lay their crowns at Jesus' feet; when
every knee shall bow before him and every tongue
confess that he was and is what he claimed to be.
This was also, in a sense, his official name. It
was the custom of the Romans to give what was
called an " agnomen " to those who distinguished
themselves for prowess on the high places of the
field. When Scipio returned from his eastern cam
paign he was by a solemn decree of the Senate
called " Africanus," in recognition of his services
in that distant land. In the name Jesus there is a
like reference to the mighty work which he was des
tined to accomplish in the behalf of man.
Furthermore, this is his perpetual name. Two
years after the crucifixion, when Saul of Tarsus
was riding down to Damascus, breathing out slaugh
ter against the followers of Christ, he saw a light
above the brightness of the sun and heard a voice
from heaven saying, " I am Jesus, whom thou perse-
cutest." It thus appears that the Saviour kept his
name after he had retumed to the glory which he
had with the Father before the world was.
52

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Fifty years after the conversion of Paul, the aged
John in his exile on Patmos saw a vision of a ma
jestic figure walking in the midst of the golden can
dlesticks, clothed in a garment down to his feet and
bound with a golden girdle, with a face shining as
the sun shineth in its strength. So dazzling was the
glory of Jesus in his heavenly estate that his beloved
disciple fell at his feet " as one dead." But he was
reassured when Jesus laid his right hand upon him,
saying, " Fear not ; I am the first and the last and
the Living One: and I was dead, and behold I am
alive for evermore, and I have the keys of death and
of Hades." In other words, this was the same Jesus
whom John had known in the time of his sojourn
ing among men. It is a blessed thought that we
shall know him not only by the scars of his passion
but by this familiar name.
But more important than all else to us is the fact
that Jesus is the name by which his people know
him best here and now. One of the clearest mem
ories of my boyhood in the far West is of a Sunday-
school song:" There is no name so sweet on earth.
No name so sweet in heaven.
The name before his wondrous birth
To Christ the Saviour given.
We love to sing around our King
And hail him blessed Jesus ;
For there's no word ear ever heard
So dear, so sweet as Jesus ! "
53

THE APOSTLES' CREED
It is perhaps because of that memory that I love,
almost above any other of our familiar hymns, the
one that Doddridge wrote to be sung after his ser
mon on Romans 8 :35 :
" Jesus, I love thy charming name ;
'Tis music to mine ear ;
Fain would I sound it out so loud
That earth and heaven might hear."
The question of supreme importance is. What is
the personal signifkance of this name to us? That
question cuts the world in sunder. It divides all
people into two classes: those to whom Jesus is
nothing and those to whom he is everything. Nor
is there any middle ground to stand on.
To the indifferent, as to the unbelieving, he is but
a root out of a dry ground : he hath no form nor
comeliness ; and they see no beauty in him that they
should desire him. They cannot help basking in
the light of his countenance — for Christian civili
zation is like a vine that groweth over the wall,
whose clusters are plucked by every passer-by —
but how many there are who care nothing for the
giver and lack the common courtesy to say, " I thank
you." On the other hand, there are multitudes to whom
Jesus is everything. They have accepted him as
Priest and Prophet and King; and there is no res
ervation in the surrender of themselves to him.
54

THE APOSTLES' CREED
They can echo the words that Bengel wrote in a
love-letter to his wife:
" Jesus in heaven ;
Jesus in the heart ;
The heart in heaven ;
Heaven in the heart."
All depends, then, on personal appropriation. In
some of the Oriental churches it is the custom of
those who have thus accepted the Saviour to call
him by a new name, not Jesu but Jesui, the final
vowel standing for the first personal pronoun pos
sessive, meaning "my Jesus." This is the faith
that makes the great salvation ours. Jesus on his
Cross saves no man; it is Jesus coming into the
heart, as through an open door, and taking posses
sion and control of our lives, so that we can say,
" My Lord, my Life, my Sacrifice, my Saviour and
myaU!"

55

" CHRIST "
THE people of Nazareth were assembled on a
certain Sabbath to hear one of their towns
men discourse on the lesson of the day.
This expositor was Jesus the carpenter, whose shop
was near by. There were farmers in the congre
gation whose plows he had made, and women, be
hind the lattice of the synagogue, whose crippled
furniture had been mended by him. They had
known him as a man of spotless character and help
ful on occasion in the services of the sanctuary.
A few weeks before he had closed his shop and set
out on a preaching tour. Meanwhile his friends
and neighbors had been hearing rumors of his elo
quent sermons and wonderful works. He had gone
away unknown and had now come back famous.
It was not strange that everybody turned out to hear
him. The service began with the Shema, " Hear, O Is
rael, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt
have no other gods before him." The master of
the synagogue then offered prayer, which was foln
lowed by the responsive chanting of a Psalm. After
that came the reading of the Law and a portion of
the Pentateuch, and then the lesson of the day. At
this point the interest reached its height. In ac-
S6

THE APOSTLES' CREED
cordance with custom the ruler of the synagogue
called for any competent and suitable person who
was so disposed to read and expound the lesson.
And Jesus " stood up to read." The scroll of the
prophet Isaiah was taken from the sacred chest
and delivered to him, " and the eyes of all were
fastened upon him."
Then he proceeded to read the lesson. It was in
the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah. There are preach
ers who would have paused just there to argue the
current question as to whether this portion of the
book was really written by Isaiah or by a hypothet
ical author known as " Deutero-Isaiah." If Jesus
was what he claimed to be, he knew the merits of
that question pro and contra, and could easily have
settled it. But he had more important business on
hand than threshing out empty straw. He had a
vital message to deliver in the exposition of the
passage before him, and was as eager to deliver that
message as the people were to hear it.
"And he began to say, To-day hath this scrip
ture been fulfilled in your ears." Of the sermon
which followed we have no report; but enough is
given, in the proposition here laid down, to indi
cate the full tenor of it.
His message is clear. He came " to preach good
tidings to the poor, ... to proclaim release to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set
at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim the ac
ceptable year of the Lord." 57

THE APOSTLES' CREED
By this we are given to understand that he claimed
to be the Christ. Could he verify that claim? This
is what the average man wants to know above every
thing else. Was this Jesus the Messiah " whom
Kings and prophets longed to see and died without
the sight " ?
" We walk at high noon ; and the bells
Call to a thousand oracles ;
And the sound deafens, and the light
Is stronger than our dazzled sight.
Still struggles in the ages' breast.
With deepening agony of quest.
The old inquiry, ' Art thou he.
Or look we for the Christ to be ? ' "
There was no lack of interest in the synagogue
that day. The congregation was agreed as to the
preacher's power ; " all bare him witness, and won
dered at his words of grace." But there were some
who doubted, saying, "Is not this Joseph's son?''
Was it possible that this townsman of theirs, whom
they had seen standing in the shop with chips and
shavings about his feet, was the long-looked- for
Messiah, the only-begotten Son of God? There
were others so filled with indignation at his prepos
terous claims that " they rose up and thrust him
out." But some believed; among them his mother,
who, looking through the lattice behind which
the women were accustomed to sit, was keeping the
great secret in her heart; and with her doubtless
58

THE APOSTLES' CREED
were others of those " ministering women " who
were to be found following Jesus in after days.
Of the Messianic titles used in old-time prophecy
there are three which have surpassing importance.
These are " the Son of Man," " the Son of God,"
and " Christ." Our Lord assumed these titles, with
the honors and prerogatives attending upon them, in
such manner that no thoughtful man can deny his
claim to Messiahship without impugning his char
acter as an honest man.
First, he claimed to he the Son of Man; not a son
of man, but distinctively " the Son of Man " ; that
is, the One who was to appear in human form to
deliver the world from sin. Not less than forty-
six times in the Gospels is this title used with refer
ence to him. Once, when certain Greeks came to
Jerusalem, saying, " We would see Jesus," he kept
them waiting without while he uttered these signifi
cant words : " The hour is come that the Son of
Man should be glorified. . . . And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto myself."
The people answered him, " We have heard out of
the law that the Christ abideth for ever: and how
sayest thou. The Son of Man must be lifted up?
Who is this Son of Man ? " Then Jesus said, " Yet
a little while is the light among you. Walk while
ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not." *
* Of the frequent references in prophecy to this Son of Man
it will suffice to mention that in the vision of Daniel : " Be
hold the four winds of heaven brake forth upon the great sea;
59

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Second, he claimed to be the Son of God: not a
Son of God, but distinctively " the Son of God."
The angels are sometimes called sons of God, as
in the passage, " The morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy." And fre
quently good men are so called, as where it is writ
ten, " Now are we the sons of God, and it doth not
yet appear what we shall be."
But here the title refers to Messiah as the sole
and singular Son of God : in other words, his " only-
begotten Son."
Our sonship is by creation in the divine Ukeness,
and again by adoption whereby we are enabled to
say, " Abba, Father " ; but his Sonship is by an
eternal generation. God has many sons, but only
one " begotten Son." And this is the honor which
our Lord assumed, so making himself co-equal with
God. Third, Christ, i. e., the Anointed One. In this
title are included both Son of Man and Son of God.
In the person of Christ the two natures are knit to
gether in mystical union. In all the universe there
and four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from
another." The first vras like a lion ; the second like a bear ; the
third like a leopard ; the fourth a nondescript beast, with iron
teeth. These were the similitudes of the four great powers of
the ancient world which rose, flourished and disappeared.
" Then was another throne set up and One like unto the Son
of Man came with the clouds of heaven" and took his place
upon it, of whom it is written, " His dominion is an everlast
ing dominion, and his kingdom that which shall not be de
stroyed." (Dan. 7:1-14.)
60

THE APOSTLES' CREED
is not another like him. He stands solitary and
alone as the God-man.
As to the claim of Jesus in these premises, there
is no room for question. On one occasion the Jews
said, " How long dost thou hold us in suspense ?
If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly." And Jesus
answered, " I told you, and ye believed not ; the
works that I do in my Father's name, these bear wit
ness of me." He says he had " already told " them,
as if it were his coirmion, frequent claim. And
again, at the close of his ministry, the High Priest
before whom he stood on trial for his life said to
him, " I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell
us whether thou art the Christ, the Son of God."
Jesus said unto him, " Thou hast said ; nevertheless
I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of
Man sitting at the right hand of Power and coming
on the clouds of heaven." That he intended this to
be the strongest possible affirmation is evident from
what follows : " Then the high priest rent his gar
ments, saying. He hath spoken blasphemy : what fur
ther need have we of witnesses? . . . What think
ye?" They answered and said, " He is worthy of
death." It was this claim to Messiahship that brought
about the crucifixion of Jesus. There were other
charges in the indictment against him, but he died
for " making himself equal with God."
It thus appears that the Messianic claim of Jesus
is beyond all question or peradventure. The only
6i

THE APOSTLES' CREED
rational ground on which it can be rejected is that
he was an impostor.
The question clamors for an answer : " Who is
this Jesus who is called — and calleth himself —
the Christ?" If his claim is vaUd the conclusion
is unavoidable: it behooves us thus to receive him.

62

"HIS ONLY SON"
IT is related that Jesus on one of his journeys
came to Sychar, where Jacob's well was; and
"being wearied with his journey he sat thus
[that is, like any weary man] by the well."
This man on the well-curb is well worth looking
at, because — though obviously a man — he claims
to be the only-begotten Son of God. He claims to
have been in the glory of the Father " before the
world was." He claims to have come into the world
on a definite errand; namely, to deliver men from
the power of sin. He claims that when his errand
is accomplished he will return again to the glory
which he had with the Father before the world was.
These are stupendous claims. It behooves us to
know whether they are true or not ; for in them are
involved the issues of life.
I. Observe, he is a man. This is easy to see.
He is " bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh " ;
that is, " able to be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities," because he is one of us.
He is a poor man. Not a prince in purple, nor a
beggar in rags, but one of the Third Estate of toil
ing men. He has no home of his own. " The foxes
have holes," he says, " and the birds of the heaven
63

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Rave nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to
lay his head." He has no well-filled purse. If he
was what he claimed to be, then all the wealth in the
bosom of the everlasting hills belonged to him; but
he had stooped to share the struggles of the poor,
that he might be able to sympathize with all prison
ers of poverty, and that they, by his poverty, might
become rich toward God.
He is a man of sorrows. You may read that in
his face. The chastening touch is there. He is
bearing some burden that weighs heavily upon him.
What is it? " Surely he hath bome our griefs and
carried our sorrows." If we follow this wayfaring
man we shall presently see him coming to Calvary,
bearing his cross. This is the burden of the world's
sin; and he will bear that burden until his great
heart shall break under it.
He is a benevolent man. That also is written in
his face. This joumey to Sychar is a labor of love.
" He must needs pass through Samaria," a round
about way, to meet a sinful woman who needed him.
This was his habit.
He is a sinless man. And here we part company
with him. For "there is no distinction; for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
It is recorded of Adam that he was made without
sin but also without positive character. For that
he must be exposed to trial. He was tempted ac
cordingly, and fell. This man at the weU is "the
second Adam," who was also bom in innocence and
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
subject to trial. He too was tempted, and won
out! In this he stands solitary and alone among all
the children of men. He never committed a wrong
act ; he never spoke a wrong word ; he never enter
tained a wrong thought. He "hath been in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." His
challenge was, "Which of you convicteth me Of
sin ? " The answer was made by Pilate, who sen
tenced him to death : " Behold the man ! . . .
I find no crime in him ! " And this is the testimony
of all the succeeding ages. Not even the bitterest
of the foes of Jesus has found a joint in the harness
of his perfect righteousness. He stands alone, the
one incomparable man. He stands for man as God
planned him : man without sin, worthy of his birth
right as the child of a holy God.
II. And therefore he is an unaccountable man.
This perfection of his is like the x in an algebraic
problem which must be reduced to known terms.
How shall that be done? It is impossible imless
we are prepared to consent that he was more than
a man. The problem was attempted by Theodore Parker,
the great leader of radical Unitarianism, who was
forced to this conclusion : " The mightiest heart
that ever beat, stirred by the spirit of God, wrought
in his bosom. What deep divinity of soul! He*
unites in himself the sublimest precepts and divinest i
practices, more than realizing the dream of prophets-
65

THE APOSTLES' CREED
and sages. He gives free range to tEe spirit of
God. He sets aside the Law, sacred and time-hon
ored as it was; its forms, its sacrifice, its Temple
and its priest. He puts away the Doctors of the
Law, subtle, learned, irrefragable; and pours out a
doctrine beautiful as the light, sublime as heaven,
and true as God ! "
The infidel David Strauss faced the same problem
and reached this conclusion : " If in Jesus the
union of self-consciousness with the consciousness
of God has been real, and expressed not only in
words but in all the conditions of life, then he rep
resents within the religious sphere the highest point,
beyond which posterity cannot go: yea, which it
cannot even equal : inasmuch as every one who here
after should climb to the same height could only do
so with the help of Jesus who first attained it."
III. But if this is true it is to affirm that Jesus
was the Divine Man: that is, " the only-begotten Son
of God," and therefore equal with God.
It had been prophesied that when the Messiah
came it would be as God's only-begotten Son. " I
will tell of the decree; Jehovah said unto me, Thou
art my son : this day have I begotten thee."
At the baptism of Jesus, and again on the Mount
of Transfiguration, a voice was heard from heaven
saying, " This is my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased."
The disciples thus recognized him, saying, " Of a
truth thou art the Son of God " ; and Peter particu-
66

THE APOSTLES' CREED
larly in his good confession, " Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God."
The importance of a definite understanding in this
matter is emphasized in the words, " He that believ
eth on him is not judged: he that believeth not hath
been judged already, because he hath not believed on
the name of the only-begotten Son of God." It
is clear, therefore, that there can be no middle
ground. We are bound to conclude that Jesus, in
setting up his claim as God's equal, was an impostor
and a charlatan, or else he was what he claimed to be.
To my mind the only solution of the problem is
that which was arrived at by Napoleon when he said :
" I know men ; and I tell you that Jesus was not a
mere man ! Superficial minds see a resemblance be
tween him and the founders of empires; but there
is none. Everything in him astonishes me. His
spirit overawes me; his will confounds me. His
birth and life, the profundity of his doctrine, his
march across the centuries, are for me a mystery
insoluble. Here is a grandeur that overpowers me.
In his death sin is expiated and justice satisfied.
What a mysterious symbol, this Cross of the God-
man! You speak of Caesar and Alexander, of their
conquests, and the enthusiasm which they enkindled
in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive
of a dead man making conquests with an army de
voted to his memory? Can you conceive of Csesar
governing an empire from the depths of his mauso
leum? Such is the perpetual miracle of progress;
67

THE APOSTLES' CREED
the power of the Christian's God ! He has founded
his empire on love, so that at this hour millions
would die for him. What a proof of his divinity!
He speaks, and generations are bound to him by the
closest of ties. Here am I at Saint Helena, chained
to this rock; and who thinks of me? Behold the
destiny of Napoleon the Great ! What an abyss be
tween my misery and the eternal reign of Christ!
By this I perceive that Jesus is God ! "
The point I am trying to make is this: that the
deity of Jesus is conclusively proven hy his perfect
humanity. I know there are other ways. You
may demonstrate his deity by showing his perfect
correspondence with the prophecies of Scripture, or
by showing how he marches through history in the
vanguard of civilization toward the Golden Age:
but to my mind a stronger argument is based upon
his character as the Unaccountable Man. It seems
impossible that any one should look fixedly at him
without perceiving that he was more than man:
and if so, then by the force of irresistible logic we
are driven to the conclusion that he was divine, as
he claimed to be.
The divine seal was put upon this singular Son-
ship of Jesus by his resurrection from the dead. He
had said, " I am the life." He had also said, " I
have power to lay down my life, and I have power to
take it again"; in other words, life was his in such
wise that he could do what he pleased with it.
When Pilate said, " Knowest thou not that I have
68

THE APOSTLES' CREED
power to crucify thee?" his answer was, "Thou
wouldest have no power against me except it were
given thee from above." If his life were taken
from him it was because he chose to surrender it:
and in that case he had " power to take it again."
What a stupendous claim! No mortal man could
make it. If he could prove that assertion he would
vindicate his Godhood. Could he prove it?
The record runs that when the chief priests and
Pharisees came to Pilate asking that the sepulcher
of Jesus might be made sure " lest haply his disci
ples come and steal him away," he answered, " Go,
make it as sure as ye can." They went accordingly
and made the sepulcher " sure." They rolled a
massive stone before it, whereon was affixed the
great seal of the Empire, and stationed guards
round about to defend it. He that sitteth in the
heavens shall laugh! As well might Pilate under
take to imprison the beams of the ascending sun !
As the night wore on the sentinels were pacing
to and fro when suddenly the ground began to trem
ble. A crash ! The rocks were reeling and totter
ing! A vivid light from heaven! The seal was
broken; the stone was rolled away; the guards were
lying prostrate as dead men ! Then from the shin
ing heights of heaven a troop came gliding down and
the Prince of Life arose from his tomb, wiping the
death-dew from his brow; while angels thronged
his chariot and bore him aloft to the glory awaiting
him. Listen! Voices from the distance: "Lift
69

THE APOSTLES' CREED
up your heads, O ye gates ; and be ye lifted up, ye
everlasting doors, and the King of glory will come
in!" So Jesus " was declared to be the Son of God
with power ... by the resurrection from the
dead." He rose not at the behest of a voice from
without but by his own volition. This was the cru
cial test. Had it failed he would have shown him
self, like Samson shorn of his locks, " weak as other
men." But the grave could not confine him. The
conclusion is irresistible: This power of an unde-
rived and indestructible life verified his claim as
very God of very God.

70

"OUR LORD"
TO say that we believe in Jesus Christ as our
Lord is to profess a complete surrender and
subserviency to him.
First, as our Priest. In that capacity he medi
ates between us and the holy God who has been
justly offended by our sins. As our Mediator he
expiates our sins by bearing their penalty in his
own body on the tree ; thus making it possible for
God on his part to be " just, and the justifier of him
that hath faith in Jesus," and for man on his part
to be " just before God." It is thus as our Medi
ator that " he ever liveth to make intercession " for
us. Such is the divine plan of salvation, which is
called " the gospel of reconciliation," because it sets
the sinner right before the law. It is also caUed
" the atonement " because it brings us into a rela
tion of at-one-ment with God.
Second, as our Prophet or authoritative teacher.
In that capacity he instructs us in things pertaining
to the spiritual life. A true disciple of Christ will
never put any other authority before his or give
to personal opinion a value above his word. If
Christ says God is our Father, that ends it. If he
says the Scriptures are true, that ends it. If he
71

THE APOSTLES' CREED
says, " No man cometh unto the Father but by me,"
that ends it. He sits in the Court of Final Appeal
for all who love him. The moment a professing
Christian prefers " I think " to his Lord's " Verily,
verily, I say unto you," he parts company with him.
Third, as our King. The double function of a
Sovereign is to command and to protect his subjects.
Our Lord does both. His word of command is final
to those who follow him. When he points to the
place of secret prayer, saying, " Enter and shut to
the door " ; or to the communion table, saying, " Do
this in remembrance of me " ; or to the harvest field,
saying, " Go, work to-day," a sincere Christian asks
no questions, interposes no objections, takes advan
tage of no subterfuges, but proceeds to do what his
Lord requires of him. It is this spirit of implicit,
unhesitating, unswerving and joyous obedience that
makes the yoke easy and the burden light.
There is no Overlord like ours ; none so wise, none
so loving, none so sympathetic with infirmity or so
strong to overcome it, none so worthy of grateful
and uncalculating loyalty on the part of those who
serve him.
He said, " Ye call me Teacher, and Lord, and ye
say well." If so, what follows?
" I'll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,
Over mountain and plain and sea ;
I'll do what you want me to do, dear Lord ;
I'll be what you want me to be."

Section III
" Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of
the Virgin Mary."

There comes a galley laden,
A heavenly freight on board;
It bears God's Son, the Saviour,
The great undying Word.
And proudly floats that galley
From troubled coast to coast :
Its sail is love and mercy.
Its mast, the Holy Ghost.
Now earth hath caught the anchor.
The ship hath touched the strand ;
God's Word in fleshly garment —
The Son — steps out on land. — John Tauler.

