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THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. J. H. MELISH.
Theme: The Trinity.
Brooklyn, N. Y.—The Rev. John
Howard Melish, rector of the Church
of the Holy Trinity, preached a ser-
Tnon on ' The Trinitarian Conception
of God, which has attracted much
attention and the publication of
which has been requested. The text
was from St. John 15:26: "When
the Comforter is come, whom I will
send unto you from the Father, even
the spirit of truth, which proceedeth
from the Father, He shall bear wit
ness of Me.” Mr. Melish said:
The vital religious thinking of our
day is concerned with experience. A
creed or theology is of little value
because it is old and has the author
ity of some council; its worth, its
truth, springs from its ability to
make articulate the facts of life.
this theology,” we ask, "in
terpret experience or is it a mere
academic formula which a few intel
lectuals have spun for themselves?”
We of to-day have distinguished be
tween religion and theology. Re
ligion is the life of God in the soul
of man. Theology is the interpreta
tion of this life. It is therefore re
lated to religion as botany is related
to the flowers. A man may be re
ligious and be entirely ignorant of
theology. He may be religious and
reject the theology of the past. He
may he religious and hold the New
Theology. The theology which is of
real value, whether old or new, is
that which interprets "the religious
life, which takes those experiences of
the common folk, the average man,
and tells him what they mean.
In the light of this new approach
to theology does the Trinitarian con
seption of God mean anything? Or
Is it a mere dogma of the church
which some will accept out of loyalty
to the church, and others will reject
out of loyalty to the truth and their
own intelligence? Is there any real
experience which receives interpreta
tion from the Trinitarian theology?
Does this Trinitarian conception of
the life divine bring to our human
life enough to enable a man to accept
it with loyalty and sincerity? It was
once my privilege, as' university lec
turer, to come into somewhat inti
mate relations with some young men
who were studying to become Jewish
rabbis. What interested them was
the Christian thought of the trinity.
They wondered how any intelligent
person could believe in the Trinity,
for to their monotheism it seemed
like deifying a man— whom they
were willing to regard as second only
to Isaiah—and so denying the funda
mental truth of their religion that
God is one. It is only by' going
deeper into life itself, by getting a
broader view of the larger human
life we call history, that we are able
to enter deeper into God. The Trin
itarian conception of the divine life,
if it is to be accepted with loyalty
and sincerity, must give a more in
telligent and satisfactory interpre
tation of life and history than the
Unitarian conception of God. As
Gwatkin says in his book, “The
Knowledge of God,” “The surface
drift seems Unitarian in our time,
and advanced thinkers take it for
certain that the religion of the fu
ture will be some form of Unitarian
ism. Were the political outlook dif
ferent 1 might have less difficulty in
agreeing with them; but a broader
view of history seems to point an
other way."
in the New Testament there is no
Trinitarian theology. In fact, there
is no theology of any kind if by the
ology we mean organized knowledge
of religion. Even the Fourth Gospel
and St. Paul’s letters, said to be the
ological, are not theology in our mod
ern sense of a systematic divinity.
The New Testament is a book of re
ligion; it is the record of experience;
it deals with life, not the theory of
life. There is, however, in the gos
pels and epistles what we may call a
Trinitarian experience: In this text,
for example, there is reference to the
Comforter, the Father and to Jesus
Himself. Father, Son and Spirit in
this and in many other passages are
spoken of as concerned with life, the
life which men are living here on
earth. The spirit which is to be in
men, comforting, guiding, inspiring
them in all the vicissitudes and ef
forts of life, is said to bear witness
to Jesus. It will take of Him His
truth and life, and show them unto
men. Asa scholar bears witness to
his teacher, even though he may go
far beyond him, so the Spirit wit
nesses to Jesus. On the other hand,
the spirit has its origin in God; it
comes from the Father, from whom
Jesus Himself also came. Behind
both Jesus and the Spirit is the Fa
ther, who loveth all His children.
This is not academic language, but
the words of life, descriptions of
actual experience of Christian men
and women all through the cen
turies; all for whom the person of
Jesus has deep spiritual value and
who have confidence in the spirit of
truth and believe in the fatherhood
of God have shared this three-fold
life and experience of the men of the
New Testament.
It is this experience which forms
the foundation of the Christian re
ligion. Every man who shares it be
longs to the church by virtue of this
life. It is the misfortune, nay, the
calamity, of the church that it has
not kept this fact clearly in mind.
