We have already defined Praise as that kind of Worship wherein we think of God, and not of ourselves.
Forasmuch as a Creed contains, chiefly or entirely, {93} the proclamation of God's Nature and Being, it is the form in Worship which is most entirely Praise.
The Apostles' Creed is so placed in the Morning and Evening Prayer as to be the highest of several kinds of Praise.
The Psalms have a considerable mixture of thoughts of man, and of human dependence on God.
The Old Testament Lesson, with its Respond, draws from Man's History the joyful thoughts of God's mercy.
The New Testament Lesson, with its Respond, carries our Praise a degree nearer to Perfect Peace and Joy in the Goodness of God through Christ.
The Apostles' Creed entirely omits the human element that we may rejoice in God's Existence.
Other uses of Creeds. Creeds have been used for various purposes, which may be classed as follows:
(a) Symbolum, or Examination. (b) Self-Examination. (c) Guide to Thought and Basis of Argument. (d) Praise or Worship.
(a) In order to understand the word Symbolum, from which a Creed is often called a Symbol, we must go back to the days when, for persecution's sake, and lest they should unnecessarily cause their own deaths, Christians met in secret, and required pass-words that they might know one another.