The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-11-13

Providence is calling upon us in a
hundred tones and tongues, to wage an
energetic warfare against the many de-
stroying errors of the church and one
of our greatest failures to-day, is COM
placent indifference to theological opin-
ions; relaxation and detection from
our principles, which in many instances
has become sort of standing complaint,
and softening, as it has been said, in
the muscles of liberal Christianity, till
doctrinal truth has been left to languish,
as doctrinal error has slumbered. Much
of the clearest and strongest thinking
of our own body has been done by the
more advanced of the fathers; and such
clear and consistent statements were
put forth by them, as that really but
small additions to definite and demon
strated truth have been made since
their day. And as I appear here, let
me say it in their defense, that 1 am
not fearing to be called Dy their name !;
even an old fashioned radical, ultra Uni
versalist, if any are disposed to con-
slider me such. I have never tried to
be nice about any of these matters. l
am conscious of believing in the faith
of the fathers, more than in any other
faith in the world and l do not believe
in any other at all, If it is opposed to
the faith of the fathers. What was it
but their truth that SO wrought with
men in their times, and made them in
vincible in wrestling against princi-
palities and powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places ?"
do greatly fear that a sort of vague
ness is too much acquiesced in in our
day; as if these great principles of ours
were not profoundly rooted in the very
texture of our rational being, and in
the universal instincts of our natures.
There are so many polite people who
pride themselves on being the safe men
in church and State, and do not know
what would become of the world if it
was not for them. And yet there has
never been a period in the history of
our denomination when any class of
men have been so we'll thought of for
their honest standing before the world,
as have these men.
Perhaps, in strict justice, 1 should
make the exception in few instances;
for it is said that when Father Ballou
went to Boston, the Rev. Paul Dean,
and some others like him, were not
considering it in the way of their pro-
fessional duty to say very much about
their peculiar views. Some of these
were not men of very positive ideas. !
And besides, they were not caring to
disturb mems prejudices by an aggres-
sive warfare that would bring down
upon themselves the odium of other
denominations, till it did seem as if the
cause was going by default for the
want of the necessary spiritual food to
subsist upon, so halting and timid were
the men. But Father Ballou's enter
ing Boston, was the tocsin for mighty
onset against error, and the sounding
of an alarm which was calculated to
arouse the spirit of inquiry and investi-
CATION, and threaten the turning of the
religious world upside down. 1t was
this that brought him at once SO prom
inently before the public, and made him
the hated foe of all such as were turn
ing their faces to the ages of darkness,
and were supposing that they had never
anything farther to learn.
We shall never be able to repay our
full Indebtedness to these fathers, and
especially to this one man of all the
men that lived and wrought in his time.
He, more than any other, formulated the
present system of Universalism as re-
ligious teaching. He was man of
most fearless and independent think
ing, who always had mind of his own;
and he, with the help of few others,
gave shape to our doctrines, and brought
them before the world in marked dis
tinction from every other system of
mems invention. They knew that the
fullness of time had come to strike the
blow that was to topple over old sys-
TENS of dogma, and prepare the way
for planting their new and better sys-
tenn of truth.
L am aware that there have been
those of our own number to express
themselves, that it would have been
better for the world if these men had
never lived but / am free to confess
that 1 cannot imagine what kind of a
spirit should prompt such utterances
as these. l do not know where we, OF
our denomination would have been at
this period, if they had not lived. God
would have raised up others in their
places, presume.
How apt we are to think that our
fathers should have done everything
just as we are doing to-day. But every
age has its problems, its difficulties, It's
dangers, its duties, its opportunities.
The earnest, honest, sensible man does
the thing which presents itself to his