cIR,—May I, with diffidence, for I am a Free Church
man, suggest a reply to the inquiry of the Rev. Bertram Maynard, as to a revision of the Creeds? When repeating the Apostles' Creed, I personally always make the following mental alterations: (a) "Born of the Virgin Mary" to "born of the mother Mary." In this I accept the pedigree of Jesus as set out in Matt. I, which is also that of Joseph.
(2) "He descended into hell" to "He descended into Hades." Both words have the same meaning, coming from the Saxon word " helan " (a covered place), but to the common man the sense of the two words is entirely different.
(3) "The holy Catholic Church" to "the holy Universal Church" for the same reason.
(4) "The resurrection of 'the body ' " to "the resurrection 'from the dead.'" In its literal sense, this is probably what the original words intend to convey.
The Athanasian Creed might, with advantage, be excluded from ser- vices of public worship, for part of this creed is unintelligible to any other than a theologically trained mind. Still, I am almost as much at home in an Established Church service as in my own fellowship.—Yours
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