"WHO WAS CONCEIVED BY THE
HOLY GHOST, BORN OF THE
VIRGIN MARY."
THE fact that avowed unbelievers not infre
quently draw the impassable line at the doc
trine of the virgin birth of Jesus should
occasion no surprise, since it is written, " Great is
the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested
in the flesh; . . . angels desire to look into it."
But that any professing Christian should entertain
a doubt in these premises is vastly surprising; and
still more so that any evangelical minister should
withhold his yea and amen. This is difficult to
reconcile with even the lowest view of common hon
esty: inasmuch as such ministers are in covenant
bonds with respect to this doctrine, not only to re
ceive but to " maintain and defend it."
In a recent clerical meeting in New York a
clergyman said, " I do not hesitate to disavow the
dogma of the virgin birth "; and a professor in one
of our theological seminaries has said still more em
phatically, " To accept the Scriptural account of the
supernatural birth of Jesus at this stage of the
world's progress is absurd." No one questions the
right of anybody to hold such opinions in the proper
7iS

THE APOSTLES' CREED
place; but whether that proper place is in a fellow
ship pledged to maintain and defend the doctrine
referred to is another matter. It need scarcely be
said that, if left to a jury of business men, the de
cision would be that such men are not honest men.
It is related of Peter that he thrice denied his
Lord and repented with bitter tears; but those de
nials were due to a panic of cowardice and they did
not affect the absolute sincerity of his confession,
" Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God " ;
nor in thus denying his Lord did he deliberately
violate any vow of loyalty or hold his Master up to
blasphemous derision as the ill-begotten son of Jo
seph and therefore somewhat less than an average
man. It should be added, however, that such instances
are few and far between. The vast majority of
ministers are as honest as the light and as true as
steel. Our Lord said that in his church the wheat
and the tares must grow together until the great
day; and he forewarned his people to beware of
false teachers whose errors, while they would as
suredly lead many astray, could not mislead his true
followers, since his sheep " know his voice " and do
follow him.
But now, to address ourselves to the truth in
question. Why should not Christ be born in this way?
I. It is within the hounds of possibility, because
"with God all things are possible." Of course if
the supernatural be denied this miracle goes with it.
76

THE APOSTLES' CREED
If law is superior to the Law-giver then all births
are alike, and God is here, as everywhere else, bowed
out of doors. But such crass materialism as this
has obviously no place among Christians and finds
its best answer in the words, " Ye do err, not know
ing the power of God."
II. The supernatural birth of the Messiah was
prophesied in the Old Testament Scriptures. The
first sinner received a promise that the "Seed of
woman" should come in the fullness of time to
" bruise the serpent's head." How the son of a
woman could have sufficient power to deliver a
world of sinners from the bondage of sin was ex
plained in such subsequent prophecies as " Unto us
a Child is bom, unto us a Son is given; and his
name shall be called Wonderful, Coimsellor, mighty
God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace," and still
more explicitly, "A virgin shaU conceive and bear
a Son and shall call his name Immanuel," which
being interpreted is, " God with us."
III. The fulfillment of ail such prophecies in
Christ was affirmed by Christ himself. He knew
the Old Testament by heart and was familiar with
its Messianic predictions. On the way down to
Emmaus with two of his disciples it is written that,
" beginning with Moses and from all the prophets,
he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning himself." In other words, be
ginning with the protevangel respecting " the Seed
of woman " he followed the red trail down to the
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
words of Malachi, " The Sun of Righteousness shall
arise with healing in his wings."
The Old Testament was his Bible, his only Bible,
and he was not only familiar with it but absolutely
loyal to it. He, who probably understood Scrip
ture as well as any Biblical expert of modem times,
never uttered a word or syllable to indicate that he
supposed it to contain a single error or that he did
not believe it from beginning to end ; and those who
sincerely profess to believe in Christ, and who have
unreservedly accepted him as their Prophet, or au
thoritative teacher, will agree that the Book which
was good enough for him ought to be good enough
for us.
If so, then we stand pledged to his view of all
those Messianic prophecies which are fulfilled in his
supernatural birth.
It is affirmed, however, by those who deny that
Christ's birth was out of the ordinary, that " he
does not say so." This is not true. It would
scarcely be expected that he would have much to
say about the manner of his birth, but on occasion he
frankly and explicitly referred to it. Take for ex
ample his interview with the religious leaders of the
Jews in the eighth chapter of John :
And he said unto them, " Ye are from beneath; I
am from above: . . . except ye believe that I am
he ye shall die in your sins."
They said therefore, " Who art thou? "
He answered, "Even that which I have also
78

THE APOSTLES' CREED
spoken unto you from the beginning. . . . When
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye
know that I am he. . . . If ye abide in my word,
then . . . ye shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free."
They said unto him, " We are Abraham's seed,
and have never yet been in bondage to any man."
Jesus said, " I speak the things which I have seen
with my Father; and ye also do the things which ye
heard from your father. . . . If ye were Abra
ham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
But now ye seek to kill me!"
Thereupon they taumted him with the rumor of
his ill-begotten birth; * to which he calmly replied,
" I came forth and am come from God; for neither
have I come of myself but he sent me. . . . If a
man keep my word he shall never see death."
They asked him, "Art thou greater than our
father Abraham, who died?"
He answered, " Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad."
They said, " Thou art not yet fifty years old, and
hast thou seen Abraham?"
He answered, " Verily, verily, I say unto you.
Before Abraham was born I am."
This reference to his birth is surely as clear as
could be expected ; and, being joined not only with
the distinct affirmation of his pre-existence and the
most solemn title of Jehovah (the I AM of the
*"They said unto him, We were not born of fornication;
we have one father, even God." 79

THE APOSTLES' CREED
burning bush) it leaves no room for doubt as to his
assumption of equality with God.
IV. The miraculous birth of Jesus is vouched
for hy the inspired writers of the New Testament.
This fact, so far as I am aware, is not denied in
any quarter; but their trustworthiness and authority
as writers claiming the infallibility of divine in
spiration is called in question by all so-called " lib
erals." This throws us back not only upon our
Lord's clear view of inspiration, but upon his state
ment that the teaching of his apostles was to be ac
corded an authority equal to his own. " He that
heareth you heareth me," he said, and vice versa.
He thus put his imprimatur upon their teachings in
such a manner that no one can be warranted in say
ing, " I believe what Jesus says, but reserve the
right to reject Peter and Paul." As followers of
Christ we are bound to accept the inspired record
as of equal reliability from beginning to end.
V. The singular birth of Jesus, as prophesied
and thits affirmed by himself, is a necessary factor
in the divine plan of salvation.
In Anselm's " Cur Deus Homo " he argues :
The Saviour must needs be man, that he may be
able to suffer and thus itone for sin; and he must
needs be God, that he may suffer sufficiently to
atone for the world's sin ; wherefore he must needs
be Theanthropos or God-man — that is. Very Man
of Very Man and also Very God of Very God, and
both in the same person — else he cannot save us.
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
VI. The Scriptural account of the Nativity has
been accepted by the Universal Church from the be
ginning until now.
In fact the Church is founded upon this truth.
When Peter witnessed his good confession, " Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God," our Lord
said, " Upon this rock will I build my Church, and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." *
No church, therefore, which rejects the proposition
thus affirmed can truly claim to be a Christian
Church ; and that proposition can only be construed
as designating the sole and singular sonship of
Jesus as the one only-begotten Son of God.
And just here is the rational basis of Church
union. So long as human nature is what it is we
can neither wish nor hope for uniformity among all
denominations; but there is no reason why all who
truly believe in Christ as the Son of the Uving God
should not clasp hands and agree to differ as to
many non-essentials which now divide them.
The trouble is, however, that ultimate authority
for the divinity of Christ is found only in the Scrip
tures, and that authority is reduced to the vanish
ing point when the Scriptures are regarded as any
thing less than the inspired and therefore inerrant
Word of God.
*The words Petros, a stone, and petra, a rock, are not
identical. The rock was Peter's confession of the divinity of
Christ. Petros, a stone hewn out of the rock, was the new
name which he received because he had so courageously af
firmed it. 8i

THE APOSTLES' CREED
So it would appear that the incarnate Word and
the written Word stand together, not only as a com
plete binomial revelation of all the spiritual truths
which are necessary to our salvation but as a con
sensus of faith among all believers. And this is pre
cisely what should be expected in view of the un
swerving loyalty of Christ to the Scriptures and
their equal and corresponding loyalty to him.
It only remains to say that the conclusion of the
argument, so far as it is related to our personal sal
vation, must be found in our individual experience
of the omnipotent grace of Christ as the veritable
and only-begotten Son. The effort of the disciples
to convince Thomas of the resurrection of his Lord
was of no avail until Thomas for himself saw Jesus
marked with the stigmata of his passion and his tri
umph over death. So, when wit and reason fail,
the seeking sinner meets a seeking Saviour face to
face and, closing in with his overtures of mercy,
cries, " My Lord and my God ! "

82

Section ^ IV
" Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified,
dead and buried. He descended into Hell."

I'll carve our passion on the bark ;
And every wounded tree
Shall drop and bear some mystic mark
That Jesus died for me.
The swains shall wonder when they read.
Inscribed on all the grove.
That heaven itself came down and bled
To win a mortal's love. — Isaac Watts.

" SUFFERED "
THE passion of Christ was necessary to the
carrying out of his great purpose of re
demption. As God he could not " suffer,"
because, to use the phrasing of the early theolo
gians, " (jod hath neither body, parts nor passions."
In order to suffer, in the human sense of suffering,
he must become man. And this he did; as it is
written, " Since then the children are sharers in
flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner par
took of the same; that through death he might
bring to naught him that had the power of death."
(Hebrew 2:14.)
In order to fit himself for the accomplishment of
his great purpose he, in the fullness of time, emptied
himself of the forrri of God and was found in fash
ion as a man.
His humanity was real. No halo encircled his
head. He wore no royal purple. He had given
up all outward form and semblance of Deity and
become to all appearance a mere man; insomuch
that there was " no form nor comeliness " nor any
" beauty that we should desire him."
In the terminology of the schools this is called
the "kenosis," or self-emptying of Christ. It is
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
important that' we should understand just what it
was that he gave up when he thus " took upon him
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness
of men."
The classical text in this connection is Philip-
pians 2:i-ii : "¦// there is therefore any exhorta
tion in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any
fellowship of the Spirit, if any tender mercies and
compassions, make full my joy, that ye be of the
same mind, having the same love, being of one ac
cord, of one mind; doing nothing through faction
or through vainglory, but in lowliness of mind each
counting other better than himself; not looking each
of you to his own things, but each of you also to
the things of others. Have this mind in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus: who, existing in the form
of God, counted not the being on an equality with
God a thing to be grasped: but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant, being made in the
likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a
man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient even
unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Where
fore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto
him the name which is above every name; that in
the name of Jesus every knee should how, of things
in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the
Father." Let it be observed, then, that he did not empty
86

THE APOSTLES' CREED
himself of his Godhood, but only of its form or
fashion. In the nature of the case he could not
cease to be God ; but he could divest himself of " the
glory which he had with the Father before the world
was," and this, in the incarnation, he proceeded to
do. He emptied himself of the outward form and
exercise of his divine attributes. In his earthly
ministry he held these prerogatives in abeyance; but
they were always at his command, standing about
him like genii awaiting his nod and beck.
Where was his Omnipresence now? He whom
the heaven of heavens could not contain had con
sented to be enclosed within the narrow bounds of a
fleshly tabernacle; yet on occasion he could, by the
exercise of his will, be here and there and every
where. When his disciples were in the upper room,
with the doors closed for fear of their enemies, he
suddenly stood in their midst. No bolts nor bars
could restrain him.
And where was his Omniscience now ? In speak
ing of the Judgment he said: "Of that day and
hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven,
neither the Son, but the Father only." In other
words, he had put away the exercise of this attri
bute; yet on occasion he could recall it, so that the
past and the future were before him as an open
book. And where was his Omnipotence now? He who
had created the world and all things therein, so that
87

THE APOSTLES' CREED
" without him was not anything made that was
made," was subject to the common infirmities of
human life. He was hungry and thirsty like other
men. He lay asleep on the pilot's cushion of a lit
tle boat, weary with the labors of the day ; but when
the storm arose and the sailors bent over him cry
ing, " Teacher, carest thou not that we perish? " he
summoned his almightiness and, lifting his hands
above the surging waves, bade them " be still " ; and
like naughty children, they sobbed themselves to
sleep. He emptied himself, not only of the form of God
hood, in this manner, but also of the form of Lord
ship as well ; for, " being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient." He who
was the Lord of the universe — so lordly that when
he spake, not only an innumerable host of angels
and archangels, but the very stars in their courses,
answered, " Here are we ! " — consented to pass
under a yoke of servitude that he might accomplish
the great purpose before him.
He bowed at the behest of Csesar, of Csesar who
was personally no more important in his sight than
a mote flying in a sunbeam ! Nay, more, he became
the servant of every man; affirming that he had
come " not to be ministered unto but to minister
and to give his life a ransom for many." He was
the servant of every sinner, of every drab and
drunkard on earth, having come to minister unto
all. 88

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Still further, he " became obedient unto death."
The Lord of life, in whom we live and move and
have our being, bowed his head to the King of Ter
rors and consented to pass through the little wicket-
gate that awaits every one of us.
In this, however, he did not cease to be the Prince
of Life. If he consented to die, it was not because
he had no power to live. " I have power," he said,
" to lay down my life, and I have power to take it
again." He was no struggling victim like Iphigenia, the
daughter of Agamemnon, who was dragged to the
altar for the deliverance of her people. He had
volunteered to die, saying, " Lo, I am come; in the
roll of the book it is written of me : I delight to do
thy win."
Still further, he emptied himself of the form of
his Innocency. He became obedient " even to the
death of the cross," consenting to take the place of
a malefactor that he might die vicariously for all
malefactors on the accursed tree.
He lifted the burden of the world's sin and bore
it to Calvary, tmtil his great heart broke under it.
He went out into the outer darkness of expiation.
He went down into the lowest depths of retribution.
He could not surrender his holiness, but he could
and did actually surrender the consciousness of it.
He laid aside the fashion of his innocency as a gar
ment, that he might be clothed upon with our shame.
In this he became obedient not merely to physical
89

THE APOSTLES' CREED
but to spiritual suffering in our behalf. He was
minded to die the death which, under the law, is im
posed upon every mortal man : " The soul that sin-
neth, it shall die." Not otherwise can we under
stand the awful cry that marked the consummation
of his anguish, " Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!"
The infinite Son of God, panoplied with all divine
excellences, " holy, harmless and undefiled," free
from the slightest taint or suggestion of personal
sin, so changed places with us that he became in his
own consciousness the great sufferer for sin.

90

"UNDER PONTIUS PILATE"
A STRANGE immortality this for a man
so proud of his honor as Pilate was!
The world might have forgotten that he
ever lived, despite the fact that he was Procurator
of Judsea, were it not that he stands pilloried for
ever in the shadow of a prisoner at the bar.
The first time Pilate ever saw Jesus, so far as we
know, was on an April morning when the mob,
with Jesus in its hands, came surging across the
bridge that spanned the Tyropoeon Valley and pre
sented itself before the gates of the Prsetorium
clamoring for an audience. If Pilate was out of
humor, by reason of this unseemly interruption of
his morning sleep, he probably did not show it. He
met his petitioners with a smile, as became a poli
tician, taking in the situation at a glance. He had
heard of Jesus frequently, no doubt, but he scarcely
expected to see him in this guise; a prisoner, worn
and haggard from a night of suffering, with a
hempen rope about his neck and his hands bound
behind him.
And Pilate said, "What accusation bring ye
against this man ? "
The answer was imperatively curt and insolent:
91

THE APOSTLES' CREED
"If this man were not an evil-doer, we should not
have delivered him up unto thee."
In fact the charge against him was twofold: on
the one hand he was accused of treason in claiming
to be a King; and on the other of blasphemy in
claiming to be equal to God. The latter charge,
being of a religious nature, lay outside the purview
of the Govemor; but of the other, as one of Csesar's
magistrates, he was bound to take cognizance. He,
therefore, led the prisoner aside and questioned him.
" Art thou the King of the Jews? "
The answer of Jesus was an emphatic affirmaitive,
" Thou sayest " ; but he added, " My Kingdom is
not of this world. ... To this end have I been
born, and to this end am I come into the world, that
I should bear witness unto the truth."
At the close of this interview Pilate brought his
prisoner forth and pronounced a definite sentence
of acquittal, " I find no crime in him." The mob
was thereby kindled into new fury and demanded
the more urgently the death of the prisoner. Pilate
was at his wits' end. What could he do ?
The fact that Jesus was a Galilsean suggested an
escape from his dilemma. It so happened that at
this time Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee, was visit
ing in Jerusalem; and as the prisoner properly be
longed to his jurisdiction, the perplexing case was
turned over to him.
But Pilate reckoned without his host. Herod,
who was familiarly known as " the fox," was too
92

THE APOSTLES' CREED
clever to be caught napping in that way. He was
glad indeed to see Jesus, " because he had heard
conceming him," but he declined to have anything
to do with the case officially. He turned him over
accordingly to his soldiers, who having set him at
naught and mocked him, gave him back to the mob;
who brought him again to Pilate, arrayed in cast-off
purple. What now should the time-server do with
him? A happy thought! It was the custom to release
a prisoner at the Passover. He gave the people the
choice of two : " Whom will ye that I release unto
you; Barabbas, the murderer, or this Jesus?"
They cried " Barabbas " with one accord. " What
then," he asked, " shall I do unto Jesus who is called
Christ?" "Crucify him! Crucify him! Away
with him ! " Alas, was ever man in such a quan
dary ? What should he do ?
He will compromise. The prisoner, being inno
cent, should in common justice be released offhand;
but, says Pilate, " I will chastise him and let him
go." The proposition is an illogical makeshift, and
the people see through it. " Thou art not Csesar's
friend," they say, " if thou let him go! "
The travesty of justice ends with a suitable epi
logue. Pilate, seeing that he prevails nothing, but
that the tumult rather increases, takes water and
washes his hands before the multitude, saying, " I
am innocent of the blood of this righteous man.
See ye to it." 93

THE APOSTLES' CREED
And they led the prisoner forth to the place which
is caUed Golgotha to crucify him.
The story of Pilate is ancient history. Let us
bring it up to date. The unavoidable question is
this : " What shall I do with this Jesus, which is
called the Christ?"
No man can ignore the question. It thrusts itself
upon him. Go where he will, into the home circle,
marketplace, library. Chamber of Commerce, or
Legislative Hall, the name of Jesus is heard above
every other name; and the eyes of Jesus, like those
in the portrait by Fra Angelico, follow us wherever
we go, silently demanding, " What will you do with
me?" We may reject him; we may, like Pilate, try to
temporize with the question, or we may end the con
troversy by accepting him. And this I believe to be
the only answer that any thoughtful man can hon
estly give to the question: What shall I do with
this Jesus which is called the Christ ? One of Lin
coln's wise sayings was : " Nothing is settled until
it is settled right." The man who, like Pilate, seeks
to evade the responsibility of the situation by taking
refuge in excuses and subterfuges, will find himself
perplexed and harassed unceasingly until he finally
disposes of the problem by either rejecting Christ or
frankly and unreservedly accepting him.

