Great

homilies on the account of the creation of the universe in the first chapter of Genesis, written in accordance with the best science of the time and the treatment of the same subject in the light of modern science.

Since we have positive though incomplete knowledge of God, we should use that knowledge in the practical work of life; we should not waste our strength in fruitless speculation about mysteries which we are unable to solve. We can use the daylight though we cannot gaze on the sun. It is useless to stand precariously on the slippery rocks of the sea-shore, straining our eyes upon the misty ocean and lamenting that the continent is hemmed in by surging waters, while inland are the fertile fields and the happy homes of men. Equally futile is it to neglect the practical work and blessedness of the Christian life and waste our strength in waiting till by speculative thinking we can penetrate the mysteries of God which encompass us, and answer every perplexing question. This restlessness under the essential limits of our being are not marks of greatness of mind. The real strength is shown when before the mystery of God we have learned to be ignorant with equanimity. And it is by using our knowledge in the practical work of Christian love and service, that we gain larger and clearer knowledge of God. "If any man willeth to do his will, he shall know of the teaching whether it be of God." "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love." We study most effectively when we turn truth into life. We advance most rapidly and broadly in the knowledge of God when we seek it as the guide of life and the revelation of the divine and gracious power which is to renovate the world and to transform society into the kingdom of Christ. Then we discover the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge which we are to use in our Christian work in advancing his kingdom, and find ourselves able to "do all things through Christ who strengtheneth us." Then in the presence of the impenetrable mystery, where we cannot know, we trust and adore, assured that the mystery is but the covering of wisdom and love which are to be revealed in their season. Thus restlessness, impatience and despair, in view of our limitations, cease, and we rest and are at peace in the consciousness of God's all-encompassing love, knowing

"That every cloud that spreads above

And veileth love, itself is love."

Accordingly Richard Baxter says: "Avoid disputes about lesser truths and a religion that lies only in opinions. They are usually least acquainted with a heavenly life who are violent disputers about the circumstantials of religion. He whose religion is all in his opinions will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions; and he whose religion lies in his knowledge and love of Christ will be most delightfully speaking of that happy time when he shall enjoy them. He is a rare and precious Christian who is skilful to improve well-known truths. Therefore, let me advise you who aspire after a heavenly life, not to spend too much of your thoughts, your time, your zeal, or your speech upon disputes that less concern your souls; but when hypocrites are feeding on husks and shells, do you feed on the joys above. I would have the chief truths to be chiefly studied, and none to cast out your thought of eternity."

The conclusion must be that objections founded on ignorance are of no validity against evidence founded on knowledge; objections founded on the limitation of knowledge are of no validity against the knowledge. If we study a blade of grass or a grain of sand, we come to questions which we cannot answer, to realities which we cannot explore. All human knowledge abuts on the unknown; knowledge of the unknown can be attained only as we reach it from reality already known. Often a doubt or objection may be removed by ceasing to think about it and attending to the work of the life of Christian love. Then, in the enlargement of knowledge, and in the process of intellectual and spiritual growth and development, you outgrow it; when you look for it again you see beyond and around it, and the doubt or difficulty is gone. The habit of dwelling on doubts, objections, and negations in any sphere of knowledge closes the shutters of the mind, excludes the light of truth, checks intellectual, moral and spiritual growth, and tends to universal skepticism as its legitimate issue. A small coin held close to the eye, shuts out the whole landscape, and a petty objection continuously dwelt on may shut out the vision of God.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRINITY : THE BIBLICAL REPRESENTATION IN THE REVELATION

OF GOD IN CHRIST

ATTEMPTS, to define and formulate the doctrines of the person of Christ and of the Trinity began very early in the Christian churches; and from that time till now controversies on questions pertaining to these subjects have been of frequent occurrence and long continuance. Usually, however, these have not been discussions of the elements of these doctrines as set forth by Christ and his apostles in their practical bearing on the religious and spiritual life, but of attempted metaphysical and ontological definitions of the internal constitution of God and of the union of the divine and human in the person of Christ. In marked contrast with this we find that, through it all, the Christian faith in the God in Christ and in the Trinity as revealed in the Bible to the religious consciousness, is constant, persistent, and effective, quickening and inspiring the highest spiritual life. These contrasted facts force on us several important practical conclusions which we must note in the outset and accept as guides in all our investigations.

