had laid down His life, and
that no creed could have been satisfactory which did not cover those
great unfulfilled events in His history that lie at the foundation of
the Christian religion.

Jesus did indeed require belief in Himself as a condition on which
healing and salvation were bestowed. Unbelief hindered His work, while
faith in His Messianic claims and mission never failed to secure a rich
blessing to those who confessed Him. The faith which He recognised was
not the acceptance and confession of a summary of doctrine such as any
of the Creeds now existing, but a simple statement of belief in Himself
as the Son of God and the Messiah. On one occasion only does He appear
to have called for a confession which went further than this, when,
having declared to Martha the great doctrine of Resurrection, He put to
her the question, "Believest thou this?"[001]

After His death and resurrection, when Jesus charged His disciples to
preach the Gospel, He bade them teach their followers to observe all
things whatsoever He had commanded them.[002] The Apostles, accordingly,
appear to have furnished the leaders of the churches they planted with
summaries of doctrine, such as we find in the fifteenth chapter of
Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians.[003] Paul seems to refer to
such a summary when he writes to the Romans commending them for
obedience to the "form of doctrine" which was delivered them,[004] and
when he bestows his benediction on those Galatians who walked according
to "this rule."[005] It was, doubtless, such a compendium of doctrine he
had in view when he charged Timothy to "keep that which was committed to
his trust," contrasting this "deposit" with "profane and vain babblings,
and oppositions of science falsely so called."[006] The bearing of this
charge is made more emphatic when it is repeated by the Apostle in
connection with the exhortation, "Hold fast the form of sound words,
which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ
Jesus."[007]

It would thus appear that from Apostolic times there existed a form of
words of the character of a creed, which, for some reason, came to be
jealously guarded and concealed from all who were not Christians. It was
perhaps Paul's reference to the summary of doctrine as a "deposit" to be
carefully kept, that led the early converts to regard it as a private
possession--a trust to be hidden in the heart and covered from
unfriendly eyes. The Apostle did