The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the
communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.--_2 Cor. 13, 14._
We are entering to-day upon the second part of the Christian
church-year. The seasons and festivals of the church-year may be
compared to a river that takes its rise, like the stream which
washes the banks of our city, in some small and distant lake, and
then ever continues to grow, widen, and deepen, until it becomes a
majestic flow, and finally empties into the vast gulf of the ocean.
We have seen in the past months the river of grace and salvation
issuing as a tiny rivulet from under a humble manger on Bethlehem's
plains, passing through the gorge of Nazareth, flowing along the
banks of Jordan, sweeping past the cities of Galilee and Judea,
lifting up its surging billows to the height of Calvary and Olivet,
until it overflowed the world with its heavenly billows on the day
of Pentecost.
By that river it has been our good fortune to linger each Sunday,
to dip up of its waters many a draught for our thirsty souls, and
bathe in its currents for the washing away of our sins. To-day,
however, we are called to ascend to its source, to leave Bethlehem,
Nazareth, and Judea behind, to climb above Golgotha's Mount and
Olivet's top, yes, to soar beyond the cloud which once received our
ascended Lord out of sight, and to gaze upon a gulf, an ocean, which
has no boundary and no shore. To speak in simple and unadorned
speech: It is the subject of God Himself which we are invited to
contemplate, the most overwhelming, mysterious, deepest of them all.
"Who by searching," asks Job, "can find out God? Who can find out
the Almighty to perfection?" And yet there are some things which we
can and which we must know, for the subject of God is at the base
of all things, of all religion. Without the right knowledge of God
no man is a right man, and no one can rightly adjust himself to his
place in this world or in the next. Let us, then, approach the great
mystery of godliness, letting heavenly wisdom be our teacher.--
To-day's festival is called the Festival of the Trinity. What is
the doctrine of the Trinity? For it certainly behooves every one to
understand what is meant thereby, and this doctrine is held by all
the Christian churches. Whosoever believes it, becomes a member of
the Church. Whoever rejects it, ceases to belong to the Christian
Church, and becomes a heretic.
Scripture tells us on the one hand that God is one, that there are
not three Gods, but one God; on the other hand, that the Father is
God, that our blessed Lord Jesus, the Son, is God, that the Holy
Ghost is God, each person being a perfect God, yet so joined, each
to each, that they constitute one invisible God. We are taught
that these three persons are uncreated, incomprehensible, eternal,
almighty, equal in glory, majesty, and power. None is before, none
after, none greater or less than another; they are coeternal and
coequal.
That is the plain teaching of God's holy Word. The Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, each of them is God, and yet there are not three
Gods, but one God. How these three persons are so united as to
make up only one God, so that the persons are neither confounded,
nor the substance divided, we are nowhere told in Scripture. On
this, as with regard to many other matters, we must be content to
be ignorant. That is a great hardship to the pride of the would-be
wise. And so in the earliest ages men arose and strove against this
doctrine of the Trinity. The first violent strife that agitated the
early Christian Church was just on this point. Arius, a certain
bishop, would not accept the simple statement of Scripture that
Christ is God, in the same sense as the Father is God; he would make
Him inferior in divine nature. A most fierce controversy was waged,
which ended in Arius' being branded a heretic, as, indeed, he was,
and the true faith being only the more clearly confessed in the
creeds of the Church, called the Athanasian and the Nicene Creed.
Does this doctrine sound strange and hard to believe to the carnal
understanding? Let those who would be wise come forward, and prove
their right to be admitted into the mystery of heaven, by showing
that they have fully mastered the lesser mysteries of earth. Let
them tell us, for instance, why the needle of the compass always
turns toward the north. Perhaps they will say, Because it is in
its nature to do so. But that is no answer. Our question is, _Why_
does the needle so turn? What secret and invisible hand twists it
around and causes it to point always the same way? Or, if this be
too puzzling a question, perhaps these wise people who think it so
great a hardship that they are not permitted to understand God, may
tell us a little about themselves. They can perhaps teach us how it
comes to pass that the blood keeps flowing unceasingly through our
veins, without our being aware of it, except when we are in a high
fever. We grow tired with labor or with exercise, we tire even with
doing nothing, but the blood never ceases in its flow; from the hour
of our birth, day and night, summer and winter, year after year, it
keeps on with its silent round, never stopping, till it stops once
for all. How, I ask, can these things be? No answer. And this is not
the only matter by any means. There is, for instance, sleep. Who
does not sleep? One-third of our lifetime is spent in sleep. Who can
say what this is? And if you cannot,--and no one can,--let those
who know nothing about the how and the why in so many, yea, in most
of earthly matters, not be so very much surprised that they cannot
understand the existence of that invisible, that eternal, that
infinite Spirit whom we call God.
But though Scripture has only told us _that_ these things are,
without teaching us _how_ they are, yet for the sake of showing
that the mystery of the Trinity is not so utterly at variance with
what we find in earthly things, as unbelievers would fain persuade
us, for the sake of proving how possible it is, even according to
our limited notions, for that which is three in one sense to be
one in another sense, learned and pious men have busied themselves
in seeking out likenesses for the Trinity among the things of this
world. These likenesses, it should be borne in mind, are very
imperfect, and they do not give us a full and just idea of the
glorious Trinity; yet such comparisons may help us in attaching
some sort of notion to the words of the Creed, may keep those words
from lying dead in our minds or, rather, on our tongues.
