New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-02

UnltRflRnlSm-Nla01 Is S1Ncu ny AACCp.
ing a Conscience Void OF Ofense.
From the New York Herald
At the Church of the Messiah yesterday
morning, DR.. Freeman Clarke, the proml
nent divine of the Unitarian sect, preached
sermon that may be designated Win great
truthfulness as the Unitarian platform. AS
it was preached for specific purpose
namely, of putting before the religious
world a clear and concise statement Oh the
belief of this sect, by an authority whose
praise and whose steadfastness to the prln
ciples of this sect is echoed III all Unitarian
churches--we have given 1t more than
usual prominence. -
Or. Clark selected his text from the fifth
chapter of the gospel of St. Matthew, and
the seventeenth verse-"I am not come to
destroy the law, but to fulfill. y
1t is often asked What do Unitarians
believer" and IprOpose to answer the ques-
tion this morning. l shall dwell on the
positive side Of their belief, not the mega
tive. People sometimes say, you tell us
what you do not believe, but we wish y
know what you do believe" The question
is fair one. A system of mere negative
is not religion, and can not take the place
Of the most imperfect religion. Criticism
is not religion.
We must remember, however, that sys-
TEN is not necessarily negative because it
first looked very negative to the Jews. 1t
put an end to the solemn rites and awful
forms Of Jewish worship-tO the daily sac
sacrifices, he priesthood, public prayers,
public worship in all its forms. The Psalms
of David, which had been chanted IN alter
nate strains for 1000 years, were to De
heard no more. The sabbath was to end
having been kept sacred from the tlme Vi
Moses. Christianity knew no temple, no
altar, no priesthood, no sacrifices, no great
feasts. It was to destroy sacred seasons,
sacred places, sacred persons, sacred Things
Was not that system OF negatlons IL
must have seemed so.
Yet Jesus SAYS, ~ am not come to de-
stroy, but to fulfill" Much might seem to
fall away, but the substance OF the religion,
its essential truth, would remain and be
taken up into something higher, fulfilled in
something better. And SO 1t was. w nat
Jesus said we can also say. Unitarianism
has not come to destroy, but to fulfill; not
to make us love God less, but more; not to
give us less faith in Christ, but more; not
to take away our reverence for the Bible
but to add to it; not to make us believe
less in prayer, but to believe IN 1t more
fully: not to make life less earnest. grand,
hopeful and divine but more sO-much
more So Let us how this is, or may be.
Observation-Disclosures is not come to de-
-stroy the belief in God, but to fulfill lt-not
to make it less, but to make it more. by
teaching the simple unity of God as one dl-
vine person, and reviviug the mysterious
doctrine of the Trinity, it brings the Deity
nearer to the human mind and heart. Uni
tarianism teaches that God is Il Father,
needing no Precipitation, no atonement. DO
sacrifice. in order to be able to forgive His
penitent child. 1t teaches that He Is not
only above the world as its Creator and
Ruler, but also in the world, in all nature.
in the air and sunshine, in the flowers and
stars, in history and providence, in the rea-
son and conscience of man. 1t does not
speak of an angry God, but of one who chas-
tises us, not for His pleasure but for our own
profit. 1t does not speak OF a partial GOD,
selecting some of His children to be
saved and leaving the rest to be lost,
but of one whose love, like His devotion,
embraces the evil and the good, and
whose divine decree is that not any should
perish wholly and forever. 1t teaches that
He is not q being who interteres sometimes
by special prOvidences to reward or punish.
hut one all of whose ways are for good
and who never leaves Himself without "a
witness in human hearts and lives. so It
fultlls the doctrine that God is above the
world as a Sovereign, by honoring Him
also in all things as their support, IN our
thoughts as their inspiration, in our hearts
as aperpetual friend.
Second-Unltarianism fills the orthodox
idea of man as a sinner by showing that he
has in him also the capacity Tor all good
ness and holiness. 1t does not deny the
sinfulness OF sin. 1t teaches that sin is not
only the road to hell, but that it is a hell
itself; that selfshness is hell; that falsehood
is hell; that SO long as we live away from
goodness and GOD we must feed on husks
and have no inward peace. But besides
sin it sees in man something higher and bet
TER. 1t declares that he is the child OF God,
with the spark of divine life in his soul;
that conscience in him is the solemn voice
OF the spirit; that reason is the light OF God
in his understanding; that every throb OF
love is the evidence of the divine presence
in his soul 1t teaches that he is frec-free
TO choose right or wrong, good or evil. or-
IbodOxy has seen only half the truth con
corning man. 1t has seen the dark side OF
his life, which allies him to earth, sense and
evil. 1t has failed to see the other 1t
has thought it wrong to try to see the other.
1t suppOses God is most hOnored when
man is most Inundated. Its piety has con
sisted in putting its hand on its mouth ami
Its mouth in the dust, and crying, "l Il
clean, unclean " But do we honor great
artist by depreciating his work Suppose
the lovely heads of Raphael and the proph.
cts and sibyls of Michael Angelo could
think and spead, would they honor their
creators by declaring themselves without
beauty or wanting in value! Would 1t
glorily Michael Angelo to say, Thou art
great artist, but all thy works are mean
and contemplate p We are the workman
ship of God, and His highest and best
works, the crown of His whole creation. Ii
we are utter failures can God be a great
artist! What we have made of ourselves is
low enough, poor enough; but what God
has made within us and intends to make OF
us is something more glorious than the sun.
more tender and holy than the sweetness OF
simmer noon, with all it's charms of early
sbirds, and herb, tree and flower, fragrant
and glittering in their diamond dew-drops
This truth Unitarianism has added to the
truth OF orthodoxy. 1t has not yet fully
seen or stated it; but when the whole OF
this side of human nature is made known
the half truth Of orthodoxy will be changed
into the whole truth of Christianity. Then
the real evil of sin will be seen to be that
it degrades and darkens this wonderful
creation Of God, the majestic sOnl OF man
Then it will appear that the future punish
ment of sin is not the great evil to be
dreaded, but sin itself, because it separates
us from God, and SO puts death into the
soul instead of life, darkens that inward
light by which the pure in heart see Him
and turns into den OF thieves that human
heart which God made to be His nobles
temple His house of prayer. But when IL
this lowest state Unltarianism sees some
thing good in man, and declares that ever
when he chooses the way and goes lnto
cutter darkness, away from the light and tn
truth. he has in him the sense of something
better and the desire for it. SO 1t tu!iills thu
doctrine of human sin by teaching also thu
doctrine of human grandeur and goodness
and showing that in mans deepest degrad
alton he is still the child Of God, and has il
him the seeds and germs of n majestic III