Again and again it has substituted
for it some theory of organizzation
or doctrinal statement which imme
diately destroyed the church’s unity
and created rivalries and separatists.
This is the only possible basis of a re
united Christendom; not the Catholic
creeds, nor the historic episcopate,
not the sacraments or any external
bond, nothing but the three-fold life
and experience can fulfil the Master’s
prayer that “they all may be one
even as we are one; thou in me and
I in thee, that they may be one in
us.”
To this personal experience of the
individual Christian we should add
the larger experience of the cen
turies. What witness does history
bear to the three-fold life?
In the experience of the race na
ture has played a great part. At the
present moment the minds of innum
erable persons are turned to the
heavens. Whether men interpreted
the facts correctly or incorrectly, the
facts themselves have inspired in
man of every age wonder, and, in the
old days, worship. Both in the stars
overhead and nature underfoot and
around men have felt the presence
of a power not themselves. It has
inspired poetry and created religions.
The worship of nature was man’s
first worship. It is the object of the
man’s most exact knowledge. To
know this world outside one’s self
in some of its marvelous workings
has been the aim of our science.
Now, what religious interpretation
shall we put upon nature? Shall we
spell it with a capital N and regard
it as the cause of all things, as many
do? Or shall we regard it as the out
ward, visible manifestation of a pres
ence whose
Dwelling place is the setting sun.
And the round ocean and the living air.
And if behind nature there is this
Power, using nature as a garment,
what shall we call it? What is its
name? The old catechism says: “I
learn to believe in God the Father,
who hast made me and all the
world.” What an interpretation of
man’s experience of nature is this —
to know that behind and through all
this universe is God, whose relations
to it is that of father or creator;
whose attitude toward it is fatherly!
Such is the first interpretation of the
Trinity.
In one’s experience of life our hu
manity as well as nature plays an
important part. There was a time
when nature was here in all its
power, but man had not yet ap
peared. The earth was the home of
beast and bird and fish. Then came
;the human creature, related to all
other living things in many physical
ways, but mentally separated from
the animal world by an ocean of dis
tance. For unnumbered centuries
now has this human creature lived
upon this planet. He has worked out
Institutions, literatures, philosophies,
Religions, arts and crafts. Here is a
:human development corresponding to
nature’s life, and yet higher and
more complex.
What is the interpretation which
throws light upon the facts of human
ihistory? Is man the lord of creation,
or is there some spirit higher than
the human, manifesting himself in
:and through the human, incarnating
himself in humanity? Does man find
his highest life in serving and admir
ing himself, or in serving a divine
spirit which reveals itself to him in
his reason and his conscience? And
if there is some spirit, akin to the
human spirit and yet different from
it, calling men ever to follow him,
what shall we name him? Again I
find the answer in the old catechism
of our childhood: “I have to believe
in God the Son who hath redeemed
one and all mankind.” In mankind
there is at work, and has been
throughout its life on this planet,
God. He has not been simply a cre
ator, a father, calling man into being
and sustaining man as He sustains
the physical universe. He is in man
as He is in nature, hut revealing
Himself to the human as He could
not to the brute, as the Power which
upholds the human, feeds it, inspires
it, calls it ever back from the sens
ual to the moral and spiritual, leads
it ever forward to its goal and pur
pose. In Jesus of Nazareth this Son
—God, who is in every man, has
manifested Himself most completely
and perfectly. There is seen, as St.
John says, “the light which lighten
eth every man that cometh into the
world.” As nature bears witness to
God the Father, so humanity beam
witness to God the Son.
So does our human life find its
illumination in the divine life. Our
experience with nature, humanity
and our own souls finds its interpre
tation in the truth that God is Father
revealed to us through the nature
which He has made; that God is Son,
manifested in the humanity which
He is redeeming; that God is Holy
Spirit, known in the spirits of each
one of us whom He is sanctifying.
The truth of the Trinity does not
end here. It asserts further that
these three are one. So frequently
men find themselves unable to dwell
at home, in more than one of these
sides of life. Our scientists are stu
dents cf nature; they know the world
of physics, chemistry and biology.
Their spirits roam at home within
those fields. They know God the Fa
ther and worship Him. But for hu
manity they have little interest; his
tory does not speak to them; and the
spiritual experiences of individual
men puzzle them and seem morbid
and pathological. Other men there
are for whom nature means nothing.
