William Robinson Clark

“ Such thoughts should ever be with us when we take in hand to explore the mysteries of the Godhead. Yet they should never be suffered to press so heavily upon us as to paralyse our spiritual energies and drive us to hopelessness. Man is himself divine, although finite, and therefore he may know something of the Divine. Although no man hath seen God at any time, yet the only begotten Son hath declared Him; and that Son has said: "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father." [3] To refuse the revelation which God has given, therefore, is no proof of humility, but of arrogance. ”

“ When you think that we have in our people the great and generous Englishman, the energetic Scotchman and the genial Irishman united as one, I think we should be proud to have such an origin to look back upon and I, for one, would be greatly grieved to think that we should cut ourselves off from such an ancestry. ”

“ Those who call in question the truth of the doctrine because it was unknown to patriarchs and Hebrews, can hardly have apprehended the principle of Divine Revelation or even of the natural and providential government of the world. In all spheres the Divine processes are gradual, and it would not be reasonable to expect that the Most High should flash upon the eyes of His creatures the full blaze of a complete revelation of Himself without a previous prolonged and careful preparation. ”

“ There are still many religious and devout minds who are unable to rise above the conception of the Divine Spirit as an influence or energy; and this undeniable fact is an evidence of the need of more careful instruction on the subject. On the importance of the doctrine it is not necessary to insist. Either the Holy Ghost is very God, of one substance with the Father and the Son, or the Church Universal has been in error for many centuries. ”

“ And, Sir, when we think of the countries from which we came, the two blessed ones, and think of the sacred soil on which our forefathers toiled and laboured and fought, and achieved such results as have never been seen in any other lands, I think we should think once, twice and thrice before we break asunder the bonds by which we are united. ”

“ Thus, on the very first page of the Book of Genesis, we have an account of the creation of the world, which not merely corresponds with later narratives, but which may reasonably suggest to us the doctrine of the Trinity. We cannot, indeed, go so far as to say that the words, "Let us make man in our own image," and other similar expressions can be held to suggest a plurality in the Godhead. Such inferences are manifestly unsafe and may even tend to create a prejudice against the doctrine. ”

“ We are proud of them as our own children. All their great institutions have been borrowed from our own. All their history is a continuance of our history, and we regard those who belong to that country as our friends. I, for one, certainly have no fault to find with them. I have received honours in the United States, more than I have been entitled to, so that it would be most ungrateful for me to say anything unkind about them. But that is all very well. You may be on very good terms with your neighbours without having them live in your house or you living in theirs ”

“ As a preacher and a public lecturer Professor Clark was very highly esteemed, and his many engagements in these capacities served to make Trinity College favourably known far and near. His sermons were models of forceful argument, logical presentation, and perfect diction, as well as being full of spiritual power. In his class room work and on the public platform he showed not only brilliancy but remarkable versatility, as he did also in his literary productions, which embrace Theology, History and Literature. ”

“ As regards the testimony of the New Testament, we cannot doubt that the doctrine is plainly declared in the baptismal formula: "Make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost;" ”

“ It has been remarked that men who professed to believe in "gods many and lords many," have yet in their hours of danger invoked the one God and Lord of all; and one of the greatest minds of the Church of Christ has told us that the heathen had never fallen so utterly under the belief of false gods as to have lost the idea of the one God from whom all things proceed. [4]
If, however, we accept the testimony of the Christian Scriptures, we shall conclude that God is not only Unity, but Trinity in Unity. They tell us of a Father who reveals Himself through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. ”

“ It is, Sir, a great race from which we came, or rather two great races, for I must protest that the way men speak of us as Anglo-Saxons is very imperfect and inadequate. We are not Anglo-Saxon simply, but Anglo-Celtic in origin. ”

“ The Empire Club of Toronto owed much to his strong support, and elected him President of the Club in 1905. He took a prominent part in the Synods of the Church and in other representative gatherings of Churchmen and of Litterateurs, where his scholarly treatment of every subject he touched commanded the attention and respect of all. ”

“ Dangerous it were for the feeble brain of man to wade far into the doings of the Most High; whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of His name; yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him not as indeed He is, neither can know Him. ”

