The advocate of a human creed says, he wants his creed to “show at a glance what we hold!” Look over your creed, then, right carefully, and see what you hold, and look over the New Testament with the same care, and see what an amount it contains that you do not hold, or that is not in your creed, and you will see that your creed is not a respectable skeleton—that it not only lacks the flesh, blood, muscles, arteries, veins, etc., of the body, but it lacks many of the bones and, what is vastly more, it lacks the life, the soul, the spirit. If it contains what you hold, much as precious as any part of the Christian faith, and as binding as any thing God has revealed, clearly and as explicitly laid down in the New Testament, is not contained in what you hold at all. Much of as precious truth as is contained in the Bible, a vast amount as clear to the children of God as anything contained in the Christian faith, an immense deal as consoling to the dying saint as any thing in the word of God, as any man who has ever looked must admit, is not found in any human creed. We say again, and can prove at almost any length, that there is not a human creed in the world that is a respectable skeleton, that is even a perceptible shadow of the Christian faith. Indeed, no creed appears to have been intended simply to set forth the Christian faith. It does not appear to be the object of any human creed to set forth the simple faith of Christ or Christianity. None of the creeds claim to be the Christian faith, the Christian confession, Christian discipline or Christian system, but one is “The Philadelphia Confession,” another “The Westminster Confession,” and a third “The Methodist Discipline.” The object of these books, and all of the same kind, appears to be more to set forth the views their authors had of certain points of doctrine, or their notions of these points, than to set forth the whole Christian faith itself. Their object is much more to show how the parties adopting them held certain points of doctrine, and to distinguish their views from some others, than to set forth the Christian faith. The creeds, then, are but little more than epitomes of men’s views of certain points of Christian doctrine, their abridged understanding of these points. Now, the belief and reception of men’s views of the Christian faith will not save any man, much less the belief and reception of their views of a few points of doctrine; but to be saved, a man must believe and receive the Christian faith—the whole Christian faith itself.
[HEAR YE HIM.]
“BUT we want something binding.” Look then, at the command accompanying this oracle, or confession, or immediately following it, if you desire something binding, or authoritative. We allude to the authoritative utterance, “Hear Him.” God, who made the worlds—God, who rules among the armies of heaven—who hurled angels down to hell for disobedience—whose voice shook the earth. God, who holds the destinies of all the nations in his hand, who “weighs the hills in a balance, and handles the isles as a very little thing,” in connection with the revelation of his Son, to all the nations of the earth, with all the majesty of his authority, says, “Hear Him;” give him audience; regard him; bow to him; follow him; be guided by him; honor and obey him forever. How utterly futile and insignificant the attempt of puny and erring mortals to add anything to the great oracle, or confession, in which is concentrated the whole christian institution, and with which is connected the authoritative words of the ineffable Jehovah, “Hear Him.” If a man receives the revelation God makes of his Son, or, rather, if he receives his Son, from the revelation he has made of him, and bows in submission to him, in accordance with the command to “Hear Him,” confesses with the mouth before men, what he believes in the heart, that “Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” and submits to the Divine test of loyalty, in the requirement to be buried with his Lord in baptism, while that great formula is uttered over him, “I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,” he gives the highest assurance in his power to give, that he is changed in heart, that he loves God and will serve him, and is bound by the strongest pledge, the highest and most solemn obligation that ever did or ever can bind a human being, to love and serve God. To add a thousand human ceremonies to this, would give no higher assurance of the preparation of the heart, the designs and resolutions being genuine, and bind the individual no more solemnly to be faithful to the end. The confession that God requires, is the greatest confession that man can make, and the making of it is the best evidence a man can give that his heart is right. The first test of loyalty God has required of the penitent confessor, is the strongest, highest, and most solemn to which man can submit, and the submission to it, is the strongest evidence of loyalty the person can give. The authority that requires this submission, is the highest and most binding that can rest upon a human being; and, if it does not govern, control and restrain the person, no authority can.
If such a confession as this—one that takes in God and man, heaven and earth, the Savior and his words, the whole revelation from God, the sublime confession that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, made in a proper manner, will not show that the heart is right. You need not add any such catechisms or experiences as are common in these times. They are all perfect nothingness compared with this great confession, which, like the spider’s web, may catch flies and gnats, while the dangerous wasp and hornet will pass through with ease. The safe ground, and the only safe ground, is to follow the simple and infallible leadings of the Spirit of God. Appeal to the sacred record, and examine his divine and unerring procedure the day he came down from heaven and guided the apostles into all truth. What did he require of men on that day, before receiving them into the church? Follow him as he guided the apostles in all the cases of conversion mentioned in the sacred record. What did he require in all these cases? The same must be required now, and no more. We must be led by the Spirit of God, in converting sinners, and not by human creeds; we must be guided by the wisdom of God and not by the wisdom of man; we must have confidence in the ways of God and show no hankering after the ways of man. God will depart from all who turn away from the simplicity of the apostolic practice, under the immediate guidance of the Holy Spirit. No man is led by, or has the spirit, who has not full confidence in requiring precisely the same of all who enter the church required by the apostles, as by the Holy Spirit, who guided them. He simply required the confession with the mouth, of the faith of the heart.
[EVANGELISTS AND EVANGELIZING.]
WE have had a continuous series of writing and preaching about properly qualified Evangelists, and numerous schemes have been set on foot and advocated, for raising up and qualifying men for this great work. Still, the Evangelical field is not at all supplied. No scheme set on foot is supplying, or likely to supply, the field. Some few preachers are being manufactured, but where do they go? and what do they do? How many of them go out into the field and preach the gospel, convert sinners, plant and build up churches? Where is one doing anything of this kind? In many parts of the country, they have made people believe that the old preachers who have planted the churches and made the principal part of all the converts that have been made, are behind the times, and incapable of preaching, discouraged and driven many of them from the field, and the work is not progressing. We need, and must have, if we ever progress, evangelists, or missionaries, who will travel throughout the length and breadth of the country, visit the churches, “see how they do,” “set in order the things that are wanting,” recruit their numbers, and maintain the faith once delivered to the saints. We need, and must have, men who will visit weak churches, enter new communities, where there are no churches,—bold adventurers, pioneers to open the immense forests, and make the rude desert blossom like the rose. This work must be done, and we must have the men that can and will do it.