They are appalled by the apparent
ruthlessness and injustice of her
ways. Their spirits are at home in
the life of humanity. History is the
voice of the Eternal to them, speak
ing words of life. God the Son Is
their God and about God the Creator
they are frankly agnostic. There are
still other men for whom neither of
these voices has any meaning. His
tory Is the voice of dead ages. Na
ture has no voice at all. What is real
to them is that Spirit which they
know at first hand through their own
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EXPERIENCE
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reasons and consciences. It is God
the Holy Spirit which is their God.
Again and again we find that these
men misunderstand each other.
Their neighbor seems to speak a dif
ferent religious language. Other
men, they sometimes frankly say,
worship a different God.
The undying truth of the Trinity
is that these three are one. There is
only one God. But to different men
He manifests Himself in different
ways; to some through nature, to
others through humanity, to others
still through individual experience.
But behind nature, humanity and the
individual life, binding all together
in a splendid unity, is the One Soul
of the universe, related to the uni
verse as the human soul is related to
the body. God grant that from this
Soul, our Father, may proceed to you
and me the Holy Spirit, to bear wit
ness in us to the life and character
of the perfect Son, Christ Jesus.
THE NATIONAL GAME.
“Riick” Wheat, the young sensation
of the Rrooklvr Superbas, is simply
killing the ball this spring.
The New Bedford (New England
League) Club has returned outfielder
Ulrich to the Brooklyn Club.
A Highlander scout has been in
Worcester. Mass., looking over Foley,
the crack Holy Cross pitcher.
Cleveland still has a weakness for
big pitchers. .Toss, Falkenberg,
Young and Linke form a skyscraping
quartette.
Johnny Kling has been doing little
for Chicago since joining the club.
Jimmy Archer is doing the bulk of
the catching.
Pitcher Higgins has been turned
back to St. Louis by the Denver West
ern League Club, and has now been
sold to Louisville.
There is little doubt that. Captain
Hal Chase, of New York, and Cantain
Harry Lord, of Boston, are being
groomed now for future managerial
honors. <
Bobby Wallace, the Browns’ third
baseman, shows little signs of old
age. He continues to whip the ball
across the diamond with terrific speed
and accuracy.
Manager McGraw is said to have
laid down the rule for his pitchers
that a fine will be inflicted in every
case where more than four bases on
balls are handed out in a game.
The ailment of the Giants is now
diagnosed as weakness behind the
bat, yet only a few weeks ago every
body was saying how much Meyers
had improved as a catcher. He was
hitting good then.
The Cincinnati Club has traded in
fielder Raymond Charles to the Mil
waukee Club, of the American Asso
ciation, for shortston Clyde Robinson,
a veteran player, who has been in the
American Association since it was
founded.
SPORTING.
The Caliph won the motor boat race
from Havana to Atlantic City.
Notre Dame won the Western In
tercollegiate track championship.
R. A. Holden, Jr., of Yale, won the
New England lawn tennis champion
ship.
Howe, of Yale, won both hurdle
races in the Yale-Prinoeton freshmen
track games. That has a familiar
sound.
The American Polo Association has
accepted the challenge of the Hurling
ham Club, of England, for the Inter
national Cup.
Out of r. 65 freshmen at Yale who
answered the question: “What was
your reason for coming to Yale?”
only one said “Athletics.”
Commodore Melville and .Tames A
Blair return from England and an
nounce completion of plans for the
British international motor boat race.
There was an all-round competition
at Harvard recently in which Sani
Lawrence, the high jumper and noln
vaulter, made the greatest total of
points.
Swimming will be droop®' l from
the list of athletic snorts at Harvard,
according to a decision reached by
the Harvard athletic committee be
cause cf its expense.
Frar k Ootcb. of Humboldt. lowa,
successfully defended his title as
wrestling ohamnion of the world by
easilv defeating Stanislaus Zbyszko,
the Polish champion.
F. G. Bvrd, of Atlanta, won the
championship cup of the Southern
Golf Association, defeating R. G.
Bush, Jr., of New Orlpar.s, in the
final round by S up and G to play.
Critics say that James T. .TefMes
looks in fine condition for IPs coming
chamnionship heavyweight fight with
“.Tack” Johnson, but that the real test
of his stamina must come in the ring.
OPPOSE REGISTRATION LAW.
Governor Brown Will Recommend the Appeal
of Present Law.
Atlanta, Ga Governor Brown is
putting the finishing touches to his
message which will he sent to the
general assembly.
