14 
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VOLUME 2. NUMBER 5. 
SATURDAY, JUNE 17, 1905. 
a 
ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF HIS 
RELIGIOUS FAITH. 
(Continued from Page 1, 2nd column.) 
or from the teachings of others 
That, however, which is of greatest 
value to a man in the stress of life 
is the knowledge of God which he 
has derived through personal  ex- 
perience. Theories as to the nature 
and attributes of God are of little 
value except as they bear the test 
of practical experience. Such a 
statement is not intended to deny 
value to speculative reasoning, but 
rather to assert that, in the end, all 
speculative reasoning must submit 
to practical tests. All doctrines of 
whatever form, content or complex- 
ion are established or smashed 
sooner or later by actual experience. 
In this paper it shall be my aim to 
indicate some of the truths which 
I have apprehended through per- 
sonal experience and - absorbed 
through meditation and hold to be 
essential elements of my religious 
faith. 
I shall treat the following sub- 
jects in the order given: 1, “A pre- 
liminary statement as to the funda- 
mental ground of my Christian. be- 
lief and-experience:’ 2, “The:-doc- 
trine of God.” 3, “The person of 
Jesus Christ.” 4, “The doctrine of 
sin.” 5, “The doctrine of the atone- 
ment.” 6, “The means and instru- 
ments of the spread of the Gospel, 
including a mention of the work of 
the Holy Spirit. and the church, the 
authority and inspiration of the 
Bible and the service of hostile 
criticism.” 
That which must always put a 
‘label ona Christian thinker, what- 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
ever may be the piety of his Chris- 
tian life, is his belief as to the na- 
ture of the person of Jesus Christ. 
Of the several theories which have 
always been put forth and even to- 
day are advocated to explain the 
marvelous’ personality of Jesus 
I can accept but that one which as- 
serts with equal emphasis his essen- 
tial humanity and essential divinity. 
But in these days such a statement 
needs definition especially in regard 
to the word divinity, a word which 
has been so successfully juggled as 
to make it mean almost anything 
or nothing at all except as it be 
definitely and explicitly filled with 
meaning. 
When I speak of the divinity of 
Jesus Christ, I have in mind a divin- 
ity as distinct in kind from the di- 
vinity which we find in man as the 
Creator is distinct in kind from the 
creature. jesus was not simply 
God-like, He was God. “In the be- 
ginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God and the Word 
was God” (John 1:1): “All things 
were made by Him” (John 1:3). 
On the other hand Jesus was as 
really man as He was really God. 
“The Word was made flesh’ 
Joh 714) esteel Mcompelleds to 
make myself clear as to my belief in 
the real incarnation of the Son of 
God even at the risk of repetition, 
for upon this belief depends every 
other doctrine which I hold. What- 
ever may be the difficulties of try- 
ing to understand the possibility of 
an incarnation I cannot consent to 
any search for relief which ends in 
so muddying the pool of thinking 
as to make indistinct and even iden- 
tical the terms human and divine. I 
am conscious that I am man _ and 
not God. I am also conscious that 
while Jesus is man, He. is at the 
same time so infinitely more than 
man that the term God is the only 
appropriate name I can apply to 
Him. 
That which naturally flows from 
a belief in the divinity of Jesus of 
Nazareth is a surrender to His ab- 
solute Lordship. But such a sur- 
render involves a recognition and 
acceptance of Jesus as Redeemer 
from sin and separation from God 
to righteousness and _ fellowship 
with God. Perhaps I can best sum- 
marizge my Own experience as a 
Christian by adopting the words of 
my beloved teacher, Dr. Mackenzie, 
and stating in his concise language 
that I “find and realize reconcilia- 
tion and fellowship with God 
through faith in Jesus Christ as 
Redeemer and Lord.” 
But such a statement as this, 
which may be taken as a definition 
of Christian experience in general, 
involves the whole range of Chris- 
tian doctrines as to the nature and 
attributes of God and man and the 
need and means of man’s salvation. 
These doctrines centre in and _ ra- 
diate from the work and person of 
Jesus Clirist as the supreme revela- 
tion of God to man, of man to him- 
self as he is, and of man to himself 
as he ought to be and can be. All 
doctrines ultimately rest upon two 
sources: Ist, the consciousness of 
Jesus; 2d, the consciousness of his 
followers. The necessary limits of 
this paper prevent of course a full 
discussion of all the Christian doc- 
trines. My attempt shall be, there- 
fore, to select certain of the more 
inclusive doctrines and_ indicate 
briefly the line of thought which I 
have come to hold in regard to 
them. 
1. As to the doctrine of God, it 
seems to me very clear that through 
the person and work of Jesus Christ 
we have revealed to us God as 
Father, God as Son, and God as 
Holy Ghost. In other words, I be- 
lieve that any Christian can experi- 
ence the doctrine of the Trinity, 
and that only in so far as this doc- 
trine is a recognized experience of 
the Christian community does the 
church take full advantage of the 
knowledge of God made _ possible 
through Jesus Christ. The doctrine 
of the Trinity has always been and 
must always be, I suppose, the 
great battle ground of theological 
thinking. The problems that it 
presents for solution are many and 
admitedly difficult, but they are 
not comparable in difficulty to those 
problems which arise out of any 
other theory of the personality of 
God. To my mind it is the only 
theory which satisfies the facts of 
history, and accords with the con- 
sciousness of Jesus Christ and His 
followers. I know of no final solu- 
tion of all of its problems, but I can- 
not take the position of the Ritsch- 
lian school and deny that human 
reason is capable of solving them. 
Such a paralysis of thinking does 
not appeal to me. Modern studies 
of personality by psychologists and 
philosophers are throwing new light 
on the doctrine of the Trinity. More 
clearly than ever do we see that hu- 
man personality itself is not a sim- 
ple unity of the numerical order, 
but that it is a complex organism 
realizing itself richly through vari- 
ous centres of activity. With such 
light on human personality we can- 
not assign to God a nature less rich 
in content or more limited in means 
of expression. With every fresh in- 
sight into the nature of man, we 
get a new revelation of the nature 
of Him who created man in His own 
et get ge 
