The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-08-04

remember that forever.
In the history of opinion, we find
everything changing. ALI is flux. The
doctrines orthodox to-day were wholly
unknown to the early centuries. Per-
haps, among all the doctrines of Ortho-
doxy, none is held more essential than
the Atonement. But during the first
thousand years of Christianity the uni
versal doctrine of the church was that
Christ died, not to make atonement to
God, but to buy souls out of the hands
of the devil. Yet below all this chang
ing tide of opinion there remains some
thing permanent. In this particular
doctrine, for example, which now
seems so strange, this much is at leas
there: That the death of the good
somehow lifts us out of the power of
Satan, somehow purifies our mind and
heart. The theory goes:-the fact re-
mains. Human creeds and doctrines
pass away: the deep human experience
of the mind brought face to face with
truth, remains. Belief passes: truth
remains. We forget the things be-
hind; we pass on to those before. But
the things behind, so far as they are
realities, go with us always.
Jesus was the greatest and boldest
reformer who ever lived. To him the
Jewish Temple was nothing, the Jew
ish Sabbath was nothing: man was the
true temple, human good was the only
sanction of the Sabbath; every good
man belonged to his church,. the pure
in heart saw God, even though they
were heather or infidel. And yet
Jesus, so much of reformer, so radical
in all things, said he came not to
destroy, and that no jot or little would
pass from the law till all was fulfilled.
He took up all the truth of the past in
to the present, and carried it on into
the future.
All truth is permanent: it can never
pass away. The heart and mind of
man are so made that they cling with
passionate love to all realized truth,
and will hold it, though mixed with
ever so much error. So the California
miner, who has found a nugget of
gold, holds it firmly, though mixed
with earth and dross. He will not let
it go, not till you can separate the
earth and alloy, and leave the gold
pure. So religious people cling to
doctrines thousand times over proved
to be false and absurd. not because
they love falsehood, but because they
love the truth with which that error is
mixed. No mere logician can make
them let go of the doctrine by any
argument or ridicule. They will not
relinquish it till one comes who can see
the truth in their error, and give them
that truth in purer form. Then they
let the error go. This was what Christ
did. He took up into the Gospel all
that was true in Heathenism and
Judaism; and SO Paganism fell, and the
Jewish Church became the soil Of
Christianity.
In every real experience, in every
real insight, there is something per-
manent. As we grow older, we grow
wiser. Life teaches US all more than
study teaches. We forget our opinions;
but the faith and hope and love which
have grown up in us by all the less ns
of Providence, the sight Of God and
eternal things which we have gained,
these do not pass away.
When God gives us love, he gives it
forever. Superficial sympathies, based
on accident, on proximity, or common
interests of the hour, are very fugitive;
but the love which sees what is best in
US, and cares for that, is something
which cannot pass away. For this is
like Gods love. He is the God Of the
living; and loves the living part, the
immortal part, Of our nature. And so
this human love attaches itself to the
deepest, noblest, and best thing in US,
and often discovers better things in us
than we know ourselves, and so helps
us most of all.
If we love that which is best in each
other, not the fugitive though seducing
charm, but the truth and sincerity and
earnest feeling in each others souls; if
so, our love to each other helps, and
does not hinder; if we vitalize and en-
courage by it conscience and faith, if
we help each other by it nearer to
truth, duty, and God, then our love for
each other becomes immortal. This
love defies accident, absence, change.
Our friend may be much better than
we, but that does not separate him
from us in any world. Christ was
much better than his disciples; but, as
long as they loved him and followed
him, he loved them. "Whosoever will
do the will of God, the same is my
brother and sister and mother" said
he. Not who does it, but who wills to
do it, who hungers for It'll
If have ever truly loved any one,
that love remains. If he has ever
truly loved me, he loves me forever.
But by true love 1 mean love of what