Page images
PDF
EPUB

Wondrous alike in all he tries,

Could raise the daisy's purple bud-
"Mould its green cup, its wiry stem,
Its fringed border nicely spin,
And cut the gold-embosomed gem
That, set in silver, gleams within ;
"And fling it, unrestrained and free,
O'er hill and dale and desert sod;
That man where'er he walks may see
In every step the stamp of God."

QUEST. 5. Are there more Gods than one?

ANS. There is but one only, the living and true God.

DEUT. vi. 4. Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord.

and beside me there is no God. Ver. 8. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no

1 COR. viii. 4. There is none other God God; I know not any. but one.

ISA. xliv. 6. Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his Redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last;

JER. X. 10. But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting King.

I. Reason teaches the unity of God. 1. The harmony of creation illustrates one God. The utmost range of telescopic and microscopic observation shows one system in the universe. The design proves one Designer.

2. The necessary existence of God supports unity. The necessity which is uniform always and everywhere must be one.

3. The infinite perfection of God precludes more than one. Natural reason taught some of the Greeks this.

II. Scripture teaches the unity of God.

1. He is the living God; self-existent, and author of all other being: Acts xvii. 24-28; 1 Tim. iv. 10; Ex. iii. 14; Rev. iv. 11.

2. He is the true God: 1 Thess. i. 9. There have been many called gods by heathens. Polytheism is largely prevalent among men. The Greeks had thirty thousand gods. All elements, etc., were deified both by Greeks and Romans. (See Rom. i.) Idolatry was largely prevalent. Dualism recognized two gods, good and evil. Pantheism considers all the universe God-denies a personality and character to God. Materialism recognizes no superior Being at all. But the one God is actively interested in all his works.

LESSONS.

1. The knowledge of the one living and true God requires us to acknowledge and worship him. Ignorance has led men to invent gods and worship them. 2. The possession of this knowledge lays us under the obligation of enlightening others who are in heathen darkness.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

"I never had a sight of my soul," said the Emperor Aurelius, "and yet I have a great value for it, because it is discoverable by its operations; and by my constant experience of the power of God, I have a proof of his being and a reason for my veneration."

[ocr errors]

A little boy being asked, "How many Gods are there?" replied, "One." 'How do you know that?" "Because," said the boy, "there is only room for one, for he fills heaven and earth."

When Galen, the ancient physician, who was atheistically inclined, had anatomized the human body, and carefully surveyed the frame of it, viewed the fitness and usefulness of every part of it, and the many several intentions of every little vein, bone, and muscle, and the beauty of the whole, he fell into a fit of devotion and wrote a hymn to his Creator. Galen was born A.D. 130, at Pergamus. He wrote many treatises, of which one hundred and twenty-three now remain; but these are not all genuine. He is one of the most remarkable writers of antiquity, and has exercised great influence on medical science. He did not know Christianity, though it was advancing in his day. But he alludes, in one of his works, to Christians as remarkable for their self-denial, temperance, chastity, and other virtues.

Upon the frontispiece of a temple of Delphi was engraved the word EI

(Thou art). Plutarch sees in this the real name of God. He alone exists; existence does not belong to us, creatures of a day, placed between birth and death. We may as well try to arrest the running stream as to arrest our fugitive existence. He alone really is: he also is eternal, uningendered, and not subject to change. The idea of plurality is inconsistent with the Divinity; the Divine Being must be one alone, inasmuch as he is the essential unity.

"There can be little doubt that the growth of astronomical knowledge contributed greatly to bring about the transition from polytheism to monotheism; and that so soon as the heavens were clearly understood to be subject to law, and the countless bodies which circle in them not to be independent agents, but parts or members of a single mechanical or organic system, the triumph of the latter was for ever secured."-Professor Flint, D.D., LL.D.

"The personal in Deity is set forth in the Scriptures with awful distinctness; but in no other writings is the absolute, the infinite, the unconditioned, the knowledge-surpassing, the time-and-space-transcending aspect of the divine character so sublimely presented;-the I AM THAT I AM, the Being pre-eminently, who is, and WAS, and IS TO COME, and whom no tense can adequately describe; the ONE, the ALL, who 'filleth all things,' who 'inhabiteth eternity;' of whom there is no similitude; and with whom 'one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day;' whose 'ways transcend our ways,' and whose thinking is above our thinking, even as the heavens, the infinite heavens, are higher than the earth."-Professor Taylor Lewis.

"It is possible to form an almost complete system of monotheism from the Greek and Latin authors; which, if it does not prove that such a system had

been precipitated into dogma, at least shows that it floated in the classic mind.......Classic antiquity, behind its imagery of myth and above its pantheon, recognized--feebly and fitfully, it is true, but nevertheless really --the unity of the Godhead; a fact sufficiently apparent to serve Christian apologists with an argument. When they swear,' says Lactantius,' when they frame a wish, or when they return thanks, they do not name Jupiter, but God.'"-Rev. S. Baring-Gould.

66

[ocr errors]

"When Plato wrote anything in a grave and serious manner, his custom was to preface his epistles with the mention of one God-though it is true, when he wrote otherwise, he used the common mode of speaking, and talked of other gods; and it is observed in his writings that he sometimes uses this phrase, 'If it please God,' or 'By the help of God,' not the gods."-Rev. T. Ridgeley, B.D.

"The men of Athens were wont to banish from their city the solitary sceptic that now and then appeared, and dared to doubt the existence of a Supreme Intelligence."-Pearson.

