ea cared for none of these things; all they wanted was
victory, and so the earliest Christian creed was rejected by the Church.
It was as follows:--

"I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of all things, both
visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God,
God of God, Light of Light, Life of Life, the only begotten Son, the
Firstborn of every creature, begotten of the Father before all
worlds, by whom also all things were made; Who, for our salvation,
was incarnate, and lived amongst men, and suffered and rose again on
the third day, and ascended to the Father; and shall come in glory to
judge the quick and the dead; and I believe in one Holy Ghost.
Believing each of them to be, and to have existed, the Father only,
only the Father and the Son, only the Son and the Holy Ghost, only
the Holy Ghost."

Instead of this, but on it, the Nicene Creed was framed, and this creed
is still the bond of union in all the Churches of the East. We have
corrupted it, and as Dean Stanley remarks, "every time we recite the
creed in its present altered form, we have departed from the intention of
the fathers of Nicaea, and incurred deprecation and excommunication at
the hands of the fathers of Ephesus." In the heart of London the Greeks
have a place of worship. You feel interested as you enter. In the
tongue in which you hear the Gospel there read, the Gospel was first
proclaimed. Peter, Paul, John, spoke just such language as that you
hear. Ever since the Master left the earth has Sunday after Sunday, and
year after year, this Greek Church met in Syria in remembrance of Him.
In many things the Church of Constantine was less assuming than that of
Henry VIII. and Queen Elizabeth. Where in our Prayer-book we have, "I
absolve thee," the Greeks say, "The Lord absolve thee." Where the
English Church says, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," the Greek more humbly
and Scripturally offers up a prayer for the Divine blessing. In other
ways also they differ: they have no organs; the congregation stands all
the time of service; their baptism consists of three immersions, and
laying on of hands; they administer extreme unction, offer prayers for
the dead, and allow infant communion; they have no organized hierarchy;
their clergy are married, and their laity have a considerable amount of
power. They pride themselves on their orthodoxy, and are very bitter
against the doctr