The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1910-07-01
THE PULPIT
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. j. n. MELiSH.
Theme: The Trinity.

was lIOIi 81. JUN 1o.ZO- w HSll
the Comforter is come, whom l 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; its worth, its
truth, springs from it's ability to
make articulate the facts of life.
Does this theology" we ask, Gin
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 interpreter
ton of this life. 1t is therefore re-
lated to religion as botany is related
to the flowers. A mar 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
Theology. The theology which is of
real value, whether old or new, is
that which interprets the religious
life, which takes those experiences of
the common folk, the average man,
n 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 interpreted
ton from tie 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, as university lee
turer, to come int 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 monotheism it seemed
like deifying a man - whom they
were willing to regard as second only
to Isaiah-and so denying the funda-
mental truth of their religion that
God is one. 1t is only by going
deeper into life itself, by getting a
broader view of the larger human
life we call history, that we are able
to enter deeper into God. The Trim
1tarian conception of the divine life,
it it is to be accepted with loyalty
and sincerity, must give a more in
telligent and satisfactory interpre-
tation of life and history than the
Unitarian conception of God. AS
Gwatkin says in his book, "The
knowledge of God" 'The surface
drift seems Unitarian in our time,
n advanced thinkers take it for
certain that the religion of the fu-
ture will be some form of Unitarian
ism. Were 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 our mod
ern of a systematic divinity.
h 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 man. 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
to Jesus. 1t will take of Him His
truth and life, and show them unto
men. AS a scholar bears witness to
his teacher, even though he may go
far beyond him, so the Spirit wit
nesses to Jesus. On the other hand,
the spirit has it's origin in God; it
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.
This is not academic language, but
the words of life, descriptions of
actual experience of Christian men
and women all through the CEN
turtles; all for whom the person of
Jesus has deep spiritual value and
who have confidence in the spirit of
truth 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 VINO shares it be-
longs to the church by virtue of this
life. 1t is the misfortune, nay, the
calamity, of the church hal it has
not kept this fact clearly in mind.
Again and again it has substituted
for it some theory of organizzati.-
or doctrinal statement which imme-
diately destroyed the church's unity
and created rivalries and separatists.
This is the only possible basis of a re-
united Christendom; not the Catholic
creeds, nor the historic episcopate,
not the sacraments Or any external
bond, nothing but the three-fold life
and experience car fulfil the Masters
prayer that they all may be one
even as we are one thou in me and
I in thee, that they may be one i'll
us"
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
tura has played a great part. At the
present moment the minis of innum-
cradle persons are turned to the
heavens. Whether men interpreted
the facts correctly or incorrectly, the
facts themselves have inspired in
nan 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.
The worship of nature was mans
first worship. 1t is the object of the
mans most exact knowledge. To
know this world outside ones self
in some of its marvellous workings
has been the aim of our science.
Now, what religious Interpretation
shall we put upon nature? Shall we
spell it with a capital N and regard