Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-02-15

should be so is ntp strange, for God
himself has declared. As the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my
thoughts than your thoughts" We
cannot explain the personality of God
any more than you can tell why the
grass grows or the sun shines. But we
do feel and know that, like the grass
and the light, the Trinity of the God
head is a great divine fact. And, fur
thermore. we do feel and know that as
God the Father lives, so Christ was
born into this world not only to save US
from sin, but also TO prove that God
the Creator is a God of love. Mystery,
mystery. mystery. A high, deep. i'm
penetrable and overpowering mystery!
Yet the mystery of the Father, Son and
Holy Spirit is a fact revealed to US. to
be accepted by faith and bringing to all
who so receive it a message of joy and
peace.
A Mystery Essential to Peace.
Consider how near this conception of
Christ, the Divine Son. manifested in
If we did not have the manifestation
of Gods love in Jesus Christ, how
would we worship? Even the lowest
forms of religious truths cannot exist
in the heart of man without some kind
of an incarnation. | said some years
ago in India to a Buddhist priest: You
do not believe that these hideous idols
of wood and clay and stone have any
divine power? You do not believe that
those bleared eyes and that horrible
grin and that twisted body is god!
You know you do not. Why, | could
knock him down with my hand. |
could crush him with the heel of my
foot" "Oh, yes" answered the priest.
What you say is true. We intelligent
leaders of the east do not believe those
idols are gods. But the common peo-
pie cannot conceive of Il spirit God as
our prophet has revealed him to us.
So we give the common people a god
of clay and wood. which they can see
and touch" Brother our God has sent
us Jesus Christ in the flesh. He came
as a revelation of God. He came so
that our finite minds might grasp the
infinite. He came to show us that God
could suffer as we suffer and be tempt
ed as we are tempted, yet be without
sin. He came as Il God of never end
ing love. Mystery! Mystery! The
Trinity is an ineXplainable mystery.
Yet it is mystery we all need, mys-
terry we should all accept. 1t is a mys-
terry essential to our peace.
Mystery of the Trinity.
Thus the mystery of the Trinity
means simply this: God the Father
comes to us and says: ITO explain to
you all things, my child, would be to
set before you what you could not COM
prehend. Your mind is too weak to
grasp it, any more than a little child in
his fathers laboratory can understand
or grasp the chemical principle of the
adhesion of the basic elements. But if
you see the Godhead yelled by HUI
man form, if you see the Spirit of God
animating a being like yourself, if you
come in contact with the divine perfec-
tons, active in human environment.
you will then have a glimpse of the
glory Of the Godhead and realize some
thing of the supernal mystery of Fa-
Their. Son and Holy Spirit. All this l
will show to prove that | am God, the
Loving Father, and ye are my chill
dren." Today we find the Trinity a
mystery. But, though a mystery, deep
and high and OverpoWering, it is a
cir
can reverence the majesty of the Fa-
Their, can realize the love of the Son and
can yield to the influence of the Holy
Spirit. Great and yet beautiful and
simple is the mystery Of gOdliness in
Jesus Christ.
The conflicting doctrines of Gods
omnipotence and mans free agency are
an inexplainable mystery. Yes, we
know that God is infinitely greater than
man. We know that the Creator, who
holds the seas in the palm OF his hand
and at whose touch the volcanoes
smoke and the earth trembles and
whose voice is the voice of the storm,
has supreme control over the creatures
he has made. He can say to man, 60,
and he goeth; come, and he cometh; dc
this. and he doeth it." But, though
God the Omnipotent is truly all pow
erful, know | can resist his will.
know. as a free agent. l can raise my
hand or lower it. l know that l can
! clinch my fist with hate or have the
| open palm of love. l know l can walk
| across this pulpit to the right or to the
| left. l know l can choose between
| right and wrong Free, free! Free
am l, gloriously free! A mystery-a
| great unfathomable mystery! Will
God the Omnipotent am still man, the
free agent.
HarmOnizing CreedS.
These two conflicting facts are true
but who can reconcile them? There
fore, after we have once accepted this
mystery we can harmonic all Chris
tian creedS at the foot of the cross
With it we can take down the bars Ot
sectarianism and call all pembers o.
the different Protestant churches. oul
| brothers and our sisters. How cal
i -