SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 59, 18 June 1910, Page 12

SUNDAY READING.

THE HOLY TRINITY. P • P At St. Mary's, New Plymouth, on f' Trinity Sunday, 22nd May, the Rev. E. ; Allanson delivered a most interesting and instructive sermon on the subject ol ' the Holv Trinity, taking as his text X. Thes.,"v. 23. He said:— To-day our attention is called to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. The average churchgoer seems to think this doctrine is utterly ununderstandable. and does not attempt to understand it. True, it is not to be fully comprehended by us, but its bein« a revelation, i.e., "unavailing of God to man," it must be - ' more understandable than the doctrine of the God-hc-ad as revealed to the Jewish Church. T think the difficulty arises because we do not understand ourselves, • and not knowing ourselves to he trinities, we fail to'grasp as wo otherwise i ' might the revelation of God as a triune toeing. What I want 'briefly to point out to-dav, then, is that man is a triune being, having three distinct personalities, and yet but one being, and ■when we thus know ourselves we shall bo better able to .know God as revealed •to us in the doctrine, i.e., the teaching of the Trinity. First, then, we must be careful to keep before our minds that we are thinking not on material but on spiritual lines. It is the ego—the self—that is behind all that is material of which we are to think. Now, what is that ego! What is that self but a spiritual verity, which we know exists, but which we have never seen or handled; which we cannot explain, which we are absolutelv certain does exist We cannot sav, "I 'think' I exist," or "I 'believe' I exist," but I "know' I exist." It is 'by intuition alone that we know of our existence. We have to start out in our searbh for truth with this absolutely certain fact of our existence, that the ego, the self, which lies hidden back and beyond all that can be conceived of as material, a stern reality, and iiiat everything else has to be guaged and understood in relation to this great undoubted and undoubtable reality. , I know that I exist as something separate—distinct from the material frame with which I am intimately related, and through which I make my existence manifest. It is through intuition lam able to say "I know I am," but. more, "I know I am a 'personal' being." Personality has been denned by one of the greatest thinkers of the past as "persistence of consciousness," and I think it never can be more beautifully defined. Think for a moment, "persistence of consciousness." I am the same person I was ten minutes ago, ten Years ago, fifty years ago. My consciousness of myself persists, in spite of myriads of changes in my physical frame, in sprte of my constant and varied experiences. I still am the same ego—the same self. I know that lam myself—not another. " This, then, is our starting point, and as a personal being I manifest my personality to others by the exercise of will, intelligence and love, or moral faculty. • ' . Knowing of my personality by tion, I know, not think, or believe, but I "know" that you, too, are, personal beings as I see you, exercising will, reason and affection. Were it my purpose (which it is not i to-day) I could, through this same chain .of reasoning, show you God as a Personal Being, and with the same absolute certainty with which I can say, "I know I am a personal being"—and that you are personal beings l know that the Great Creator is personal, whatever else He may be. But to-day I want to show that I as a human being and you as human beings are triune. Our text speaks of spirit, soul and body', which the Apostle prays may be sanctified wholly and blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Not simply unto the day of death, but away beyond unto the final "consummation of all things." Thus he reminds us that this great work of sanctification and preservation is not to stop at death, but to go on right through the intermediate state up to v the resurrection at the last day, and that thus we may, like God Himself, be trinities in unity. Remember, then, that personality is "persistence of consciousness," and that it is manifested in xthe exercise of will, intelligence and affection, and I think I can show you that you have three distinct personalities. First, there is an animal or physical personality, which manifests itself in animal will or impulse; in animal intelligence or instinct; animal love or passion. This we have in common with the beasts, birds or fishes. Second, we have a rational personality manifesting itself in will or reasonable choice; by something higher than mere impulse, intelligence or rational consideration; something superior to instinct in rational love or affection, such as we have for our fellows or wives or childTen, being altogether -higher than mere passion. Third, we have a moral personality manifesting the will—in submission to the will of God—the reason in faith in God—the affection, in the love of God, which submission, faith and love all transcend the mere rational will, intelligence and love, as the rational transcends the animal. You may not at once grasp these arguments, tout an illustration will show you how these, three distinct personalities are brought into action and communion in all moral conduct. Imagine yourself in a state of starvation, coming down the street, where a loaf of bread is exposed unprotected in the shop window, your animal personality says: "Take the loaf and satisfy your cravings for food," but the intellectual personality says, "No, don't do it, because the policeman is at hand," and while it is true you will alleviate the pain of hunger if you take it, you will have to suffer other pains and penalties for stealing. You will be arrested and locked up. Therefore on the grounds of expediency, you had better not. But the moral personality says: "No, don't steal, for it is wrong." It is quite true you may not be arrested, and you may alleviate physical pain by the theft, but if you take it you will transgress the moral law or the law of your spiritual being, so therefore don't. Now some such communion goes on it all our moral actions, as you will discover if you examine yourselves, and by listening' to the spiritual personality, you will do the right, irrespective of pain or policy, and you will thus keep the trinity of your being in unity. There are those who are governed simply bv the lower, and live the mere animal life, or you may keep the animal in subjection to the intellectual as u matter of expediency, but unless you keep the animal in subjection to the intellectual and the intellectual in subjection to the moral, you cannot be living the spiritual or moral life. The evolution of your being, the "sanctification of yourself wholly," the preservation of your whole spirit, soul and body blameless, until the coming of the Lord Jesus, only goes on where by struggle and ef- j fort in- ibbe grace of God you keep the trinity of your being in unity. If you have followed me, you will see • ■ that while you are one being, yet you fcaro thsee persons, in that one being

each separate and distinct and yet each' united, the whole three persons making the one man. This being so, is it not reasonable and understandable in a larsre degree that God, as the race has evolved in greater measure, should reveal or unveil Himself as "Three Persons and One God?'' It is always true, \vc must come to ourselves before we can go to the Father, and in proportion as we know ourselves, so shall we be able the better to know God.