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their hearts and gladly and readily obey His
commandments. And, since the love of God is shed abroad in their 1
hearts through the Holy Spirit by means of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
therefore the worship and service of their heavenly Father are not burdensome
and wearisome to them, but on the contrary are the delight of their hearts. The
Holy Spirit illuminates the true believers and guides them to the true knowledge
of God. Bestowing on them grace and power to do God's will and to obey His
commandments, He grants them to feel true peace and joy and rest within. But the
man who does not accept God's own teaching regarding His Most Holy Nature, how
can he believe in the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ? If he does not believe
this, he cannot accept the only Saviour, he cannot come to God by the one and
only possible way of salvation. He cannot realize the perfect holiness and
justice and love of God Most High. He cannot, therefore, love God, but must be
content to believe and tremble, like the devils. 2 This dread not
only does not give a man peace and comfort, but actually renders him always
miserable and wretched. He can never feel sure of salvation, he can never
realize the joy of knowing and loving God, and the delight of obtaining
remission of sins, the new birth, and acceptance with God. Here he is either
hopeless, oppressed with the burden of sin and the fear of death and
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DOCTRINE OF THE HOLY TRINITY
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hell; or he is puffed up with the fancy that all is well with him, because he
has kept certain fasts and perhaps made a Hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca] and done
other things which have no purifying influence on his heart. In such a man the
words of the Lord Jesus Christ are verified: 'If 1 therefore the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is the darkness!' 'And 2
ye will not come to Me, that ye may have life.'
(3) Since men are sinners, no mere man, not even a prophet, can save either
himself or other men from sin and its terrible consequences. Moreover, since sin
is alienation from God and is in itself a deadly leprosy of the spirit, man can
never, either here or hereafter, be truly happy until he is pardoned and freed
from the love and the slavery of sin. God's infinite holiness and justice are
not consonant with His acceptance of a man still defiled with sin.. Hence a
propitiation for sin is needed, and such an atonement as will satisfy the
requirements of God's justice, while revealing His, mercy and love. This
propitiation must also have the effect of softening the hard heart of the
sinner, and of drawing him in humility and heartfelt penitence to God's
footstool, thus doing entirely away with his alienation from God. Such an
atonement can be made only by some one who is sinless, pure, perfect, and at the
same time free from the obligation of doing God service, so that he may be
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