THOUGHTS ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM: FOR MY GOD-CHILDREN AFTER THEIR CONFIRMATION. PART II. THE CREED. LONDON: J. AND C. MOZLEY, 6, PATERNOSTER ROW;* THOUGHTS ON THE CHURCH CATECHISM. 'WHOSOEVER WILL BE SAVED, BEFORE ALL THINGS IT IS NECESSARY THAT HE HOLD THE CATHOLIC FAITH.' ATHANASIAN CREED. ALTHOUGH it may seem impossible to you, my dear God-children, to require any assurance of the necessity of 'holding fast the Profession of our Faith' taught us in the Creeds of our Church, still the word 'hold,' in the commencement of the Athanasian Creed, seems to imply that there is some being who would snatch it from us, and deprive us of it, unless we are ready to protect and defend it. Now this is really the case. That Being is the Enemy of Mankind. From the beginning of Time, his only aim and whole object has been to destroy Man's Hopes of Salvation, and to render, if possible, the Glorious Scheme of the Redemption of Fallen Man, unavailing to each one whom he could seduce into the downward path of Error, whose treacherous sands he has from the very first endeavoured to render attractive to all the natural passions of Mankind. It will perhaps be profitable for us to trace in some |