The Penn's Grove record., 1910-07-08
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. J.. II. MELlSH.
Theme: The Trinity.

OF the Holy Trinity, preached a SER
o on THE Trinitarian Conception
of Cod" which has attracted much
attention and the publication of
which has been requested. The text
was from St. John 1926: when
the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even
the spirit of truth, which ~proceedeth
from the Father, He shall bear wit
ness of Me-" Mr.. Melish said:
The vital religious thinking of our
day is concerned with experience. A
creed or theology is of little value
because it is old and has the author
ity of some council; it's worth, its
truth, springs from its ability to
make a~rticulate the facts of life.
Does this theology" we ask, ''in-
terpret experience or is it a mere
academic formula which a few intel
lectuals have spun for themselves?"
We of to-day have distinguished be-
tween religion and theology. Re
ligion is the life of God in the soul
of man. Theology is the i%nterpreta-
ton of this life. 1t is therefore re-
lated to religion as botany is related
to the flowers. A man may be re-
ligious and be entirely ignorant of
theology. He may be religious and
reject the theology of the past. He
may be religious and hold the New
real value, whether old or new, is
that which interprets the religious
life, which takes those experiences of
the common folk, the average man,
and tells him what they mean.
In the light of this new approach
to theology does the Trinitarian con-
ception of God mean anything? Or
is it a mere dogma of the church
which some will accept out of loyalty
to the church, and others will reject
out of loyalty to the truth and their
own intelligence? Is there any real
experience which receives interpreta-
ton from the Trinitarian theology?
Does this Trinitarian conception of
the life divine bring to our human
life enough to enable a man to accept
it with loyalty and sincerity? 1t was
once my privilege, Is university lee
turer, to m into somewhat init
mate relations with some young men
who were studying to become Jewish
rabbis. What interested them was
the Christian thought of the trinity.
They wondered how any intelligent
person could believe in the Trinity,
for to their m~onotheism it seemed
like deifying a man = whom they
were willing to regard as second only
to Isaiah-and sc denying the funda-
mental truth of their religion that
God is one. 1t is only by going
deeper into life itself, by getting a
hr0odar uiam Of tho 1oPO0r hmm n
life we call history, that we are able
to enter deeper into God. The Trim
itarian conception of the divine life,
if it is to be accepted with loyalty
and sincerity, must give a more in
telligent and satisfactory interrre-
tation of life and history than the
Unitarian conception of God. AS
Gwatkin says in his book, "The
knowledge of God" 1.-THE surface
drift seems Unitarian in our time,
and advanced thinkers take it for
certain that the religion of the fu-
ture will be some form of Unitarian
ism. We're the political outlook diff
ferent l might have less difficulty in
agreeing with them; but a broader
view of history seems to point an
other way"
In the New Testament there is no
Trinitarian theology. In fact. there
is no theology of any kind if by the
ology we mean organized knowledge
of religion. Even the Fourth Gospel
and st. Paul's letters, said to be the
illogical, are not theology in cur mod
ern sense of a systematic divinity.
The New Testament is a book of re-
ligion; it is the record of experience;
it deals with life, not the theory OF
life. There is, however, in the gos-
pels and epistles what we may call a
Trinitarian experience. In this text,
for example, there is reference to the
Comforter, the Father and to Jesus
Himself. Father, Son and Spirit in
this and in many other passages are
spoken of as concerned with life, the
life which men are living here on
earth. The spirit which is to be in
men, comforting, guiding, inspiring
them in all the vicissitudes and eff
forts of life, is said to bear witness
% Jesus. 1t will take of Him His
ruth and life. and show them unto
men. AS a scholar bears witness to
ais teacher, even though he may go
ar beyond him, so the Spirit wit
lssses to Jesus. On the other hand.
the spirit has its origin in God; 1t
comes from the Father, from whom
Jesus Himself also came. Behind
both Jesus and the Spirit is the Fa-
Their, who loveth all His children.
rhis is not academic language, but
Abe words of life, descriptions OF
actual experience of Christian men
and women all through the CEN
$uries; all for whom the person of
Jesus has deep spiritual value and
Nho have confidence in the spirit OF
ruth and believe in the fatherhood
of God have shared this three-fold
life and experience of the men of the
New Testament.
1t is this experience which forms
the foundation of the Christian re-
ligion. Every man who shares it be-
longs to the church by virtue OF this
life. 1t is the misfortune, nay, the
calamity, of the church that it has
not kept this fact clearly in mind.
Again and again it has substituted
for it some theory of organization
or doctrinal statement which imme-
diately destroyed the church's unity
and created rivalries and s~eparatists.
This is the only possible basis of a re-
united Ch~ristendom; not the Catholic
creeds, nor the historic episcopate,
not the sacraments or any external
bond, nothing but the three-fold life
and experience can fulfil the Masters
prayer that they all may be one
even as we are one; thou in me and
| in thee, that they may be n in
u.s."
To this personal experience of the
Individual Christian we should add
the larger experience of the CEN
turtles. What witness does history
bear to the three-fold life?
In the experience of the race ma
ture has played a great part. AT the
present moment the minds of innum-
cradle persons are turned to the
heavens. Whether men interpreted
the facts correctly or incorrectly, the
facts themselves have inspired in
man of every age wonder, and, in the
old days, worship. Both in the stars
overhead and nature underfoot and
around men have felt the presence
of a power not themselves. 1t has
inspired poetry and created religions.