were the head and front of human offending, the infallible sign
of bigotry and hypocrisy, incompatible alike with piety and
wisdom. Do not these wise men know that the thinkers and doers
of the earth, in overwhelming majority, have been creed men?
Creeds may exist without religion, but neither religion, nor
philosophy, nor politics, nor society, can exist without
creeds. There must be a creed in the head, or there cannot be
religion in the heart. You must believe that Deity exists,
before you can reverence Deity. You must believe in the fact
of humanity, or you cannot love your fellows. A creed is but
the concentration, the crystallization, of belief. Truth is
of but little worth till it is so crystallized. Truth lying
dissolved in oceans of error and nonsense and ignorance makes
but a feeble diluent. It swashes everywhere, but to deluge,
not to benefit. Precipitate it, and you have the salt of the
earth. Political opposition, inorganic, is but a blind,
cumbrous, awkward, inefficient thing; but construct a platform,
and immediately it becomes lithe, efficient, powerful. Even
before they set foot on these rude shores, our forefathers made
a compact, and a nation was born in that day. It is on creeds
that strong men are nourished, and that which nourishes the
leaders into eminence is necessary to keep the masses from
sinking. A man who really thinks, will think his way into
light. He may turn many a somersault, but he will come right
side up at last. But people in general do not think, and if
they refuse to be walled in by other people's thoughts, they
inevitably flop and flounder into pitiable prostration. So
important is it, that a poor creed is better than none at all.
Truth, even adulterated as we get it, is a tonic. Bring
forward something tangible, something positive, something that