3. The Doctrine of the Trinity Formulated in the Early Christian Church: To these scriptural groupings of the three persons into a holy trinity, may be added that earliest of post apostolic symbols known commonly as the "Apostles' Creed," because of the tradition that it was formulated by the apostles immediately before their dispersion into the world to fulfill the commission given to them by the Christ to teach all nations; but which notion is now very generally discredited, and the truer notion is held to be that this noted summary of Christian faith "arose from small beginnings, and was gradually enlarged as occasion required in order to exclude new errors from the Church."[A] But, however, and whoever constructed this so-called Apostles' Creed, this much must be said of it, viz., that it represents the almost universal belief of the early Christian Church in a Godhead consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that this is in harmony with the New Testament scriptures, and is the symbol[B] of Christian faith that grew out of efforts to express the essentials of Christianity. The creed, in English, follows:

[Footnote A: In acknowledging that it has no claim to that venerable title (i. e., the Apostles' Creed), "we must guard against the common assumption," says Dr. Philip Smith, "that it is the oldest, as well as the simplest creed of the Catholic Church. True—as we have seen—it may be traced, in its most essential elements, from an early post-apostolic age; but, its development belongs solely to the Western Church, and its formal adoption, as a written creed, is later than the Nicene. It was the ancient baptismal creed as used in the Church of Rome, and was known as the Symbolum Romanum, or simply Symbolum, before it received the epithet of Apostolorum. Its forms were different in different churches; the earlier forms variously omitting the articles of the "descent into hell," "the communion of saints," "the life everlasting," and the epithet "catholic" before "church.">[

[Footnote B: "These creeds obtained also the name of Symbols." Students' Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Philip Smith, Vol I, p. 234.]

THE "APOSTLES' CREED."

"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, arose from the dead on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father; whence he will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit; the holy church; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the body."[A]

[Footnote A: Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes, Vol. I, p. 80, Murdock's translation. The above form, is as it stood in the fourth century, a few centuries later it attained in the Romish Church its ampler form, in which it has since been adopted by most Protestant churches, as follows:

"I believe in God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father, almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic church, the Communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen." In this form it is called the "Symbolum Roman—Roman Symbol.">[

4. Man's Allegiance to the Godhead: This holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Godhead, constitutes for the Christian the creating, sustaining, redeeming, witnessing power of the universe—the supreme God. In this Godhead righteousness, and holiness, and truth, and knowledge, and wisdom and power, and glory, and justice, and mercy and love, and all that we do or can recognize as belonging to the divine nature abound in their perfection. This Godhead is the source of spiritual power and light and glory; to whom man owes first allegiance; who is the true and only object—but singularly as well as in unity—of man's worship; to whom man submits his mind and his will for guidance—for in such submission alone is true worship.

LESSON VIII.

(Scripture Reading Exercise).