94

"WAS CRUCIFIED"
IT is not possible to misunderstand the teaching
of Christ with reference to the manner of his
death. His position was : The Scripture must
needs be fulfilled: thus it is written; and thus it
must be.
The phrase "Ufted up" was in common use
among the Jews and was generally understood as a
reference to the ignominious death of the cross.
In one of our Lord's most notable sermons, ad
dressed to the Pharisees with respect to the coming
of the Messiah (John 8:13-32) he said: "When
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall ye know
that I am he."
It was clearly affirmed by Christ on many occa
sions ; as when he was going through Csesarea-Phi-
lippi — on that last joumey, of which it is reported
that, with the cold shadow of the Cross over him,
he " set his face steadfastly to go " — when he said
to his disciples that he should be delivered to the
chief priests and condemned and scourged and cru
cified. (Matthew 20:17-28.) In other words, it
was predetermined not only that he should die but
that he should die in this particular way.
In another of his sermons, addressed to the people
95

THE APOSTLES' CREED
(John 12 :23-26), he said, " I, if I be Ufted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto myself," and it is
added, " This he said signifying by what manner of
death he should die."
It is further explained in Galatians 3:13, " Christ
hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, having
become a curse for us; for it is written. Cursed is
every one that hangeth on a tree." *
It was thrown into the boldest relief by Jesus in
his conversation with Nicodemus (John 3:1-21),
when he said, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth may in him have
eternal Ufe." This incident was used to illustrate
the doctrine of salvation ; and the analogy is perfect,
as we shall now see.
In this doctrine there are three essential facts.
The first is Sin. Here is the starting-point. We
shall make no progress toward a solution of the
problem until we get a right idea of sin.
Sin, like the venom of the serpent, is all-per
vasive. It courses through the blood from heart
to finger-tips. It corrupts the mind, perverts the
conscience, and enfeebles the will; so that "the
whole head is sick and the whole heart faint. From
the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no
soundness in it; but wounds and bruises and fresh
stripes." (Isaiah i :5.)
* Compare with Deuteronomy 21 : 22, 23.
96

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Sin, like the venom of the serpent, is deadly.
"The soul that sinneth it shall die." And to the
mind of a right-thinking man there can be no death
more frightful than etemal exile from God. The
world has been groping through the centuries for
some remedy for sin. The question is, How shall a
man be just with God? In all the mythologies and
philosophies of the world aside from the Gospel
there is no hint or suggestion of any method of jus
tifying a sinner in the sight of a holy God.
The second of the essential facts in the doctrine of
salvation is Expiation. This is set forth in the lift
ing up of the serpent. " As Moses lifted up the ser
pent in the wildemess, even so must the Son of Man
be lifted up." The resemblance is clear.
To begin with, the brazen effigy on the pole was
really no serpent at all. It was wholly innocuous.
There was no venom in it. So it is written of Christ
that he was " holy, harmless and undefiled " among
the sinful children of men. There was no fault in
him at all.
But the brazen effigy vras like a serpent. So it is
written, " God sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh : that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled
in us." (Romans 8:3.) And still more emphat
ically, " Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on
our behalf : that we might become the righteousness
of God in him."
As the brazen serpent was impaled, " even so must
97

THE APOSTLES' CREED
the Son of Man be lifted up." He was lifted up by
the wayside, where every passer-by might see.
This brings us to the third of the essential facts
in the doctrine of salvation, which is Justification
by Faith.—" Look, and live ! " " He that believeth
on the Son hath eternal Ufe ; but he that obeyeth not
the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abid
eth on him." (John 3 :36.)
There was obviously no healing virtue in the
glance. So far as that was concerned it would have
answered the needs of the people just as well to look
at the face of Moses or at the noonday sun. So
faith in itself is a valueless thing. There is no es
sential grace in it.
Yet faith is set forth as the indispensable condi
tion of life. The only reason why the sufferers in
the Jewish camp were healed by looking at the
brazen serpent was because God had declared that so
it should be. In like manner faith in Christ and obe
dience to him is made the condition of the forgive
ness of sin.
No one will question the fact that the God who
wrought the miracle of healing in the wildemess
had an indisputable right to make his own terms con
ceming it. It is equally clear that the God who be
stows the gift of salvation has the right to affix a
condition to it. This he has been pleased to do.
His grace is free, free as air or water; but the air
must be breathed, and a man will perish of thirst if
he does not dip up the water and drink it. In like
98

THE APOSTLES' CREED
manner the great salvation is offered to all on the
sole and simple condition that they by faith receive
it. No doubt there were many in Israel who, refus
ing to look at the brazen serpent, perished and were
buried in the desert sand. Some put their depend
ence on such human help as was at their command ;
and they died. Some could not understand how
there was healing power in a brazen serpent on a
pole ; and, refusing to look, they died. Others, feel
ing no pain, declined to beUeve that they were in
serious danger, and, refusing to look, they also died.
But there were multitudes who, hearing the invita
tion, obeyed and lived !
" Look, look, look and live !
There is life for a look at the crucified One ;
There is life at this moment for thee."
In one of Mr. Moody's after-meetings a man said
to him, " I am in trouble about my soul; what shall
I do ? " Mr. Moody read him the story of the Cm-
cifixion; but before he had finished the man cried,
" I am a Jew ! I do not believe in Jesus of Naza
reth. He was not the Messiah; and I will not so
receive him." Mr. Moody said, " Very well ; let me
read you something else." He turned to the story
of Moses and the brazen serpent. The man said, " I
believe that ; but I don't see how it affects my case."
Then Mr. Moody read the story of this interview of
99

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Christ with Nicodemus; and when he concluded, the
inquirer said, with the light of salvation in his eyes,
" I see it! This is the Christ of God! He did so
love the world that he gave his only begotten Son to
redeem it ! "

ICO

" DEAD "
CHRIST is dead ! See him yonder upon the
cross, face pale, limbs convulsed, pulse si
lenced. No need of a death certificate
here. "Is he quite dead?" asks the Centurion of his
guard. " Aye, this is the spear which I thrust into
his side a moment ago; when it was withdrawn, it
gave token that his heart had ceased to beat."
Jews, priests and rabbis pass by, saying, " The
Man of Nazareth is dead; we shall hear no further
of his doctrines and wonderful works. He will
trouble us no more."
The disciples as they reverently take his body
from the cross perceive that the life-current has
ceased to flow. " We hoped," they mournfully say,
" that it was he who should deliver Israel ; but, alas !
he is dead."
Dead? Then why this commotion to-day?
Why this controversy among all nations and the
children of men? Is it possible that the world is so
moved and troubled about a dead man, one who died
and was buried nineteen centuries ago ?
What does it mean? There are some hundreds
of millions of people who gather at intervals about
lOI

THE APOSTLES' CREED
a table where a frugal feast is spread. They break
the bread and say, " Lo, thus his flesh was bruised."
They pour the wine and say, " Lo, thus his blood
was shed." And then, lifting their hearts and
voices, they speak with him as a living Christ, laying
all their plans and purposes and hopes before him !
And what means this ever-increasing multitude
of men and women who declare that he, with a
mighty hand, has lifted them out of the miry clay
and set their feet upon an everlasting rock?
He once said to a paralytic in Capernaum, " Son,
thy sins are forgiven " ; and he has been loosing
paral3i;ics from their infirmity and forgiving their
sins from then until now.
He once said to a sinful woman who anointed his
feet with oil of spikenard, " Thy sins be forgiven
thee, ... go in peace"; and through all the cen
turies he has been saving Magdalens and restoring
them to self-respect and to divine peace.
He once said to a dying thief on Golgotha, " To
day shalt thou be with me in paradise " ; and there
are multitudes of malefactors as guilty as poor
Dysmas who are prepared to testify that just now
he met them with the same message of pardoning
grace. And how is it that the name of Jesus is to-day the
most potent name in war and diplomacy? His fig
ure towers aloft in the affairs of nations like the
Brocken of the Alps. What has become of other
magnates who ruled the earth in centuries gone by?
102

THE APOSTLES' CREED
" Imperial Csesar, dead and turned to clay,
May stop a hole to keep the wind away."
But to-day Christ is the most influential arbiter in
mundane affairs. It may be that Macaulay's vision
will come true ; that at some future time a New Zea
lander will stand upon a broken arch of London
Bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's. If so,
however, it will be because that New Zealander will
himself be the last consummate fruit of Christian
culture; a man of higher attainments in moral
power than those who reared the fabric of St. Paul's.
For Christ is a living and omnipotent force, moving
the world through each succeeding sun into a clearer
light, and this will continue until, in the restitution
of all things, every knee shall bow before him and
every tongue confess, in the full glory of his millen
nial reign, that he alone is King over aU.

103

"AND BURIED"
I SAW, as in a dream, a great multitude of peo
ple who seemed to be traveling in caravans
through an open country ; and their faces were
all turned one way. There were all sorts and condi
tions of people: Jew and Greek, barbarian, Scyth
ian, bond and free, kings and yeomen, queens and
courtesans, beggars and millionaires, idlers and
handicraftsmen, captains returning from conquest
with long processions of slaves dragged at their
chariot wheels, philosophers and simple folk; but
they journeyed together and their faces were turned
one way. They traveled by many roads, broad and
narrow, crooked and straight, by-paths and royal
highways; but the roads all tended in one direction,
converging at a great gate which towered aloft in
the distance and cast its shadow over the whole
land. On this side of the gate was a river; and the river
was dark and mysterious, because the gate cast a
shadow over it. On this side of the river lay a deep
valley: and the shadow of the gate fell over that
also, insomuch that it was called " The Valley of
the Shadow." And the gloom of that valley was
so deep that none could see beforehand what of pain
104

THE APOSTLES' CREED
or comfort awaited him in passing through it.
I saw that the travelers were afraid of the valley
and of the river and of the gate; wherefore many
of them averted their eyes and refused to look that
way. And I heard a voice like the low roll of thunder,
saying, " Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to
dust!" It was the voice of the King of Terrors; and I
knew then that the gate was the Gateway of the
Tomb. For so it is written, " It is appointed unto
all men once to die."
I saw a little child approach the gate; and it
played and laughed up to the very threshold and
then passed in. I saw an old man, so old that he
was bent quite double with the burden of his years,
who lifted his dim eyes and, seeing the gate, trem
bled but must needs pass in; and his record runs
on this wise: " The days of the years of Methuse
lah were nine hundred and sixty and nine years —
and he died." I saw the proudest of earthly queens
approach the gate and, realizing on a sudden that
her end had come, she cried, " My kingdom for a
moment of time!" but none answered her; and,
without an instant's pause she, too, passed in.
Beside the gate on either hand were scattered
heaps of refuse; odds and ends of everything that
men count dear : goodS' and chattels, gold and silver,
bonds and mortgages, crowns and laurel wreaths,
bodkins and spindles, arms and armor, workmen's

THE APOSTLES' CREED
tools, clothing of every sort, purple and fine linen
and homespun, masks and buskins; the things for
which men live and labor with tears and blood; all
now laid by ! For so it is ordained ; naked came we
and naked must we go. We brought nothing into
this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out. A workman drew near to the gate and, as if real
izing that his work was over, laid down his tools
and passed in.
A rich man, so absorbed in gain that his very soul
had turned yellow with the jaundice of gold, mur
muring to himself, " Soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink
and be merry," suddenly lifted his eyes and, seeing
the gate, turned ashen pale, disgorged his wealth
and passed in. And the air seemed vibrant with
these words, " Thou fool, whose now shall these
things be? "
A king approached and, casting his crown and
purple aside, lifted both his hands, palms upward
and quite empty, and disappeared from view. This
was he who boasted that he had conquered the
world; and, behold, he left it all.
An old man drew near and, laying aside his gar
ments, sang a hymn, which I remembered having
heard him singing to himself at eventide:
" The day is past and gone.
The evening shades appear ;
1 06

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Oh, may we all remember well
The night of death draws near.
We lay our garments by
Upon our beds to rest ;
So Death will soon disrobe us all
Of what we here possessed."
Thus one by one, alone and empty-handed, they
passed in.
Then I heard another voice, louder than that of
the King of Terrors and sweeter than the music of
a harp, saying, "Be of good courage; this is the
Gateway of Life!"
I turned to see. He was standing by an open
sepulcher, and near the sepulcher was a Cross ; and
a strange light, which seemed to issue from the
sepulcher, fell upon the Cross, and then upon the
gate. And I knew that this was the sepulcher of
Him by whom life and immortality were brought
to light.
He knew whereof he spake, for he had himself
passed through the gate. It was written of him,
" Since then the children are sharers in flesh and
blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the
same ; that through death he might bring to naught
him that had the power of death." In order that
Christ might become the firstborn of many brethren,
he was bom of a woman. In his infancy he was
wrapped in swaddling-bands. In manhood he wore
homespun and toiled in a workshop. In his minis
try he traversed the weary thoroughfares of Pales-
107

THE APOSTLES' CREED
tine, wearing the dusty garments of a wayfarer.
In his death he was clad in cerecloths and carried
to a tomb. All this he did as our Elder Brother and
representative; that, living and dying, he might be
one with us. He lay in the sepulcher as one who
slept, and, rising, blessed the bed.
As he passed through the great gate he, turning,
said, " I am the resurrection and the Ufe ; he that be
lieveth on me, though he die, yet shall he live; and
whosoever liveth and believeth on me shall never
die!" Wherefore the sepulcher is the Gateway of Life
for us. " No more a charnel-house, to fence
The relics of lost innocence,
A vault of ruin and decay :
The imprisoning stone is rolled away :
'Tis now a place where angels use
To come and go with heavenly news.
And in the ears of mourners say,
' Come, see the place where Jesus lay ' ! "
The light that issued from the open sepulcher fell
also upon the faces of many of the travelers, so that
they feared no more. They, too, must needs bid
their friends farewell, but not as if they were part
ing forever. It was only "until we meet again."
As they passed through the valley they sang, " I will
fear no evil ; for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy
staff, they comfort me." As they forded the river
io8

THE APOSTLES' CREED
they sang, " I will not fear, for thou hast redeemed
me. Though I pass through the waters, they shall
not overflow me; for thou art the God of my salva
tion." And as they entered the sepulcher the light
fell so wondrously upon their faces that fear van
ished, being supplanted by the radiance of an endless
hope. Thus they passed in.
One of these closed his eyes, as Stephen did, when
" falling on sleep," and when he opened them it
was with a look of glad surprise, as if he suddenly
reaUzed the truth of that intimation, " Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love him."
Another, weary with the long stmggle of life and
conscious of having done his best, said, like Paul,
as he entered the gate, " I have fought the good
fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the
faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me the crown
of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall give to me at that day."
And still another, looking through the gate, saw
something which seemed to transfigure him ; so that,
reaching up his hands, he cried,
" The world recedes ; it disappears ;
Heaven opens on my eyes ; mine ears
With sounds seraphic ring 1 Lend, lend your wings !
I mount, I fly ! O grave, where is thy victory ?
O Death, where is thy sting? "
109

THE APOSTLES' CREED
I saw now that the light from the open sepulcher
fell still beyond. On the left was a region of dark
ness, with shadows flitting through it; and on the
right " a better country, that is, a heavenly." As
far as one could see were fields " all dressed in
living green." The people there were clothed in
white, the livery of the King's servants. As they
served they sang, " Worthy is he who hath re
deemed us out of every nation and kindred and peo
ple and tribe and made us to be kings and priests
unto God!"
In the far distance was a throne, and He that sat
upon it was arrayed in garments white and glister
ing. His face shone with a Ught that, mingling
with the light of the open sepulcher, fell over all
the country ; as it is written, " And the city hath no
need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine upon
it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the lamp
thereof is the Lamb. And the nations shall walk
amidst the light thereof; . . . and they shall bring
the glory and the honor of the nations into it."
I observed that when the travelers, with the light
reflected on their faces, entered the gate and turned
toward the right to enter the Better Country, they
all gave the countersign, " In His Name." It was
the name which is above every other that is named
in heaven or on earth ; the name of Jesus, the Prince
of Life, who had said, " No man cometh unto the
Father but by me." And when they gave that
no

THE APOSTLES' CREED
countersign he said, " Enter thou into the joy of
thy Lord."
Then straightway they began to sing with a loud
voice, saying, " Unto him that sitteth on the throne,
and unto the Lamb, be the blessing, and the honor,
and the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever ! "
And in the distance beyond the gate I saw their
welcome. Never were strangers returning from a
long absence so joyously received. Friends gath
ered from near and far. Oh, blessed home-bring
ing! Wives who had been separated from their
husbands greeted them with joy unspeakable.
Mothers clasped in their arms the children who had
slipped away from them years before. They all
said " Good morning ! " In that better country
they never say " Good night," because there is no
night and there are no partings there.
All their sorrows were over. They had passed
through the Lord's Gateway of Life into endless
day.

Ill

HE DESCENDED INTO HELL"

THE word "hell" has a repugnant sound,
and rightly so. It should be uttered with
bated breath. And the reason is because it
designates the penalty of sin.
Sin is the most abhorrent thing in the universe.
It ruins character, desolates homes, overthrows gov-
emments, and pollutes the very air we breathe. It
corrupts the body, enfeebles the mind, and — unless
its ravages can be arrested in some way — must ul
timately separate the immortal soul from God.
Its penalty, as a matter of course, measures up
to it. The law says, " The soul that sinneth, it shall
die!" As life is to know God, so death is to be
exiled from him.
Can sin be removed? Never! Lady Macbeth
was right, " What's done cannot be undone." A sin
ner once is a sinner forever, notwithstanding the
grace of God.
Can guilt be removed? Never! The wound
may heal, but the scar remains. God may forget,
but we must remember. His lovingkindness is mag
nified by the fact that we shall gratefully look on the
pit from which he has delivered us.
Can the penalty be remitted? It can! Thanks
112

THE APOSTLES' CREED
to the infinite wisdom and goodness of the Father
who spared not his only-begotten and well-beloved
Son but sent him to endure vicarious death for us !
He paid our penalty. In Gethsemane he drank
the bitter cup that should have been pressed to our
lips. On the Cross he descended into the hell that
justly awaited us.
The two darkest, bitterest experiences in the his
tory of a human soul are conviction and retribution ;
and both of these, in a very real sense, were endured
by him who became our substitute before the of
fended law.
Was Christ a sinner then? No, and yes.
Of all who ever lived on earth he was the only
guiltless one. There was no guile in his heart, no
guile on his lips.
But he became our substitute before the bar of the
offended law. In doing so he must needs change
places with us. If he would suffer for our sins, he
must feel them as his very own. Thus it is writ
ten, " Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on
our behalf, that we might become the righteousness
of God in him."
The pain of the publican who beat upon his
breast, crying, " God be merciful ! " the pain of the
prodigal son as he sat in the swine-field, realizing
in rags and poverty his unspeakable loss; the pain of
Bunyan who, as he walked through the forest with
a certain fearful looking for of judgment, envied,
as he says,. the very owls and toads; the pain of all
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
who have ever felt themselves to have passed justly
under the wrath of a holy and offended God — all
this was in the cup which, in behalf of a ruined race,
was pressed to Jesus' lips.
It must have been to his own consciousness as if
he, the absolutely sinless one, had committed all the
thefts and murders and adulteries and unspeakable
blasphemies that had even been laid to his people's
charge. Oh, what a world of anguish was laid
upon the heart of this Atlas, who thus identified
himself with us !
He not only entered into the consciousness of our
sin, but assumed its full penalty; as it is written,
" Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, hav
ing become a curse for us." In view of this fact
there is an awful significance in the statement of
the historic creed that he " descended into hell."
The worm of remorse that gnaws and never dies,
the fire of despair that burns and is never quenched,
the outer darkness of divine abandonment — he
knew them all. Little wonder that his frame shook
and trembled or that the sweat of agony stood like
blood-drops on his brow, when this cup was pressed
to his lips.
" O Christ, what burdens bowed thy head !
Our load was laid on thee.
Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead ;
Didst bear all ill for me.
A victim led, thy blood was shed ;
Now there's no load for me !
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
" Jehovah lifted up his rod ;
O Christ, it fell on thee !
Thou wast sore stricken of thy God ;
There's not one stroke for me.
Thy tears, thy blood, beneath it flowed ;
Thy bruising healeth me.
" The tempest's awful voice was heard ;
O Christ, it broke on thee !
Thy open bosom was my ward;
It braved the storm for me.
Thy form was scarred, thy visage marred ;
Now cloudless peace for me ! " *
* In the Liturgy of the Reformed Church this doctrine is
set forth in the Office for the Administration of the Lord's
Supper in these words: "He assumed our flesh and blood:
he bore for us the wrath of God, under which we should have
perished everlastingly, from the beginning of his incarnation
to the end of his life upon earth. He fulfilled for us all obedi
ence to the divine law and righteousness, especially when the
weight of our sins and the wrath of God pressed out of him
the bloody sweat in the garden, where he was bound that we
might be freed from our sins. He afterward suffered in
numerable reproaches, that we might never be confounded.
He, although innocent, was condemned to death, that we might
be acquitted at the judgment seat of God. Yea, he suffered
his blessed body to be nailed on the cross, that he might affix
thereon the handwriting of our sins. He also took upon
himself the curse due to us, that he might fill us with his
blessings. He humbled himself unto the deepest reproach
and pains of hell, both in body and soul, on the tree of the
cross, when he cried out with a loud voice, 'My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me?' that we might be ac
cepted of God, and never be forsaken of him. And finally
he confirmed, with his death and shedding of his blood, the
new and eternal testament, that covenant of grace and recon
ciliation, when he said, ' It is finished ! ' "
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
At the beginning of our Civil War in the little
town of Yadkin there was a collision of the skirmish
lines. The negroes, hiding in the swamps behind
the fences, saw here and there puffs of smoke and
knew that this was a part of the mighty conflict
in which were involved their hopes of manhood and
freedom. The next morning an old colored
preacher, coming out of hiding, saw lying in the
road a dead man, his hands clutching the earth, his
blue coat stained with his life-blood. He went back
and brought with him a little company of refugees,
and they scraped out a shallow grave beside the road
and buried this man who had suffered and died in
their behalf. To-day a church stands over that
mound, and the negroes assemble there to render
praises to God.
But what shall be said of Him who by his death
on Calvary has delivered us from etemal shame and
sorrow ? " What shall I render unto Jehovah for
all his benefits? I will take the cup of salvation,
and call upon the name of Jehovah. I will pay my
vows unto him I "

ii6

Section V
' The third day he rose again from the dead.'

Let us rise in early morning.
And, instead of ointments, bring
Hymns of praises to our Master,
And his resurrection sing:
We shall see the Sun of Justice
Risen with healing on his wing.
— John of Damascus.