Baron Cuvier could trace the sublime unity, the universal type, the fontal idea existing in the Creative Intelligence, which connects as one the mam moth and the snail.

Dr. M'Cosh says, "There is a unity in the original composition as well as in the construction of nature. No doubt this unity of order implies a connection of forces, but a connection arranged by an intelligent mind, using the forces to effect the contemplated end. This unity carries us up to the Divine Unity, of which it is a proof."

The eminent Chancellor of the German Empire, Prince Bismarck, who has made so deep a mark upon the Fatherland, has made this striking confession in one of his letters, afterwards published in a volume :-" I cannot conceive how a man can live without a belief in a revelation; in a God who orders all things for the best-in a Supreme Judge from whom there is no appeal; and in a future life. If I were not a Christian, I should not remain at my post for a single hour. If I did not rely on God Almighty, I should not put my trust in princes. I have enough to live on, and am sufficiently genteel and distinguished without the chancellor's office. Why should I go on working indefatigably, incurring trouble and annoyance, unless convinced that God has ordained me to fulfil these duties? If I were not persuaded that this German nation of ours, in the divinely appointed order of things, is destined to be something great and good, I should throw up the diplomatic profession this very moment. Orders and titles to me have no attraction. The firmness I have shown in combating all manner of absurdities for ten years past is solely derived from faith. Take away my faith and you destroy my patriotism. But for my strict and literal belief in the truths of Christianity, but for my acceptance of the miraculous groundwork of religion, you would not have lived to see the sort of chancellor I am. me a successor as firm a believer as myself and I will resign at once. live in a generation of pagans. I have no desire to make proselytes, but am constrained to confess my faith. If there is among us any self-denial and devotion to king and country, it is a remnant of religious belief unconsciously clinging to our people from the days of their sires. For my own part, I prefer

Find But I

a rural life to any other. Rob me of the faith that unites me to God, and I return to Varzin to devote myself industriously to the production of rye and oats."

[blocks in formation]

QUEST. 6. How many persons are there in the Godhead? ANS. There are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

MATT. xxviii. 19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

2 COR. xiii. 14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

2 JOHN 3. Grace be with you, mercy, and peace, from God the Father.

HEB. i. 8. But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and

ever.

JOHN i. 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Ver. 3. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

REV. i. 8. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

ACTS v. 3. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost? Ver. 4. Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

I. There are three persons in the Godhead. This doctrine can only be known by revelation. "The Trinity" was a term first used by Theophilus, bishop of Antioch in Syria, in the later part of the second century. The term "person" is not used as signifying a separate substance.

1. The Father is God: John i. 18, v. 26; Rom. i. 4.

2. The Son is God: Heb. i. 8; 1 John v. 20; Titus ii. 13, Revised Version; Isa. ix. 6. Divine attributes are ascribed to him. Eternity: Micah v. 2. Unchangeableness: Heb. xiii. 8. Omniscience: John xxi. 17. Omnipotence: Rev. i. 8. Omnipresence: Matt. xxviii. 20.-Divine works are ascribed to him. Creation: John i. 1-3; Col. i. 16, 17. Redemption: Heb. ix. 12. Judgment: Rom. xiv. 10. Miracles. Resurrection of the dead: John v. 28, 29.Worship is ascribed to him: John v. 23; Matt. xxviii. 19; Acts vii. 59, 60. -Evidence of divinity in the Old Testament: Ps. ii., xlv., cx.; Isa. ix.His pre-existence attested by John i 15, vi. 62, viii. 58; 2 Cor. viii. 9.

3. The Holy Ghost is God. The names of God are ascribed to him: Acts

v. 3, 4; Ex. xvii. 7, Ps. xcv. 7, with Heb. iii. 7-11.-Divine attributes are ascribed to him. Omnipresence: Ps. cxxxix. 7. Omniscience: 1 Cor. ii. 10, 11. Omnipotence: Luke i. 35; Rom. viii. 11.-Divine work. Creation: Gen. i. 2 ; Job xxvi. 13; Ps. civ. 30. Miracles: Matt. xii. 28; 1 Cor. xii. 9-11.-Wor ship: 2 Cor. xiii. 14.-His personality proved by Matt. xii. 31, 32; Mark ii. 28, 29; and by his offices, etc. He knows, gives, works, etc.

II. The three Persons are the same in substance.-Not three Beings; their nature is not divided; there is unity in them: John x. 30; xv. 26. The formula of baptism teaches one personal God by three names. Plurality is indicated in some names of God in the Old Testament, and is connected with verbs in singular number: Gen. i. 26. "Remember now thy Creators: " Eccles. xii. 1, margin.

III. The three Persons are equal in power and glory.-Their nature, attributes, and glory are equal, equally worthy of the same honour, obedience, and worship.

LESSONS.

1. This is a mystery to be believed, not explained. That which is above reason is not contrary to reason.

2. Faith in this is necessary to salvation. It runs through the scheme of grace.

3. Communion with God is aided by knowledge of this.

THE NICENE CREED, COMPOSED 325 A.D.

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible:

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, Being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end.

And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. And we believe in one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins, and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

ANECDOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

Sitting lately in a public room at Brighton, where an infidel was addressing the company upon the absurdities of the Christian religion, I could not but be pleased to see how easily his reasoning pride was put to shame. He

« PreviousContinue »