hy lovingkindness and truth: for thou hast magnified thy Name and thy
Word above all things" (Ps. cxxxviii. 2). When used in Church Services
a Creed must always be regarded mainly as an Act of Praise to God.

The most evident characteristic of a Creed is that it says what we know
of God by His Revelation of Himself in the Bible.

Now, that which speaks of God must of necessity be a declaration of His
Worthiness--an Act of Worship.

We have already defined Praise as that kind of Worship wherein we think
of God, and not of ourselves.

Forasmuch as a Creed contains, chiefly or entirely, {93} the
proclamation of God's Nature and Being, it is the form in Worship which
is most entirely Praise.

The Apostles' Creed is so placed in the Morning and Evening Prayer as
to be the highest of several kinds of Praise.

The Psalms have a considerable mixture of thoughts of man, and of human
dependence on God.

The Old Testament Lesson, with its Respond, draws from Man's History
the joyful thoughts of God's mercy.

The New Testament Lesson, with its Respond, carries our Praise a degree
nearer to Perfect Peace and Joy in the Goodness of God through Christ.

The Apostles' Creed entirely omits the human element that we may
rejoice in God's Existence.

Other uses of Creeds. Creeds have been used for various purposes,
which may be classed as follows:

(_a_) Symbolum, or Examination.
(_b_) Self-Examination.
(_c_) Guide to Thought and Basis of Argument.
(_d_) Praise or Worship.

(_a_) In order to understand the word _Symbolum_, from which a Creed is
often called a Symbol, we must go back to the days when, for
persecution's sake, and lest they should unnecessarily cause their own
deaths, Christians met in secret, and required pass-words that they
might know one another.

To be admitted freely to the Christian assemblies a man had to know the
Creed as his pass-word (symbolum); which at Milan, and in other
Churches, was taught to the Catechumens, some three weeks before
Easter, and not written down. They recited it a {94} week later, and
then were taught the Lord's Prayer, in the time of S. Augustine. On
Easter Eve they recited it again, and were baptized. This use of the
Creed survives in the Baptism Services.

(_b_) Whereas we believe most firmly those things which we most
frequently remember, it is needful that we remember frequently the
Articles of the Creed. Hence Self-Examination requires not only the