(Scripture Reading Exercise).

THE HOLY TRINITY.

SPECIAL TEXT: "And Jesus when he was baptized went straightway out of the water; and lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God, descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: and lo, a voice from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. iii:16, 17.)

[Footnote A: This subject is treated more at length in Seventy's Year Book No. III, also in the writer's "Mormon Doctrine of Deity," Ch. IV, Lesson XXXI, to which the student is referred. Its treatment here is merely to get the idea of the relationship that the Holy Ghost sustains to the other two personages of the Trinity.]

DISCUSSION.

1. Belief in the Godhead: "We believe in God the Eternal Father, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost."^[A]

[Footnote A: "Articles of Faith"—Joseph Smith, from the Wentworth Letter 1842, Hist. of the Church, Vol. IV, p. 535 et Seq.]

Such is the authoritative declaration of the Church as to its faith in the Godhead. Such is the Godhead of the New Testament Scriptures—the Christian Trinity.

2. Scripture Proof of the Trinity: In four separate ways is this made apparent: (1) at the baptism of Jesus. As Jesus, who is God, the Son, came forth from his baptism at the hands of John, a manifestation of the presence of God the Holy Ghost, was given in the sign of the Dove, which rested upon Jesus; while, lo, a voice from heaven, the voice of God, the Father, was heard, saying—-"This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased";^[A] (2) in the commission given to the apostles to teach all nations: "and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you."^[B] (3) in the vision of Stephen; the mob rushed upon Stephen—"But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked steadfastly into heaven, and saw the Glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God."^[C] (4) in the apostolic benediction, viz., "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."^[D]

[Footnote A: Matt. iii:16, 17.]

[Footnote B: Matt. xxviii:18, 19.]

[Footnote C: Acts vii:55, 56.]

[Footnote D: II Cor. xiii:14.]

This Godhead of three divine persons is emphatically proclaimed in the Book of Mormon: They shall be "arraigned before the bar of Christ, the Son, and God the Father, and the Holy Spirit, which is one Eternal God, to be judged according to their works."^[A] "And after this manner shall ye baptize in my name [this after giving the baptismal formula—I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, see context], for verily I say unto you, that the Father and the Son, and the Holy Ghost are one"—Jesus.^[B] "The Father, and I and the Holy Ghost are one."—Jesus.^[C]

[Footnote A: Alma xi:44.]

[Footnote B: II Nephi xi:24, 27.]

[Footnote C: Ibid ver. 36. See also III Nephi xxxiii:10; and Mormon vii:7.]

3. The Doctrine of the Trinity Formulated in the Early Christian Church: To these scriptural groupings of the three persons into a holy trinity, may be added that earliest of post apostolic symbols known commonly as the "Apostles' Creed," because of the tradition that it was formulated by the apostles immediately before their dispersion into the world to fulfill the commission given to them by the Christ to teach all nations; but which notion is now very generally discredited, and the truer notion is held to be that this noted summary of Christian faith "arose from small beginnings, and was gradually enlarged as occasion required in order to exclude new errors from the Church."^[A] But, however, and whoever constructed this so-called Apostles' Creed, this much must be said of it, viz., that it represents the almost universal belief of the early Christian Church in a Godhead consisting of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; that this is in harmony with the New Testament scriptures, and is the symbol^[B] of Christian faith that grew out of efforts to express the essentials of Christianity. The creed, in English, follows:

[Footnote A: In acknowledging that it has no claim to that venerable title (i. e., the Apostles' Creed), "we must guard against the common assumption," says Dr. Philip Smith, "that it is the oldest, as well as the simplest creed of the Catholic Church. True—as we have seen—it may be traced, in its most essential elements, from an early post-apostolic age; but, its development belongs solely to the Western Church, and its formal adoption, as a written creed, is later than the Nicene. It was the ancient baptismal creed as used in the Church of Rome, and was known as the Symbolum Romanum, or simply Symbolum, before it received the epithet of Apostolorum. Its forms were different in different churches; the earlier forms variously omitting the articles of the "descent into hell," "the communion of saints," "the life everlasting," and the epithet "catholic" before "church."]

[Footnote B: "These creeds obtained also the name of Symbols." Students' Ecclesiastical History, Dr. Philip Smith, Vol I, p. 234.]

THE "APOSTLES' CREED."

"I believe in God, the Father, Almighty; and in Jesus Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, buried, arose from the dead on the third day, ascended to the heavens, and sits at the right hand of the Father; whence he will come to judge the living and the dead; and in the Holy Spirit; the holy church; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the body."^[A]

[Footnote A: Mosheim's Ecclesiastical Institutes, Vol. I, p. 80, Murdock's translation. The above form, is as it stood in the fourth century, a few centuries later it attained in the Romish Church its ampler form, in which it has since been adopted by most Protestant churches, as follows:

"I believe in God, the Father, almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried, he descended into hell, the third day he arose again from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God, the Father, almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy Catholic church, the Communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen." In this form it is called the "Symbolum Roman—Roman Symbol."]

4. Man's Allegiance to the Godhead: This holy Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the Godhead, constitutes for the Christian the creating, sustaining, redeeming, witnessing power of the universe—the supreme God. In this Godhead righteousness, and holiness, and truth, and knowledge, and wisdom and power, and glory, and justice, and mercy and love, and all that we do or can recognize as belonging to the divine nature abound in their perfection. This Godhead is the source of spiritual power and light and glory; to whom man owes first allegiance; who is the true and only object—but singularly as well as in unity—of man's worship; to whom man submits his mind and his will for guidance—for in such submission alone is true worship.