The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-18

ment of love; and life is a training, an
education, in which these higher quail
les are unfolded and developed through
the discipline Of labor, of thought, of
warning and correction, penalties and
sufferings; and all the experiences of
joy and sorrow, and hope that fill the
years between the cradle and the grave.
"God was manifest in the flesh;"
1.-THE Word" the reason, the plan, of
God, became flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we beheld his glory" This
outgoing and incarnating of the divine,
is the plan of the universe. God is in
every law of nature, in all beauty and
life. God is in the reason and justice
and love of man; and it is only because
this is so that man has, or could have,
any conception of God or right. And
the whole plan and purpose and work.
ing of religion is to unfold the divine,
the God-like in man; to lead man to
become, in his measure, like the Christ;
to become perfect, even as his Father
in heaven is perfect" And in this are
seen the need and uses of the Bible,
and the church, TIE Sabbath and the
sacraments, and song and prayer.
These did not make religion; but relig-
ion made them. They are for man and
not man for them. And here we may
see the need of repentance turning
from the wrong; and the need of faith
the confidence that leads the soul to
trust itself to the good, the right; to
God. And we may see what prayer is;
it is the communion Of truth with
truth, of love with love, Of life with
life, of the soul with God, of the child
with the Father. 1t is the receptive,
the longing attitude of the spirit, seek
ing the true and the good; the open,
waiting heart, hungering, asking for
the life of God. And here we can
understand the doctrine of pardon and
regeneration. The Father forgives
the penitent and returning child; and
the life and love of God flows into the
soul, and quickens and lifts up and en-
thrones the conscience, so that man
lives by conscience, lives by the sense
of right, lives the life of the Christ;
and when the sinful desires of the flesh
are overcome, and man desires and
loves only the good, then is he free in
the law of Christ; and that is holiness.
There is nothing 50 true, so rational,
so near so divine, as religion thus
conceived; and these are the founda-
tions that can never be moved. And
the soul that thus knows religion is
filled with its peace, and joy, and hope,
has eternal life now; lives in the
eternal, and feels that there is no
death-only change. And from these
broader views the narrow ideas of a
time probation, and endless punish
ment, drop away, as unworthy Of God;
and the souls of earth move on to the
endless years of learning, of doing, of
culture, and growth. He'll is here; it
is there, it is everywhere where sin
is; and it will last for each soul,
till taught by the sad experiences
of wrong. and the discipline of suffer-
ing, and won by love, it turns to the
right; and then begins its heaven
far off, and low down it may be;
but the way of return is open, and the
slow path leads onward and upward.
Against such just and rational views
Of religion, infidelity is powerless; and
it is not against these that Col. Inger-
sol means to make war, but against
the Latin accretiOns and corruptions
that make faith a burden, and are
driving thousands into unbelief. From
such standpoint, orthodoxy has fail
ed to satisfactorily answer Col. Inger-
sol; it is to the broader and better faith
that we must look for the answer and
for the arrest of doubt. There must
be something weak or wrong in sys-
tenn that fails to meet the demands of
reason and conscience in our day, and
even permits the children of clergymen
to become infdels. But did you ever
know the son of devout Unitarian or
Universalist minis Ter to become an in
fdsl? The religious teachers of our
times, owe it to themselves and the
world to make lighter the burdens Of
faith by teaching truer doctrine of
God and religion, that mankind may
be won to Christ, to truth, to trust, to
life, to love to hope.