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RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

ELIEF is common to humanity. So all men have some form of faith, though it may be fluctuating.

All men believe, even when the faith is a negative. Hence, when a man denies that he believes some particular thing, he has a very positive belief that he disbelieves. In this general sense all human beings are believers.

Faith is part of man's nature and one of his working forces, so that without some faith human life would be torture and impracticable, and the individual would be abnormal.

A man must believe in, or about, himself, and he must believe in, and about his fellows, and a thousand other things, including his material environment and beyond. Hence man cannot be an absolute agnostic. He may have his perplexities and periods of mental confusion, and, perhaps, frequently change his beliefs, but he does, and must, believe something. In this sense man by his very nature is a believer. He cannot prevent it. He must believe, or disbelieve, something, and even to disbelieve involves a negative belief which may be a very positive one.

Thus man by instinct, perception, reason, or impartation from outside himself, is a believer, and common observation shows that as a matter of fact all human

beings have many beliefs which, though they may greatly vary, nevertheless contain and manifest the essential elements of faith.

Man also believes in many different lines or spheres. He believes in the material and in the non-material. He believes in the material around him which he can test by touch, or sight, or in some other physical way, and he believes in that which he cannot physically test. He believes in what may be seen, and in what he cannot see with the bodily eye. He believes in matter which his hand can touch, and he believes in mind which is beyond the test and response of his physical faculties.

For the same essential reasons, all peoples have some form or degree of religious belief, which may be exceedingly crude, or which may be highly developed, and this class of belief is needed by the human race as are other forms of faith, and particularly, because man's religious nature affects all the rest of his nature.

Religious beliefs are necessary for individuals and equally necessary for groups, or collections of individuals, and for every department and relation of humanity. Religious faith is needed by the single individual, among a few associates, in the family, in the small community, in the state, in the nation and, indeed, everywhere from the isolated individual to the whole mass of humanity whatever may be the isolation or the aggregation.

Without religious beliefs there can be no religion, and, as there can be no religion without religious beliefs, there can be no theology without faith in a theos -God.

Then, from the conception of God, and that which

relates to God, will come the character of internal worship and the form of the external rites and ceremonies.

As every individual must believe in something, so every Church, which, by the way, is a collection of individuals in an organic relation, must have some religious faith or faiths.

A Church, indeed, cannot exist without a belief, or beliefs, of a religious character. Every Church is built on some accepted faith, and every Church is bound and held together by its primary, or common, religious doctrines. This is true of any religion, and it is manifestly true that a Christian Church is built on Christian beliefs, and that the subdivisions of the Christian Church, called denominations, differ chiefly because of the dif ferent emphasis placed on particular items of faith.

The importance of right beliefs in any realm must be admitted, but the importance is infinitely greater in the matter of religious beliefs than in all other forms of faith, and this, which is true of the individual, is equally true of the religious organization.

It is important what one believes, and especially as to religious doctrines. In the Book of Proverbs it is written: "For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he " (Proverbs xxiii. 7).

The inner thought affects the outer life. The pagan, with his pagan belief, lives like a pagan, while the Christian, with his better belief, lives like a Christian. Assuming that they are equally sincere, they differ in conduct because they differ in their faith.

It does make a great practical difference what a man believes, and it is equally important what a Church believes.

A Church is an association of individuals-a body corporate-and has its own individuality, and its own individual action. Though made up of individuals, yet by the nature of their combination, it becomes a composite individual with its own individuality. It thinks collectively as an individual, and acts with its collective individuality. So, like an individual, a Church in its action is influenced by what it thinketh in its heart, while its beliefs as to religious doctrine mold the or ganism and give the Church its distinguishing characteristics.

A Church must have some fixed faith and some religious opinions that are regarded as settled.

We need something fixed if we are to reason as to theories, or as to practice, or to reach and retain the truth. Something must be known, or taken for granted, as a starting point, even though it may not be fully comprehended by all. Thus the child must memorize the multiplication table, though it may not be com. pletely understood, or its purpose fully mastered. Even the man of science must start with something fixed, and, if he cannot get a proved fact, he will invent, or use, an hypothesis.

The same general principle is true as to religious doctrines. Something must be accepted as a basis, and a Church must have its basal beliefs.

To have nothing fixed, settled, accepted, or agreed upon as to doctrines in a Church means diversity in view, contradiction in statement, confusion in thought, and strife among those in the same ecclesiasticism, and the tendency in that is toward anarchy and disruption.

Even if an isolated individual may possibly get along

without a fixed creed or anything fixed in his creed, as some vainly imagine, it is certain that such a condition will not do for a religious organization, for a religious organization cannot be held together without something fundamental in doctrine on which there is a common agreement. Neither can there be progress in the truth unless there is something fixed from which to move.

Even in religion something is a basal fact, and something has always been true, though in the realm of religion the nature of the evidence to prove the fact may be different from the proof of a physical fact.

So the Church must hold to something as settled, and must designate what in religion it regards as fundamental facts and the basis of doctrinal belief.

Groups of people, large or small, in frequent and close religious association, have common beliefs, which are commonly recognized, and which exercise an influence over the associated mass. This may readily be seen in associations which are called religious denominations or churches.

A Church implies a belief, or beliefs of a religious character, and a Christian Church implies Christian beliefs.

A Church, which is an aggregation of individuals, or it may be an aggregation of congregations, which themselves are made up of individuals, to be cohesive, must have a common agreement, or understanding, as to the common belief or beliefs of the individuals, or, as the case may be, of the grouped congregations.

For the common understanding, and to prevent misunderstanding, there should be somewhere a distinct statement or formulation of these common beliefs, duly recognized by the Church or some proper authority