The Importance of the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity.

"For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things; to whom be glory forever!" Rom.11:36.

The doctrine of the Holy Trinity was considered so important by the early Christian Church as to make it the subject of a special festival. The true reason why this was done is stated by the Athanasian Creed in the following words: “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the true Christian faith. Which faith except every one do keep whole and unde­ filed, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. But this is the true Christian faith: that we worship one God only in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the persons nor dividing the essence."

No man can be saved without faith in the Triune God. God is the blessed Fountain of Life, not only of the temporal, but also of the spiritual and eternal life. This Fountain is accessible to us only through God the Son. He is the Way to the Father. And on this way the Holy Ghost leads us to the ever-flowing Fountain of Life and makes us partakers of eternal life and happiness. Could we be saved without this faith?

We must therefore confess and defend the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as the chief article of our Christian faith. This doctrine is of vital importance. It distinguishes the Christian Church from all false religions. It is so inseparably connected with the chief doctrines of religion that to deny it is to reject the essence of Christianity and to place oneself outside the pale of the Christian Church. Such as deny one of the three persons of the Godhead are not Christians, even though they claim to believe in the Bible and class themselves with the Christians, as the

Unitarians, the Universalists, the Spiritualists, the Christian Scien­ tists, the Mormons, the Jews, and the lodges. They must be classed with the heathen because they deny the true God. Let us not be deceived by those who attempt to rob us of our faith in the Triune God.

Prayer.

O Triune God, we thank Thee that Thou hast left Thy realm of light to reveal Thyself to us as the one God in three persons. But since this deep mystery of the Holy Trinity far transcends all our thoughts and conceptions, we pray Thee grant us grace to take our reason captive to Thy obedience and do not suffer the foolish­ ness of our reason to oppose Thy wisdom. And do Thou imprint on our hearts the importance of this saving knowledge, that Thou art Three in One, in order that we may cherish this truth as a precious treasure over against all error and in deepest humility revere Thee and gratefully cherish what Thou hast revealed in Thy Word. Amen.