The Welcome into Fellowship

(Here the members of the church will rise)

We, then, the members of this church, joyfully receive you into our communion, promising to walk with you in Christian love as members of the Household of the Faith; to help you in bearing your burdens; to promote your welfare as far as in us lies; and to fulfill to you the law of Christ our Lord; praying that while we dwell together here we may be prepared for the perfect fellowship of the life eternal. God grant that we may be faithful to this covenant.

FIRST CHURCH, LINCOLN, NEBRASKA

Reception of Members

You are now to enter into covenant with God and His people. You take God the Father to be your God; you take Jesus Christ His Son to be your Savior and Teacher and Lord; you take the Holy Spirit to be your Guide; you take the Word of God to be your rule of faith and duty and the people of God to be your brethren. And you promise in humble dependence upon divine help that you will strive to live a life of service and of love, seeking to become like Jesus Christ and to advance His Kingdom in the world, studying day by day the Bible and seeking communion with God in prayer. Do you thus believe and promise?

Answer, I do.

The Members of the Church Unite in this Response:

We, the members of this church, do affectionately welcome you into our household of faith. We pledge to you our sympathy, our help and our prayers that you may evermore increase in the knowledge and love of God. By His grace may we all walk worthy of the calling wherewith we were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering forbearing one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Living and dying may we be the Lord's. And at last may we, more than conquerors through Him that hath loved us, find entrance into the church above where our fellowship shall be unbroken and our joy forever full.

I mean, God helping me, to live a Christian life daily and always; to pray each day for God's guidance and help; to live in friendliness and helpfulness with those about me; to be faithful in my work, whatever it is; and to keep my heart and my life pure.

I wish to be useful. I mean to use my influence for Christ and to be known as His disciple. And it is my purpose to become a member of His Church, for the sake of my own Christian growth and my larger usefulness .

THE FIRST CHURCH, KANSAS CITY, MO.

(This church has the Dayton Creed, but consent to this Covenant is the only requirement for admission to membership in this church.)

Believing in the life and love of service as set forth in the work and teachings of Jesus, in the Church as an organized force in the world, the purpose of which is to win men to Christ and to save them for this world and the world to come, I cordially connect myself with this church in a direct and special union, engaging to submit to its rules of government and discipline, to attend in so far as possible its ordinances of worship; to contribute to its support and its benevolences as the Lord prospers me, and to walk with its members in meekness, fidelity and love.

Believing in the wisdom and the loving kindness of God, our Father, and in the saving power of Jesus Christ, His Son, the true and living Way, and in the leadership of the Spirit; believing also in the supremacy of Love, the victory of holy character and the Life. Eternal, you covenant with this Church as your Church. You promise to love its members, to sustain its worship, to seek its peace, purity, and increase, to share the great work of revealing God to men, of awakening men to themselves and to God, and of uniting men in the spirit of Christ to transform the world into the Kingdom of God.

We the members of this Church and of the Church Universal welcome you to our household of faith. We break the bread of life with you and drink the cup of blessing. We share with you the joy of winning men to our Master. We engage to walk with you in Christian fellowship. We covenant with you to make the Church a Church of prayer, of right living, and of union with Christ and with His disciples everywhere in the service of God and man.

The covenant of the United Church of Bridgeport, Connecticut, is interesting, as this church was organized in 1916 out of the union of two churches, one formed in 1695 and the

other in 1830. The large church resulting from this union is one of the strongest in New England, and its platform is of especial interest. Its confession of faith is the National Council Creed of 1913, and its form of admission of members follows:

UNITED CHURCH, BRIDGEPORT, CONN.

Order for the Reception of New Members.

Beloved in Christ:

Address

You come before us to make confession of the faith that is in your hearts and to enter into the communion and fellowship of the Church of Christ. Conscious of your unworthiness in the sight of God, you do, with contrition and faith, humbly accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Master, earnestly purposing to be obedient to Him in all things, as He shall give you grace and strength.

Statement of Faith

We believe in God the Father, infinite in Wisdom, Goodness and Love, and in Jesus Christ, His Son' our Lord and Saviour, who for us and our salvation lived and died and rose again and liveth evermore; and in the Holy Spirit, who taketh of the things of Christ and revealeth them to us, renewing, comforting and inspiring the souls of men. We are united in striving to know the will of God as taught in the Holy Scriptures, and in our purpose to walk in His ways as they are made known to us. We hold it to be the mission of the Church of Christ to proclaim the gospel to all mankind, exalting the worship of the one true God, and laboring for the progress of knowledge, the promotion of justice, the reign of peace and the realization of human brotherhood. Depending, as did our fathers, upon the continual guidance of the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth, we work and pray for the transformation of the world into 'the kingdom of God and we look with faith for the triumph of righteousness and the life everlasting.

Question-Is this also your belief and your purpose?
Answer-It is.

(Then should follow the Sacrament of Baptism.)

To the Candidates previously baptized: -You were baptized in infancy, at the will of your parents, into the household of Christ. Do you now, of your own will and choice, accept and confirm that act of consecration?

Answer: I do.

To the Candidates by Letter:

Dearly Beloved:-You have already been received into the fellowship of the greater Church of Christ. May God bless to you the ministrations of this church, and may you strive, with us, to enlarge its usefulness and increase its power.

Covenant

To all the Candidates:-In the presence of God and of these witnesses, you do all now promise to give yourselves unreservedly to His service, to strive to know and to do His holy will, and to walk with all men, everywhere, in the love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you do covenant with this church to join heartily in its fellowship of work and worship, to pray and to labor for its increase, purity and peace and to further all its endeavors to serve and save your fellowmen.

Question: Do you thus covenant with God and with us?
Answer: I do.

The Church (rising)—Then do we, the members of this church, gladly welcome you to a part with us in the hopes, the labors and the joys of the Church of Christ. We promise to walk with you in Christian love and sympathy, and to promote, so far as in us lies, your edification in the Christian life. We earnestly renew our own covenant with Jesus Christ, and again dedicate ourselves to His service and the doing of His will. And may God keep us true to Him in all things, and bring us every one at length into the Church triumphant above!

Benediction

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee;

The Lord make his face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee;

The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. Num. 6: 24-26.

Concluding words to new members

"So then ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

"Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. In whom each several building fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord." Eph. 2: 19-21.

PART TWO

CONGREGATIONAL CREEDS

I. EARLY CONGREGATIONAL CREEDS.

The earliest Congregational creeds, if we except the earlier writings of Robert Browne, are the London Confession of 1589 and the Amsterdam Confession of 1596.

We have already considered the covenant of the church of which Richard Fytz was pastor, and its relation to the Plumbers' Hall Congregation in London in 1567. This organization was so harrassed by officers of the law, and so many of its members were imprisoned, that it has been uncertain whether it preserved a continuity of organization until 1586, when we again secure undeniable records of it. John Greenwood was arrested in 1586, and with Henry Barrowe was shut up in the Fleet Prison, where four years later they both gave their lives as martyrs to their faith. Before their death they set forth a formal confession which was published in England in 1589. It is entitled "A True Description out of the Word of God of the Visible Church." A copy of it is in the Dexter Collection of the Yale University, and the text is reprinted in full in Walker's "Creeds and Platforms," pp. 33-40. The notable thing about it is that it contains practically no doctrinal material. Of it Prof. Walker says:

"The True Description is substantially an ideal sketch. It could not well be otherwise. Shut up in prison for the advocacy of the opinions here presented, the framers of this