"We are told it was the Spirit of God."
"Exactly! And whose voice was it that spoke from the heavens, 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!' (Matt. iii: 17.) Now, mind you, there was Jesus, who had just been raised from the water, being one person, the Holy Ghost which descended from above and rested upon Him in the form of a dove, making two personages; and does not the idea strike you very forcibly that the voice from heaven belonged to a third person? And then again I will draw your attention to—"
The churchman was getting heated. Said he: "These are things which we are not expected to understand; and, my young friends, I would advise you to drop such foolish ideas, for—"
"Excuse me. Did you say 'foolish ideas?' Why, my dear sir, we are told in the Bible that 'This is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent.' (John xvii: 3.) Therefore it should be our first duty to find out the character and being of God. You say we are not expected to understand these things, while the Bible says these are what we must understand if we desire eternal life. It also says we can understand the things of man by the spirit of man, but to comprehend the things of God we must have the spirit of God; and as you profess to be one of His servants, you are presumed to be in possession of the necessary light to understand the true and living God, also Jesus Christ whom He sent. You say God has no body; did our Savior have one? If so, then His Father had one, for I have just proved by the words of Paul that Christ was in the express image of his person. (Heb. i: 3) Jesus appeared in the midst of His disciples after His resurrection with a body of flesh and bones, and called upon His disciples to satisfy themselves on this point by touching Him; 'for,' says He, 'a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have.' (Luke xxiv:39.) Then He called for something to eat and He did eat (verses 42, 43), and with this tangible body He ascended into heaven and stood, as Stephen says, on the right hand of God. (Acts vii:55.) Now if He has no body, what became of the one He took away with Him?"
"This is nonsense! You know that God is a spirit, and I think we would better not delve too deeply into matters which we are not permitted to comprehend."
"Pray listen a while longer, for I have yet more to say in regard to what you call nonsense, although if it be such, I must insist that it is Bible nonsense. You say God is a spirit; does that prove He has no body? We are also told we must worship Him in spirit. Am I to understand from this that we must worship him without a body? Have you a spirit? Yes. Have you also a body? Yes. Were you made in the image of God, body and spirit? So says the Bible. Man was created in the image of God. (Gen. i: 26, 27.) Then God has a body and, consequently, must have parts. Moses talked with Him face to face, as one man talks with another (Ex. xxxiii: 11), and he also saw His back parts. He promised (Num. xii: 8) to speak with Moses mouth to mouth. We are told in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy that He has a hand and arm. The Psalm (cxxxix: 16) tells us He has eyes, and Isaiah (xxx: 27) says He has lips and tongue. John describes His head, hair and eyes. (Rev. i: 14.) And as for passions, we are told in the Bible that He exercises love and is a jealous God. Are these not parts and passions? It would appear that all who believe in the Scriptures must conclude that they are parts and passions, and that the Creator is a God after whose likeness we are made."
"Well, I had no idea when I commenced this conversation with Mr. Brown that I was to find such an antagonist in yourself. One would naturally come to the conclusion that you had made the Bible a study."
"I have as a Christian studied the record; in fact, at a very early age my parents required me to commit and remember a very important verse in that good old book. It is found in the fifth chapter of the gospel according to St. John, being the 39th verse, and reads as follows: 'Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and they are they which testify of me.'"
"That is proper, but I must again warn you against plunging into mysteries which we cannot understand."
"But Peter tells us that 'no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation' (II. Peter i:20), and these are the things which we should seek for information upon; for lack of information by the ministers upon these points is to a great extent, the cause of many persons being in Mr. Brown's frame of mind today."