Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-YearBuchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Religion
Faith and Duty: Sermons on Free Texts, with Reference to the Church-Year
Buchheimer, L. B. (Louis Balthaser)
Church year sermons; Lutheran Church -- Sermons; Sermons, American
But though Scripture has only told us _that_ these things are,
without teaching us _how_ they are, yet for the sake of showing
that the mystery of the Trinity is not so utterly at variance with
what we find in earthly things, as unbelievers would fain persuade
us, for the sake of proving how possible it is, even according to
our limited notions, for that which is three in one sense to be
one in another sense, learned and pious men have busied themselves
in seeking out likenesses for the Trinity among the things of this
world. These likenesses, it should be borne in mind, are very
imperfect, and they do not give us a full and just idea of the
glorious Trinity; yet such comparisons may help us in attaching
some sort of notion to the words of the Creed, may keep those words
from lying dead in our minds or, rather, on our tongues.
One such likeness or comparison is the glorious object which our
eyes see in the sky--the sun. That grand orb yonder, from which
all life doth come, may be compared to the Father, from whom all
blessings flow. From it issues light. This we may compare to the
second person of the Trinity, who came forth from the Father, and
who John tells us is the true Light, which lights every man that
cometh into this world. But besides this, there comes from the
sun, heat, which is different from light, and may exist altogether
without it. This heat of the sun may not imperfectly be compared
to the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life, as the Creed calls
Him, for heat is the great fosterer of life. Thus we have, first,
the sun in the sky; secondly, the light which issues from the sun;
thirdly, the heat which accompanies the light--three separate and
distinguishable things; for the sun viewed as an orb is one thing,
the light sent forth from it is another thing, the heat still
another; and yet, what can be more undivided than the sun, its light
and its warmth?
To mention another.--As with the most glorious of heavenly bodies,
so with the purest of earthly bodies--water. Here, too, we have,
first, the fountain, high up among the rocks, far out of man's
reach, answering to the Father; secondly, the stream which issues
from the fountain, and flows down into the valley for the use of
man, which may be likened to Jesus Christ, the Son; thirdly, the
mist which rises from the water, and falls in rain or dew upon the
thirsty ground, which, I need hardly state, answers to the Holy
Ghost, who, as we regarded last Sunday, came down visibly, like the
rain, with a sound as of a rushing mighty wind on the apostles, but
who now descends gently and silently, like the dew, in the silence
of night, on the heart of the believer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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