Illustrated Explanation of the Creed.

PART I.

Faith in General.

I. NATURE OF FAITH.-OBJECT OF FAITH. -SOURCES OF FAITH.

What is Faith?

If we would attain the end for which we have been created, namely, the salvation of our souls, it is of vital necessity that we know the Lord our God, by whom all things are made and have their being, and who is from all eternity. To acquire this knowledge limited human reason is greatly aided by faith. Now faith is a virtue and gift of God, whereby, knowing God's infallible truthfulness, we hold for certain whatever He has revealed and has presented through His Church for our acceptance and belief.

Faith in general may be defined as follows: It is to hold for true whatever another tells us, upon his authority, and without requiring from such person any proofs of the truth he affirms. As soon as we know that a truth

has been revealed by God, we believe it without exacting the proof of its certainty, knowing, as we do, that God cannot err, nor assert falsehood, since He Himself is eternal and infallible truth. This is religious faith, or faith in the proper sense of the word.

How do we obtain such belief? How little do those people who are deprived of the light of faith know of God and their own destiny! Of the nature of God and the three divine persons in God they know nothing. They know not who redeemed them nor who sanctified them. Though able to distinguish between good and evil, their knowledge of it and of Christian virtues, such as chastity, charity, etc., is necessarily most imperfect.

A faith which teaches these truths can not proceed from human reason alone, but must necessarily come from God. Faith is a gift of God. St. Paul received this gift or grace of faith while journeying to Damascus with the avowed intent of persecuting the Christians. We receive the grace of faith in the Sacrament of Baptism, as well as in the other sacraments by our zealous and continual prayer. All our study, science, and labors can not give us faith. Hence St. Paul writes, By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God" (Ephesians ii. 8).

Yet God, while granting us faith, does not force our belief. We have our free will, which may either accept or reject faith. If we accept and preserve through life the faith given to us by God, if we direct all our thoughts, words, and actions in accordance with the law and requirements of faith, that faith or belief within us becomes a real virtue, and then, and only then, may we call ourselves believing Christians, truly believing Catholics. The true faith of a Catholic Christian

is, therefore, a virtue and a gift of God, by which we hold for true whatever God has revealed.

Object of Faith.-Sources of Faith.

It is not a matter of indifference what we believe, or how much we believe. We are bound to accept with belief all that God has revealed, without distinction or division. He who would gainsay the smallest part of divine revelation, or refuse to accept the whole, would deny God's own truthfulness.

It is not enough to know that what God says is true, because God is the eternal and infallible truth: we must know, and know with certainty and exactness, what God has spoken to us. Who teaches this?

St. Paul writes, "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets: last of all, in these days, hath spoken to us by His Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the world" (Hebrews i. I, 2). When the fulness of time was come, and sin had reached its most enormous proportions, God sent to men His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that He might teach them and save them. Jesus Christ possessed the fulness of the Godhead, and hence the fulness of truth. This truth He imparted to His apostles, who became the leaders and teachers of the Church which He established then. "As the Father has sent Me." said He to them, "so do I send you. Go, teach all nations." To these also Christ sent the Holy Spirit, who was to remain with them and their successors during all time, teaching them all truth and preserving them from error. Moreover the apostles wrote down not all but only a part of the teachings of Christ, and of His doings. These writings compose the

Scriptures of the New Testament. Whatever else they had learned from Christ and His Holy Spirit, they communicated to their hearers by word of mouth. Such teachings, so delivered to the early Christians, are called traditional. Whatever the Church presents to us for our belief, she has drawn from Holy Scriptures and Tradition, and hence her doctrines are nothing other than what was originally taught and revealed by God Himself through Jesus Christ, His only-begotten Son. Because the chief objects of our belief are contained in Holy Scriptures and Tradition these are termed the sources of faith.

In opposition to us Catholics, the Protestants take as their source of belief the Holy Scriptures only, denying the validity and utility of Tradition. But it is easy to prove that Tradition is as good a source of faith as Holy Writ itself. (See page 23.)

Thus we know and understand the meaning of the proposition: The faith of the Catholic Christian is a virtue and a gift of God, whereby he holds for true and certain whatsoever God has revealed and the Catholic Church holds up for our belief.

1. HOLY SCRIPTURES.

Contents of Holy Scriptures.

THE Holy Scriptures are a collection of books which have been written under the special guidance and light of the Holy Ghost and, on this account, are recognized and honored by the Church as the word of God.

Holy Scriptures, or the Bible, are divided into parts called the Old Testament, and the New Testament.*

* As the Holy Scriptures contain and express the final and un

The Old Testament contains the things made known by God to man from the creation of the world to the time of Christ. For this purpose God made use of Moses, the prophets, and other holy writers, by whom the divinely-inspired truth was left to His people in many volumes. These books are divided, in regard to

their contents, as follows:

1. The historical books. These are twenty-one in number, namely, the five Books of Moses; the Books of Josue, Judges, and Ruth; the four Books of Kings; the two Books of Chronicles, or Paralipomenon; the Books of Esdras, Nehemias, Tobias, Judith, Esther; and the two Books of Machabees.

The chief contents of the five Books of Moses are the history of the creation of the world, of the first members of the human family, of their sins and punishments, of their dispersion over the earth, and of the chastisements inflicted on the world by the Deluge and on certain cities by fire and brimstone. They also contain the records of Abraham and the other patriarchs, of the growth of the people of Israel, their liberation from Egyptian bondage, their wonderful journey through the desert, the promulgation of the ten commandments, and of the laws prescribing the various religious rites and ceremonies. In a word, these books form the records of early mankind in general and of the Jewish people in particular, down to the time of Moses' death. The other books contain the history of the conquest of the Promised Land, of the wars of the questionable declaration to man of God's will, they are termed a Testament. They are sometimes termed a Covenant, because they set forth the teachings and the will of God, with the promised agreement that all those who accept these doctrines with belief, and fulfil the word of God, will obtain everlasting happiness. It is as if God made a covenant with men. The word "bible." means the book of books.