THE NEEDLESSNESS OF A CREED.
In a paper before a Protestant ministerial union of Baltimore, the 11th ultimo, one minister, Mr. B. H. Abbott, declared that creeds were useless, and his argument is certainly a cogent one. He contended that “if a creed contains more than is expressed in the Bible, it is too much; if it contains less than is expressed in the Bible, it is too little, and if it contains the exact context of the Bible, it is unnecessary, because we have the Bible.” The root origin of the creed is generally this: men fear that the Spirit of God can not lead the church. Of course, the fear does not come in that form. They think that they believe just right, that they understand God’s Word, and that therefore they must fix its interpretation for others. But this amounts to the declaration that God can not lead other men as well as the creed-builders.