"THE THIRD DAY HE ROSE AGAIN
FROM THE DEAD"
WHO was Jesus? A man of the people,
who had received his education for the
most part in a carpenter shop ; yet he put
himself forward as an infallible teacher. He
touched the great problems of eternity with a fear
less hand and "taught as one having authority."
The common people followed him in multitudes and
heard him gladly. The scribes and Pharisees —
the accredited theologians and religious leaders of
the time — looked on with amazement and undis
guised envy. They demanded of him, " Whence is
thine authority? " He answered, " From heaven."
And they said, " Then give us a sign from heaven to
verify it."
He had wrought many miracles among them.
I do not say he claimed to work miracles; because
at that time his miracles were undisputed. There
were present in the popular gatherings those whose
eyes had been opened, whose leprous scales had been
wiped off, whose palsied limbs had been restored by
him. In the presence of such witnesses there was
no room for doubt or peradventure.
The only question was. Whence did He derive
this power? Was it from above or from beneath?
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
The scribes and Pharisees intimated that it was
from Satan. " No," said Jesus, " it is divine power.
I can do nothing except the Father be with me. I
and my Father are one." Then demanded the
scribes and Pharisees, " Let us see your credentials.
If this power be from heaven, show us a sign from
heaven to attest it."
One sign, and one only, he consented to give,
namely, " the sign of the prophet Jonah " ; that is,
three days in the darkness of the grave and then life
and immortality brought to light.
It is the fashion in these days to make light of
the story of Jonah. In some quarters — in some
pulpits, even — it is referred to as " a fable." Evi
dently, however, Jesus did not so regard it. He
made its truth the guarantee of his own triumph
over death. Had he regarded it as mere folklore
he could not have made such use of it.
We do not employ fables as guarantees of fact.
Try it in a court of justice. " As surely as Jason
sought and found the Golden Fleece, so surely will
I tell the truth." That would scarcely answer. You
must certify by an indubitable fact like this : " As
surely as there is a God in heaven I will tell the
truth." Or try it in a common matter like the contract for
a debt; make out a promissory note on this wise:
" By the sign of Jack and the Beanstalk I promise
to pay when this obligation falls due." Does that
seem grotesque? It is not a whit more so than to
1 20

THE APOSTLES' CREED
allege that Jesus referred to a " fable " when called
upon to produce a sign in verification of his claim
as the only-begotten Son of God.
Time was when the earth trembled at the name of
Charlemagne, who extended the Prankish rule over
the greater part of Europe and assumed the crown
of the Roman Empire. He died A. D. 814 and was
laid to rest at Aix la Chapelle, in a mausoleum con
structed after the model of the holy sepulcher at
Jerusalem. By his own direction he was seated
upon a throne, in grim derision of the King of Ter
rors, with the imperial crown upon his head and his
purple mantle over his shoulders, a jeweled scepter
in his hands, and across his knees the sword with
which he had endeavored to conquer the world.
Four centuries later his tomb was opened by the
Emperor Otho; and there sat Charlemagne, a rat
tling skeleton! The crown and scepter had fallen;
the purple robe was odorous of decay; but the rusted
sword still lay across his knees. So passes the glory
of this world ! What then of the marvelous claims
of Jesus if he remained a dead man?
His sepulcher was sealed with the great seal of
the Roman Empire, which meant that the world
was against him. " The kings of the earth set
themselves, and the rulers take counsel together
against Jehovah and against his Anointed, saying,
'Let us break their bands asunder and cast away
their cords from us ! ' He that sitteth in the heav
ens will laugh ! " 121

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The clock strikes. The guards around the sep
ulcher are falling as dead men ! The stone is rolled
away, and Christ comes forth. The sign is verified !
The imperial seal is broken : the world powers are
set at naught : and the twofold assurance of authen
ticity and authority is placed forevermore upon his
work as our Saviour.
Who is the mightiest of earth's mighties? The
King of Terrors! Is there any to dispute his
power? Can the power of wealth equal it? Croe
sus retums to dust. The power of glory? Nay,
"the paths of glory lead but to the grave." The
power of armies and navies? The shores of
all the oceans are Uttered with wrecked fleets and
all its hillsides strewn with the dust of panoplied
hosts. Who then sliall dispute with Death? On
his pale horse with scythe in hand he has the right
of way. At the door of the cemetery he laughs,
" I gather them in ! I gather them in ! " The last
words of Cardinal Beaufort are: " Fie, fie! "Why
should death have me? Are my treasuries empty?
Go, bribe him ! " Fold the great Cardinal's hands,
carry him out; Death has conquered. Death al
ways conquers!
Always? Nay, not in Joseph's garden. Here
Christ meets the King of Terrors and vanquishes
him. In the darkness of this sepulcher the bands
and napkin, stronger than adamant, are as green
withes in the grip of this divine Samson who comes
forth wiping the death-dew from his face and say-
122

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ing, " O death, where is thy victory ? O death,
where is thy sting? "
And into the fellowship of this triumph he in
vites his people, walking with them as they follow
the bier and standing beside them at the graves of
their beloved, saying, " I am the resurrection and
the life; he that believeth on me, though he die, yet
shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth
on me shall never die."
To-day the name of Christ is above every name
that is named in heaven or on earth. The most
potent figure in current events is not Czar, nor Sul
tan, nor King nor Kaiser, but the same that Isaiah
saw seven hundred years before the Advent:
" Who is this that cometh from Edom, . . . this
that is glorious in his apparel, marching in the
greatness of his strength? I that speak in right
eousness, mighty to save! Wherefore art thou red
in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that
treadeth in the winevat? I have trodden the wine
press alone; and of the peoples there was no man
with me ! "
The campaign of the Kingdom is on. It began
at the Mount of Transfiguration, where Jesus met
his disciples for the last time, saying, " All author
ity hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth.
Go ye, therefore, and evangelize." In pursuance
of that commission the royal standards onward go.
On those standards is the red ssmibol of the Cross,
and over it the superscription, " I am . . .the Liv-
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
ing One; and I was dead, and, behold, I am alive
for evermore, and I have the keys of death and of
hell ! " His work is not in vain. The hands of
the King's dial move not backward. The consum
mation of the great enterprise will be the establish
ment of his kingdom, when every knee shall bow
before him.
It is recorded that when Saladin, the bold leader
of the Moslems in the Third Crusade, was on his
death-bed he bade his attendants hang his shroud
upon the outer walls of his palace and cry aloud,
" This is all that remains of Saladin the Great, who
hoped to conquer the world ! " But the empty
shroud in the sepulcher of Christ meant that death
had no more dominion over him. Thus Peter and
his companions interpreted it. No more did they
say, " We go a-fishing." Thenceforth, in pursu
ance of their original call, they were fishers of men.
With their faith thus fortified they stood ready to
face all dangers in the service of their living Lord.
So do we find our strength and courage in the as
surance that from his high place he leads and blesses
those who follow him. " Go, labor on ; spend and
be spent ! " For behold, your labor is not in vain in
the Lord. He lives; and "because he liveth we
shall live also." Wherefore let those who have en
tered into the fellowship of this glorious hope seek
those things which are above where Christ — the
ever living and reigning Christ — sitteth at the right
hand of God. .124

Section VI
" He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty."

To-day our Lord went up on high.
And so our songs we raise :
To him with strong desire we cry
To keep us in his grace ;
For we poor sinners here beneath
Are dwelling still 'mid woe and death.
All hope in him we place:
Hallelujah!
Thank God that now the way is made !
The cherub-guarded door.
Through Him on whom our help was laid.
Stands open evermore;
Who knoweth this is glad at heart.
And swift prepares him to depart
Where Christ is gone before:
HaUelujah! — Johannes Zmck.

"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN"
Scene: The Mount of Olives.
Time: Forty days after the resurrection of
Christ. Dramatis Personce: Christ and a company of his
friends assembled by his appointment.
ALL are on the qui vive. While waiting for
his appearance they recall the three event
ful years of their association with him.
They speak also of the future. Is it their Lord's
will at this time to proclaim his earthly sovereignty ?
Possibly this is the meaning of his appointment
with them to-day. Will he lead the way to Jerusa
lem, claim his scepter and usher in the Golden Age ?
Down below flows the Kidron; how often they
have crossed it on their way to the trysting-place
at Gethsemane ! In the distance are the homes and
temples of Jerusalem. Whichever way they look
is holy ground. The footprints of their Lord are
on every path and hillside. Memories come crowd
ing thick and fast upon the minds of these watchers
of Olivet, when suddenly he stands among them.
" Peace be unto you! "
It is his familiar salutation. How eagerly they
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
gaze upon the face that so lately was marked with
the death anguish. The greetings over, they un
burden their minds: " Lord, dost thou at this time
restore the kingdom to Israel?" He replies, "It
is not for you to know times or seasons." Then he
renews the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit,
and repeats the injunction to go into all the world
and preach his gospel. They gather around him in
love and wonder and reverence; he lifts his pierced
hands in blessing, and slowly rises from their midst.
" Earth has lost her power to keep ; the waiting
heavens claim him."
As he ascends through the yielding air his eyes
are bent on his disciples ; his arms are outstretched,
and his voice, heard for the last time, dies away in
benediction. They utter no despairing cry like that
of the prophet who saw Elijah ascend in a chariot
of fire, but silently, with strained eyes, they follow
him upward into the deep blue till the clouds, like
a white pavilion, enfold him. There are flashes of
gold like speeding cohorts of angels, vibrations of
light like the waving of celestial banners, then
a crimson glory at the rolling back of Heaven's
gates. How simple yet sublime this parting from his
earthly friends ! But who shall tell what took place
behind those receiving clouds? In what new form
of majesty, with what swift flight through the rare
cloudless ether, by what heavenly hosts attended
and with what rhapsodies of song, was this King of
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
Glory escorted through the everlasting gates and
welcomed to his holy hill ?
Did these disciples kneeling on Olivet with up-
tumed faces hear from the far distance an echo
of the ancient war cry of prophecy, " God is gone
up with a shout, Jehovah with the sound of a trum
pet " ? Or did there come from afar a mingled
sound as of many waters when their Lord passed
through the prostrate ranks of the great multitude,
while angels that excel in strength and elders with
harps and vials full of odors bowed low and sang,
" Worthy is the Lamb that hath been slain to re
ceive the power and riches and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing " ? Did ten thou
sand times ten thousand, with a voice like a rolling
ocean, cry " Amen and Amen ! " as he thus resumed
the glory which he had with the Father before the
world was? Were these the visions that passed
before the bewildered eyes of his disciples that day?

129

"AND SITTETH ON THE RIGHT
HAND OF GOD THE FATHER
ALMIGHTY "
IT is recorded that when Jesus had finished the
work which he had come into the world to do
he retumed to "the glory which he had with
the Father before the world was."
Mark says he " was received up into heaven and
sat down at the right hand of God."
Paul says, " The Father . . . made him to sit
at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above
all rule and authority and power and dominion
and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come: and he
put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave
him to be head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."
And elsewhere the same apostle enjoins us as fol
lowers of Christ to " seek the things that are above,
where Christ is seated on the right hand of God."
Peter says that Jesus " is on the right hand of
God, having gone into heaven; angels and authori
ties and powers being made subject unto him."
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says:
" God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
in the prophets by divers portions and in divers
manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto
us in his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things,
through whom also he made the worlds ; who being
the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of
his substance, and upholding all things by the word
of his power, when he had made purification of sins,
sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
having become by so much better than the angels, as
he hath inherited a more excellent name than they."
In another place the same writer says, " Seeing we.
are compassed about with so great a cloud of wit
nesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which
doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus
the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the
joy that was set before him endured the cross, de
spising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand
of the throne of God."
In these and other passages of like import we are
given to understand that Christ, having accom
plished his great purpose in the redemption of the
race, has entered into his rest. By his vicarious
death he laid the foundation of a Kingdom of
Truth and Righteousness which is ultimately to be
established in this world of ours.
In the forty days which intervened between his
resurrection and ascension he met his disciples re
peatedly and marked out for them the plan of the
campaign; gave them their great commission, "Go
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to the
whole creation," and equipped them for their work
by conferring the influence of the Holy Spirit,
Having thus set in motion the forces which were
destined to bring in the Golden Age, he was quite
ready to enter into his rest.
And now he sits in heaven " expecting." (Heb.
10:13.) Meanwhile the work of the Kingdom goes on
under the supervision of the Holy Spirit, who is the
Executive of the Church, leading its members " into
all truth," putting them in remembrance of the teach
ings of Christ and directing them in the campaign.
The Kingdom is Christ's, as "the fruit of the
travail of his soul " ; but the work of estabUshing
the Kingdom on earth is under the immediate con
trol and supervision of the Holy Spirit.
In the fullness of time the Lord will appear to
claim his own. He will come to assume the throne
when, under the influence of the Spirit, the Gospel
shall have been preached to the uttermost parts of
the earth. Then the tabernacle of God shall be
among men, and he will dwell with them, and they
shall be his people, and God — the God of salvation
— will be their God.
As the years pass and the campaign is progres
sively carried on, the expectant Christ " ever liveth
to make intercession " for us. It goes without say
ing that he has lost none of his interest in the wel
fare of those for whom he died. Their names are
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
graven on the palms of his hands. Blessed assur
ance!
" Five bleeding wounds he bears.
Received on Calvary ;
They pour effectual prayers.
They strongly plead for me.
' Forgive him, oh forgive,' they cry,
' Nor let this ransomed sinner die ! ' "
It is the vision of the uplifted Christ that gives
his followers impetus and strength for the work
of the kingdom. Paul on his way down to Damas
cus caught the vision, and it transformed his life.
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " was his
answer. He was ready for whatever awaited him :
and thenceforth not duty but the love of Christ
constrained him.
John the Evangelist had a like vision in the Isle
of Patmos : " I was in the Spirit on the Lord's
day, . , . and I saw seven golden candlesticks ; and
in the midst of the candlesticks One like unto a son
of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot,
and girt about at the breasts with a golden girdle.
And his head and his hair were white as white wool,
white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;
and his feet like unto burnished brass, as if it had
been refined in a f umace ; and his voice as the voice
of many waters. And he had in his right hand
seven stars ; and out of his mouth proceeded a sharp
two-edged sword: and his countenance was as the
133

THE APOSTLES' CREED
sun shineth in his strength. And when I saw him,
I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right
hand upon me, saying. Fear not ; I am the first and
the last and the Living One; and I was dead, and
behold, I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys
of death and of Hades."
If ever our courage fails, when the fountains of
the great deep seem to be broken up, let us lift our
eyes also to the Lord sitting upon his throne, high
and lifted up. The darkest clouds are far this side
of heaven, where in calm majesty the King wields
his scepter. Let us look unto the celestial hills.
God is our refuge and our strength, a very present
help in trouble; therefore will we not fear, though
the earth be removed and though all the nearer
mountains be carried into the midst of the
sea. I have in my study a remarkable book called
" The Ten Theophanies," by Dr. Baker, whose
name is not unfamiliar in the annals of lighter lit
erature. As his life was wearing to its close, he
felt a consuming desire to present his view of the
unveiling of God. The book, which was written
with a hand growing constantly feebler, was fin
ished at length in full view of heaven. Here are
its concluding words : " Try to bring home to
yourself this Friend of mine, who is God yet man,
and man yet God. He is ever lovingly near, in
the unlimited prime and plenitude and power of his
everlasting grace. The man who is writing these
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
lines cannot see them for happy tears. He trem
bles because unable to contain, while yet unable to
express, the thought of Immanuel, God with us!
And now, awaiting the appearing of our Lord, let
me sound his praise ; the blessed and only potentate.
King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath
immortality, dwelling in the light which no man
can approach unto. To Him be honor and glory
everlasting!" The writer's labor of love was fin
ished; the pen dropped from his trembling fingers;
a new Theophany had burst upon his sight. He
was in the midst of the beatific vision, at home with
God! To one who had thus looked on God, revealed in
the majesty and holiness of His beloved Son, there
must of necessity come a corresponding conviction
of littleness and unworthiness. So was it with Pe
ter on that morning by the lake of Galilee,
when he and his fellow fishermen, having toiled all
night and taken nothing, saw the Master on the
shore. At His bidding they " cast their nets on the
right side of the ship " ; and then came the miracle !
Peter had long known Jesus and endeavored to
serve him ; but in that wonderful moment he caught
such a glimpse of his Lord's majesty and of the in
effable holiness which ever accompanies it that- he
was filled with an overmastering awe and forced to
utter that strange and apparently inconsequent cry,
" Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man! "
Thus to see Christ is to see ourselves, not " as ithers
135

THE APOSTLES' CREED
see us," but as we really are in the clear white Hght
of his eyes.
Never until we have caught this vision shall
we be the sort of Christians that we ought to be.
Never until then shall we rightly apprehend our
place in the mighty plan of God. Never until then
shall we escape the drudgery of duty and enter on
the joy of voluntary service with the cry, " Here am
I ; send me ! "
A hopeless dreamer of dreams was Elijah until
he caught the vision. He shook and trembled as
the earthquake and the tempest and the fire passed
by; afterward came the still small voice, "Go, re
turn ! " Then and there a new and better life be
gan for him. He knew now that the king was on
his throne, high and lifted up; and that this God
was his God for ever and ever.
Oh, that the Vision might come to us, to us who
feel our inefficiency and would fain enter upon a
higher and more useful life! We may have the vi
sion if we will. The heavens are open. And the
Voice is calling, " Whom shall I send, and who will
go for us ? " Are we ready to answer, " Here am
I ; send me " ?

136

Section VII
" From thence he shall come to judge the quick
and the dead."

I would not fix the time, the day nor hour
When thou with all thine angels shalt appear ;
When in thy Kingdom thou shalt come with power.
E'en now, perhaps, the promised day is near !
For though in slumber deep the world may lie.
And e'en thy Church forget thy great command.
Still year by year thy coming draweth nigh.
And in its power thy kingdom is at hand.
— Jones Very.

" FROM THENCE HE SHALL COME "
THE technical term for the Second Coming
of Christ is parousia, literally " a draw
ing near " or " being alongside." In the
early Church a constant emphasis was laid upon
this transcendent hope ; and there is reason for pro
found regret that the edge of expectancy has so
largely been permitted to wear off.
The ascension of Christ occurred in the year 33.
As early as the year 66 Peter felt called upon to re
vive the languid spirit of the disciples in these
words: "I write unto you; and I stir up your
sincere mind by putting you in remembrance; that
ye should remember the words which were spoken
before by the holy prophets and the commandment
of the Lord and Saviour through your apostles:
knowing this first, that in the last days mockers
shall come with mockery, walking after their own
lusts, and saying. Where is the promise of his com
ing?" II Peter 3:1-4.
And now that nineteen centuries have passed, the
foUowers of Christ are still waiting; and scoffers
are stiU asking, "Where is the promise?" Are
we to conclude that there has been some mistake?
Is there really anywhere such a promise ; and, if so,
where ? 139

THE APOSTLES' CREED
I. It was given by the angels on tlie Mount of
Ascension: " He shall so come in like manner as
ye beheld him going into heaven."
This promise of the Second Coming of Christ
cannot be explained away by referring it to his influ
ential presence. It is true that he has ever been
the commanding figure in history, since the com
bined influence of all the Csesars and Alexanders and
Napoleons is not comparable with that of him who
has come down through the centuries, marching on
the heights of Bozrah with garments dyed red in
the winepress of redeeming grace. But this does
not answer the conditions of the promise, " He shall
so come in like manner as ye beheld him going."
Nor can it be explained away as a reference to
the miracle of Pentecost. Our Lord did indeed so
pour out his Spirit on that memorable day that his
Church was baptized with fire and power for the
great campaign before it. But this was not the
coming referred to.
Nor was the prophecy fulfilled in the retributive
coming of Christ at the destruction of Jerusalem.
He was present then with fan in hand to purge his
threshing-floor; but this was with no such benig
nant glory as when he ascended into the heavens
that opened to receive him.
Nor are the demands of this promise met by the
sympathetic coming of Christ referred to in his
words, " I will not leave you desolate: I come unto
you." Here is a wonderful truth, which is realized
140

THE APOSTLES' CREED
in the experience of every true follower of Christ;
but it does not exhaust the matter in hand. The
parousia lies deeper yet.
Still less can the promise be explained away by
referring it to Christ's sustaining grace in the dying
hour. It is true — wonderfully true — that he
meets us at the threshold of the Valley of the
Shadow and offers his rod and staff to comfort us ;
but this does not meet the conditions of the promise
before us.
The prophecy given on the Mount of Ascension
is that he shall come at a definite time and in a def
inite way; and this coming is further described in
his own words as " the Son of Man coming on the
clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And
he shall send forth his angels with a great sound of
a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect
from . . . one end of heaven to the other." It is
clear from such passages as these that his com
ing is to be a personal coming, at a definite time, in
the clouds of heaven, and the holy angels with him.
II. The promise runs through all the Scrip
tures like a golden tfvread.
In the first prophecy of the Old Testament there
is a distinct reference to the final triumph of the
Seed of Woman over the power of sin. And thence
forward there is a continuous line of prediction
with respect to the parousia. It is traceable every
where in the Levitical system of Messianic rites
and ceremonies as well as in the prophetic books.
141

THE APOSTLES' CREED
If the Old Testament speaks thus with no uncer
tain sound, the New Testament is clearer still.
There are literally hundreds of allusions in the
teaching of Christ and his apostles to his return
and universal reign.
In the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of
Matthew we have what is familiarly known as " the
parousia discourse"; and whatever of uncertainty
there may be as to its interpretation in detail and
particular, there is no room for any uncertainty
as to the promise itself of his ultimate return and
glorious reign in this world of ours.
The teaching of the apostles is of the same tenor.
Paul and Peter, James and John, were all looking
for his appearing in the clouds of heaven. The
book of the Revelation would be a mere dream
book, a panorama of meaningless visions, if the
parousia were left out of it.
The Christians of the early Church took Christ
and the apostles at their word, and awaited his
coming with joyful expectancy. In trying times of
persecution the hope of his appearing was their
strength and support. Their customary greeting
morning and night was Maranatha, " The Lord
cometh ! "
III. The promise may be read clearly in the
logic of events.
If the angels had delivered no message to the dis
ciples on that mountain in Galilee, if the Scriptures
had made no prediction of the parousia, it would
142

THE APOSTLES' CREED
still be forced upon us by the fact that the centuries
have been moving forward in converging lines of
increasing light toward one focal point. What is
that " one supreme divine event to which the whole
creation moves"? CaU it the "Golden Age" if
you choose. It borrows all its luster from the fact
that Christ, marching down through the centuries,
has been flooding the world with light. He is com
ing to reign ! " The tabemacle of God is with men,
and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his
peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be
their God."
In the political world there are some unmistaka
ble signs. To begin with, the ends of the earth are
coming together. A man can go from New York
to Hongkong more quickly and comfortably than
he could go from New York to Santa Fe a hundred
years ago. There are tunnels through the moun
tains, cobwebs of railways cover the land, cables
undergird the seas and electric wires carry messages
through the air. The words of Puck in " Midsum
mer Night's Dream," " I'W put a girdle round the
earth in forty minutes," have been more than real
ized. It is not far to anywhere in these neigh
borly days of ours.
Again, the nations that dwelt in darkness are
emerging into light. It is Uttle more than half a
century since Commodore Perry opened the ports
of Japan; and Japan is one of the Great Powers to
day. It is less than half a century since Living-
143

THE APOSTLES' CREED
stone died on his knees in mid-Africa; and lo, the
face of Ethiopia is turned toward the rising sun!
It is scarcely a decade since the decree against for
eigners was annulled in China and, behold, the
Great Wall is no more. The darkness lifts! The
nations are wheeling into line. What for? It is
for thoughtful readers of history and the newspa
pers to ask. What shall the end be?
Moreover, the gates of the temple of Janus are
wide open. The clash of Armageddon comes be
fore the advent of the Prince of Peace. Read
Matthew 24:6-8. War itself is destined to make
an end of war. The Great Powers must see their
armaments put to shame before their swords can
be beaten into plowshares and their spears into prun
ing hooks. The roar of cannon must exhaust it
self in absurd and futile strife before the angels'
song can be heard again, " Glory to God in the
highest, and on earth peace among men in whom
he is well pleased."
In the religious world, also, there are unmistak
able signs. For instance, the opening of the doors
of the nations to the incoming of the gospel. In the
" Missionary Concerts " of fifty years ago there
were frequent prayers for the opening of these
doors. No such prayer is heard to-day. The
hands of the nations are beckoning, like those of the
man of Macedonia, and all benighted peoples are
calling, " Come over and help us ! "
Consider, also, the enlistment of volunteers. In
144

THE APOSTLES' CREED
my Seminary days it was a difficult matter to induce
theological students to offer themselves for mission
ary service; now it is almost impossible to restrain
them. The Missionary Boards are embarrassed
by eager volunteers. Only the choicest are se
lected to go.
And above all, observe the ingathering of souls.
William Carey preached seven years in India with
out a sign of success ; then Krishna Pal was con
verted. Now who shall count the converts of In
dia? It seems but yesterday that our missionaries
were permited to enter Korea, and to-day Korea
is white unto the harvest. The heathen are coming
to Christ, a nation in a day.
And in the world of unbelief there are signs.
The decay of false religions must not be overlooked.
Of all the great religions of the centuries there are
only three which now have even a name to live : to
wit, Islam, Buddhism^ and Christianity ; and " two
of these," as Max Miiller said, " are moribund."
The only living, growing, triumphing religion in
the world is the religion of Christ.
The silencing of open and avowed infidelity must
also be considered. At the beginning of the last
century the air was rent with the blasphemous vo
ciferations of Paine and Voltaire and Jean Jacques
Rousseau. There was not a nation which did not
have its valorous cohort of boastful infidels shaking
their clenched fists at God. The last of the Old
Guard were Bradlaugh in England and Inger-
145

THE APOSTLES' CREED
soil in America; and they have gone their w;
And another of the significant signs is the mu]
plication of false teachers within the Chun
" When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find fa
on the earth ? " The disciples were repeatedly a
most earnestly forewarned that in the last days fa
teachers would creep in to deceive the very ele
They were admonished that there must first be '
falling away" before Christ could come into 1
own. (II Thess. 2 :3, 4.) In his parousia discoui
our Lord announced that his coming would be pi
ceded by " the abomination of desolation, which w
spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing
the Holy Place." *
If there ever was a time when " the abominati
of desolation " was entrenched in the Holy Pla
it is surely when the integrity of the Scriptures
denied, the veracity of Christ impugned, his sup(
natural birth called in question, and every func
mental doctrine of his teaching exposed to der isi
doubt. That time is now. If infidelity has ceas
to fulminate its impieties outside of the Church,
is largely because the work has been undertaken a;
is being effectively carried on by men in canonica
The Trojan horse is now within the sacred wal
* The immediate reference is supposed to be the offering o:
swine upon the altar of the Temple by Antiochus Epiphanes
the overthrow of the Holy City. In this manner he undertc
to put to shame the institution of sacrifice, in which was sy
bolically set forth the offering of Christ as the Lamb of God
146

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Shall we lose heart by reason of this fact? Not
at aU! If a hundred million of professing Chris
tians were to be led away by false teachers into the
wildemess of unbelief, there would stiU be four
hundred millions on earth professing the name of
Jesus and presumably true to their consecration
vows: and that would be twice as many as there
were a century ago!
" Take heart ! The waster builds again :
A charmed life old Goodness hath.
The tares may perish ; but the grain
Is not for death ! "
In view of these facts, what shall we say?
First. Let us believe the promise. For thus it
is written and thus it must be. " But forget not
this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one
day. The Lord is not slack conceming his promise,
as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-
ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that
aU should come to repentance." (II Peter 3 :8, 9.)
If he delays it is not because he has forgotten, but
because he is divinely patient with the children of
men. Second. Let us be ready. " For in an hour
when ye think not the Son of Man cometh." Let
us watch, therefore; not as those who stand with
folded hands looking out of their windows, but
rather like those who with their sleeves rolled up
147

THE APOSTLES' CREED
and sickle in hand are busy in the yellow fiel
It is recorded that when William the Conquei
came to England the barons prostrated themseb
before him and took this vow : " I do become t
liege man, for life and limb and earthly regard; a
I do pledge myself to keep faith and loyalty w
thee, for life and death, as God shall help me."
a like spirit let us continually renew our conseci
tion to Christ. For the highway must be cast
before he comes. The stones of stumbling mi
be gathered out. There is much to be done; 1
when it is done, oh, happy day, the heavens sh
part asunder and his people shall cry, " Behc
him!" Then we shall see him — hisce oeulis
with these very eyes !

