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tion, cr one composed of King Louis Le Grand, his dignitaries of Church and state; so that the proud m constrained on one occasion to say to the intrepid pr have heard many great orators, and been satisfied w but when you spoke I was very dissatisfied with mys preachers take note of this.

4. We have here, finally, the most complete authori training of canillates for the Christian ministry, a always prevailed in the historical Church. The G Latin classics have always been regarded as importan in a preparation for the study of theology. Besides learning in its widest scope, including the arts and should be part of the preacher's general equipment theology, chief of all, all else being as scaffolding, help maids, servants. The life of St. Paul leaves no dou what the Christian ministry should be in this respect. the present age, perhaps more than in any other in the thoroughly educated ministry is imperatively demand needed. The pulpit to-day needs Pauline eloquence and And they who diligently and in true apostolic and spirit, pursue their preparation with such result in v scarcely fail to secure it in sufficient degree.

Verbum ad sapientes: Let no candidate for the Cl ministry vex his soul concerning place or position, or i that there is any place on earth where there are human that is not good enough for him and for the exercise talents, however great and splendid these may be. S was glad to preach the gospel anywhere and to any pec whether at Lystra, where the brutal populace stoned h he was thought to be dead; in the house of Lydia, the in purple; in Philippi, where the "best society" in his c gation were the jailer and his family; in Thessalonic Berea, where his success stirred up the rage and jealou Jews and Gentiles against him, and he had to flee for his at Corinth, where his preaching, rhetoric and Greek were culed by lofty pretenders, and at scores of other places

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he was shamefully treated and persecuted; at the Areopagus, where he stood on the pulpit from which Demosthenes and others of immortal fame had spoken, and proclaimed the "Unknown God" and His Incarnate Son to the most refined and cultured men of Athens; at Jerusalem, to the assembled priests and doctors boiling over with rage against him, the pliant multitude ready at their word to tear him in pieces; or at the world's capital, in his own hired house, "teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness," within the prison walls to all who approached him, and in the palace of the Emperor. No matter where or to whom, Paul was always happy of the opportunity to deliver the gospel message. A Christian minister of that stamp, thoroughly trained for his work and wholly consecrated to God, will warm into the genuine eloquence that is more than a human art, and that will in due time transform a human wilderness into a garden of the Lord. Let every candidate for the Christian ministry discipline and try himself by the great Apostle's example, and by his most reasonable challenge and test: "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ."

IV.

THE PERSONALITY AND OFFICE OF GO

FATHER.

BY REV. J. W. LOVE, A.M.

THAT there is a Supreme Being, whether the Go Bible, or some other, is not only very generally conc both Christian and pagan peoples, but is also a very man's innate consciousness. While here and there an ual may be found, who, from wilful blindness of mind a ness of heart, can deny the existence of a personal God, no race of people, or even tribe of any nationality that believe in and worship some form of Deity. In the hi mankind there are comparatively few atheists known, those who profess atheism, it may be doubted whether n any of them have been able to crush out of their hea feeling, that, after all, there is a God be He Jehovah, B Mishna, or "The Unknown God."

To attempt to prove the existence of God, especially civilized and enlightened people, it seems to me, would an attempt to prove our own existence, and the existence world around us-an act of sheer folly. I do not believ the Word of God, which Christians recognize as His divin elation, anywhere warrants us in attempts to prove any profound truths, by a process of reasoning outside of its declarations, or even to do so from God's first revelation book of nature. Ministers are commissioned and ordain preach and teach the divine truth, not to prove it independ of what the Word itself teaches. The truth, if simply prea or taught, will always find a response in the needs of man,

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The Personality and Office of God the Father. authenticate itself to his inner con sciousness, if he is really a seeker after truth.

The God of the Bible addresses Himself both to our reason and our faith. The one is never really in conflict with the other. Opinions may greatly differ, and all sorts of absurd notions may be mistaken for the contents of faith, but true faith, which is the gift of God, will always be in fullest harmony with true reason. It does accept and appropriate that which is above reason, or which cannot be fathomed by the finite mind, but it is never contrary to reason. An intelligent faith is always in harmony with reason, though not necessarily one that understands all hidden or revealed truth.

In discussing the subject, I do not therefore feel called upon to prove the personality of God the Father, or to treat of His office outside of what we are plainly taught in His Word, and of what has been found true in human experience. Whatever uses speculative theology may have, it is not a divinely authorized agency for saving, or even for comforting sin-distressed souls. The same is true of all forms of philosophy, and of scientific teaching, not based upon or properly a part of God's inspired revelation, which we call the Bible.

Why, then, do we believe in the personality and office of God the Father, as distinct from the personalities and offices of God the Son, and of God the Holy Ghost? I answer, simply because we are so taught in the inspired Word. It would take me beyond the limits of this article to argue at any length the wellestablished doctrine of the Trinity. It will suffice to say, (as is well known,) that the prominent teachers in all branches of the orthodox Christian Church, from the apostolic fathers, down to the present, have interpreted divine revelation as teaching both the Unity and Trinity of the Godhead. The Old Testament emphasized more especially, it is true, the Unity of God, because the tendency in Old Testament times was to polytheism. But the germ of the doctrine of the Trinity is clearly found in the teachings of patriarchs, prophets, poets and historians of the old dispensation. The very name of God—Elohim,

-which is plural-and the account given of confere by the persons of the Godhead in reference to the cr redemption of man, even long before He was crea plainly, especially in the light of New Testament teach while the Deity is one, there was already in the co Eternity a varied manifestation of later and fuller revelation. The personality of an omnipotent, omnis omnipresent God and Father, was in fact a fundame trine of the Jewish religion from the first, and contin such, to the present day. It is admitted that the de the Trinity, as held and taught in the Christian Chu fuller development of personality in Deity, but it is in contradictory to the revealed truth given the Jew for ance, comfort, and instruction. That Jesus, and the of the New Testament all teach the personality of Fat and Holy Ghost, seems to be as plain as language can

To quote passages would be superfluous to reader REVIEW. It was so clear to the mind of the apostolic an tive Church fathers, that it was not even thought nece treat of it in a technical sense. It was only after it be perverted and misconstrued by false teachers, t Church felt called upon to formulate, and carefully wor tarian creeds-especially the one known as the Nicen It might be interesting, but space forbids, to treat at le the great trinitarian controversy, that culminated in th expression of saving, comforting truth as contained creed referred to, adopted by the Council of Nice, A. D

We may only add, that so thoroughly was the tri question settled by the Nicene fathers, that there has be little room for controversy, in regard to it, since the Accordingly to-day the personality of the Father, with the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, stands as an impregnab wark of our Holy Christianity, against the puny efforts o tarians, and all other unbelievers, to overthrow it.

We hasten to speak of the office of God the Father, as o from that of the other persons of the Holy Trinity. What

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