journey that we can make now in a few days; and for an answer to a
message which we can get now by telegraph in a few hours they might have
had to wait months. The Apostles knew of all these inconveniences, and
before leaving the places they were in pointed out the chief truths that
all should know and believe before receiving Baptism, that Christian
teachers who should come after them might neglect nothing--just as we
use catechisms containing the truths of religion, for fear the teachers
might forget to speak of some of them. There are "twelve articles" or
parts in the Apostles' Creed, and each part is meant to refute some
false doctrine taught before the time of the Apostles or while they
lived. Thus there were those--as the Romans--who said there were many
gods; others said not God, but the devil created the earth; others
taught that Our Lord was not the Son of God: and so on for the rest. All
these false doctrines are denied and the truth professed when we say the
Apostles' Creed.

Just as in the Lord's Prayer we do not see all its meaning at first, so
in the Apostles' Creed we find many beautiful things only after thinking
carefully over every word it contains.

"I believe," without the slightest doubt or suspicion that I might be
wrong.

"In God" by the grace that He gives me to believe and have full
confidence in Him.

"God," to show that there is only one.

"The Father," because He brought everything into existence and keeps it
so (see Explanation of the Lord's Prayer).

"Almighty," i.e., having all might or power; because He can do whatever
He wishes. He can make or destroy by merely wishing.

"Creator." To create means to make out of nothing. God alone can create.
When a carpenter makes a table, he must have wood; when a tailor makes a
coat, he must have cloth. They are only makers and not creators. God
needs no material or tools. When we make anything, we make it part by
part; but God makes the whole at once. He simply wills and it is made.
Thus He said in the beginning of the world: "Let there be light; and
light was made." For example, suppose I wanted a piano. If I could say,
"Let there be a piano" and it immediately sprang up without any other
effort on my part, although neither the wood, the iron, the wire, the
ivory, nor anything else in it ever existed till I said, "Let there be a
piano," then it could be said I created a piano. No one could do this,
for God alone has such power.

"Heaven a