As the legislature did not carry into
effect any of the important recoin
mendatons which the governor made
last year, so engrossed was it with
tae McLendon case, it is entirely like
ly that the governor s message this
time will include most, if not all, of
the same recommendations. The gov
ernor has not receded from any of the
positions taken by him last year.
He is still opposed to the six months
in advance registration law, and will
urge that it be amended so that the
citizens of the state who have paid
their taxes may not be deprived oi
their right to vote. The governor has
with great care, compiled statistics
showing how thousands of white citi
zens in the various counties, the
country counties particularly, are be
ing disfranchised this year under the
operation of the present law.
The governor still believes in a re
vision of the methods of assessing and
collecting taxes so that the burden
may be equalized among the counties
and the people. He believes in prompt
payment for the school teachers, and
he will have something to say on that
score. He also favors a reformation in
the public school system with a view
to its greater efficiency. He believes
in the creation of a state labor bu
reau, to lessen the number of strikes
by mediating between employer and
employe.
The governor will also have some
thing to say on the Chattanooga lanu
purchase. He will give his reasons
for declining to make the purchase re
commended by the legislature last
year, which reasons will probably
prove satisfactory to fairminded legis
lators. He will also have some re
commendations to make as to what
course the state should take
FACTS ABOUT HOGS.
Professor Hite Tells Farmers How to
Raise Fine Hogs.
Athens, Ga. —Professor J. E. Hite,
director of the agricultural extension,
State College of Agriculture, gave *
most interesting interview in regards
to the big profits to be derived from
growing or raising hogs.
“Georgia has a number of lean-meat
producing crops, such as cow peas,
velvet beans, soy beans, vetch, crim
son clover burr clover and Lespedeza,
which are well suited to growing
pork. The hogs furnishing the great
est proportion of lean to fat meat are
of the bacon type. Select breeding
animals with a natural tendency to
grow large, and reach their develop
ment early in life; that is, they should
grow rapidly to beyond the weight
desired for market. After the hog
passes twol hundred and twenty-five
pounds live weight, the grains gener
ally becom* too expensive, that is the
cost of a pound of grain exceeds the
market price.
“Care should be exercised in feed
ing the sows and market hogs, since
this one factor of feeding largely con
trols the number of pigs secured. The
sows should be kept in a thrifty and
healthy condition, not too fat, but
more important, not too thin. Plenty
of exercise and clean drinking water
are indispensible to good health. Graz
ing leguminous crops furnish the ex
ercise, and a palatable, nutritious,
bulky and cheap food for the sows.
Corn alone is neither a good feed
for growing hogs, nor for sows, it
does not build sufficient bone and
lean meat. An exclusive corn diet
will cause hogs to are too early
in life. Ground pea ars and wheat
by-products, mixeu corn are
good feeds for the hogs during their
early period of growth, and splendid
for the breeding herd.
“It is a decided mistake to use a
scrub boar for producing market
hogs. The good grade sow is profit
able but the “good” grade boar is
never so profitable as the good pure
bred, and the pigs from the latter
have opportunities from their birth
right that pigs from the latter cannot
overcome.
“Shade is very necessary during
the hot weather, and natural shade is
best. In winter, the hogs should be
protected from the cold rain and
winds, for the hog's coat is thin. In
dividual farrowing houses can be
erected for $5.00 each —write the col
lege for plan. *
“Certainly the following is not a
too hopeful view of a hog breeding
proposition. The sows should farrow
February Ist and raise six pigs to be
marketed October 20th, weighing one
hundred and eighty pounds, at 6
cents per pound live weight (an a\-
erage price.) She should farrow
again August Ist, and raise six pigs
to be marketed May Ist, weighing one
hundred and eighty pounds at 6 cents.
This sow will cost probably $25 or
$3O, and yield a gross return of $129.60.
Pork should be produced for at least
4 cents per pound on nutritious glar
ing crops, and yield a net return per
sow of $43.20. If the hogs were sold
at 7 cents the net returns would be
$64.80 per sow.
GEORGIA NEWS NOTES.
Former Governor Smith will not be
a candidate for governor this year.
In spite of numerous petitions which
have been sent to him by his friends
and in spite of urgent requests from
his supporters that he stand for re
election to the gubernatorial office in
the election this fall, the former gov
ernor states that he will stand by the
ultimatum he issued two or three
weeks ago in which he declared that
under no circumstances would he be
come a candidatee for governor in
the coming election.