148

" TO JUDGE THE QUICK AND THE
DEAD "
THE prophecies of the Old Testament with
reference to the Judgment were understood
by the Jews to mean that in the fullness
of time God would avenge their national wrongs
and rebuild the Theocracy of former days. The
Son of David, that is the Messiah, was to tread
their enemies under foot, ruling them with a rod
of iron, and thus restore the glory to Israel.
But in the teaching of Christ this event is pro
jected along larger lines and invested with stupen
dous import. In his Parousia discourse he spoke
in unmistakable terms of a Final Assize at which
there would be an adjustment of all human affairs ;
as in this passage: " When the Son of Man shaU
come in his glory and all the angels with him, then
shaU he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before
him shall be gathered all the nations; and he shall
separate them one from another, as the shepherd
separateth the sheep from the goats." (Matt. 25:
3i> 32-)
As to many particulars of the Judgment we
cannot speak dogmatically; since our Lord's proph
ecies were designedly and for obvious reasons inter
woven with predictions of such other events as the
149

THE APOSTLES' CREED
destruction of Jemsalem and the Pentecostal mira
cle: but some things stand out in bold relief and
may be affirmed without doubt or misgiving.
I. The Fact. There is no possibility of mis
understanding the parables in which our Lord por
trays the events of the Great Day.
And this is in clear accord with a universal intui-.
tion. The doctrine of the Judgment is not de
rived from the teachings of Christ; he simply puts
his official imprimatur upon it. The thought is in
volved in the very conception of God. If the pres
ent confused order is a complete economy, then the
world is governed either by chance or — which is a
contradiction of terms — by an unjust God. If
there is a Supreme Being in the universe, he must,
as Anne of Austria said, be " a sure paymaster."
The thought of judgment is also derived from
the very nature of man. We are made in God's
likeness and, as normal beings, bound to have the
fuU benefit of law. The lower orders are not so.
If a dog shows himself to be incorrigibly vicious,
he is muzzled or shot; but an immortal man cannot
be disposed of in that way. He demands justice;
and his Maker is bound, by the necessity of his na
ture, to grant it.
II. The Judgment is to occur at a Definite Time.
Christ refers to it as " the Great Day," " the Day
of the Lord, "the Last Day," and "That Day."
Dies irce, dies ilia!
It is frequently said that the judgment is now
ISO

THE APOSTLES' CREED
going dn. This is true only so far as that some of
the consequences of sin are experienced here and
now. " The bones of the wicked are full of the
sins of their youth." He who violates a physical
law is pretty certain to incur one or more of the ills
that human flesh is heir to.
It cannot be maintained, however, that the pres
ent order is complete. This was the error of Job's
friends, who argued that God governs the world
upon a principle of minute retribution, so that every
man is rewarded or punished here according to his
works. On the contrary, the present order is one
of vast confusion. The wicked are frequently ex
alted, so that they flourish like a green bay-tree;
while the righteous go mourning all their days.
How shall this be accounted for? Augustine says:
"If no sins were punished in this present time, we
should conclude that there is no God ; but if all sins
were punished here and now, we should conclude
that there is to be no judgment." As matters are,
we are constrained to follow the argument to its
logical conclusion, which leads us to the Judgment
Day. It is scarcely necessary to say that the word
" day " used in this connection is to be taken in its
larger sense, as indicating a definite time. It is
called " the last day " because it occurs upon the
border line between time and eternity, closing the
temporal order. Present events are marked off by
the ticking of the pendulum; but there will be no
151

THE APOSTLES' CREED
chronometer in eternity. The procession of days
will close with the " last day." When the angel
stands with one foot upon the sea and the other
upon the land, crying, " Time no longer ! " then the
books will be opened and there will be a " restora
tion of all things."
III. Christ will he the Judge. " He shall sit
upon the throne of his glory." During his earthly
ministry he disavowed the judicial function. He
said, " God sent not the Son into the world to judge
the world; but that the world should be saved
through him" (John 3:17): and again, "I came
not to judge the world, but to save the world."
(John 12:47.) He refused to arbitrate a dispute
about an inheritance, saying, " Man, who made me
a judge or a divider over you?" (Luke 12:14.)
In the case of the woman taken in adultery, he said,
" Neither do I condemn thee : go thy way : from
henceforth sin no more." (John 8 :ii.)
But he distinctly asserts that in the rounding up
of the present dispensation he will assume and exer
cise the function : " For neither doth the Father
judge any man, but he hath given all judgment
unto the Son" (John 5:22); "and he gave him
authority to execute judgment, because he is a son
of man." (John 5:27.) As Son of Man, that is
the Messiah, he only is qualified to open the Book
of Judgment: "And they sing a new song, say
ing. Worthy art thou to take the book and to open
the seals thereof; for thou wast slain and didst pur-
152

THE APOSTLES' CREED
chase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe
and tongue and people and nation, and madest them
to be unto our God a kingdom and priests." (Rev.
5 19. ) As God, he knows man through and
through; and as man, he is able to sympathize with
us. We say in common parlance, " Every man is
entitled to be judged by his peers " ; and, so far as
this is concerned, there will be no occasion for com
plaint in the Great Day.
The fact that the Redeemer is to sit upon the
throne of judgment is fraught with portentous
omens for those who reject him. " They shall look
on him whom they pierced " ; and the thought of
their folly and ingratitude will overwhelm them, so
that they shall call out to the mountains and rocks,
" Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that
sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb!" But there is infinite comfort in this
thought for those who have loved and followed
Christ. Their Saviour is to be their Judge, and
their Judge will also be their Advocate.
IV. As Christ is to he the Judge, so the assem
bled nations shall be the audience. "And, before
him shall be gathered all nations." A vast assem
blage! The small and great, the just and un
just, all ages and generations of the children of
men! The General Assize is come: the trumpet
gives the summons: Oyez! Oyez!
The trial will be public. The books will be
opened before the great assembly. Off with all
153

THE APOSTLES' CREED
masks ! There will be no concealments then. Here
men walk in dominoes and disguises; there every
one will be seen in propria persona. " For there is
nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and hid
that shall not be known" (Matthew 10:26); and,
" Whatsoever ye have said in the darkness shall be
heard in the light ; and what ye have spoken in the
ear in the inner chambers shall be proclaimed upon
the housetops." (Luke 12:3.)
V. The principle upon which the Judgment will
be administered is Impartiality. The criterion will
be an even balance.
" In the corrupted currents of this world
Offence's gilded hand may shove by justice ;
And in worst times the wretched price itself
Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above ;
There is no shuffling there ; the action lies
In its true nature; and we ourselves shall be com
pelled.
E'en to the teeth and forehead of our faults,
To give in evidence."
Justice, perfect and absolute! No mercy then,
but a final adjudication under the exact terms of the
moral law. We are now living under grace; but
this is a probationary period, and death ends it.
Here we may make an appeal, from justice to grace :
but there will be no appeal in that day. The admin
istration of justice will be so perfect, so impartial,
that the worst sinner in the universe will be quite
154

THE APOSTLES' CREED
satisfied that the Judge has dealt fairly with him.
But justice means spiritual death; as it is writ
ten, " The soul that sinneth, it shall die." It is true
that he that " doeth the righteousness which is of
the law shall live thereby "; but where in the world
is there a man who has kept the law ? By the deeds
of the law, therefore, shall no flesh be justified; for
" there is none that doeth good, no not one."
Are none to be saved, then? Yes; multitudes!
And they shall be saved in strict accordance with
justice and under the most rigid terms of law. AU
who have believed in Jesus Christ shall enter into
life. He will appear as their Advocate, saying, " I
was wounded for their transgressions and bruised
for their iniquities ; I bare their sins in my own body
on the tree; I vindicated the law; I satisfied justice
by expiating the penalty of their sin." They shall,
therefore, go free. So shall God be manifestly
"just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in
Jesus," that is, of such as have complied with the
conditions of his grace by accepting Christ and put
ting their trust in him.
In one of Luther's sermons he relates a dream in
which he seemed to stand before the judgment bar.
The books were opened and he saw his name at
tached to a long catalogue of sins. The adversary,
at his elbow, said, " Behold, what thou hast done !
Sins of omission and commission; sins thoughtless
and deliberate; sins black and many; there is no
hope for thee ! " But to his great relief he per-
155

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ceived these words, written across the page, " The
blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
So the touchstone of salvation is faith in Jesus
Christ. " He that believeth on the Son hath eternal
life." -(John 3:36.)
But this faith is to be measured by its results ; as
the Lord said, " By their fruits ye shall know
them " ; and, " Not every one that saith unto me.
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in
heaven." (Matthew 7:21, 22.) Let it be remem
bered, however, that the one work which is accept
able before God is the acceptance of his grace; as
Jesus said, " This is the work of God, that ye be
Ueve on him whom he hath sent." And all good
works consequent upon this faith are such as pro
ceed from gratitude to Christ and find their ter
minus in him. He gave the definition of a good
work when he said to his disciples, who murmured
because a certain woman had anointed him with
precious nard, " Let her alone ; . . . she hath
wrought a good work on me." And again, " Inas
much as ye did it unto one of these my brethren,
even these least, ye did it unto me." In other
words, as the one unpardonable sin is the rejection
of Christ — unpardonable because it shuts the only
door of mercy that was ever opened — so the one
meritorious work, far-reaching and comprehensive,
is the life beginning in faith and spent in the serv
ice of Christ. 156

THE APOSTLES' CREED
But what of those who have never heard of
Christ or his gospel? "What is to become of the
heathen ? " We may rest assured that God will deal
fairly with them. They will be judged by their
light and not by ours. All the circumstances of
their case will be duly considered, and no one among
them will have reason to complain of the outcome.
The lines of procedure are laid down in the Parable
of the Householder and his Servants : " And that
servant who knew his lord's will and made not
ready, nor did according to his will, shall be beaten
with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did
things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few
stripes. And to whomsoever much is given, of him
shall much be required." (Luke 12:47, 48-)
There are to be grades of punishment and degrees
of happiness in eternity : and these will be meted out
not indiscriminately, but with a due regard for all
the circumstances of each individuar case.
There is deep meaning in these words : " Woe
unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and
Sidon which were done in you, they would have
repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes."
The people of Tyre and Sidon had only the light of
nature and " the law written in tlieir members " to
Uve by; but the inhabitants of Chorazin and Beth
saida knew the Gospel and rejected it. And again
Jesus said, " The queen of the south shall rise up in
the judgment with the men of this generation, and
157

THE APOSTLES' CREED
shall condemn them; for she came from the ends
of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and
behold, a greater than Solomon is here. The men
of Nineveh shall stand up in the judgment with this
generation, and shall condemn it ; for they repented
at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater
than Jonah is here." (Luke 11:31, 32.)
VI. The final separation. " He shall separate
them one from another, as the shepherd separateth
the sheep from the goats." This is indicated also in
the Parable of the Threshing-floor; tares to the fire
and wheat to the garner (Matthew 13 :37-43) ; and
in the Parable of the Talents ; to the faithful servant,
"WeU done; . . . enter thou into the joy of thy
Lord " ; to the unprofitable servant, " Cast ye him
into outer darkness ; there shall be the weeping and
the gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:14-30) ; and
in the Parable of the Ten Virgins : " They that
were ready went in with him to the marriage feast;
and the door was shut" (Matthew 25 :i-i2) ; and
in the Parable of Dives and Lazarus : " It came to
pass that the beggar died, and that he was carried
away by the angels into Abraham's bosom; and
the rich man also died, and was buried. And in
Hades he Ufted up his eyes. . . . Between us and
you there is a great gulf fixed." (Luke 16 :i9-3i.)
Thus every man goes to " his own place " ; that is,
to the place for which his character and life have fit
ted him.
The question whether this separation is to be local
158

THE APOSTLES' CREED
or not is of slight moment. We cannot speak of
eternal facts in the tenninology of time and space.
The important matter is that the separation will be
real. I know a man and wife who have lived under
the same roof for fifty years, and have yet been as
far apart as the poles. It is clear that the righteous
and unrighteous shall have nothing in common in the
future Ufe; they shall pursue eternally diverging
paths, because they are at odds in the matter of su
preme importance, that is, their relation with God.
One thing remains to be said : it is of God's mercy
that we are warned in time. As yet we are living
in the dispensation of grace. Life is offered gratis
to all who will accept it. We may prefer to take
our chances under the law. We may reject grace
and insist on justice. This is for us to say. It is
written of God that he will not " turn aside the right
of a man before the face of the Most High." But
if a man is afraid of justice and wants mercy, he
must accept it here and now. There will be no ap
peal from law in the Great Day.

159

"ppfj^M:

Section VIII
" I believe in the Holy Ghost."

Creator Spirit, by whose aid
The world's foundations first were laid.
Come, visit every pious mind ;
Come, pour thy joys on humankind ;
From sin and sorrow set us free.
And make thy temples worthy thee.
— Charlemagne.

"I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY GHOST"
IT is a mistake to think of the coming of the Holy
Spirit as an after-thought in the divine plan. I
am not forgetting the Day of Pentecost — the
sound of a rushing, mighty wind, and the coming of
the Spirit so potently that it was like lambent
tongues of flame on the foreheads of the disciples.
That was the birthday of the Christian Church and
the beginning of the " Dispensation of the Spirit,"
distinctively so called. But the Spirit of God was
always on earth as the Spirit of life.
There would be no life of any sort anywhere but
for him. So we read that at the very beginning
he " moved upon the face of the waters." The
earth was " waste and void." Chaos and confu
sion ! And the Spirit moved, literally " brooded,"
on the face of the waters, like a parent bird on the
nest, warming death into life.
To begin at the bottom of things, — all physical
life is from him. The life of the vegetable and ani
mal world was induced by coming into touch with
the Spirit of Life. Ask any scientist on earth about
the origin of life, and he will tell you that, while
we know very little, we can positively affirm that
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
there is "no life except from life." There is no
life in the sun nor in the rain nor in the soil; and
when you have gotten these together you are still
bound to call in the Spirit to brood upon the inani
mate nest.
A little higher up we come to intellectual life, and
here we meet with man. The fact that differentiates
man from the lower orders is this: he can contem
plate truth. No other living thing can do that. A
man can formulate an argument; he can reason
with another as I am now reasoning with you. He
can, as Keppler says, "think God's great thoughts
after him." Now, between physical Ufe and this
inteUectual Ufe there is a great gulf. How does in
tellectual life begin ? Only by contact with the Life
Agent, that is, the Spirit of God.
Then higher still we come to spiritual Ufe. As
intellectual life consists in the possibility of appre
hending truth, so spiritual life is in the apprehension
of holiness. Man was not holy at the beginning;
he was merely innocent, as a graven image is free
from sin. He had in him the potency of holiness;
but when the ordeal came he fell; and all that was
left was a magnificent ruin. There was, however,
StiU a possibility of spiritual life in him.
The man who never has apprehended holiness is
spiritually dead. How can he come to life? Only
by touching the personal Source of life. This is
the meaning of the vision of Ezekiel in the Valley
of Dry Bones. He was bewildered by the presence
164

THE APOSTLES' CREED
of death on every side; and a voice said, " Son of
man, can these bones live?" He answered, "O
Lord Jehovah, thou knowest." The voice then
called, " Come from the four winds, O Breath, and
breathe upon these slain, that they may Uve!"
And the Breath came, and the dead stood upon their
feet, clothed with flesh and animated, " an exceeding
great army " of living men.
What is the practical importance of this? What
have we personally to do with it? We want life;
we must have this higher and eternal life, for which
God created and intended us; and we shall never
have it except as we come into a real and vital ap
prehension of the influence of the Spirit of Life as
our Reprover, Reminder and Regenerator.
This is his threefold office.
He is our Reprover in this way : Jesus said, " And
the Paraclete, when he is come, will convict the
world in respect of sin." The Spirit of Life wields
a two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing
of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and
quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the
heart. Whenever we adequately feel the power
of sin and the longing to escape from it, we may be
assured that this proceeds from the Spirit of God.
It is this that sends a man to the altar, reeling and
staggering like the pubUcan, crying, " God be merci
ful to me a sinner ! " Thus he reproves us.
He is also our Reminder. As Jesus said, "He
shaU take of mine and shall declare it unto you."

THE APOSTLES' CREED
And again, " He shall bring to your remembrance
all that I said imto you." It may be that some of us
see no power in the Cross. You never will until
you yield to the influence of the Spirit, without
whom the Cross is a stumbling-block to the Jew and
foolishness to the Greek, while to him that believeth
it is the very power and wisdom of God. He makes
it clear to the convicted soul that herein and hereby
is the only possible escape from the shame, the
power, and the bondage of sin.
And He is our Regenerator. When a man,
standing at the altar, beating on his breast, and lift
ing his eyes to the Cross, is moved to believe, the
Spirit brings him out of death into spiritual Ufe so
that he becomes " a new creature in Christ Jesus."
This is the mystery of which Jesus said to Nicode
mus, " Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one be
bom anew " — bom of the Spirit — " he cannot see
the kingdom of God."
What then? Is this the end of the matter? By
no means ; it is only the beginning. A man who has
known the Spirit as his Reprover of Sin, his Re
minder of Christ and his Regenerator is just begin
ning to live ; what he wants thenceforth is more life.
It is the special function and the prerogative of the
Spirit to give life " more abundantly."
At this point he becomes our Teacher, Sanctifier
and Invigorator.
As our Teacher he shows us the meaning of spir
itual things. For spiritual things are spiritually
i66

THE APOSTLES' CREED
discerned ; that is to say, they are discerned through
the influence of the Spirit of God.
The Earl of Chatham, being in the Highlands
once, attended a village church where the preacher
set forth in a very profound sermon the doctrine of
regeneration; whereupon the earl knitted his brows
in perplexity, just as Nicodemus did who said,
" How can these things be ? " As he was passing
out he saw a peasant woman and, being curious to
know what she thought of it, he said, " My good
woman, this is a great mystery, is it not? " " My
lord," she answered, " do you not understand ? "
" No," said he, " I confess I do not." " Well, my
lord, may the Spirit touch your eyes with eye-salve
that you may see. There is no other way."
Here is a man reading his Bible with knitted
brows. He cannot understand it. He longs for
some interpreter to explain it. Let him get down
upon his knees and entreat the help of the third Per
son of the ineffable Godhead, one of whose official
functions is to throw light upon the Word of God.
The promise of Christ is, " He will guide you into
all the trath."
Here is a Christian living at a poor dying rate.
He wishes that he might grow more rapidly unto the
measure of the fullness of the stature of a man.
But why indulge in vain wishes ? Let him get down
upon his knees and invoke the influence of the Spirit,
another of whose official functions is to stimulate
our growth in grace. 167

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Here is another Christian bowed down under an
intolerable weight of sorrow. He cannot under
stand why Providence has so afflicted him. But
why complain when the way to comfort is open?
For here again we come upon one of the special func
tions of the Spirit as the Comforter. The word in
the original is " Paraclete," which means " one run
ning to answer a cry." He comes like a mother to
a weeping child. It is for him to untie the gordian
knots of Providence and enable us to see that the
Lord doeth all things well.
Here is another Christian who lacks assurance.
He does not know whether he is really saved or not.
He worries over it so that he cannot sleep. What
shall he do ? Let him get down upon his knees and
call upon the Spirit ; for it is the Spirit that " beareth
witness with our spirit that we are children of God."
And here is still another who feels that he is of
little or no consequence in the kingdom of God.
He has no special abilities, no equipment for service ;
he is simply a minimum Christian, and yet would
fain make his life tell. If he is in earnest, let him
entreat the Spirit for a baptism of fire and power.
For the Holy Ghost is the great Energizer. He can
take the weakest man and make a spiritual giant of
him. Here is a Church becalmed. Its pastor is like a
dead man at the helm and its members are like dead
men among the shrouds. What is needed?
" Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe
i68

THE APOSTLES' CREED
upon it ! " When Paul asked the members of the
Church at Ephesus, " Did ye receive the Holy Spirit
when ye believed ? " the answer was, " We did not
so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was given."
What fruit could be expected of a vine like that?
Of all the promises of Scripture there is none
more heavily laden with possibilities than this : "If
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? "
Blessed a fortiori! Why should we ever be weak
or go mourning, " My leanness, O my leanness ! "
when the infinite Source of power is at our com
mand ? We are precisely as strong and useful as we
are willing to be. The weakest has all the power he
is willing to take. Abundant provision has been
made for us.
Come, Holy Spirit, come!

