Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUG., 11, 1925. A GREAT CREED.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LI, Issue 16805, 11 August 1925, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, AUG., 11, 1925. A GREAT CREED.

In the day, which Is above all else a time of change, it is refreshing to come upon something that still stands. In June 325 A.D. the Catholic Church at the Council of Nieca promulgated the creed to which it gave its name. That creed has stood against all heretical blasts for 1000 years. The occasion of its sixteenth centenary brought together at Westnlinster. Abbey and Lambeth Palace Bishops and Archbishops from the Eastern parts of Europe. A creed which owes its origin to tlie necessity' of confuting what was held to be error, and of expressing in .apt words the faith of the Church, as handed 5 down, through at. least, tii red full lives, from the Apostles, might have been expected to he ephemeral. It has not,been so. The Xiceue creed, while it refuted nrianiirii, remains scatheless, having come down the ages unaltered. At this day it is the central creed of the Catholic Churches. Beyond even i this wide range of Catholic opinion no nonconformist church- would seriously question the characteristic dogma of the Nicenc creed. The published photographs of some of. the venerable prelates assembled round Dr. Randal, the Archbishop of Canterbury do help ihe imagination as to the antiquity of this famous creed.- But it is not easy to picture that ancient Council at which an Emperor presided, and was indeed the host of the three hundred assembled bishops. And these Bishops came, from scattered churches all suffering under the persecution of Diocletian. With what fear and trembling, and vet with what faith, dul they rdnee themselves as a body in the hands of Constantine, himself only attracted by Christianity, hut not yet baptised..' It is not to bo supposed that in those days acquiescence in a decree of a Church Court was quite .so real' as it might appear to be. The seventeen dissenting bishops gave way before the firm declaration of tho Em*

poror, imposing .cxilh on nil opponents of thri judgment. Two only of these held ouf. The Bishops would scatter to then' sees knowing, that the Church Would'bc still exposed to tin* changing whim of a man in supreme power of no fixed prmciplo and whose only title to be called great was that he did catch some idea of what Christianity might grow to-. Arius and his followers some three years later were again favored by llie Emperor while the leaders of those, who won the Nieenn creed for the Church were subsequently banished. Sacrilege remained :m offence against Ilommi law. Sacrilege covered every violation of or careless offence against the Divine Law, which law included expressions of the Emperor's will. “He refuses to burn incense—to offer the rite.’' This was all. To be an antagonist of the gods of Borne and to their sacred observances was to be condemned, and the sword or exile followed. The worship of the gods of Borne must have declined very greatly before Constantine could have felt himself safe in playing with the new faith to which the .preceding emperors had given no quarter. Aritis may well 1.0 pardoned for his error. It is one of the minor mysteries of life how in the soa'rch aftef truth so many men of undoubted intelligence arrive at diametrically opposed conclusions. It is well for us that the sword of the Empeior is not the final arbiter between sacrilege arid liberty of thought. Honest error may be a calamity to be pitied; it can no longei be a sin to be punished. But if this, be so, and a man is only answerable for voluntary ignorance and error, what, is the use of a great creed? The answer must be, much every way. A great creed is a mental anchor not ministering to sloth, but supporting natural weakness. On the sea of life —a veritable >Sargos,sa, we may get kept afloat in the whirl of the driftage, but it is better to hold on to something firmer. Every addition to human knowledge can be welcomed as r. benediction. But. even here an anchor is very comfortable. Wo cam not all be men and women with great minds, for ever seeking and probing into things unrevealed. The lamps which produce the genii of the world are getting rubbed very thin. But the world of ordinary folk is ever with us. Wo * arc the better, Whether we share in the faith or not, to know that a great creed has stood for 1(300 years, and that at the present day, the desire to'bear witness to the truths it inaifitains has moved the great churches of the Eastl to send their representatives to England (o assemble in Westminster Abbey. We have ventured the proposition that honest error is pardonable. It is true that if wo sin against, natural laws we suffer. It may be so in offences against spiritual law. We may punish ourselves through our ignorance, but. honest error cannot; be punishable from without. If this be true and wore more constantly kept in mind, many epntroj vorsics which, are started in supposed defence of truth, but. which too often end in its disparagement, would be avoided. Arius fell into this error, lie would justify the Supremo. He would supply the “imperfections ” of omniscience by finite knowledge. He could not recognise the presence of evil and evil things in the world with Supreme perfection, so he introduced hn intermediary as the indirect cause who was more than man and less thanGod. Arius was up against, the mystery of the ages which has perplexed* many. Some have turned fo atheism; others to the sacrifice of their intelligence. The mystery remains,, if for no other reason, to preach humility and to warn against the pride Of intellect which likeriover-vaulting nmbh, tion may fall on the other side. The accounts of the famous Council are not even yet at all complete. ' For. sonic iime a form of words intended to attribute deity to the Son, based upon the baptismal formula of Ceasarea, gained acceptance, but it is reported that St. Athahasius, detected some “winklings and whisperings” among the followers of Arius which caused more direct ascription to be given. At the end of tho long controversy which followed.the Niccnc Faith was ratified by the consent, of - the undivided Church. Writing in advance of the actual ceremony at Westminster, which would be about .Tune 10th, the 'rimes wrote: “;Thc distinguished Eastern Bishops who have come to attend the Commemoration Service in Westminster Abbey this month will unite with the representatives of the Church of England in nflirming the immemorial belief of Christendom, pre-i served by the great. ‘Council of Confessors,’ that our Lord 1 is truly God’.”