The conception of God and of his relation to man and the universe involved in the Trinity and in the God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, as presented in the Bible and received in the religious consciousness of men, carries in it peculiar elements of truth and spiritual power. During all the centuries since Christ, God as thus revealed has been the common object of Christian faith, worship and service and the vitalizing and sustaining power of the Christian life. This conception of God and of his relations to man is distinctive of Christianity. As Neander says of the Trinity, as presupposed in the fundamental fact that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself: "We recognize therein the essential contents of Christianity summed up in brief." It is a necessary 1 History of the Christian Religion and Church; Torrey's trans., vol. i. P. 572.

conclusion that, whatever may be the speculative difficulties in formulating the doctrine, there are in it elements of truth and reality indispensable to the distinctive and pre-eminent spiritual power of Christianity and thus essential in the conception of God, the most worthy in itself and the most effective in renovating man and in quickening and developing the spiritual life of faith and love, which the human mind has ever attained.

It is equally necessary to conclude that it is a waste of intellect to attempt to pass beyond the line which divides the finite from the absolute and infinite, and from that transcendent position to define metaphysically the exact mode of God's eternal and absolute being within himself, further than he has made himself known to us in his action. It is an attempt to transcend ourselves. The controversies incident to such attempts have sometimes been marked with great bitterness and have often degenerated into logomachy. John C. Doederlein, as he opens this topic in his "Institutio Theologiæ Christianæ " [A. D. 1780], says: "We have reached a field which we have long been dreading, ample for crops, yet sown and tangled with briers the seeds of which have been sown broadcast by the fruitful ingenuity of theologians and nourished by the heats of councils and synods mingled with the tempests of anathemas; crops which many good men seem to think ought to be cut down, or, if the sacred thicket must be spared, abandoned to theologians to cultivate it." He says the metaphysical refinements as to the constitution of the person of Christ were fit machinations to create heresies, and felicitates antiquity, when "the fowlers after heresies were not yet on the watch to shoot the unwary," 1 It is reasonable to suppose it settled by the long and weary history of these controversies, that it transcends the powers of the human mind to construct, beyond God's clear revelation of himself, an exact and all-comprehending formula of his internal constitution, of the mode of his existence therein, or of the union of the divine and the human in the God in Christ, the Word that became flesh and tabernacled among us. The witty Dr. Robert South says, in a sermon on the Trinity: "As he that denies it may lose his soul; so he that too much strives to understand it may lose his wits."

11 2

1 Vol. ii. pp. 333, 332, 240.

2 Works, vol. ii. p. 184, Ed. Philadelphia, 1844.

Theologians are not to be blamed for entering on these investigations. Man as a rational being must use his reason. He must think and try to attain clear ideas; he must examine in the light of reason whatever he is asked to believe, and test it by rational truths, laws, ideals, and ends; he must ascertain the limits of the human mind, learn what is revealed of God and where are the impassable barriers beyond which it is useless to attempt to pass. When God had made his great revelation of himself in Christ, neglect to study it and to learn all which can be known of God through it would have been dishonoring both God and his revelation, and man and the reason with which God has endowed him. Rightly, therefore, the searchers after God "went sounding on their dim and perilous way" among the narrows and the shallows of the finite to find channels through which they could safely navigate out into the ocean of God's infinitude. They have thus indicated as on a chart the reefs barring all passage and the seemingly open straits which end without an outlet. If their successors have erred, it has been in not noting their discoveries, and in trying anew the reefs and inlets which again and again have been found impassable. Mystery must always lie all along the line at which the absolute and infinite reveals itself in the finite.

From the history of thought on this subject we learn another principle to guide in our investigations: that in seeking to know God in Christ and as the Trinity we must follow the order of his revelation of himself in Christ as recorded in the Bible. We must begin with the elements of these doctrines not reduced to formulas and system; we must receive them in their practical, moral, and spiritual significance; we must know them by experiencing their light, warmth, and vitalizing power in our own. hearts and lives. Then as rational beings we should trace them back as far as we can into the heart and mind of God and thus ascertain all that God in them has revealed himself to be in himself and in his relation to man. This is the way in which God historically revealed himself in Christ and as the Trinity. This is the way in which the Church first studied the revelation and learned its significance the only way in which we can know all

that can be known of God as thus revealed.

The history of Christian thought shows also that the great objection urged against these doctrines is not that they are