169

Section IX
"The holy catholic Church, the communion of
saints."

Wild, wild wind, wilt thou never cease thy sighing?
Dark, dark night, wilt thou never wear away ?
Cold, cold church, in thy death-sleep lying.
Thy Lent is past, thy Passion here, but not thine
Easter-day.
Peace, faint heart, though the night be dark and sigh
ing;
Rest, fair corpse, where thy Lord himself hath lain ;
Weep, dear Lord, above thy bride low lying;
Thy tears shall wake her frozen limbs to life and
health again. — Charles Kingsley.

"THE CHURCH"
IN the teaching of Jesus the Church is not identi
fied with the Kingdom, though there is a vital
relation between them. No doubt there are
names on the roster of the Church which are not
written in the Lamb's Book of Life; and contrari
wise there are true Christians outside of the organ
ized fellowship of faith. But the Church, however
imperfect, is the prime factor in the solution of the
problem of the Kingdom. It is the great organism
through which God is working, by the power of his
Spirit, for the casting down of the strongholds of
iniquity and the establishment of truth and right
eousness on earth. As such, it is entitled to the af
fectionate regard and co-operation of all right-
thinking men.
If the Church has not been ideally efficient in her
work of social regeneration all along the centuries,
it may be asserted without fear of contradiction that
even in her feeblest moods she has shown more
power in her little finger than all other organizations
in their loins. She is not what she ought to be;
but by the grace of God she is what she is.
The Church is mentioned by the name ecclesia only
173

THE APOSTLES' CREED
twice in the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 16:17-19
and 18:15-18); but this is of slight significance.
For that matter, the Incarnation and the Atonement,
the two fundamental doctrines of the Christian sys
tem, are not thus named by Christ at all, though
they run through his teachings like a twisted cord.
In like manner he has much to say about the Church
by implication. He draws the silhouette clearly,
leaving his apostles to fill in all necessary detail
under the inspiration of the Spirit which he confers
upon them.
It will appear, however, that the two passages re
ferred to contain the sum and substance of the whole
matter. They are multum in parvo, as we shall see.
In the first passage (Matthew 16:17-19) Christ
stands voucher for the Church as his own. " Upon
this rock will I build my Church." This should be
a sufficient answer to those who speak of the Church
as a human institution. Our Lord owns, approves,
and champions it. Elsewhere to the same effect the
Church is set forth as his bride (Revelation 19:6-
8) : and again as his household (Ephesians 2:19) :
and again as his body (Ephesians i :22, 23).
The Church is here characterised as a Building.
"Upon this rock will I build my Church." This
should be observed by those who say that our Lord
" took no steps to organize his disciples into a for
mally constituted society." It is asserted, on the
contrary, that history has never shown an organiza
tion so ideally constituted. It was not thrown to-
174

THE APOSTLES' CREED
gether at random but put together by a divine
Architect after a symmetrical plan.
The Cornerstone is Christ. " Upon this rock will
I build my Church." Long campaigns of contro
versy have been waged as to the meaning of those
words. The question is. What is this rock? The
Romanists say, " It is Peter " ; but Christ did not
say so. His statement was, " Thou art Petros, and
on this petra I will build my Church." The words
are cognate but not identical; the former is mascu
line and the latter feminine ; petra is a rock ; Petros
is a stone, hewn out of the rock. At the time when
our Lord said this, he was pursuing his journey
through Caesarea-Philippi, his face set steadfastly
toward the Cross. He greatly desired his disciples
to be informed as to his divine character and mis
sion ; but thus far they had not been able to bear it.
He was now moved to inquire, " Who do men say
that the Son of Man is ? " To this they gave vari
ous answers. " But who say ye that I am ? " Then
Peter witnessed his good confession: "Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God!" Where
upon Jesus said, " Blessed art thou, Simon, son of
John : for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto
thee." And then and there he renamed him Peter,
" Son of the Rock," in recognition of his valorous
words. That good confession, "Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God," was indeed the
mightiest of all truths and worthy to be the founda
tion of the Church. 175

THE APOSTLES' CREED
Here is the seal of legitimacy among the various
denominations ; that is, the headship of Christ, " Son
of the living God." The Romanists say, Ubi ekkle-
sia, ibi Christos; that is, "Where the Church is,
there is Christ ; " but precisely the reverse is true :
Where Christ is, there is the Church.
As to the Superstructure of the Church. It is a
stone building. Here is the order : Christ, the cor
nerstone; then the apostolic company as the stone
foundation; then the ever-increasing multitude of
believers as stones in the wall. Thus Paul says,
" Being built upon the foundation of the aposdes
and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief
cornerstone; in whom each several building, fitly
framed together, groweth into a holy temple in the
Lord; in whom ye also are builded together."
(Ephesians 2:20-22.)
The new beginning was when our Lord gathered
around him a little company of disciples in the upper
room. In his sacerdotal prayer he said, " I pray for
them : I pray not for the world, but for those whom
thou hast given me." (John 17:9.) Later, in the
same prayer, he said, " Neither for these only do I
pray, but for them also that believe on me through
their word ; that they may all be one ; even as thou,
Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be in us : that the world may believe that thou didst
send me." (John 17 :20, 21.) He was looking be
yond the Cross; he saw an innumerable procession
passing down the ages, the multitude of the re-
176

THE APOSTLES' CREED
deemed, who were given him by the Father as the
fruit of the travail of his soul.
As to the Equipment of the Church. In order to
the accomplishment of its great purpose, to wit, the
setting up of a Kingdom of truth and righteousness,
the building must be filled with vitalized machinery.
To this end our Lord breathed on his disciples, say
ing, " Receive ye the Holy Spirit " ; and thereupon
the Church became the antitype of Ezekiel' s vision
of the wheels : wheels within wheels, wheels full of
eyes; and within the wheels a Spirit; and " whither
the Spirit was to go they went."
Thus the Church was endowed with life. As
Peter says, " Ye also as living stones are built
up a spiritual house." (I Peter 2:5.) Wonderful
stones, each with a throbbing heart, each from its
place in the wall stretching out eager hands of help
fulness, each with a voice to sing, " Blest be the tie
that binds our hearts in Christian love ! "
Moreover, the Church, under the power of the
Spirit, becomes the depository of truth. It is called
"the pillar and ground of the truth" (I Timothy
3:15); which means that it is the intermediary
source of authority as to the great verities of the
eternal life. It is customary to speak of a threefold
authority in these premises: the inner conscience,
which may err, but never when controlled by the
Spirit; the Church, which also may go wrong, but
never when controlled by the Spirit ; and the Scrip
tures, which are always true and ultimate, though
177

THE APOSTLES' CREED
they also must be interpreted by the Spirit of God.
Our Lord gives, also, in this equipment of the
Church a peculiar power in prayer. The fervent
effectual prayer of one righteous man availeth
much; much more the united prayers of the Church.
Jesus said, " If two of you shaU agree on earth as
touching anything that they shaU ask, it shall be
done for them of my Father who is in heaven, for
where two or three are gathered together in my
name, there am I in the midst of them." (Matthew
18:19.) Here we have the charter of public wor
ship. The Church is, still further, endued with power
for service. Our Lord said to his disciples, " Tarry
ye in the city until ye be clothed with power from on
high." (Luke 24:49.) And there they tarried
until, on the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came upon
them with " a sound as of the rushing of a mighty
wind"; and, thus invigorated, they went forth to
the conquest of the world. The Church is impo
tent without this dynamic baptism. Its success
through the centuries has ever been measured by its
willingness to receive it.
In our Lord's second reference to the Church he
confers the power of " binding and loosing." This,
as plainly appears from the context, has reference to
rules of order and discipline (Matthew 18:15-18).
The Jews had a proverb, " Shammai bindeth and
Hillel looseth " ; which is to be interpreted by the
historic difference of those teachers as to questions
178

THE APOSTLES' CREED
of order. Josephus says, " The Pharisees have
power to bind and loose at will." We note an exer
cise of this authority by the Apostles in the Council
at Jerusalem (Acts 15). A like authority in the
matter of discipline was illustrated in the case of the
offender at Corinth who was excommunicated to the
end that he might be reclaimed (I Corinthians 5).
This man was probably of good social position; and
for that reason his offence was winked at; but the
Corinthian Church was enjoined to deal judiciaUy
with him. He was to be bound in order that he
might be loosed. It would be well for all concerned
if there were a more frequent exercise of this power
in the Church of to-day.
The "power of the keys" was conferred upon
Peter as a reward of his good confession (Matthew"
16:19). The keys referred to were not those of the Celes
tial City. The picture of Peter sitting as a ticket-
taker at its gate is a ludicrous perversion of the
truth. There are no keys of heaven. Its twelve
gates are never closed. The souls that wander in
eternal darkness are free to enter if they will; but,
alas! their characters are so fixed that they cannot
because they will not.
As a reward for his loyalty to the fundamental
doctrine of the Lordship of Christ, Peter was com
missioned to throw open the doors of the visible
Church to the Gentiles. This was done on the day
of Pentecost. Previously, the Jews alone, as a
179

THE APOSTLES' CREED
chosen people, had been included in the charmed cir
cle ; but on that day, when the influence of the Holy
Ghost came down on the assembled company, the
middle waU of partition was thrown down. In an
swer to the cry, " Brethren, what shall we do ? "
Peter, as spokesman of the Church, said, " Repent
ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of
Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins. . . .
For to you is the promise and to your children, and
to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord
our God shall call unto him." Thus the keys were
turned and the gates rolled back to admit not Jews
alone but all the penitent and believing children of
men. It is obvious that in this matter Peter stood soli
tary and alone. To speak of his " successors "
would be as presumptuous as to make a similar claim
with respect to Columbus in his discovery of Amer
ica. The doors being opened once for all, there was
no further need of those keys.
A word now as to the power of absolution which
our Lord conferred upon the Church in the words,
" Whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven
unto them ; whose soever sins ye retain, they are re
tained." (John 20:23.) Let it be observed that
this authority was bestowed not upon Peter only
with his fellow-apostles, but upon a considerable
company of other believers who were gathered in
the upper room; so that whatever this power of ab
solution may mean, it is vested in all believers alike.
180

THE APOSTLES' CREED
It does not mean judicial or plenary absolution;
for "who can forgive sins but God alone?" But
there is a declaratory absolution which lies within
the province of all true followers of Christ. Jesus
said, * As the Father hath sent me, even so send I
you." What for? He was sent to deUver the
world from sin, by the virtue of his great sacrifice.
We are sent, in like manner, to point the nations to
the Cross. The true absolution is by faith in Jesus
Christ, and it is for us to declare it, saying, " Behold
the Lamb of God ! "
And this proclamation is ratified in heaven. The
humblest of Christians is commissioned to say, " He
that believeth on the Son hath eternal life; but he
that obeyeth not the Son shall not see Ufe, but the
wrath of God abideth on him " ; that is, sins are re
mitted or retained on condition of acceptance or re
jection of Christ crucified. Here is our great privi
lege; here also is our great responsibility, since we
may retain the sins of the impenitent upon them by
our neglect to warn them of the wrath to come; as it
is written, " When I say unto the wicked. Thou shalt
surely die, and thou givest him not warning, . . .
he shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood wiU I re
quire at thy hand." Thus we are, in a sense, re
sponsible for the destinies of our fellow-men.
Out of this general equipment of the Church flows
logically and necessarily the Great Commission:
" Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel " ;
that is, go and proclaim absolution for all who wiU
i8i

THE APOSTLES' CREED
receive it; and the promise is : " Lo, I am with you
always, even unto the end of the world." The
Church thus equipped and endowed shall be immor
tal till its work is done. " The gates of hell shall
not prevail against it."
But the Church is not to endure forever; only
until its work is done. There wiU be no further use
for its vitalized machinery when the Kingdom is es
tablished on earth; that is, when every knee shall
bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. The Church and the Kingdom will then be
identical. The holy city, New Jerusalem, will come
" down out of heaven from God, made ready as a
bride adorned for her husband " ; and a great voice
will be heard, saying, " Behold, the tabemacle of
God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and
they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be
with them and be their God." (Revelation 21:2,
3-) Meanwhile the Church stands, in pursuance of her
Lord's promise, as the great miracle of the ages.
She has done her work imperfectly, bowing often
times at false shrines, untme to her espousal vows;
yet she has continued to live because she had an ap
pointed work to do. Notwithstanding her imper
fections of character and vacillation of purpose, hers
has been the one transforming influence through
the history of the ages. Like Milton's angel of the
morning, she has carried a torch that has illuminated
the darkness all along her way. And her power is
182

THE APOSTLES' CREED
as the power of an invincible army to-day; naught
can avail against her. The temple which our Lord
established upon the rock of his sovereign Messiah-
ship rises like the House Magnifical, " without the
sound of hammer or of ax " ; and will continue to
rise, stone upon stone, until the top-stone is laid
with shoutings of " Grace, grace unto it ! " Then
the Glory of the Lord will fill the house as the She-
kinah filled the Temple of the olden time; for the
Church is divinely destined to be a Temple ultimately
fit for the indwelling of the Spirit of God.

183

"HOLY"
WHAT is holiness ? On the negative side it
is cleanness, or entire freedom from sin.
This means more than a profession of re
ligion, more than any formal orthodoxy which con
sists in a mere intellectual apprehension of spiritual
things, more than so-caUed morality or outward con
formity to the moral law.
The holiness enjoined upon us is a through-and-
through holiness. It was well defined by a boy in
one of the ragged schools of Ireland who, when
asked by the visiting priest, " What is holiness ? "
answered, " It is to be clean inside." It is to have a
clean heart, a clean mind, a clean conscience, and
a clean will.
But this is merely the negative side of it. To
be innocent is not enough. A graven image is free
from sin. In addition to this we are required to be
positively holy; that is, to put on all the attributes
which enter into a character conformed to the like
ness of God. In the rainbow which overarches his
throne are all the colors of the solar spectrum which,
when passed through a prism, are resolved into the
white solar ray. Thus the divine attributes are
summed up in holiness. Can a mortal man be ex-
184

THE APOSTLES' CREED
pected to conform to such perfection? A drop of
rain reflects the rainbow as perfectly as does the
surface of the broad sea. So up to the full meas
ure of our being we may reflect the holiness of God.
But where is the man who ever did so? If it be
true that there are no sinners in heaven, it is equally
true that there are no saints on earth : " For there
is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God."
It is a mistake to regard the Church as an associ
ation of good people. If this were so, no true
Christian would be associated with it ; because a true
Christian does not claim to be good, but only trying
to be.
In point of fact the people who profess to be good
are all outside of the Church, lifting their eyebrows
and pointing their fingers at inconsistent Christians.
These moralists profess to be so good that they
really need no help from any association of praying,
struggling souls. They can stand alone, as super
men, asking no odds of God or Christ or their fel
low-men. One of the reasons why Christians enter the
Church is because, conscious of their infirmities,
they feel the need of sympathy and mutual inter
cession. They do not profess " to have already ob
tained," or that they are "already made perfect,"
but, with much erring and stumbling, they "press
on toward the goal unto the prize of the high call
ing of God in Christ Jesus." 185

THE APOSTLES' CREED
This " high calling " is to holiness, which is the
goal of the Christian life. For the attainment of
this goal the- Church provides many Important helps.
I. A Creed. The Church is caUed "the Pillar
and Ground of Truth " ; because it is the depository
of the Scriptures, which are the inspired and there
fore tmstworthy Word of God. " Every Scripture
inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction which is
in righteousness ; that the man of God may be com
plete, furnished completely unto every good work."
A consistent member of the Church regards the
Bible, authenticated by Christ's teaching with re
spect to it, as the Court of Final Appeal in all prob
lems respecting the eternal life.
II. A Moral Code, or rule of conduct. This is
contained in the Ten Commandments and the Ser
mon on the Mount ; which are universally conceded
to be the two faultless ethical symbols. In these
we have a perfect monograph of holiness, or
"wholeness," as a combination of all the graces
which combine to form character. The Sermon on
the Mount is an exposition of the Ten Command
ments so searching, so far reaching, so severe in its
analysis of morality that it is like a two-edged
sword, dividing asunder the very soul and spirit of
a man. III. A Commission: to wit, " Seek ye first his
Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you." i86

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The right-living man is a busy man. His busi
ness is busy-ness. But business is of two kinds.
There is a transient sort of business which has to
do exclusively with the here and now. It puts the
emphasis on the acquisition of wealth or on the
pursuit of pleasure or on the emoluments of this
world. Is this sort of business worth while? Our
Lord did not belittle the importance of eaming a
liveUhood or of gaining a competence or of acquir-.
ing legitimate honors ; but these were to him mere in
cidentals. Alas that men should so often, by over
estimating them, be sidetracked on the highway of
life! There is nothing more lamentable than for
one to spend his life in pleasure or to devote his
energies to the getting of a million, and die with
nothing to show for it.
But the business of the Kingdom — that is worth
a man's while ! When Jesus said, " Seek ye first his
Kingdom," he meant precisely that we are to put the
Kingdom first, remanding all other employment
whatsoever to a subordinate place. His service,
which is the setting up of his Kingdom in this world,
is to be always first and foremost. To put it any
where else is to fall short of the best possibilities of
Ufe. These then — a Creed, a Moral Code, and a Com
mission — are the three helps which the Church af
fords toward the attainment of that holiness with
out which no man can ever see God.
It must be reiterated, however, that while the
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
Church is designed to be the radiating center and
power-house of holiness, no church member has at
tained unto holiness but is only striving that way.
In the second century the satirist Celsus assailed
the Church as an assembly of reprobates. He said,
" I have seen in your conferences some who are rec
ognized as drabs and drunkards and thieves. You
have none of the richer and more learned class.
Your Master himself, who was a humble carpenter,
is in evidence as to the character of his followers,
inasmuch as he said, ' I am come not to call the
righteous but sinners.' " Origen answered him on
this wise, " You are right in saying that our Lord
came not to call the righteous but sinners, but you
are unfair when you pause there. His words were,
' I am come to call not the righteous but sinners to
repentance.' The former profligates whom you
have seen in our assemblies were taken by our Mas
ter out of the very gutters and transformed into
newness of life. He called them to contrition and
reformation; and their improved walk and conver
sation are a testimony to his saving grace."
This is the glory of the gospel, that it goes out
into the highways and hedges in quest of lost sinners
and sets them on their feet, with the past forgiven
and the future glorified, with hearts fuU of peace
and faces toward the sky. This is the factor in
the gospel that, as Alexander Pope said, makes a
Christian " the highest style of man."
In the necessity of the case, religion has its out-
i88

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ward forms. It has shrines, altars and liturgies,
rites and ceremonies. Sabbaths and fast days.
These are important ; but the emphasis is not there.
Just here is where the Jews made their mistake in
the time of Isaiah : " What unto me is the multi
tude of your sacrifices? saith Jehovah: I have had
enough of the burnt-offerings of rams and the fat
of fed beasts. . . . Wash you, make you clean; put
away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
cease to evil ; learn to do well."
The passage of eight centuries of discipline and
divine remonstrance did not correct this formalism.
When Christ came he found the Pharisees — who
were the religious leaders and best church-members
of their time — stiU placing the emphasis on out
ward form at the expense of inward grace. " Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye
tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left
undone the weightier matters of the law! . . .
These ye ought to have done, and not to have left
the other undone." He reproved them for making
long prayers in the synagogues and at the corners
of the streets to be seen of men; and for casting their
offerings with a great flourish into the brazen mouth
of Corban that they might have glory of men. And
to his disciples he said, " Except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, ye shaU in no wise enter into the king
dom of heaven." Observe the word "exceed."
He does not say that the Pharisees v^ere to be blamed
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
for paying due regard to devotional forms, but only
for pausing there. The forms had their uses, but
merely as indicating the inward grace of hoUness;
and unfortunately these Pharisees were without it.
I have never known a saint, but I have known
many strugglers, " stretching forth unto the things
which are before." For such the end is sure. The
seed-corn always ripens in God's field, but in the
fullness of time. " He that believeth shall not be
in haste." The patient, hopeful, ever-striving
Christian will find the King's chamberlain awaiting
him at the gateway of the Holy City; from whom he
will receive " the fine linen, clean and white, which
is the righteousness of saints."
Our subject is an intensely practical one. It has
to do distinctly with the responsibilities of our pres
ent life. The joy of living is in aiming high. The
dignity of manhood is in lofty ideals. It is related
that when the high-priest Jaddua came out of Jeru
salem to meet Alexander, whose army was besieging
the city, he wore a miter on which was inscribed
" Holiness unto the Lord," which shone so bright
that Alexander and his guard fell prostrate. A fa
ble, do you say? Nay, I have seen such power in
many a Christian life.
I knew an old man once who habitually sat in
the chimney-corner with the Bible on his knee. The
light of heaven was on his face and the glory of
God shone in his eyes. With the help of an un-
trembling faith, like a lantern in hand, he had trav-
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
ersed deep valleys of pain and sorrow and adversity
on his way toward the Heavenly City. Oh, no ; ho
liness is no dream! It is no " baseless fabric of a
vision," but a splendid possibility put before us by
the gracious Father of us all.

