Page:The Doctrines of the New Church Briefly Explained.djvu/35

Rh And in their reply to this inquiry, the thoughtful and accomplished editors of that paper say: "Of all errors the most dangerous are those which pervade the community like malaria in the air; arising no one can tell when or where; pervading all teaching, though avowed in none. Such is the error of Tritheism, the doctrine that there are three Gods. No one teaches it, but most Christians believe it. It is universally denied, and generally accepted; denied in the creeds, accepted in the experience. God the Father is conceived as Judge, majestic, awful, stern, inexorable; the embodiment of law and justice. Christ is conceived as Friend, meek, loving, tender, pitying; the embodiment of a tender compassion. The Holy Spirit is conceived as an Effluence, impalpable, invisible, ineffable; a Shadow cast by God, which eludes all grasp. . . . Does not this fairly describe the commonest thought of God? And is not this really a thought of three Gods?

"This conception of God is so pervasive of Christian literature and Christian teaching that it poisons minds least aware of it. . . . Oh, what a misreported, maligned, ill-treated God is ours! Idolatry still flourishes; and in Christian presses, pulpits, books and Sunday-schools. The idols are sometimes grotesque, sometimes horrible; only they are no longer of wood and stone. "How can you avoid confusion of thought? By taking your thought of God, and your whole thought of God, from the earthly life of the Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Tell your boy friend that the 'Jesus-God' is the only God; that there is no 'other One.' You cannot teach him this lesson