AMBERGRIS TREASURE.
Story of a $30,000 Lump and Some
thing About the Substance.
The story of how a Manches'or (N.
H.) painter found in the St. Lawrence
river a lump of grayish substanco
weighing thirty-eight pounds, and
how he has discovered that the solid
fatty stuff is ambergris and i3 worth
$30,000, recalls the nearest thing to
romance that ever entered into the
lives of Gloucester and New Bedford
whalers, in the old days when Amer
ican whalers dared every sea. It was
like a lottery. Once in a lifetime
you might chance on the decaying
body of a whale, giving ofT an awful
smell, and inside that whale would
be a fortune enough so that you
would never have to go to sea again.
Charles Reade, as far as we remem
ber, is the only writer to introduce
ambergris into fiction. In ‘‘Love Me
Little, Love Me Long," David tells
Miss Fountain how ‘‘the skipper
stuffed their noses and ears with cot
ton steeped in aromatic vinegar, and
they lighted short pipes and broached
the brig upon the putrescent monster
and grappled to it; and the skippor
jumped on it and drove his spade
(sharp steel) in behind the whale’s
side fins.” /
It is a matter of record that not
far from the Windward islands a
Yankee skipper in one of the best
old whaling years did cut out of a
whale 130 pounds of ambergris,
which was cold for £5OO. The price
quoted for many years was $0 an
ounce. Ambergris is often found
floating on the sea, particularly off
the coast of Brazil and of Madagas
car. The Bahamas send more than
any other source to market. The
stuff is a secretion of the sperm
whale which dies of the disease pro
ducing the perfume matter. Chem
ists find it hard to account for the
fact that the smell of the dead whale
is so horrible w'hen the substance
taken out is valuable only as a
source of sweet smells. —Brooklyn
Eagle. ,
Lightning as a Fertilizer.
Often on mountain seacoasts thq
vapor-laden south wind is seen cov
ering the mountain peaks with a
cloudy veil. This same phenomenon
can be seen atop some of our peaky
spires. Now, atmospheric electricity
can take these same routes and
harmlessly and silently balance and
mix up and neutralize the differing
electric loads of earth and air. This
may be all to the good in insuring,
for miles around, safety from thun
derbolts, but at the same time it
may b£ stealing something from thq
farms and gardens of the vicinage,
for lightning loads the air with
bushels of nitrous gases which de
scend with the rain to enrich the
ground.—Tip in the New York Press
THE SMART MAN.
Grimkie (a resident)—Blvsterre,
who lives next door to me, is the most
stupid specimen of humanity I have
ever seen, and yet every one in town
■peaks of him as “the smart man.”
Greenleaf (a stranger)—Why is
that?
Grimkie —He’s the proprietor of a
mustard plaster factory.—Chicago
News.
WHY NOT?
“Senator Wombat has just read
‘Lucile’ for the first time. Says it
is a magnificent poem.”
“Enthusiastic about it, is he?”
“So much so that he wants to have
R reprinted as a public document.”
—Louisville Courier-Journal.
A DETERMINED WOMAN
Finally Found a Food That Cured
Her.
“W’hen I first read of the remark
able effects of Grape-Nuts food, I de
termined to secure some,” says a
woman of Salisbury, Mo. “At that
time there was none kept In this
town, but my husband ordered some
from a Chicago traveler.
“I had been greatly afflicted with
sudden attacks of cramps, nausea,
and vomiting. Tried all sorts of rem
edies and physicians, but obtained
only temporary relief. As soon as I
began to use the new food the cramps
disappeared and have never returned.
“My old attacks of sick stomach
were a little slower to yield, but by
continuing the food, that trouble has
disappeared entirely I am to-day
perfectly well, can eat anything and
everything I wish, without paying the
penalty that 1 used to. W r e would
not keep house without Grape-Nuts.
“My husband was so delighted with
the benefits I received that he has
been recommending Grape-Nuts to
his customers and has built up a very
large trade on the food. He sells
them by the case to many of the lead
ing physicians of the county, who
recommend Grape-Nuts very general
ly. There is some satisfaction in us
ing a really scientifically prepared
food.”
Read the little book, “The Re ad
to Wellville,” in pkgs. “There’s a
Reason.’’
Ever read the above letter? Anew
one appears from time to time. They
are genuine, true, and full of human
interest.