One such likeness or comparison is the glorious object which our
eyes see in the sky--the sun. That grand orb yonder, from which
all life doth come, may be compared to the Father, from whom all
blessings flow. From it issues light. This we may compare to the
second person of the Trinity, who came forth from the Father, and
who John tells us is the true Light, which lights every man that
cometh into this world. But besides this, there comes from the
sun, heat, which is different from light, and may exist altogether
without it. This heat of the sun may not imperfectly be compared
to the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, as the Creed calls
Him, for heat is the great fosterer of life. Thus we have, first,
the sun in the sky; secondly, the light which issues from the sun;
thirdly, the heat which accompanies the light--three separate and
distinguishable things; for the sun viewed as an orb is one thing,
the light sent forth from it is another thing, the heat still
another; and yet, what can be more undivided than the sun, its light
and its warmth?
To mention another.--As with the most glorious of heavenly bodies,
so with the purest of earthly bodies--water. Here, too, we have,
first, the fountain, high up among the rocks, far out of man's
reach, answering to the Father; secondly, the stream which issues
from the fountain, and flows down into the valley for the use of
man, which may be likened to Jesus Christ, the Son; thirdly, the
mist which rises from the water, and falls in rain or dew upon the
thirsty ground, which, I need hardly state, answers to the Holy
Ghost, who, as we regarded last Sunday, came down visibly, like the
rain, with a sound as of a rushing mighty wind on the apostles, but
who now descends gently and silently, like the dew, in the silence
of night, on the heart of the believer.
And these comparisons may be multiplied without number. Thus you
are yourself a trinity, a three in one, consisting of body, soul,
and spirit. A clover leaf is one, yet has three lobes. A tree is
roots, trunk, and branches, yet one tree. Time is past, present, and
future; constitutes one thing,--time. By these comparisons we do
not make the difficulty in the mystery of the Trinity conceivable
to man's reason. What God is in Himself,--how the Son is the
Only-begotten of the Father; how the Holy Ghost proceeds from
the Father; how the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost abide forever in
inseparable union and trinity,--these are questions of no importance
for us to know, and therefore God has not thought fit to reveal them
to us more clearly.
And having considered the doctrine of the Trinity, as expressed in
the words of the text and of Scripture at large, let us draw a few
practical lessons from it. Many regard the doctrine of the Trinity
to be what is called a speculative doctrine only, that is to say, a
doctrine concerning which men may think and conjecture and dispute
for their amusement, but of no effect or importance in real life.
This is a mistake. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity is eminently
practical and eminently profitable. Our religion is founded upon
it. Deny or think lightly of this article of our faith, and you
remove the very corner-stone. If it be not true that Christ Jesus
is God in the same degree and sense that the Father is, then He
was not God at all, then He was a creature, then His redemption is
none-availing,--"for no man can redeem his brother,"--then, in other
words, we have no Savior, and our faith is vain, and our salvation
a delusion, and all that brings us together in Christian worship
is false; for in whose name, then, have we been baptized, for what
purpose do we recite the Creed, and does the minister at the end of
the service pronounce the blessing, and the congregation sing the
doxology?
You will observe that this doctrine lies at the very center and
heart of all our faith and worship, of all our Christian life of joy
and hope. And some exceedingly profitable lessons does it teach us.
One is humility. To hear some people talk, one would suppose them
the embodiment of all wisdom; they are so self-consequential and
conceited as if they knew it all, and what they cannot figure out
on their fingers or by the rule of two is not worth accepting. Let
such learn in view of this doctrine to put their hand upon their
mouth, and their mouth into the dust, and learn to confess their
insignificance and folly. It is said of Augustine, the great bishop,
that he was once in great distress of mind how he might comprehend
and describe this article concerning the Three-One God. When thus
engaged, he tells that he dreamed that he was walking along the
seashore; he saw a little child who had dug a hole into the sand,
and was employed dipping the ocean water into the hole with a shell.
"What are you doing?" said the church-father. "Oh," replied the
little one, "nothing, only trying to empty this sea here into the
hole." Laughingly he rejoined, "You will never be able to do that,
will you?" "Indeed," answered the child, "and thou wouldst empty
the mysteries of the infinite Triune God with the little dipper of
thy thoughts!" Let us guard against being overly wise. Study to be
humble when it comes to matters of God and our holy religion. And,
to conclude, let us encourage ourselves by such meditation to joyous
and childlike faith. God is great beyond all searching; therefore,
may we rest assured that all is well in His hands and management. A
farmer once remarked to Dr. Luther that he could not understand the
Creed when it speaks of God Almighty. "Neither can I nor all the
doctors," said the Reformer, "but only believe it in all simplicity,
and take that God Almighty for thy Lord, and He will take care
of thee and all thou hast, and bring thee safely through all thy
troubles."
The same is true with regard to the second part of the Trinity.
"If God," says the apostle, "spared not His own Son, but delivered
Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us
all things?" And the Holy Spirit coming into our hearts, changing,
sustaining, and enlightening us--ought not a devout consideration of
this loving, redeeming, sanctifying work of the Triune God prompt us
to trust in Him--for life, in death, for time and eternity?
To the great One in Three
The highest praises be
Hence evermore!
His sovereign majesty
May we in glory see,
And through eternity
Love and adore.
Amen.