Catechism

At the period which marks the beginning of time, God created, brought forth from the absolutely non-existent, the heavens and the earth. None of these things had any previous existence, save in the thought of God. He spoke, and the things spoken took on form and substance as facts of material existence. The fiat words were spoken, and there stretched out the wide spreading plains, and the great deeps, with their finny tribes, and grazing cattle; the mountains reared their heads heavenward, and the streams murmured their way down from the highlands; the superterrestrial beings winged their unfettered way amid the celestial glories, and man walked as the Divinely appointed sovereign of the earth.

5 Feb 2020

How can thinking people say otherwise than, I believe in God. Not to hold this faith throws everything into confusion worse confounded. Without belief in God human life, all life, becomes an insoluble riddle. And the nice adjustments, marvelous and invariable movements and functions of the universe add to the enigma.

29 Jan 2020

It is by faith alone that man is able to appropriate the salvation which God has prepared for him in Christ Jesus. “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Right after this splendid, comforting passage, the Divine record proceeds thus: “He that believeth on Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” Here we have one of the most decisive, of the many emphatic, and oft repeated, Biblical statements that apart from Christ there can be no spiritual, no eternal life for man; and that Christ, with all His gifts and blessings, is received alone by faith.

22 Jan 2020

What do we mean when we say “I”? Who, what, is this human creature which utters, so freely, and most of the time so thoughtlessly, this word of a single letter? Next to the thought of God… these thoughts are most worthy of our serious, prayerful consideration. These are the thoughts which, rightly pursued, bring the largest dividends for the enrichment of the mind, and the strengthening of the spirit.

15 Jan 2020

The Apostles’ Creed is not merely a child’s confession. The child, indeed, at an early age, may learn its words, and a helpful measure of its truth; but no sage has ever exhausted it. It is like the ocean, the child may enjoy the waves as they roll up on the sandy beach, no man can touch its bottom where lie its deepest depths.

8 Jan 2020

The Apostles’ Creed is one of the confessions of Christendom. It is regarded as the creed of all who call themselves Christians. But it is well known that, especially in recent times, there has been a great outcry against creeds of every kind… The ideas begotten of evolution, of constant progression, have made these people intolerant of anything which bears the marks of age.

1 Jan 2020

“There are a few questions which… often trouble our people. One is the question which has to do with the number and proper order of the commandments. Our people often, in reading, or discussing the commandments, meet with these difficulties. They find that the order we follow differs from that followed by others. If they read or hear someone speak of the Fifth Commandment, for instance, they find that an entirely different subject is presented from that of which we think when the Fifth Commandment is mentioned. And the same difficulty arises if others hear us or read after us. When we come to understand the facts in the case we find that it is not such a serious matter, but until that time the trouble exists.”

25 Dec 2019

" In view of the fact that God deals with men as rational, responsible creatures, whom He is anxious to bless but will not force to accept His blessings, this dealing has always had as a primary object to prove to man that God is a loving God, seeking his good, willing to pardon his faults if he would let Him do so. Throughout the whole history of God’s dealings with man He has been seeking to convince him of His true fatherhood, His willingness to enfold him in His arms of love, to guide him and provide for him as only infinite wisdom, power and love is capable of doing."

18 Dec 2019

“The natural man cannot but conclude that there is a God, but his conception of His nature is never a very exalted one. Even during Old Testament times, and not infrequently during the New Covenant, the ideas of God’s own children, with respect to His nature and disposition, were often rather dark and forbidding; they regarded Him as a stern, ruthless, relentless taskmaster. Jesus’ revelation of God was far other than this. He showed God to be a Father, approachable, merciful, loving, forgiving iniquities and sins. We can never afford to lose this conception of God. But, as is so frequently the case with weak, vacillating human nature, many have gone to the other extreme. They conceive God to be a being whose love excludes all other attributes, one whose love has so weakened His character that, though He may feebly demand righteousness, He will not punish even where His requirements are disregarded.”

11 Dec 2019

“What is it we owe our fellowman? We owe it to him to let him make a decent living, to let him have the opportunity for cultivating his mind and inner life, the enjoyment of his rights. We owe him the financial help necessary to bridge over a season of enforced inactivity. But this is not all, it is the least that is required of us. The Divine requirement is, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor.’ The fundamental requirement in the religious and ethical system of Jesus Christ is love. And love is more than money or a dole of bread. Human life originated and originates in love. Love holds together the basal human institution, the family. It recreates, gives new visions and new impulses to, the individual human life. It is the principle which leavens and transforms all human relations. It is the active principle of all heavenly conduct on the part of God and the holy angels.”

4 Dec 2019