inite, the source of
change and motion, the exhaustless power which makes possible the very
idea of development from simplicity to complexity. If the universe
were complete in itself, change would not occur, and a cosmic process,
evolutionary or otherwise, would be inconceivable. Here, then, we have
the basal factors of any true theology, philosophy, or science.
Readers of Haeckel's "Riddle of the Universe" will note that that
eminent materialist, who professes to do away with the very idea of
God, takes these factors for granted; and yet I suppose he would object
to being told that he believes in the doctrine of the Trinity. But he
does, for he begins by assuming infinite space filled to the farthest
with matter ponderable and imponderable, and forthwith proceeds to
weigh, measure, and divide the latter as though it were finite! Here
are two terms of the doctrine of the Trinity at once. We get the third
as soon as Professor Haeckel sets to work to explain the cosmic
process, for as he does so he is all the while taking for granted that
the infinite is pressing in and up through the finite, evolving beauty
and order, light and life.

+The moral basis of the doctrine.+--But it may be contended that these
bare bones of the doctrine of the Trinity are not the doctrine as it
enters into spiritual experience. I admit the fact while asserting
strongly that but for this framework of intellectual necessity the
doctrine would be unknown to faith and morals. It is sometimes stated
that the doctrine of the Trinity was formulated in order to account for
Jesus, but that is only incidentally true. Its framers took the
materials for it over from Greek thought, and even Greek thought
probably inherited it from an older civilisation still, if indeed there
were any necessity to inherit it. I contend that if we had never heard
of the doctrine in connection with Jesus, we should have to invent it
now in order to account for ourselves and the wondrous universe in
which we live.

Unquestionably, however, it is from the point of view of religion and
morals that the doctrine has most significance, and therefore has
become indissolubly associated with the personality of Jesus; and it is
easy to see how this has come about. Thinkers have always been
compelled to construe the universe in terms of the highest known to
man, namely, his own moral nature. It was natural, therefore, that
while they thought of the universe as an expression