"What then? Thou art as true a man

As moves the human mass among;
As much a part of the Great Plan
That with Creation's dawn began,
As any of the throng.

"True, wealth thou hast not: 't is but dust!
Nor place; uncertain as the wind!
But that thou hast, which, with thy crust
And water, may despise the lust
Of both -a noble mind.

ORTHODOXY.

GREAT is the truth and mighty above all things. — Esdras. Das erste und letzte, was vom Genie gefordert wird, ist Wahrheitsliebe. — GOETHE.

--

The study of truth is perpetually joined with the love of virtue; for there's no virtue which derives not its original from truth; as, on the contrary, there is no vice which has not its beginning from a lie. CASAUBON.

Hold thou the good; define it well:

For fear divine Philosophy

Should push beyond her mark and be
Procuress to the Lords of Hell.

TENNYSON.

Shall I ask the brave soldier who fights by my side
In the cause of mankind, if our creeds agree?

MOORE.

You will find that it is the modest, not the presumptuous inquirer, who makes a real and safe progress in the discovery of divine truths. One follows Nature and Nature's Godthat is, he follows God in His works and in His word. BOLINGBROKE.

For he was of that stubborn crew

Of errant saints, whom all men grant

To be the true church militant;

Such as do build their faith upon

The holy text of pike and gun;
Decide all controversies by
Infallible artillery;

And prove their doctrines orthodox

By apostolic blows and knocks.

BUTLER.

Ueb' immer Treu und Redlichkeit bis an dein kühles Grab,
Und weiche keinen Finger breit von Gottes Wegen ab!
Dann wirst du, wie auf grünen Au'n, durch's Pilgerleben

gehn ;

Dann kannst du sonder Furcht und Grau'n dem Tod in's Antlitz sehn.

And so the Word had breath, and wrought
With human hands the CREED of creeds
In loveliness of perfect deeds,

More strong than all poetic thought.

So let our lips and lives express
The holy gospel we profess;
So let our works and virtues shine
To prove the doctrine all divine.

HÖLTY.

TENNYSON.

WATTS.

WHAT is orthodoxy? Few words have been

more persistently misunderstood or worse

abused than this really noble word. In the popular use of it, its meaning has changed with changes of time and place. Orthodoxy meant one thing on the lips of Origen; another thing in the pages of Augustine; still another in the dusty pedantry of the Schoolmen, and the less worthy dogmatism of sixteenth century Catholicism; and yet another in the sermons of Luther and Calvin; while in our day it means something different from the orthodoxy of the Reformation.

The Saxon Bishop Stigand, in the days of stout but ill-fated King Harold, said:

"In our windy world

What's up is faith, what's down is heresy."

An ecclesiastical successor of Stigand's, when asked, “What is orthodoxy?" replied, “Orthodoxy is my doxy; heterodoxy is another man's doxy." Both Stigand and his successor have consistent followers to-day.

1

As commonly understood by fairly intelligent people," orthodoxy" designates the prevailing belief of evangelical Christians, namely, the system of related truths that constitutes in substance the teaching of most of the theological seminaries, and has more or less complete expression in the creeds of Protestant Churches.

By some, "orthodoxy" is identified with a group of inflexible dogmas that express the hard and repulsive spirit of an exaggerated Calvinism. Still others claim the title of orthodoxy for theological tenets that directly or by implication are opposed to Calvinism. The word often has been prostituted to mere party The Greek Church adopts the distinctive title of "The Orthodox Church." The Roman Church makes a like claim in its assumption that all religionists outside of its fold are schismatics or heretics. The Protestant maintains that the title properly belongs to those who accept the

uses.

1 Bishop Warburton to Lord Sandwich.

body of doctrines accordantly held by the great divisions of the Protestant Church. Within each church or denomination there is usually a party that arrogates to itself the peculiar merit of orthodoxy.

tisan uses

Leaving aside all these conflicting and parwe might better call them abuses - of the word, let us examine into its root-idea, and so arrive, if possible, at a clear and definite conception of its meaning.

Orthodoxy is a compound of the two Greek words ὀρθός and δόξα. Ορθός means, (1) “ upright," as a column; (2) "straight," as a line; (3) "right, true, real," and, as applied to persons, "righteous, just, steadfast." Aóğa means, (1) "expectation; (2) "opinion, sentiment, judgment." It has other meanings which, however, do not concern us now.

These two words are compounded in a verb which we find in Aristotle, opłodośéw, which means "to have a right opinion." Thence we have, in the early days of Christianity when the theological tendency began to develop in the Church, the word oplódogos, which means "right in opinion, sound in faith." This compound does not occur in the New Testament, but opós does, and also doğa, though in its derivative sense of "honor, glory, praise."