Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-05-31
THE GOOD OF HERESY.
Welcome Scholar and Heretic if They
= Honestly Seek the Truth.
FALSE CREEDS WILL HAVE TO GO.
The World Must Know if Paste Diamonds
Are Among Its Jewels.
RECENT TROUBLES OF THE CHURCH
WRITTEN FOR TIE DIsrArcH.l


"He shall guide you into all truth" The
work of the Holy Spirit is to guide us into
all truth. Other definitions are given of
the relation between the Spirit and man.
But this would seem to include them all.
What purpose and mission can possibly be
wider than this guidance into all truth?
The best distinction which we can make
between the three persons of the Trinity is
a distinction of work. The doctrine of the
Holy Trinity is not, of course, an adequate
definition of God 1t does not even ap-
proach to adequateness, 1t is only our blum
dering way of putting into speech our rec
ognition of something higher in God than
mere oneness. First, God was thought Of as
many; every object of nature concealed and
revealed a god Then an advance was made
when God was thought of as one; over all
nature, and all men, and all life, one only
God. That was sublim; revelation. But
absolute oneness excludes relationship, for
bids love, sits solitary and misses perfection.
God is one, but the unity of God is unity
which includes variety. There is father
hood and sonship in God; there is that in
Him which reaches out to us, takes us in, is
in us as well as in Him and makes us like
Him. 30.
Best Language for the Doctrine.
Now, now shall we get thisinto language?
Christ put it into speech for us when He
gave us that sentence which has ever since
stood in the center of our religion-'in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghot." This, set in the technical
and scientific phrases of theology becomes
the doctrine of the Trinity. And this doc
trine we understand best when we think not
of the Father as being this, and the Son
that, and the Holy Ghost the other; but
when we think of the Father as doing this,
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost as
doing that; that is, when we think of God as
working in one sort Of way we are
thinking of God as the Father. When we
think of God as working in other ways we
are thinking of Him as the Son or as the
Holy Spirit.
Now, our Lord is telling us what the
Holy Spirit does And He says that the
Holy Spirit is our guide into all truth. 1
believe that the word truth is as wide here
dS III cdu pOSSlply NC, anu tIldI le is OOu
Himself who leads us into all sorts of truth,
sends us His messengers to teach us truth
of every kind, truth in art, truth in govern
ment, truth in mathematics, truth in sci
ence, truth in religion.
All Truth Conferred in God.
ALI discovery is but an ascertainment of
the mind of God, thinking of Gods
thoughts after Him. And read with pleas
ure such sentences as these out of DR.. Hunt
ington's chapter on the Bible in his book,
''The Peace of the Church," of such men as
Galileo and Newton, the most natural ac-
count would seem to be that they were sent
into the world so marvelously endowed for
the express purpose of communicating a
message and bestowing a blessing. If the
universe had a conscious designer, and all
theists, whether Christian or not, must SO
believe, the great truths of mathematics are
common to his mind and to ours. That one
after another of these truths should have
come to light among us, we are accustomed
to explain by saying that Euclid lived, that
Kepler lived, but why not go farther and
say: God lives, who by the lips of his serv-
ant Euclid has taught us the proportion of
angles, and at the mouth of his servant Kep-
ler has revealed to us the principles of
curves?"
"Into all truth" Who will set bounds
to that blessed promise? Gods spirit is at
work forever in the world. Men are in
spired in all departments of thought. Men
come to us with messages which God has
given them upon all the great subjects
which interest and uplift us, with genuine
with sublime truths which God
himself, the Holy Spirit, has whispered to
their hearts. ALI the truth of our life has
its source in God.
Particular Aim of the Statement.
Our Lord was thinking chiefly, however,
of that highest range of truth which We call
religion, which concerns duty and the
knowledge of God. Here He promised
guidance. The promise implies the grad
ualness of human understanding. In one
sense there is no such thing as new truth.
The truth which we learn to-day, or may
learn tomorrow, was just as true yester-
day. Truth does not begin with discovery.
The law of gravitation was not enacted in
the days of Isaac Newton. This is true in
a somewhat different way in religion from
what it is in science.
In science, truth lies hid in nature, and is
brought to light by discovery. And the
formulation of truth, the creed of science,
keeps changing. The discoveries change it.
But in religion truth has been revealed in
its fulness, so far, as we are able to receive
it, in the teachings of Jesus Christ. The
whole truth about God, and duty, and des-
tiny is contained between the two covers of
one book. We will never learn any more
about it than is written there, until we go
ourselves into the other country and see
with new eyes. The creed of the Church,
accordingly, is an unchanging creed. The
faith was once for all delivered to the saints.
Just as science starts with the world we
live in, so theology starts with the life and
words of Jesus Christ. And there can be
no new truth in theology, just as there can
be no new world in science.
Understanding the Truth.
On the other hand, in another sense, there
is new truth all the time. Because we
grow more and more into an understanding
of the truth we have. Year by year in our
own lives, era by era in the life of the race,
we come to learn more about Jesus Christ
We are very far to-day from comprehending
all He said. We are very far from under
standing even the simple phrases of the
Apostles Creed. We have great deal to
learn, And little by little, we are learning
it. The Holy Spirit is guiding us into all
truth.
Remarkable, indeed, are the changes in
theology. We look back even 80 years and
read the books which our fathers read, and
we find there quite different point of view.
We become conscious of advance. we see
how far, within that space of time, the
Spirit has guided us nearer to the truth.
The book is the same; but how much more
is known about it than our fathers knew!
How much which hampered their study of
it has been removed; how much nearer we
are to-day to the real Bible! And the Greed
& H. a1o,,n nxnI
it.
Learning What the Creed Means.
Discovery after discovery, criticism upon
criticism, has been set up beside the creed,
and as result we know better what the
creed means, we recite certain articles of it
with stronger emphasis and adeeper mean
nf oh xrht oh has