»e Christian Record.
CHRISTIAN UHIM.—lljfl.jp
The following sentence, in substance,
is found inscribed upon the face of every
creed, and confession of faith, in Protest
ant Christendom*; to dm 4$The Scrip
tures of the Old and Ne# Testaments
contain the word of God, and«re the on
ly infallible rukyof faith ana practice.”
We shall therefqle summon into court, all
the creeds and confessions of faithf as wit
nesses, and out of their own mouths we
shall condemn them a&fa llible-^~for they
confess |heir own ^p|ilt—they say “ Ae
word of God contained in, the Old and
NeW Testaments is the only infallible
rule Wf faith and nr act ice. If these
witnesses tell the tnith, they are fallibli
and ma« be wrong, and consequently the
cannot be depended on!
take the ground, that
shall then
and confes
sions of frith are unnecessary, and stand
directly in the way of Christian union,
and the conversion of the worldfto Jesus
Christ*
That they are unnecessary, may be pro
ved, 1st, from the concessions of all par
ties* The old school Jfrelbyteri
admit that the new school par^y, whOTiave
§one off from them, may be Christians,
lough they deny some of the prominent
featulePbf the “ gdod dd confession of
faith.” The old and the new school
Presbyteiians will both agree that the
Cumberland Presbyterian church may
contain some ^ty good Christians, though
she has rejected the “ Westminster Book,”
and set up for herself. The A
of all schools will admit that the
lists
may be good Christian* v though they re
ject the Methodist Discipline'as heretical.
The Baptists -admit as for the Me
thodists, who reject the Jive pointst and
have adopted the^antagonist five points of
Jkrmipianism. In short, all the lovers and
supporters of juimaft creeds admit that
salvation may oe enjoj^d by the honest
hearted of all parties; and we are happy
rHuiow, that from tiff stern Calvinist
down to the most enthusiastic advocateef
human creeds in the land—all cheerfffljy
admit, that if an individual honestly re
jects eveij human creed in Protestant
Christendom* as contrary to the spirit and
blind of Christ and the very besf interests
of our race* we sav. Sll admit that if sueh
an individual believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ wjth all his heart, trust in him for
f aivation, and to the very best of his know
ledge and ability obey the commands of
God through life, his whole conduct being
regulated by the Bible alone, without any
human creed juperadded; be will over
-come the world, and receive ** art abtin*
"dfflit entrance into the everlasting king
dom of our Lord ~ Xe»i^j|ipOhi*ist.*f This
admission cuts tlfe throat of every human
creed and confession of faith in Christen
dom," and proves them to be Unnecessary
appendages. For if a man cart be a Chris
tian without being a Methodist, or acknow
ledging the discipline, it follows with the
clearrilss jSjSNbmops'tration, that the Me
thodist discipline, which contains Method
ism* is .non-essential. And so of all the
rest! feut who will say that a man can
be a Christian who rejects the Bible? No
ontL And who will say* that one who
believes all its heavenly truths, and obeys
its divine mandates, is not a Christian?
No one. “ And hereby we do know that
we know him, if we keep his command
ments.” 1 John ii. 3.
Human creeds are unnecessary, 2d, be
cause they contain Athing valuable which
is riot found in the Bible; for their lovtrt
say, they “ have been taken from the Bi
ble, and they are just like it*” Thenthey
are unnecessary, for we have the Bible,
which acknowledged be the fountain
from which all those little pflreami (cieuml