191

"CATHOLIC"
THE word means world-wide or universal.
I. The Church is catholic in its intent.
The Cross, which stands at its center,
throws a luminous shadow toward the four points
of the compass and unto the uttermost parts of the
earth. It is written of Christ that " he tasted of
death for every man," which makes every man sal
vable ; and he himself said, " I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men unto me."
II. The Church, like the gospel it stands for, is
universal in its adaptation to the spiritual needs of
all sorts and conditions of men. Its essential
truths, i.e., those which are necessary to salvation,
are so simple that all can understand them. Our
Lord emphasized this fact when he took a child
upon his knee and said, " Except ye turn, and be
come as little children" (in your attitude of recep
tivity as to truth and of obedience as to righteous
ness), "ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven."
III. The Church has a world-wide invitation to
extend to all who sincerely desire to get right with
God. Its great word is whosoever; as it is written,
" The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And he that
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
heareth, let him say. Come. And he that is athirst
let him come: he that will, let him take the water
of Ufe freely."
The Church points to an open door — but to one
door only — into the kingdom ; as Jesus said, " I am
the door, ... I jun the way: no one cometh unto
the Father but by me." It makes this door wide
enough for all sinners who feel their need of sal
vation, and too narrow for any others. It extends
a universal welcome in the words of its Master,
" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast
out." IV. The Church aims at nothing less than uni
versal conquest. It advances with the song:
" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun
Doth his successive journeys run;
His Kingdom spread from shore to shore.
Till moons shall wax and wane no more."
It is a militant body, in the necessity of the case;
exclusive in its claims and inclusive in its vast am
bition. It is true to its divine franchise only so
far as it is obedient to its divine commission, " Go
ye into all the world and evangelize."
The Church to-day is suffering from an atrophy
of its militant nerve. The lost note in its ecclesi
astical program is Evangelism. There must be a
return to the plan divinely marked out. A new
Reformation is called for, a marshaling of the pro
fessed followers of Christ in a crusade for souls.
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
Back to the way of which the Master spoke, " As
the Father hath sent me, so send I you ! " Back to
the business in hand, which is " to seek and save."
Nothing else will answer. All other service is
incidental to this. To reject it for " social service "
or any other form of service is as if an errand boy,
who had been sent to carry a prescription to a death
bed, should turn aside from his vital errand to pluck
a splinter from a playmate's hand. The Voice was
never more clearly heard than now, " This is the
way : walk ye in it ! "
There are those who hold apparently that Christ
had no higher purpose than to make this world a
better place to live in ; wherefore he fed the hungry,
healed the sick, and devoted himself to the better
ment of social conditions generally. In other words,
he treated man as if he were an animal to be
groomed for a day's work; as if " victuals and drink
were the whole of his diet."
But what does Christ himself say about his mis
sion? He declares that he came "to seek and to
save the lost." He says, " I came that they may
have life, and may have it abundantly." What did
he mean by life? Surely not the hand-breadth of
time which we are living here and now. To him
man was more than " a stomach and its appur
tenances." He treated man as a child of God, with
God's breath in him, and therefore destined to live
for ever.
It is true he did not minimize the ministries of the
194

THE APOSTLES' CREED
present life. He relieved men of their distresses
and healed their sicknesses; but that was always
subordinate to his greater work. The emphasis was
consistently placed on the eternal interests of men.
" The life," he said, " is more than the food, and
the body than the raiment." He pressed hard on
the importance of other-worldliness as against world
liness. His great question was, " What doth it
profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit
his life?" What are health and happiness and
wealth and all the world's emoluments in compari
son with the endless life?
His mission was to make it possible for men to at
tain to that high destiny; and this he did by dying
vicariously for them, in expiation of their sins, so
that whosoever would believe in him should not per
ish but have eternal Ufe.
And he speaks no less definitely as to the mission
of his Church: "As the Father sent me, so send
I you " ; that is, to seek and to save those who are
lost in sin. And this salvation is not to be accom
plished by social service ; but by the preaching of the
evangel ; to wit : "He that believeth on the Son
hath eternal life; but he that obeyeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on
him." What is the result of all this? Time was when
preachers everywhere caUed from their pulpits,
" Come to Jesus ! " In some quarters it is gravely
announced that the time has passed by for that sort
195

THE APOSTLES' CREED
of appeal. And wherever that sentiment prevails
there is a spiritual famine. Conversions are appar
ently not desired. The only gospel that is preached
in such quarters is the fractional gospel : " As we
have opportunity, let us work that which is good to
ward all men."
It is as if one were to say, " Give a man a square
meal, a good suit of clothes, a tight roof over his
head, better wages for his work, a favorable envi
ronment, a competence for threescore years and an
old-age pension, and what more is to be desired ? "
This is to send him out into eternity with no pro
vision for his journey and no preparation for the
everlasting seons before him. I say this is not real
philanthropy. Certainly it is not Christianity. It
is the teaching of the god of this world and not of
the Saviour, who came distinctly to equip men for
eternal life.
The Church must cease to be at cross purposes
with Christ. When it consents to follow him wholly
it will have no more occasion to complain of leanness
and barrenness. When the Church gets right with
her Lord and is " wilUng in the day of his power,"
the promise will be fulfilled, " For a small moment
have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I
gather thee." Then shall souls spring up like wil
lows by the water courses and God's word shall not
return unto him void, but shall accomplish its work
in turning the hearts of men to their Redeemer.
" The mountains and the hills shall break forth into
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
singing ; and all the trees of the field shall clap their
hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-
tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myr
tle-tree ; and it shall be to Jehovah for a name, for
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off."

197

"THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS"
THERE is only one Church in the world. It
had its beginning at the gate of Paradise
when the first sinner received the original
promise of the salvation of Christ, who, as the Seed
of woman, was to come in the fullness of time to
bruise the serpent's head and deliver the world from
sin. The Church is constituted of all living and trans
lated sinners who have ever believed in Christ from
the beginning until now. This is the Communion
of Saints. Under the Old Economy it was made
up of those who were looking forward to the Mes
siah; under the New of those who have been look
ing back to him.
In this great fellowship there has never been a
schism. There have been differences of opinion
on minor points, but nothing to affect the vital rela
tion of Christians to Christ as the author and finisher
of their faith.
I. To begin with, the various bodies or " denom
inations " of true believers are animated by a com
mon life. Christ is the life; the beating heart, the
throbbing pulse, the heaving breast, the glistening
eye, the busy brain, the eager hand : in other words,
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
the Church is " his body, the fullness of him that
filleth all in all." (Eph. 1:23.)
It is obvious that branches of the body which is
thus animated must draw nearer to each other as
they approach this living Center, just as radiating
beams of light converge toward the sun. The vari
ous denominations may and do differ in matters of
minor importance, bui they are called after the same
Name — the Name which is above every other in
heaven and on earth — and all are agreed in re
ceiving him as Alpha and Omega, first, last, midst,
and all in all.
II. Moreover, they are one in their enduement
of power. There are indeed " diversities of work
ings, but the same God, who worketh all things in
all." A papal hand may hold a denomination in
rigid oneness like that of a bar of steel: but true
unity is of a different sort. If the bar of steel be
wrought into wheels and levers and pinions ; and if
these be joined together and articulated so as to
form a subtle mechanism; and if this mechanism be
pervaded through and through with vital energy,
we have a working combination which is vastly
better, because more productive, than a rigid unit.
The Church is made up of many factors, which are
thus brought together, not in a formal or circum
stantial but in a dynamic harmony, by the power of
one Spirit who energizes all.
III. The Church is one, moreover, by reason of
the mutual sympathy of its members. In the felici-
199

THE APOSTLES' CREED
tous figure of " the body of Christ " we have a defi
nition of the Communion of Saints. The body is
traversed by a nervous system, so sensitive through
out that, if you tread upon the foot, there is an
instant thrill of sympathetic pain at the finger-tips.
The parallel is perfect : when, for example, the hard
ships of missionaries in the service of the Wesleyan
Church in Africa are reported, there is an instan
taneous wave of commiseration transcending all de
nominational barriers. If it be true that the crucial
test of friendship is adversity, then the denomina
tions prove their amity in this sharing of burdens
and mingling of tears.
IV. Still further, the true Church, in all its vari
ous branches, is one by virtue of a common pur
pose, to wit, the salvation of the world. All other
considerations are ignored or remanded to a subor
dinate place. Their common watchword is " The
World for Christ!"
V. The Unity of the Church is manifest also in
its equipment for service. All true workers are har
nessed alike with the girdle of truth, the breastplate
of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shield
of faith, and particularly the sword of the Spirit
which is the Word of God. The best evidence of
loyalty to Christ is found in the scars of service.
Among those who stand on the firing line of evan
gelism, exposed to constant danger and privation,
there is no difference of opinion as to fundamental
truths ; and it is meet and proper that sciolists should
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
lay their hands upon their mouths in the presence of
such men.
VI. The Church demonstrates its unity, also, in
the confident hope of the ultimate triumph of Christ.
The text of William Carey's pioneer Sermon on
Missions in 1793 was, " Enlarge the place of thy
tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy
habitations: spare not; lengthen thy cords and
strengthen thy stakes" (Isa. 54:2); and his dis
course was divided into two heads : First, " Under
take great things for God " ; Second, " Expect
great things from God." It was this sermon that
struck the keynote of the modem missionary move
ment. What wonders have been wrought since that
day! I see an army of heralds climbing mountains,
fording rivers and crossing deserts; of whom it is
written, " How beautiful are the feet of them that
bring glad tidings of good things ! " I see the tot
tering walls of pagan strongholds rent asunder like
Jericho by the foolishness of preaching. I hear the
fluttering of wings ; and behold, souls are coming to
Christ as doves flocking to their windows. Far off
are the white sails of the ships of Tarshish, that
bring the sons and the daughters of the nations, and
their silver and gold with them. Hither come the
rams of Nebaioth and the dromedaries of Midian;
caravans laden with the glory of kings. I hear the
clash of arms in mid-heaven, mingled with a sound
of breaking chains ! Great Armageddon is at hand !
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
I see the lifting of war clouds, the blooming of gar
dens, the opening of the heavens : and the voice of a
great angel is proclaiming, " Behold, the tabemacle
of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them,
and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall
be with them and be their God."
In all these things we observe the true " commu
nion of saints." Here is no mere sentimental clasp
ing of hands and singing of " Blest be the tie that
binds " ; but a real blending of spirits, made mani
fest in sympathetic loyalty to a common Lord and
in practical devotion to a common cause.
Churdi Union needs no exploiting. It is an ac
complished fact. But, alas, there are many pro
fessed followers of Christ who rule themselves out
of it.
On one occasion, when Handel was rehearsing
the oratorio of The Messiah he arrested the per
formance to say, " I miss one flageolet ! " He had
detected the default of a member of his great orches
tra. Friend, are you neglecting your part in the
service of the Kingdom? Does God miss you?
Oh, fail not here! The air is vibrant with tidings
of conquest. God asks you to cooperate with him
in bringing back the world to truth and righteous
ness. The Church is on the march. Fall in ! The
royal standards onward go!

202

Section X
' The forgiveness of sins.'

Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun.
Which was my sin, though it were done before ?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run.
And do run still, though still I do deplore ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done ;
For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sins their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score ?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done ;
For I have more. — John Donne.

"THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS"
I MARVEL at the versatility of God. He
never made two things precisely alike. One
star differeth from another in glory. The
leaves of the forest are as dissimilar in their lace
like tracery as though each had been woven after
a separate pattern in a loom of its own. This is
not our way of doing things. In the Metropolitan
Museum is a statue of the Greek Slave, of which
the artist made three replicas, each of them so
closely copied after the original that no one can tell
them apart. God works differently. There are
sixteen hundred millions of people in the world,
and no duplicates ! By the Bertillon method a crim
inal may be recognized and convicted on the mere
evidence of his thumb-prints.
I. But there is one point at which there is no dif
ference among men. All are alike as to their com
plicity in sin. Paul says, " There is no distinction ;
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God." In another place he says that all are " con
cluded under sin." The word concluded means
literally " shut up "; as if all were imprisoned in the
same dungeon and awaiting trial on the same charge.
So it is written, "God looked down from heaven
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand, that did seek after God. Every
one of them is gone back ; they are together become
filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one."
If there is anybody who takes issue with that
proposition or thinks possibly that he is that one,
let him speak up. What, none? Then it may be
assumed that we agree thus far.
II. Now as to the penalty of sin. The law says,
" The soul that sinneth, it shall die." What is this
death? Physical death is a cessation of the func
tions of physical life. When the eyes no longer
see and the nerves are without feeling and the heart
is silent, we say, " The man is dead." By the same
token, spiritual death is an arrest of the functions
of spiritual life. When the soul ceases to respond
to the divine voice and conscience is heedless of the
divine law and the emotions are unstirred by divine
love, we are warranted in saying that the man is
spiritually dead. For the soul lives only in God.
If so, then spiritual death begins here and now.
And it continues as long as sin abides. How long
is that? Forever, so far as reason can see. For
without holiness — that is, freedom from sin — no
man shall see God.
This is hell. This is the outer darkness and eter
nal exile. This is the worm that gnaws at con
science and dieth not. This is the fire that is never
quenched. To be exiled from God! Not because
God is not forever willing to receive all those who
206

THE APOSTLES' CREED
will come unto him. The twelve gates of heaven
wiU never be closed; but the fixity of character
makes it impossible for an outlaw to enter in. He
can forever, but forever he will not; because in
the nature of the case " sin is enmity against God."
Though the gates were thronged with angels and
archangels, beckoning and crying " Welcome ! " the
exile would prefer his own place in the outer dark
ness to the holy atmosphere of the redeemed in
light. This is the self-inflicted penalty of sin, to
be away from God. A man shut up in his sinful
pleasures here and now may be quite content to live
without God; but think what an eternity of this
must be!
III. What is the remedy? There is none.
There is absolutely none within the purview of hu
man reason. As Lady Macbeth said, " What's
done cannot be undone." The record of the mis-
lived past is written, and nothing can unwrite it.
I have broken the law, and its irrevocable sentence
has gone forth against me.
IV. What then is to be done? Nothing?
Must we surrender to despair? By no means. The
Lord's arm is not shortened that it cannot save.
Here comes Christ!
" And he saw that there was no man, and won
dered that there was no intercessor; therefore his
own arm brought salvation unto him ; and his right
eousness, it upheld him."
One of the memorable cases in the criminal juris-
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
prudence of our country was that of Professor Web
ster of Harvard College, who was arrested for mur
der and found guilty. The man who presided at his
trial was Chief Justice Shaw, a classmate of the pris
oner at the bar. When the jury came in with its
verdict, the judge was so overcome that tears poured
over his cheeks and he could not utter a word. At
length he arose to pronounce the death sentence,
saying in a broken voice, " The law must have its
course ! "
Thanks be to God, the law need not have its course
at the Great Assize ; " for what the law could not do
in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending
his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh," hath
done, to the end that our sins might be forgiven and
the righteousness of the law be made manifest in us.
But how could even the divine Christ forgive sin?
He could do this only by satisfying the demand of
the broken law. The sin itself, as an established
fact, could not be removed; but if its penalty were
endured the guilty might be permitted to go free.
And this is precisely what Christ did. He took our
place before the bar of justice and died vicariously
for us, as it is written : " He was wounded for our
transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities;
the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and
with his stripes we are healed." Our Substitute
drank for us the last drop in the dregs of the bitter
cup of death ; in our behalf he, in a veiy literal sense,
" descended into hell." 208

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The climax of his suffering was reached when,
in the unnatural darkness of Golgotha, he cried,
" My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? "
Thus for a moment — and a moment in his divine
life was the equivalent of an eternity in ours — he
endured the horror of exile from God! And be
cause he thus went down, down, down into the utter
most depths where I deserved to go, he satisfied the
law in my behalf and nailed to his Cross the accusa^
tion that was against me.
Is there any condition affixed to the benefits of
his expiatory work? One only; namely, faith.
And faith is simply an acceptance of the overtures
of divine mercy which are offered in and through
him. Pardon is to be had for the taking ! " The
wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is
etemal life." Nevertheless, unless we take it we
will never have it.
But faith has an antecedent and a consequent.
Its antecedent is repentance; that is, an acknowl
edgment of sin and a sincere desire to forsake it.
Its consequent is confession of Christ. " Repent,
believe, and be baptized," is the formulary of spir
itual life. Baptism is an open confession of Christ.
A refusal to confess him is a practical admission of
insincerity. The assurance of pardon is like " oint
ment in the hand, which bewrayeth itself." So it is
written, " With the heart man believeth unto right
eousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." 209

THE APOSTLES' CREED
What evidence is there to verify this tremenr
dous claim of Christ to forgive sin? Is it wit
nesses we want? Heaven is full of them. " I saw,
and behold, a great multitude which no man could
number, out of every nation and of all tribes and
peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and
before the Lamb, arrayed in white robes, and palms
in their hands. . . . These are they that come out
of the great tribulation, and they washed their robes
and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."
It would appear that all these reached heaven by
faith in Christ ; as he said, " No man cometh unto
the Father but by me."
Do you ask for more witnesses? If this were a
case in court how many would satisfy you ? There
are some hundreds of millions now living on earth
who are prepared to say, " This poor man cried, and
Jehovah heard him and saved him out of all his trou
bles," and to sing,
"Oh, happy day that fixed my choice
On thee, my Saviour and my God !
Well may this glowing heart rejoice.
And tell its raptures all abroad."
"How shall we escape, if we neglect so great
salvation? " That is a fair question. A tourist in
the Alps or in Normandy sees crosses here and there
and everywhere, bearing the inscription, Spes Unica,
that is, " The only hope." I know of no other hope.
In all the philosophies of the ages there is no sug-
210

THE APOSTLES' CREED
gestion or intimation of any method of blotting out
the record of a sinful past. Here is the " fountain
filled with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins,"
which — so it is claimed — cleanseth from all sin.
If that be rejected, where shall we turn? If a man
hides his face from Christ as the Saviour, where else
shall he look for salvation ? Is there any other that
has the words of eternal life?

211

Section XI
" The resurrection of the body."

It kindles all my soul,
My country's loveliness ! Those starry choirs
That watch around the pole.
And the moon's tender light, and heavenly fires
Through golden halls that roll.
O chorus of the night ! O planets, sworn
The music of the spheres
To follow ! Lovely watchers, that think scorn
To rest till day appears !
Me, for celestial homes of glory born,
Why here, oh, why so long
Do ye behold an exile from on high?
Here, O ye shining throng,
With lilies spread the mound where I shall lie :
Here let me drop my chain.
And dust to dust returning, cast away
The trammels that remain :
The rest of me shall spring to endless day !
— Casimdr.

"THE RESURRECTION OF THE
BODY "
THERE are two ways of disposing of a
difficult doctrine; one is to deny it out
right, and the other — much cleverer, less
ingenuous, but equally effective — is to explain it
away. In the Church at Corinth there were some who
undertook to treat the resurrection of the dead
in that manner. They could not deny it without
disloyalty to Christ; but they could sophisticate it.
This they did by affirming that the Resurrection is
not a literal resurrection of the body, but simply a
survival of the soul with a perpetuity of influence
behind it.
When Paul preached this doctrine to the Corin
thians, he found it necessary to meet this sort of
sinister reasoning : " But some one will say. How
are the dead raised? and with what manner of body
do they come ? Thou foolish one, that which thou
thyself sowest is not quickened except it die: and
that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body
that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of
wheat or of some other kind; but God giveth it a
body even as it pleased him, and to each seed a
body of its own." 215

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The argument is in the nature of a parable; and
in this parable of the grain of wheat a clear light
is thrown upon the question, " How are the dead
raised, and with what manner of body do they
come ? "
I. The grain of wheat does not really die. It
is not annihilated, even though the animating germ
is destroyed within it; for the conservation of mat
ter is scientifically as true as the conservation of
force. The analogy of the parable holds so far only
as the vital germ is conserved. In this case that
which is apparently death is the very assurance of
life; as Jesus said, "Except a grain of wheat fall
into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone ; but
if it die, it beareth much fruit."
In our mortal bodies there are possibilities of life
which cannot be realized here and now. The body
must pass through mortality before it can attain to
the glory of immortality. It must " shuffle off this
mortal coil," as the grain lays aside its husk, before
it can truly live. Thus we interpret the words of
Jesus at the grave of Lazarus, " I am the Resurrec
tion and the Life; he that believeth on me, though
he die, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and
believeth on me shall never die."
II. The grain of wheat comes forth from the
ground. It is buried, lost to sight for a while.
Then it reappears : first a spear of tender green, aft
erward a sturdy stalk shooting up into the sunlight.
The body reappears in like manner. The trumpet
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
shall sound: and all that are in their graves shall
hear the voice of the Lord and shall come forth, as
Lazarus heard and Ccmie forth at the call of the in
carnate Son of God.
III. The stalk that issues from the sepulcher
of the grain is not merely a reduplication of it.
" That which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body
that shall be."
So is it with the resurrection of the body. It does
not come forth " cast in the same mold." As
the grain becomes a stalk bearing the burden of a
thousand grains; as the bushel of wheat becomes a
harvest to feed the hunger of a multitude; so is
the contrast between the body which was laid
away in the sepulcher and that which issues from
it. IV. The resurrection body will be a spiritual
body, adjusted to the conditions of its higher Ufe:
since " flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of
God." ( I ) " It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in
glory." The dishonor of the fleshly body is due wholly to
sin ; and there will be no sin in the kingdom of God.
Nor will there be any of the sorrows that are attend
ant upon it. " God shall wipe away every tear
from their eyes." The beauty of holiness will be
our beauty there.
(2) " It is sown in weakness; it is raised in
power." 217

