Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/34

28 polytheism, and not the clear, simple love of God. There is true love in it, doubtless, but the comfort of love is not here. The mind is involved in a dismal confusion which we cannot think of without the sincerest pity. No soul can truly rest in God, when God is two or three, and these in such a sense that a choice between them must be continually suggested."—Bushnell's "God in Christ," pp. 131-4.

This, from a man of profound thought, reverent feeling, close observation, deep experience and rare candor; and one whose long and extensive acquaintance among the churches professing the tripersonal doctrine, enabled him to speak with confidence on the subject. And more recent writers of the orthodox school, have borne similar testimony—some of them not hesitating to characterize tripersonalism as tritheism. Thus a correspondent of the Christian Union, as late as December, 1880, writes to that paper:

"A little boy friend of mine spoke recently of 'the Jesus-God, and the other one.' I am aware of a similar confusion of thought. How can I avoid it? How can I learn to think of Jesus as God, without a feeling that there is another, 'the high and mighty Ruler of the universe'? I feel that I lose much that I might have of comfort and rest and joy in prayer and companionship with God, if I were not thus confused. Some find an easy way out of the difficulty by rejecting the divinity of Christ. What can I do, who desire to worship Christ as God?"