“ There is no history in the world upon which the eye of man can rest with the same satisfaction as upon the history of the three Kingdoms in the past.
I dare say a critical eye may detect errors in us. A French writer has put it excellently when he said that we have all the defects of our qualities. I dare say we have defects. I dare say the Englishman may occasionally become a little bumptious, the Scotchman conceited and the Irishman a trifle vain ”

“ No words could express more clearly the personality of the subject concerning whom the testimony is given. Our Lord contrasts Him with Himself as "another Paraclete" a strange manner of speech if the other Paraclete were a mere influence. Then personal acts and attributes are assigned to Him: He will teach, He will bring to remembrance; when the Lord Jesus departs, He will come in His place; and he will guide into truth, and declare things to come. If such language does not signify the personality of the subject, no language could certainly do so. ”

“ Clark by institutions of learning, are the degrees of Doctor of Civil Law, conferred by Trinity College, Toronto: Doctor of Divinity, conferred by Queen's University, Kingston: and Doctor of Laws conferred by Hobart College, Geneva; his appointment by the University of Michigan to be Baldwin lecturer in 1887, and Slocum lecturer in 1889; his appointment as Honorary Professor of Hobart College, Geneva, in 1888; his election in 1891 as Fellow of The Royal Society of Canada and in 1900 as President of the Society. ”

“ The agnostic is merely interposing his own wilfulness in order to shut out the light which descends from heaven. God has truly revealed Himself; and, although our knowledge of Him can never be complete, yet, as far as it goes, it may be true and adequate. ”

“ ALL history testifies to the existence, in the human race, of an inextinguishable longing for a knowledge of God. Oftentimes the enquiry may seem to be abandoned in despair. Men have been ready to confess that the mystery of the Godhead was unsearchable, and to cry out: "Canst thou by searching find out God? ”

“ The writers of the New Testament employ language concerning the Son and the Holy Spirit which is intelligible only on the supposition that each of these Persons is, equally with the Father, Very and Eternal God. ”

“ That there is one Being above all others, in whom all things subsist, uncreated, self-existent, eternal, infinite, is not only the faith which is consciously held by all who worship the living and true God, but it is a belief which has always been shared, although dimly and indistinctly, even by polytheists and idolaters. ”

“ Or how shall our spiritual life be duly fostered and strengthened if we are in error concerning the Giver of life, who is with us to lead us into all truth, and is the Author of every grace and of every gift? ”

“ It is indeed a doctrine of vital importance. It is no mere open question respecting which men may hold harmlessly differences of opinion. It is an essential part of the faith of the Catholic Church. It affects our relation to Christian truth in many ways. How can we understand aright the nature of the Church of Christ itself, if we are ignorant of Him who dwells in the Church as a living temple ”

“ It may be well, however, to dwell for a moment on the well known fact, that the doctrine of a Trinity in the Godhead has been held and taught by heathen people, and those too, who, as far as we know, were uninfluenced by the revelation which was made to the chosen people, the children of Israel. ”

“ It has been well said that we must not quarrel with the evidences of the Being of God which have brought satisfaction to other minds, nor lay too much stress upon those which approve themselves to our own judgment. ”

“ With regard to the exact meaning of the word, Paraclete, here translated Comforter and elsewhere Advocate, we shall hereafter have something to say. At present we are concerned only with the Personality of the Paraclete. On this point let us consider the force of our Lord’s teaching as recorded by S. John, in the fourteenth and sixteenth chapters of his Gospel, "I will pray the Father," He says, "and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world cannot receive ”

“ Man's need of God. God may be known. God one and three. 1. The Doctrine of the Trinity gradually revealed. II. Divinity and Personality of the Holy Spirit. 1. Divinity.— (1) Name of God given; (2) Divine attributes and actions ascribed; (3) Worker of Miracles. 2. Personality.— (1) Testimony of Gospels, specially words of Christ. (2) Acts of Apostles; (3) Epistles. III. History of the Doctrine; Council of Constantinople. IV. Procession of Holy Spirit. ”