The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-05-30
ELOQUENT T'SERMON
 BY REV. DR EWING
Takes as Ills Text "God in
 Three Persons"
DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
Yesterday Being Trinity Sunday and the Weather Ideal All Churches Were Crowded - Some
 Beautiful Thoughts.

Yesterday being Trinity Sunday and the weather ideal, all the churches of the city were largely attended.
 At the Church of the Advent the Rev. | Quincy Ewing, the rector, preached an eloquent sermon at the morning service, taking as his theme. God in Three Per sons" His text was. "The Father the Son and the Holy Ghost" Matthew 2Sth chapter and part of the 18th verse.
 | He said in part:
 | The difficulty, doubtless, which at taches to the doctrine of the Trinity is due to the fact that people understand the word, person, as being interchange able with the word, personality In Latin persona meant originally mask worn by an actor, varying to suit the character represented. Hence we find in Latin works such metaphorical phrases as, personam imponere-meaning to put a man in an office, to confer upon him some new character or dignity: sustinere | personam to bear an office, to sustain | a certain character or relation: agere personam, to act cretaln character or part. Cicero says: "sustineo unus tres personas meam, adversarii, judics. which Is translated-I, one man, play the part of three persons myself, the | adversary, and the judge. Not so very long ago, the English word, person. was used by the best authors in this sense of a character or a part. Bacon says: His first appearance in his new person of a sycophant." Jeremy Taylor: No man can long put on person, or act part" Milton: ITO bear rule, which was thy part and person." And Shakespeare: T then did use the person of your father"
 Includes SveraI Persons.
 Every man may. and does, include with In himself several persons He may be, e. g., father, a brother, husband, a son, a friend, a citizen. He is always just one personality; but to understand him thoroughly to know adequately what sort of man he is, we must know him in all his several persons his person as father, his person as son. his person as a brother, as a husband, a friend, | citizen. Our knowledge of him would be incomplete unless we took into ac- count all the persons or parts he sus- | tained
 So God is one: but He may and does sustain toward us several persons-three we say, that of Creator or Father; that of Friend, or Brother, of Moral Leader and Exemplar; that of Holy Spirit, or In spirer and Enlightener; and to know Him thoroughly, adequately, we must know Him revealed to us under these three of them, our knowledge of Him would be imperfect and incomplete.
 As Creator, God appeals to us in natur e: revealed as "unchanging law, the source of all being, the Universal Parent" But suppose we stopped here, thinking of God only under the person of Creator or Uni versal Parent. What sort of God, what sort of religion should we have? Why, a God of whom we could nor authentically say that He cares more for one thing or being In His creation than for any other | thing or being; not more for man than | for the brute, for man and brute are | equally His creations, having in Him the | source of their being. Guided solely by Gods revelation of Himself in nature, we could never build up anything that could | properly be called moral religion; for do we find kindness in nature? We find | also much unlSindness. Do we find justice in nature? We find also much injustice. Do we find self-sacrifce? We find also much selfish greed and cruelty; and we do not discover that nature is disposed to be any kinder, any juster, any more loving | to men than to any other variety of liv- 1 ing beings. Following nature blndly, wor- shipping and serving only the nature-re- vealed God, there is scarcely one moral | principle that we should feel ourselves bound to observe in dealings with other creatures, including our fellow men,
 Revelation or Himself.
 | Therefore 1t was necessary that Gods l revelation of Himself in nature should be supplemented by a revelation of Him. self in humanity; that He should speak | to man through man; that man should know Him as personal friend, com | panion, brother moral leader. So from | the beginning, God has been incarnating Himself in humanity; revealing Himself 1 to man through man; so that men looking | into the glorihed face, listening to the tn- | spired words of a human brother, have been constrained to feel: This man into | whose face we look; this man whose | words we hear is a representative of the eternal God. Through and in him God | speaks and acts; and what he says we must obey, and what he does we must l do also. Revealing Himself in, speaking through all prophets and wise men of the race more and more fully. more and more | completely God gave to man the final and supreme manifestation of Himself in Jesus Christ In the fitness of time we may understand Him as saying to our humanity: Would you know who I am, 1 and what-kind or unkind, just unjust, merciful or cruel. holy or unholy ?-would you know the deeds would have you do, | the ideals I would have you possess turn to Me, learn of Me, follow Me, under the person of this Man, Jesus of Naza- l reth, your Human Brother, My Divine | Son. Tn nature, in the world about you, see Me ss Creator of all that Is; in this Man, Jesus of Nazareth. behold Me as Brother, Friend, Companion; moral and l spiritual leader. exemplar, Savior.'