THE CATECHISM
Q. 1. What are you?
A.I am a being alive and conscious upon this earth, a descendant of ancestors who rose by gradual processes from lower forms of animal life, and with struggle and suffering became man.
Q. 2. What, then, may be meant by the Fall of man?
A.At a certain stage of development man became conscious of a difference between right and wrong, so that thereafter, when his actions fell below a normal standard of conduct, he felt ashamed and sinful. He thus lost his animal innocency, and entered on a long period of human effort and failure; nevertheless, the consciousness of degradation marked a rise in the scale of existence.
Q. 3. What is the distinctive character of manhood?
A.The distinctive character of man is that he has a sense of responsibility for his acts, having acquired the power of choosing between good and evil, with freedom to obey one motive rather than another. Creatures far below the human level are irresponsible; they feel no shame and suffer no remorse; they are said to have no conscience.
Q. 4. What is the duty of man?
A.To assist his fellows, to develop his own higher self, to strive towards good in every way open to his powers, and generally to seek to know the laws of Nature and to obey the will of God; in whose service alone can be found that harmonious exercise of the faculties which is identical with perfect freedom.
Q. 5. What is meant by good and evil?
A.Good is that which promotes development, and is in harmony with the will of God. It is akin to health and beauty and happiness.
Evil is that which retards or frustrates development, and injures some part of the universe. It is akin to disease and ugliness and misery.
Q. 6. How does man know good from evil?
A.His own nature, when uncorrupted by greed, is sufficiently in harmony with the rest of the universe to enable him to be well aware in general of what is a help or a hindrance to the guiding Spirit, of which he himself is a real and effective portion.
Q. 7. How comes it that evil exists?
A.Evil is not an absolute thing, but has reference to a standard of attainment. The possibility of evil is the necessary consequence of a rise in the scale of moral existence; just as an organism whose normal temperature is far above “absolute zero” is necessarilyliable to damaging and deadly cold. But cold is not in itself a positive or created thing.
Q. 8. What is sin?
A.Sin is the deliberate and wilful act of a free agent who sees the better and chooses the worse, and thereby acts injuriously to himself and others. The root sin is selfishness, whereby needless trouble and pain are inflicted on others; when fully developed it involves moral suicide.
Q. 9. Are there beings lower in the scale of existence than man?
A.Yes, multitudes. In every part of the earth where life is possible, there we find it developed. Life exists in every variety of animal, in earth and air and sea, and in every species of plant.
Q. 10. Are there any beings higher in the scale of existence than man?
A.Man is the highest of the dwellers on the planet earth, but the earth is only one of many planets warmed by the sun, and the sun is only one of a myriad of similar suns, which are so far off that we barely see them and group them indiscriminately as “stars.” We may reasonably conjecture that in some of the innumerable worlds circling round those distant suns there must be beings far higher in the scale of existence than ourselves; indeed, wehave no knowledge which enables us to assert the absence of intelligence anywhere.
Q. 11. What caused and what maintains existence?
A.Of our own knowledge we are unable to realise the meaning of origination or of maintenance; all that we ourselves can accomplish in the physical world is to move things into desired positions, and leave them to act on each other. Nevertheless our effective movements are inspired by thought, and so we conceive that Intelligence is immanent in all the processes of nature; for they are not random and purposeless, but organised and beautiful.
Q. 12. What is to be said of man’s higher faculties?
A.The faculties and achievements of the highest among mankind—in Art, in Science, in Philosophy, and in Religion—are not explicable as an outcome of a struggle for existence. Something more than mere life is possessed by us—something represented by the words “mind” and “soul” and “spirit.” On one side we are members of the animal kingdom; on another we are associates in a loftier type of existence, and are linked with the Divine.
Q. 13. Is man helped in his struggle upward?
A.There is a Power in the Universe vastly beyond our comprehension; and we trust and believe that it is a Good and Loving Power, able andwilling to help us and all creatures, and to guide us wisely, without detriment to our incipient freedom. This Loving-kindness continually surrounds us; in it we live and have our real being; it is the mainspring of joy and love and beauty, and we call it the Grace of God. It sustains and enriches all worlds, and may take a multiplicity of forms, but it was specially manifested to dwellers on this planet in the Life of Jesus Christ, through whose spirit and living influence the race of man may hope to rise to heights at present inaccessible.
Q. 14. How may we become informed concerning things too high for our own knowledge?
A.We should strive to learn from the great teachers, the prophets and poets and saints of the human race, and should seek to know and to interpret their inspired writings.
Q. 15. What, then, do you reverently believe can be deduced from a study of the records and traditions of the past in the light of the present?
A.I believe in one Infinite and Eternal Being, a guiding and loving Father, in whom all things consist.
I believe that the Divine Nature is specially revealed to man through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lived and taught and suffered in Palestine 1900 years ago, and has since been worshipped by the ChristianChurch as the immortal Son of God, the Saviour of the world.
I believe that the Holy Spirit is ever ready to help us along the Way towards Goodness and Truth; that prayer is a means of communion between man and God; and that it is our privilege through faithful service to enter into the Life Eternal, the Communion of Saints, and the Peace of God.
Q. 16. What do you mean by the Life Eternal?
A.I mean that whereas our terrestrial existence is temporary, our real existence continues without ceasing, in either a higher or a lower form, according to our use of opportunities and means of grace; and that the fulness of Life ultimately attainable represents a growing perfection at present inconceivable by us.
Q. 17. What is the significance of “the Communion of Saints”?
A.Higher and holier beings must possess, in fuller fruition, those privileges of communion which are already foreshadowed by our own faculties of language, of sympathy, and of mutual aid; and as we know that man’s power of friendly help is not confined to his fellows, but extends to other animals, so may we conceive ourselves part of a mighty Fellowship of love and service.
Q. 18. What do you understand by prayer?
A.I understand that when our spirits are attuned to the Spirit of Righteousness, our hopes and aspirations exert an influence far beyond their conscious range, and in a true sense bring us into communion with our Heavenly Father. This power of filial communion is called prayer; it is an attitude of mingled worship and supplication; we offer petitions in a spirit of trust and submission, and endeavour to realise the Divine attributes, with the help and example of Christ.
Q. Rehearse the prayer taught us by Jesus.
A.Our Father, etc.
Q. 19. Explain the clauses of this prayer.
A.We first attune our spirit to consciousness of the Divine Fatherhood; trying to realise His infinite holiness as well as His loving-kindness, desiring that everything alien to His will should cease in our hearts and in the world, and longing for the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven. Then we ask for the supply of the ordinary needs of existence, and for the forgiveness of our sins and shortcomings as we pardon those who have hurt us. We pray to be kept from evil influences, and to be protected when they attack us. Finally, we repose in the might, majesty, and dominion of the Eternal Goodness.
Q. 20. What is meant by the Kingdom of Heaven?
A.The Kingdom of Heaven is the central feature of practical Christianity. It represents a harmonious condition in which the Divine Will is perfectly obeyed; it signifies the highest state of existence, both individual and social, which we can conceive. Our whole effort should, directly or indirectly, make ready its way,—in our hearts, in our lives, and in the lives of others. It is the ideal state of society towards which Reformers are striving; it is the ideal of conscious existence towards which Saints aim.
Printed byMorrison & Gibb LimitedEdinburgh
Printed byMorrison & Gibb LimitedEdinburgh
Printed byMorrison & Gibb LimitedEdinburgh
Printed by
Morrison & Gibb Limited
Edinburgh