Page:The Paraclete.djvu/23

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THE HOLY GHOST VERY GOD
11

twilight to the perfect day of full truth and knowledge. We may say that these expectations have not been disappointed. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity, although it is not clearly revealed until the descent of the Holy Ghost of the Day of Pentecost, may yet be traced in the very earliest records of the sacred collections and even in the beliefs of the heathen. To some it appears to be reflected in the constitution of the nature of man, and even in the structure of the material world.

It has been well said that we must not quarrel with the evidences of the Being of God which have brought satisfaction to other minds, nor lay too much stress upon those which approve themselves to our own judgment. In the same way, we may not deny that there may be validity in the illustrations of the Holy Trinity which pious and thoughtful men say they have discovered; at the same time that we must beware of laying too great stress upon proofs which are of doubtful value. It may be that the Creator of all things intended us to see in the sun, with its central fire and the light and heat proceeding from it, a material image of that spiritual Reality by which all things subsist. The tree with its root, its trunk, and its branches, may to many minds a striking symbol of the same truth.[1] If we are

  1. Tertullian, Adv. Praxeam, viii.