We read in the Gospel according to John (viii. 36) that Jesus once said: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
Creeds, like symbols, rites, parables, and allegories, are expressions intended to convey Truth; but they are not Truth, nor are they all true in statement.
For three-hundred years the early Christians adhered to the Apostolic Creed, although in the latter part of the third century, a growing debate divided Christian preachers as to the true character of the Master. The Christian Church could not then divide over the question, as safety depended upon unity.
Christians were a strong and hardy people, unlike luxurious and licentious Pagans. They had not imported the ascetic customs of the Hindoos, though they had adopted abstemious habits, in order to keep the distinction complete between them and the sensuous populace.
Christians knew in whom they believed, and were happy in all the persecution that fell to their lot. Repeated efforts for annihilation only made them more resolute.
In the year 312 there came what seemed then to be a millennium. Constantine, who was at the head of the Roman Empire, was converted to Christianity, and recognized the Christian Church as an institution to be protected, instead of persecuted. Then came that memorable event, the Council of Nice. Constantine himself called the convention. There were present two-thousand laymen, many of them dignitaries, and three-hundred-and-eighteen bishops. Constantine presided. He was a soldier, but interested in all the metaphysical discussions that swayed that great body of preachers.
Alexandria, in Egypt, was the great theological centre, and in that city was a noted presbyter, a powerful pulpit orator, named Arius. He had promulgated the doctrine that Jesus the Christ was the Son of God, who was the Father of all,—but that the Son was created, and not the Creator. Arius had been removed by his bishop, but he was admitted to the council, and presented his views. They were not in harmony with the views of Justin Martyr, who had written much on the subject of the Trinity in the early part of the second century, and contended, from the teaching of John i.1, that Jesus the Christ was the true God, or Creator of the universe.
Arius found his equal, if not his superior, in Athanasius, another noted theologian. The war of words continued during weary weeks. Athanasius contended for the teaching of Justin Martyr, that Jesus Christ was uncreated, and was identical with God the Father. Constantine decided in his favor; and what has been known as the Orthodox Creed derived its authority from the Nicene Council, held in the year 325, by the favor of Constantine.
The followers of Arius were, however, a large minority. The human mind could not be chained, and the next hundred years were full of metaphysical debate. The Arian creed, or doctrine, was espoused by provincial rulers, only to be strangled by the combined forces of the established Church and State. Hence the thumbscrew and the stake, rather than human reason, have been the factors in establishing the Athanasian Creed the past fifteen-hundred years. This creed expresses the Orthodoxy of today; and Arianism a sort of Unitarianism, is the heresy of today. Neither of these systems of belief can be fully comprehended by the schools that hold them to be true.
Theologians claim that faith and reason rarely coincide.
The Apostolic Creed says that Jesus the Christ was the only Son of God. Where we place him, in Science, as a spiritual being, he is the only-begotten Son, for God only begets sons of His own substance, and of His own will.
What was true of Jesus the Christ is true of every child of God. They are all spiritual beings, the sons of God. The Master's teaching is all in harmony with the idea of the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Said Paul: "We are children, and thus heirs,—joint heirs with Christ."
The Master's declarations are always in harmony with Science. He declared that he and the Father were one, and yet that the Father was greater then he. As an idea in the Mind of God, the Father and Creator, Jesus was one, in substance and in character, with that Father. So are we all! This view gives the statement of Athanasius weight and color, and shows the position of Arius also to be true.
It is evident that the early Fathers could not comprehend the Science of Being. Nothing but the clear and terse statements of Science and Health can solve the problem of the creation of the universe. This shows the Truth in language. Jesus the Christ was the Way, the Truth, and the Life in demonstration. His positive knowledge of the nothingness of all phenomena, and the eternal something-ness of their opposite, gave him his wonderful power to destroy the illusion of material sense. Hence our understanding of the Life that is God, Good, will be the measure of our power to demonstrate.
It is our Leader's spiritual glimpses of the true Life, which have led to higher understanding, and given to the world the highest conception of Truth since the days of the Master. The insignificance of the material mind-cure philosophers is not apparent to themselves or the world; but is it not possible that the age will be soon ready to accept our true Science as its only way of escape?
Let us, as Scientists, look beyond the letter and beyond personality; let us imbibe the spirit of the Master, and heed his command to his disciples at their last communion, "Love one another." Their struggle for the first place was rebuked by his washing their feet. The test is already upon us,— not of the Science, but of our own integrity, our fidelity to Truth, and to her who has had the courage of her convictions. Let us "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's." Let us all love each other, and thereby make it possible to elevate Christian Science above blind creeds and dogmas, and place Christianity on the rock that is higher than man-made doctrines, by proving our faith by our works.
Let us judge "righteous judgment," and hold all people as making an honest endeavor to know the Truth. We are to be judged by it, and by holding the right thought for all, we shall help them to attain it; and so we shall all be enlarged by the charity we have for those who do not yet see as we see. "Let us be firm in the right, as God gives us to see the right."
