The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-07-03

formed one OF the most pleasant features
of commencement week.
Commencement Address by Or. Miner, Of Bos-
ton.
The commencement address was de-
lvered at the Universalist church to an
audience that quite filed the house.
The subject Of DR.. Miners powerful
address was "The Unity of the Race and
What Comes Of IT, The following synop-
sis indicates the line Of thought:
Every person and every thirg is closely
related to every other person and every
other thing. As respects PEI sons she re-
lation is vital; as respects things it is es.
sential Lay mass Of iron upon mass
of granite and nothing win come Of it.
| by the power of cohesion and both are
obedient to the law OF gravitation. But
lay mass Of salt upon mass of ice and
Immediately there is manifested power
that defes cohesion and reduces both
to liquid state. Through the whole
realm of inanimate nature, invisible
forces form compounds with qualities
paxious or otherwise, often differing
| lskazA! aaA tl. :, lsrneass- s.tlee issxsss.s
bic forces decompose them again, restor-
ing them to their original form.
In like manner there are indissoluble
though invisible bonds uniting in one
body the whole family Of man. These
bonds are the essential elements of hu-
man nature, the image of God in man,
constituting us the children of God in
sense far more profound and real than
that in which we are the children of our
earthly parents. Out of this membership
one of another, flows unity of interests
that involves every man in the doings
of every other man. The worlds plant,
the outcome of all the tolls, struggles,
discoveries, inventions, sacrifices and en-
deavors of six Thousand years, is not SO
much private as public wealth. The
poor man is not less interested in it than
the rich. This plant is the worlds ma
chinery. No man can live upon it. 1t is
tools in the hands of the toiler. Every
years product of soil or loom is consum-
ed while producing the next years. We
have no old corn from the time Of Noah
or Abraham. and no wealth upon which
we can subsist without continual repro
duction. Every man depends on his fell
low. he can do nothing alone. All le-
"a. - L. L. - h. "a
comforts-other things being equal, to
uniform diffusion of comforts But other
things are not equal. The speaker show
ed the relations of the sick, the indolent,
the improvident, the speculstor, the bull
ly o1-she brokers' board, and the John L.
Sullivan OF the market place, to the
worlds welfare and commented freely on
public depredators through criminal en-
terprises. He showed the folly Of suppos-
ing strikes could raise the general scale of
wages Independently of industrial causes.
AS well might you expect high wind to
raise the general level Of the ocean.
Because of this unity of human in
terests the PERFECTION of one man tends to
the perfection of all the rest. The Doctor
spoke earnestly of the needed reforms of
the day and said substantially: "The
country is being defiled by strong drink,
but officials sworn to execute the laws
will not discharge this important trust,
but instead they ask the people to do the
police duty which the officials were elect
ed to do. The two great parties in Con-
gress, instead of taking up the reforms of
the day, are watching each other and
growing at each other like two bears
seeming to have nothing else to do, and
leave reforms to a small minority. We
must teach these men that public office is
public trust, and if they will not do their
sworn duty they will be defeated at
the polls. You cannot enforce prohibi-
ton of the liquor traffic in one locality
and legalize it in the near vicinity. A
town near Boston decided to forbid the
sale of intoxicants, but Boston quickly
supplied all the intoxicants necessary to
the usual amount of poverty, crime and
degradation. The evil which affects one
section affects more or less all sections.
Increase in knowledge in the long run, is
increase in virtue. In every community
progress is possible only on condition of
dragging other communities along in the
same pathway. A vast field here opens