St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-06-05
BREEZY AND BRIGHT.
Rev. Samuel Crothers, of Unity
Church, Distinguishes Him
self at Boston.
Unitarianism in the West
From a Humorous Stand
point.
a Speech Bristling With Wit
and Bubbling With Spark
ling Periods.
An Attempt to Lure Mr.. Croth-
ers From His Western
Fold.


gentleman was one of the speakers at
the annual festival of the Unitarian
body held in Boston last week, when
he responded to the sentiment of uni
tarians and Unitarianism in the West
a Humorous View The Boston Globe,
writing editorially OF the speech, says:
THE speech of the Rev. Mr.. Crothers,
of st. Paul, Mimi, was one of the hap
piest afterdinner speecheS-full of wit
and wisdom-that has recently been
heard in Boston," The Unitarans of
Boston were so delighted with Mr.
Crothers that an attempt is being made
TO get him to locate there. The mem
berS of Unity church, however, are de-
termined to keep him, if possible. In
the meantime, the Boston speech of Mr.
CrOtherS is reproduced for his Western
admirers. He said:
| believe that one Of the first minis
tiers who came upon the stage, that is
comic character, is found in:Ben John
SON S comedy. in REV. Zeal-of- Land
Busy" and Rev. Zeal-of-the, land Busy
is introduced by another character as
minister from BanDury, who puts in
here at meal times to praise the painful
brethren. Inasmuch as l have put in
here at meal time it gives me pleasure
to praise my painful brethren in the
West. l suppose all of you are ac-
Qualnted with the Western Unitarian
minister. l suppose you all rejoice,
though sometimes with trembling, when
he sweeps down upon you with a dec
laration of independence in one hand
and contribution box in the other. |
know you all respect his qualities, and
that you are conscious he has the de-
fects Of his qualities. You welcome the
Western minister cordially in your
pulpits, and are amazed at the
Length of His Sermons,
and at the broad, prairie-like sweep of
his generalization. We like generaliZa-
ton in the West. When we live on the
prairies we have to do as the prairies
do-broaden out-and l hope you will
like this quality of the Western minis
ter when you come to know him better.
You know in New England there are
two kinds of Baptists-one called the
Particular BaptiStS and the other the
General BaptiSts; and when we preach
in your pulpitS you seem to belong to
the Particular Unitarians. Sometimes
we think you are altogether too particu-
lar, because one of the inalienable
rights we have in the West is to spell
and pronounce just as we please, ac-
cording to the dictates of our own con-
science. We are sometimes disturbed
by finding that yoN care almost as much
for the way thing is said as for the
thing which we say, but after you have
seen
Our Western Minister
and heard his sermons, you are con-
WINGED that whatever may be his lmi-
tations, he is superior to two vulgar
limitations time and space-and what
ever the doctrine he may preach to you.
however imperfect he may be. you are
convinced, after hearing him, of the
propositions which the learned Cam
bridge professor has written as to the
continuity of the Christian doctrine.
There is one criticism made by the un-
thinking of the Western minister when
he tells you of the magnitude of his
work, his opportunity and his own par
tlcular SucceSS-you are apt to think
that tue Western minister talks large:
that may be, but you won't blame him
when you know him better, the deep
sincerity of his mind is TOO evident: If
the Western minister talks large; it is
simply because he feels large | hope
that when you go on flying visit to
the West to compare the
State of Things
there with our statement of them, YOU
wilt bear this III mind. | have often
thought the tendency among travelling
Unitarians is to be critical as to the
actual visible results. You hear uf the
wonderful success of the Western min
lister. When you go to hear him, you
find you don't have to follow the crowd,
but you find him in very modest way
ministering to the spiritual needs of a
small but intelligent, poor but honest
congregation. Then you are apt to say
that the Western minister eXaggerateS.
You are apt to criticise him because his
statements don't conform to the facts
Well, whoever thought they should?
We, in the West, don't expect our state
mentS to conform to the facts. We take
it our business out there is to make the
facts correspond with the statements.
And l put it to you, friends, whether it
is not better for you, after you hear our
statements, to allow the facts to grow
up with the country.
Now, as Western man, he is alto
gether misunderstood. You often think
of him, as
A Watter-oEFact
materialist. Why, he isn't! He is an
idealist of the ideaiiSts, and if ever you
have anything to do with him, for in
stance, III the matter of Western loans.
you will realize in him a fine, almost
Hegalian contempt for facts. | wantto
say that seriously now. That is the
reason L like the Western man, and
believe in him because he is an idealist:
that he SCOTS at the census report: that
he is enthusiastic for the full results of
what is not seen, and If he sometimes
eXaggerates in the number of things,
that is not his fault. He feels that he
is Moses called to lead the people of
his state out of their Egypt; and Moses
of old had his faults, and one of the
mistakes of Moses, according to history,
was that he was wrong in his statistics,
somewhat over saDguine. So, if when
we come here and make our assertions
concerning the needs of a future great
city, of whose existence you have never
heard, and which in all probability
would be invisible to
The Naked Eye.
if you went there, want YOU to have a
fine enthusiastic faith IN the Western
minister; faith that by and by the city
will be there, and be all he says it is.
One thing more. We sometimes hear
that the Western work is suffering be-
cause there are two kinds of Unitarlans
IN the West. beg of you not to be-
lieve it. l would despair of the West.
and would despair of our missionary
work, if | thought of the church, after
all the men and the money and the
thought which the American Unitarian
association has:sent to the West, that the
West was able to produce only two
kinds of Unltarianism. / beg to assure
you that in the state of Minnesota alone
we have at the present time, by actual
count, forty kinds of Unitarians, and
there are back counties yet to be heard
from. So ask of you Unitarian lay
men and ministers of New England, to
bear with us in our feeble efforts in the
West. We have not got our growth
yet, but if you will
Work With Us
and for us we will have, after a while.
as many kinds Of Unitarians in the
West as you have here in New Eng
land. hesitate to make the closing re-
marks. 1t seems the height,or rather the