National Republican., 1882-01-02
CHRIST'S DIVINITY.
REV. DIR. sHIPPEN's SERMON.
Eloquent Discourse At All Souls Cburch--The Doc
trlne OF the Trinity Dlscuss,d from Uni-
tartan StandpoiRt-Its RefutatiOn
Declared Complete.

All Souls Church was densoly packed at the
vesper service last evening with people who were
drawn there by the announcement that DR.. Ship
pen, the pastor, would preach on the Divinity OF
Christ" lie took as his text: "Whop do men say
that !, the Son of Man, ann" Matthew xvi, 10.
In the brief time allowed me offer you tonight,
as filly as may, my own answer to the question
ofmy text accept the New Testament record,
aud take Jesus as He Is there described. ! come
not to Chauning or to Calvin, but to Jesus Him
self as the best teacher of Christianity. repu-
diate the popular creeds because they stand In my
way. They mislead me. They place emphasis
upon points that Jesus cared nothing about, of
which we find no hint or allusion III His teaching
How should we rejoice tonight could we dispel
all the vain speculations Of philosophy that have
mystiGed and bcclouded Him, read with unpreju.
diced mind the story of His life in the simple, un-
vanished tale Of the four cvangolists, come into
His own presence, sit at His feet as did Mary, see
Him rs He was, and listen to His own word, fresh
from His living lips-should we tonight for the
first time open the Gospels and read the story, how
little we should discover of the metaphysical sub
tlelies with which theology has invested His name
and agiated His church.
LISTEN TO HIS REPORT on HIMSELF
and His mission In the world Is to bring bread to
feed the hungry soul to open fountains of living
water, which forever qucnch the thirst of those
SICK to cure The bnd tbe dea tSe nSne nSa lie s IS
| the light Of the world; He is a shepherd to the
| lost sheep wandering In the wilderness OF ignor.
| nncc and sim He appears ever as the practical
| helper of blind, sin.sick, struggling humanity
He comes not In royal pomp, asserting His prerog
| alive, and exacting homage and adulation, pro-
| claiming His titles and rank, and ANXIOUS that
men should yield Him supremacy in their creed
and opinion. Rather, He declares His kingdom
| open for those who, instead of crying Lord Lord
shall do the will Of his Father. who is in heaven
who build their house on the. enduring
rock OF character. They are His friends who love
| another. IL is moi his rank TINT He
II Is sympathy and affection: and the homage Of
faithful, loving lives. If His followers would
speculate less about Ills nature and more warmly
appreciate His spirit they would show trucr dis
clPleship, and in that discipleship would be
Testament is laid upon His practical work In the
world. In the church, however, ever since His
death there has been debate over the question of
our text, We believe that the faith OF the early
church was Unitarian; that 1t was departure
from the simplicity of Jesus own teaching to de.
clare Him God. In the New Testament teachngI
do not find the Deity of Christ. | find His d.
y yinty in q G9dlike spirit q divine quality Of
| in the New Testament as the eternal God who
made Heaven and earth, but see Him
AS GODS MESSENGER AND REPRESENTATIVE
His best beloved Son. the type ofa divine human
| ity. AT the beginning Of His mission the voice
proclaims: "This is My beloved Son; hear ye
Him." And after His death, IN the first sermon
| by Peter aL Pentacost, when thousands were con-
verted and added to the church; the apostle de;
cf wonders that God aid by Him" And d What S' lam AM
| guage could more unmistakably declare His de-
rived and subordinate rank as one sent by the
corded by John and placed over this desk as the
! emphatic announcement of the Unitarian faith:
This , E, IS life eternal; that they, nigh,
Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent"
Does He say and My Father are one?" Read
the context where He prays that all His followers
may be one, J." AS Thou Father, art in Me and in
Thee" and how clearly He explains His own
and purpose that makes the Fathers will His
own. Does He say he that hath seen Me hath
seen the Father2' Then truly it was not the
but the First-the Father himself Is not the
meaning clear, however, China comes to us
through her, representative; The Ambassador
speaks in the name of the king. As the
sun shines through our window ON a summers
day. one @ Looks tn through T. speaks not Of the win;
shines in the countcnance and character of Jesus,
He so represents the very spirit OF heaven that He
Time Tim would fail me to follow in detail ali the
| texts 1t ia enough for me to say that the single
one, John y, q which clearly teaches the doctrine
| ofthe Trinity
HAS DEEM DROPPED FROM THE REVISED VERSION
as spurious while for all the there is not one
but what is yielded up by one Trinitaran scholar
or another as not certainly teaching the doctrine.
Speaking to Jews trained for centuries In the faith
| the God of Israel as one God-surely 1t would
have been with word Enthusiastically clear If he had
| announced himself as the very Jehovah of Hosts,
ForI three centuries after ChTists death the term
| Trinity was unknown. 1t was first uttered by
Tertullian, one of the fathers who lived in the
fourth century. During that period the followers
of Plato and ZOroastre with their Oriental and
Greek philosophy had introduced specuations
about the nature of Christ, and in these Greek and
Oriental philosophers the doctrine of the Trinity
had its origin. Only by vote of the council Of
Nice In the year 1876, dominated by the Roman
Emperor Constantine, 1t was adopted In the creed.
While the New Testament does ottench the Deity
of Jesus reason revOlts against IT, Jesus was born
of woman While He lay in the manger where
was God, who made the stars and carries forward
the earth heavens, and all their shining order and
glory? Jesus at twelve was LEFT behiud by the car
avaI and found disputing with Jewish doctors.
Jesus was tempted. Can God be tempted2 Jesus
suffered hunger, and thirst and pain. lIeate aud
drank, He wept and slept, and on the cross lie
died God cannot thus suffer. His bleeding
wounds His thorn-oruwned aud spear pierced
body proclaimed His mortality. What wOids can
better describe His humanltg than th,se
of Frederick Robertson. "All Ser pturc,' nays he,
"cOncdes in telling us that the n pc perfection OF
was n power and life within linn which was to
be developed, which could only be developed, like
all human strength and goodness by toll OF brain
and heart; life uphill ali the way, and every
footprint by which He climbed left behind for us,
petrlned on the hard rock, indurated in history
forever, to show us when and how and where lie
tOiled and Won" While In the New Testament we
do not find the Deity of Christ, We do see In Him
an intimate communion with the Father that fills
HIN with the Holy Spirit. We see a divine quality
OF character, loving kindness, patience, sweet
ness, readiness to forgive, that make Him for us
the tyDe of u div lie humanity.