THE APOSTLES' CREED
The body must needs be raised in power in order
to be fitted to its higher sphere. For its greater
tasks in heaven it will need clearer eyes and stronger
hands. It will no longer be hampered by the limi
tations of time and space.
Our tasks are often wearisome by reason of the
infirmities of the flesh; but in heaven we shall be
equipped with powers adequate to all the service re
quired of us. It is recorded that, during the cap
tivity in Babylon, a great prayer was made by Dan
iel for the deliverance of the people; and he said,
" While I was speaking in prayer, the man, Gabriel,
whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, be
ing caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time
of the evening oblation. And he talked with me,
and said, ... At the beginning of thy supplications
the commandment went forth, and I am come to tell
thee ! " That is, the angel had come all the way
from heaven, in that moment of prayer, to answer
him! The speed of a wireless message through the
vastness of ether was thus outdone. Who knows,
then, what shall be the multiplied energies of those
who, out of fleshly weakness, are made strong in the
glory of the endless life?
(3) " It is sown in corruption; it is raised in in-
corruption." The sure approach of dissolution is written on the
face of every living being. The moment we begin
to live we begin to die. But there our bodies shall
be endowed with self-perpetuating life. At the
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
blast of the trumpet all who awake in Christ shall
drink of the Fountain of Perpetual Youth.
V. The resurrection body will be the same that
was laid away in the grave.
For " to every seed is given its own body." The
farmer, after sowing his wheat, goes out and waits
for that which shall be. Will he look for rye or
barley ? No, for wheat, always for wheat ; because
the law of nature is " Each after its kind." The
seed of the sowing is always recognized in the har
vest that is gathered in.
So shall it be in the resurrection of the dead. The
identity of the body will be preserved because of the
vital germ within it.
But what do we mean by " identity " ? There is
an identity like that of Niagara, where there is a
constant change of substance with continuance of
form. There is an identity which consists in same
ness of substance, as when you dissolve a silver chal
ice in aqua for tis and, by the use of proper chemicals,
recover every particle of it. There may be an iden
tity without the persistence of either form or sub
stance : my hand is the same as that which rested on
my mother's bosom in infancy; yet, since the body
is in a state of constant flux, neither the form nor
the substance of that hand is here ; nevertheless my
mother would know it.
We cannot, therefore, speak dogmatically in these
premises, and particularly as we are in the presence
of a mystery; but by the parable of the grain of
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
wheat we are warranted in saying that the resur
rection lx)dy preserves its identity by virtue of the
vital germ or informing principle within it. So far
forth the teaching of Scripture is clear. The iden
tical body that is buried shall " come forth." This
is involved in the term " resurrection," or rising
again. The physical body has a vital connection
with the spiritual body, a connection so close as to
assure its identity with it.
The point of importance is thus maintained: to
wit, that those who come forth in the resurrection
shall be recognizable; and to us, as to those Corin
thians who lamented their martyred dead, this is a
source of immeasurable comfort. We want to
know each other in heaven ; to the end that we may
not sorrow as those who are without hope. It does
not content us to think of our translated friends as
disembodied spirits in the realms of infinite space;
as one of the poets puts it :
" Somewhere, in desolate wind-swept space.
In Twilight Land, in No Man's Land,
Two hurrying Shapes met face to face
And bade each other stand.
' And who are you ? ' cried one agape.
Shuddering in the gloaming light,
' I do not know,' said the other Shape,
' I only died last night ! ' "
No; we shall have our loved ones and recognize
them as our very own. Wives and husbands, after
220

THE APOSTLES' CREED
years of separation, shall look into each other's
faces with unspeakable joy; and the little children
that slipped out of our arms long ago will be given
back to us.
VI. The analogy is that of Christ's resurrection
body. The beloved disciple who had lain upon his bosom
in the upper room saw him afterward in Olivet with
the glory of the resurrection in his face and as the
heavens opened to receive him. And years after
ward he saw him again at Patmos, but so glorified
was he that John could scarce believe the sight.
But the glorified Christ laid his right hand upon
him, saying, " Fear not ! / am the Living One ;
and I was dead and behold I am alive forever-
more ! " He was the same, changed yet recogniza
ble. Our identity will be preserved in the same
way. Of this transfiguration our Lord himself is the
pledge and surety. Paul says, " Now hath Christ
been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of them
that are asleep." As the Jewish farmer brought
his first sheaf of wheat or basket of olives and
waved them before the altar of the Temple, as a
prayer for the harvest and a prophecy of the in
gathering; so is Christ become the first-fruits of all
that sleep in him.
The teaching of the Scriptures as to the physical
resurrection is beyond all question. On the occasion
of Christ's miracle at Bethesda he said to the cavil-
221

THE APOSTLES' CREED
ing scribes and Pharisees, " Marvel not at this : for
the hour cometh in which all that are in the tombs
shall hear his voice and shall come forth ! " It is
obvious that in this and similar teachings he does
not refer to the spiritual resurrection; for there is
something that comes forth out of the grave; and
that something can he nothing else hut the body
which was buried in it.
It cannot be said that revelation leaves no resid
uum of mystery with reference to this doctrine. But
the fact is affirmed beyond all peradventure; and
through the mystery there shines the brightness of
a glorious hope. " Now are we children of God,
and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be.
We know that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be
like him: for we shall see him even as he is. "
Since Jesus is mine I'll not fear undressing.
But gladly put off this garment of clay :
To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing,
Since Jesus to glory through death led the way.
Thus not only the salvation of our souls, but the
resurrection of our bodies, is assured in Christ. And
in this we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of
glory.

222

Section XII
" And the life everlasting : Amen.'

In soul, man mounts and flies ;
In flesh he dies :
Not that he may not here
Taste of the cheer;
But as birds drink, and straight Hft up their head.
So may he sip, and think
Of better drink
He may attain to after he is dead.
— George Herbert.

"AND THE LIFE EVERLASTING"
IS it to be supposed that the woman of Sy
char understood what Jesus meant when he
spoke of "living water" of which if one
drink he "shaU never thirst," — which shaU be in
him "a well of water springing up unto eternal
life " ? No, she was simply bewildered. Hear her :
" Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with and the well
is deep." Indeed, the well was deep; deeper than
she dreamed; as deep as the unfathomable love of
God! A rope and a well-sweep could not avail;
but the Man in homespun, sitting there on the curb,
had made bare an omnipotent arm to draw it.
What is the eternal life? I wish I knew and
could unveil it ; but " eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him."
The woman of Sychar lived in a valley circled
about by the everlasting hills. She looked across
the summit of Ebal and dreamed of the Great River
and its mysteries; or beyond Mount Gerizim where,
now and then, a golden mist rose from the Great
Sea. No doubt there were occasional strangers
225

THE APOSTLES' CREED
who came with news from beyond; but the Beyond
was all Wonderland to her.
So do we dwell in a little world, hemmed in by
the circumscription of time and space, absorbed in
the petty affairs of shop and household, with only
guesses for the universe of God. Of one thing we
are sure: we are larger than the world we live in.
We were bom for greater things than grinding at
the mill. Hence the racial, unquenchable thirst for
Ufe, more Ufe, eternal life!
But alas, our longings travail to no birth; and
life itself awaits a definition. All heaven is full of
saints triumphant who have emerged from the shad
ows and know ; but when they come back to our val
ley, as " ministering spirits," they always come with
their fingers on their lips.
There are, however, some things that we know
about it.
I. To begin with, Everlasting Life is a fact.
One of the oldest of proverbs is " Nature never
deceives." It is upon that postulate that Socrates
reasoned out the problem of immortality. " If this
be a dream," said he, " let me still dream on, and
awake to disappointment, rather than suffer from
the haunting fear that death ends all! But this is
no dream; since there is no appetite without pro
vision made for supplying it. How, then, will you
explain this thirst of mine, unless there be water
somewhere to quench it?"
II. We know, moreover, that Everlasting Life
226

THE APOSTLES' CREED
is more than immortality; that is, the mere continu
ance of our present life.
To breathe and eat and drink, to rise in the morn
ing and address ourselves to the round of common
tasks, to come home weary under the heat and bur
den of the day, and lie down again and sleep and
wake and resume the treadmill — this does not con
tent us. Nevertheless, however flat, stale and un
profitable this mere existence, it must go on. I am
immortal and cannot help it. I am immortal be
cause the divine breath is in me. There is no folly
comparable with that of the man who commits sui
cide in order to escape from life. " Out, out, brief
candle ; life's but a walking shadow " ? Nothing of
the sort. Life cannot be extinguished that way.
The tenant may move out of his tabemacle of flesh,
but he merely moves on.
III. We know still further, that whatever this
Everlasting Life may be, it has some vital relation
with God. " We came out from him," as Au
gustine said, " and will never rest until we rest in
him." We have lost our birthright, and can only
regain it by getting right with God.
So it is written, "This is life etemal, to know
God " ; that is, to be in harmony with all his benefi
cent plans and purposes conceming us; to be tme
to the divine law, which is the law of our being; to
rest under his complacent smile; to have no cloud of
separation between our souls and him.
How speaks the thirst within us? " As the hart
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul
after thee, O God!" Ah, nature never deceives.
Our dry-lipped souls cry as with an articulate voice
for a drink from the well beside the gate of God!
IV. And another thing that we know about this
spiritual and eternal life is that, if it ever begins, it
must begin here and now. Indeed, that is what we
are here for.
It is impossible to explain this handbreadth of un
certainty and incompleteness that we call life —
this confusion of threads and thrums, of unrealized
ideals and unrighted wrongs — unless it be a mere
introduction to something further on. All the hills
are leveled and all the crooked places made straight,
if eternity open up before us.
But if this life is probationary, there must be a
Statute of Limitations; that is to say, our proba
tion must end. Were it not for that, death would
have no terrors. Death is the line where character
is crystaUized ; and as the tree f alleth so also shall it
lie. Thus it is written : " He that is unrighteous,
let him do unrighteousness still : and he that is filthy,
let him be made filthy still : and he that is righteous,
let him do righteousness still: and he that is holy,
let him be made holy still." Wherefore it behooves
us, as men contemplating a long journey, to make
suitable provision for it.
V. Still further, we are advised that this Ever
lasting Life begins in Christ.
It was for this reason, and for no other, that he
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
came into this world of ours. " I came," he said,
" that they may have life, and may have it abun
dantly." This is precisely in line with what he said
to the woman at Sychar, " He that drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but it
shaU be in him a well of water springing up unto
eternal life."
Let us not suppose, however, that this wonderful
life, here or in heaven, is the same for all. In some
particulars this is doubtless true. The saint who
occupies the lowest seat in heaven is as free from the
record of past sin as the one who stands nearest the
throne. He is equally delivered from the conse
quences of sin: since there is no pain nor sorrow
there and no farewells. And before the lowest also
is an immeasurable vista of progress, from grace to
grace and from glory to glory, forever and ever.
But this does not mean that glory is on a dead
level. A snail and an eagle are both alive and happy
in their way ; but a snail crawls while an eagle soars
and kindles its undazzled eyes at the noonday sun.
To the penitent thief who lived but an hour of
humble faith, the promise was given, " To-day shalt
thou be with me in Paradise ! " Thanks be to God
for the omnipotent grace that, " betwixt the saddle
and the ground," can save a sinner in that way ! But
think you his Paradise could measure up to that of
Paul, who after a long and eventful life of toil and
peril in his Master's service — a veteran bearing
about in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus —
229

THE APOSTLES' CREED
bowed at the headsman's block, closed his eyes and
opened them in the presence of his Lord? Oh, no;
incredible! The snail crawls out of danger, but the
eagle flies to the bosom of God.
A Christian woman rears her household so heed
lessly that, one by one, her loved ones slip away
into by and forbidden paths until, at length, she
comes up alone before God. Think you her joy will
be like that of the mother who has trained her chil
dren in the sanctities of the Covenant, so that she
finally gathers them all in with the words, " Behold,
I and the children whom God hath given me ! "
A Christian man of wealth is so reluctant to part
with his treasure at the Master's call that, when he
goes to heaven, it is by the narrow margin of a nee
dle's eye; while another, knowing that his posses
sions are not held by ownership but by stewardship,
uses them accordingly, making for himself friends
by the mammon of unrighteousness, who give him
welcome at heaven's gate. It will surely be a differ
ent sort of heaven to those men.
If so, inasmuch as heaven with all its felicities
begins on earth, it behooves us to prepare for it.
For the spiritual life, of which we are speaking, is
like the unbroken current of a river which presently
tums a bend and vanishes from sight, but flows
right on.
Now, as to the practical bearing of all this. It
makes a great difference in our manner of life
whether or no we believe in the life further on. It
230

THE APOSTLES' CREED
formulates our plans for to-morrow and the next
day. It strikes the keynote of our behavior at home,
in society, in the shop and office and marketplace,
in all our contact with those about us.
In one of the cemeteries of Philadelphia there is
a tombstone bearing this epitaph :
" The Body of
B. Franklin, Printer,
(Like the Cover on an old Book,
Its contents torn out
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,)
Lies here, food for worms;
But the Work shall not be lost :
For it will (as he believes) appear once more
In a new and more elegant Edition,
Revised and corrected
By its Author."
Thank God for the assurance of the "new edi
tion, revised and corrected by its Author ! " Here
we rejoice in Ufe, but there — O men and women,
great things are before us ! " Now are we children
of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we
shaU be."
In addition to the fact that our view of the Ever
lasting Life has a practical bearing on our manner
of living here and now, it must be observed that it
greatly modifies our conception of death. If we are
to continue to live without any intermption, then one
who has entered upon the higher life may regard
231

THE APOSTLES' CREED
death as a mere line of shadow falling across his
way : or to use the words of Longfellow, " a cov
ered bridge, leading from light to light through a
brief darkness." Death as a motive is reduced to
the vanishing point. It has lost its sting. Thanks
be to God who giveth us the victory over it ! Life
is the momentous thing. It is far more solemn to
live than to die; for life etemal is what life temporal
makes it.

232

"AMEN"
BUT before we say " Amen " let us know
what it means. Our Lord said, " By thy
words thou shalt be justified, and by thy
words thou shalt be condemned." We have been
repeating " Amen " ever since we learned it at our
mother's knees. It is a universal word; the He
brews and Greeks used it and pronounced it just as
we do.
When the children of Israel came over the border
into the Land of Promise they pitched their camp
in the broad valley of Ephraim; and as the blessings
and retributions of the Law rang to and fro between
Ebal and Gerizim they responded with a loud
"Amen." What did they mean by it?
When the Ark of the Covenant — the symbol of
the divine Presence — was brought up to Gibeon
by King David and placed within the Tabemacle,
a Psalm composed for the occasion was sung re-
sponsively by the children of Asaph : " Seek ye Je
hovah and his strength; seek his face evermore.
Remember his covenant forever, the word which he
commanded to a thousand generations, . . . saying,
Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of
your inheritance. . . . Sing unto Jehovah, all the
233

THE APOSTLES' CREED
earth; show forth his salvation from day to day.
. . . Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his
name: bring an offering and come before him;
worship Jehovah in holy array. . . . Oh give thanks
unto Jehovah, for he is good; for his loving-
kindness endureth forever." And again the people,
with one accord, responded " Amen ! " What did
they mean by it ?
When the Temple of Solomon was dedicated a
procession of priests and Levites brought the Ark
of the Covenant up to the Holy of Holies, singing,
" Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted
up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory will
come in," and King and people and antiphonal choirs
all responded " Amen." What did they mean by it?
The custom was continued after the institution of
the Christian Church. Paul says that the Chris
tians of Corinth were wont to respond in this man
ner to the prayers of the minister; and Jerome says
that in his time the people followed the various parts
of the public service with " Amen and Amen."
What did they mean by it ?
In our childhood, kneeling at our trundlebeds,
we said, " Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray thee.
Lord, my soul to keep," and closed our simple pe
tition in the same way. When we repeat the Lord's
Prayer we seal it with " Amen." Is this a mere
perfunctory word? Has it become so familiar that
its edge is entirely worn off ? Would it not be well
to inquire as to the meaning of it?
234

THE APOSTLES' CREED
I. In connection with prayer, what does it sig
nify? Sincerity, to begin with. Its literal meaning is,
" So be it," that is to say, " I really desire the things
I am asking for." And this is the matter of chief
importance when we kneel before God. It is an
easy thing to say our prayers but a very different
thing to pray. You will remember Gratiano's
masque of devotion, " I will put on a sober habit,
talk with respect, wear prayer-books in my pocket.
Nay, more, while grace is saying I will hood mine
eyes thus with my hat, and sigh and say Amen."
But God cannot be deceived in that way, for he
understands all the imaginations of the thoughts.
He cares nothing for our bowings and genuflections
and well-turned phrases. The chanted misereres of
the Pharisees wait without, while the unstudied cry
of a penitent publican pushes its way to the heavenly
throne. But the Amen of prayer means more than sin
cerity; it implies the expectation of faith. As Jesus
said, " All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for,
beUeve that ye receive them, and ye shall have
them." Wonderful promise! "If — anything —
believing — ye shall have it!" — "For he that com
eth to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that seek after him." — Where
fore the word means not only, " So be it," but " So
it shall be." Yet how often we plead for a bless
ing without expecting it. 235

THE APOSTLES' CREED
In Dr. Guthrie's " Life and Letters " he says that
in a time of drought he prayed at the family altar
one Sabbath morning for the early and the latter
rains to come down speedily on the dry and thirsty
land. The bell presently began to ring and, when
the Doctor set out for the Old Barony, his little
daughter came running after him with an umbrella.
" Oh, no, my dear," said he; " there isn't a cloud in
the sky." Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings
we are taught the simplicity of faith.
Too often we pray as mischievous boys ring door
bells and run away for fear some one will answer
them. Thus we betray our doubt of the promise,
" Ask, and it shall be given you ; seek, and ye shall
find ; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
II. We say Amen when we repeat the Apostles'
Creed. And there again it means sincerity. " So I
have said; and, God being my witness, I believe
every word of it."
If so, how is it that some people are so industri
ously engaged in explaining it away? God, and
Christ, and the Holy Spirit; the incarnation, the
atonement, and the resurrection — all these doc
trines are twisted out of their plain significance, as
in a recent examination of candidates for the min
istry in the Presbytery of New York — and then
" Amen " is ushered in, like a jester to amuse the
judicatory with cap and bells.
In such a case the scraples of Macbeth should set
one thinking. He says of his conference with the
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
two assassins: "One cried, 'God bless us,' and
' Amen ' the other. As they had seen me with these
hangman's hands, listening their fear, I could not
say Amen when they did say ' God bless us.' I had
most need of blessing; and Amen stuck in my
throat." But the Amen of the Creed means more than sin
cerity: it implies consistency also. It is as if one
said, " Not only do I thus believe ; but thus I pro
pose to live."
A creed on parchment has no value : it is important
only when translated into life and character. It is
like food which, on the table, satisfies no hunger,
but properly eaten and assimilated is transmuted
into nerve and sinew and intellectual strength and
efficiency. The Amen of a creed is the breadth of
holy purpose which makes it a living thing with eyes
to see the world's need, ears to hear the behest of
duty, and feet and hands wherewith to go about
doing good. It takes the algebraic x out of the
problem of life, reducing it to the known terms of
love toward God and our fellow-men.
In the provision made by the Jewish Rabbis for
the conveyance of property occurs this singular sen
tence: " The estimation of a field shall be accord
ing to the fmit thereof." In other words, the value
of a field was not to be determined by its area but
by its yield in bushels of grain. Our professions of
faith are to be measured in the same way. "By
their fruits ye shall know them." " Not every one
^17

THE APOSTLES' CREED
that saith unto me. Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
Kingdom, but he that doeth the will of my Father
which is in heaven." " So let your light shine be
fore men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father who is in heaven."
III. It is our custom, moreover, to seal with the
word " Amen " our Covenant on entering the fel
lowship of the Christian Church. Here again it
means sincerity, as if one said, " This solemn pledge
is no mere form ; I mean it."
In the historic revival at the Water Gate, where
the retumed captives kept the Passover and renewed
their vows of loyalty, Ezra blessed Jehovah, the
great God; and all the people answered " Amen and
Amen." With a like purpose did we enter on the re
sponsibilities of the Christian Ufe, saying, " High
heaven, that hears the solemn vow, that vow re
newed shall daily hear." Do we still so deeply,
cordially, sincerely feel it?
But while the Amen of our Covenant sounds the
lowest depths of emotion, it rises and radiates and
suffuses all the higher surfaces of life. It permits
no reservation in our commitment to the service of
Christ. At the siege of Fort Donelson, when General
Buckner asked for an armistice that terms of capitu
lation might be discussed, the memorable answer of
Grant was, " The only terms that can be considered
are unconditional surrender." And these are the
only terms on which Christ receives us. We must
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needs pass under his yoke. " Subjugation " is the
word; from sub-jugum, meaning under the yoke.
"If any man will come after me let him deny him
self, and take up his cross and follow me."
There are no conditions in this surrender. There
can be no reservation of any small back-chamber in
the heart of a man. There can be no cherishing of
a darling sin. There can be no withholding of any
moment of time, any atom of strength, any farthing
of earthly treasure. All or nothing! "Thee my
new Master now I call, and consecrate to thee my
all." This is the Amen of the Covenant. Paul
says it is " bringing every thought into captivity to
the obedience of Christ." (II Cor. 10:5.)
But there are two parties to every Covenant.
God as the " party of the first part " meets us more
than half way with two great Amens ; as it is writ
ten, " God, being minded to show more abundantly
unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of
his counsel, interposed with an oath ; that by two im
mutable things, in which it is impossible for God to
lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have
fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us."
(Heb. 6:18.)
One of these " immutable things " is the Word.
Its promises are Yea and Amen. The Bible is the
one book in the world's literature that speaks with
out ifs or perhapses or peradventures. Its affirma
tions all rest in a " Thus saith the Lord." And on
its last page burns this beacon : "If any man shall
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THE APOSTLES' CREED
add unto these God shall add unto him the plagues
which are written in this book; and if any man shall
take away from its words God shall take away his
part from the tree of life. . . . Yea, I come quickly.
Amen." The other of the immutable things is God's oath :
and his oath is Christ, in whom he certifies, " As I
live, saith the Lord Jehovah, I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but that the wicked tum from
his way and live." The other name of Christ is,
" The Yea and Amen; the Faithful and True Wit
ness." He speaks with authority : " Amen, Amen,
I say unto you." And when he speaks, the last word
is spoken as to spiritual and eternal life.
Between these two Amens — the written and in
carnate Word — we stand as between Jachin and
Boaz, the pillars of the Temple, saying " So be it."
We rest in the authority of the immutable, binomial,
complete and final Word of God.
Oh, this is a wonderful word! The saints in
heaven have not forgotten it. In the visions of the
Apocalypse they are heard saying, " Unto him that
sitteth on the throne, and unto the Lamb, be the
blessing and the honor and the glory and the domin
ion, forever and ever. Amen." May we be there
to join in that Amen! But if we are, it wiU be be
cause we attune our hearts to utter it here and now.

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