The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-12-19
UNITARIAN PRECEPTS.
Hope Believed to be the Inspiration Of
All Progress.
Rev. Mr.. Horner's Discourse on the
Subject at Pythian Hall Yes
terday Morning.


Rev. T. Horner to remain in Sacramento
as the permanent pastor of the First
Unitarian Church Mr.. Horner has taken
the matter under consideration, but 1t IS
thought he will accept the invitation.
At yesterday mornings services at
Pythian Hall he chose for the subject OF
his discourse: Circulation worketh
patience; and patience experience; expe-
rience, hope. Rom. v, 81.
Hope, said the speaker, is the inspira-
ton of all progress. 1t is the hopeful
element in Christianity which at once
makes it progressive system and pro-
claims the purity of its essential princi-
pies. The absence of hope from any
system Of religion is its condemnation.
one of the charges against Dr.. Briggs is
that he dared to hope for those who had
never had an opportunity to become ac-
quainted with the Bible. What must be
the condition Of a mind that would deny
such hope to any man?
A nature that is not naturally hopeful
is lacking in one Of the essentials to a
fully rounded character.
The absence of hope from any period
of Christian history is sure indication
that the essentials of pure religion Il. e..
faith and love and trust had been
or covered over by noxious fears from
pagan sources.
Nine-tenths of what is popularity
known as Christianity has been clearly
shown within tie last fifty years, by the
best scholars of the world, to be a bap-
tied pasanism, foreign to the thought of
Jesus.
But once let the pure religion of
faith, and trust, and love, springing, as
it does, from the free development
of the SOUPS natural intuitions, guided
by reason founded upon knowledge
and experienced say, let such a
pure religion once come into the con-
seriousness Of man. church or a nation,
and Immediately lite will be crowned
with halo Of hope the glory of which is
of an immortal nature.
In spite of its mistakes and limitations
the Bible radiates with hope for man,
from the legend Of 1.-THE fall" to the New
Heaven and New Earth in Johns Reve-
lation, and this it is which will endear it
to the human heart throughout all time
The hopeful nature is always active.
always progressive, never satisfied with
the conditions of the present, if it sees Il
possibility of lettering them in the
future.
Being sure that goodness is at the CEN
ter of all that is, it is sure that il will
work its way out at last-hence is brave
amidst alarms, is never conquered by
fear, is patient through tribulation, and
though LIES mistakes are oft Amounted
with tears, these same tears cOnsecrate
those mistakes and make blessings of
them for future guidance.
The truly hopeful nature can never be
despondent, can never lose heart or grow
cold in its affections. Faith in the eternal
goodness makes it strong in the belief that
its own nature Is good, though 1t may
have TO be developed by a multitude of
seeming ills.
y truly hopeful nature never rebels
under trial, but is confident
That good shall fall
At last-far Otf-at last to all
And every winter change to spring
In contrasting false and true hope, the
speaker said that the former was merely
phosphOrescent glow coming from the
excited state of the Imagination, which
soon passes, carrying with it its glittering
ghost OF halo, leaving behind The dark
ness of ignorance and dread.
Natures tnder its influence are guided
only by the tickle fancy of a fevered
brain, and fit hither and yon as each
passing excitement t1utters their feeble
wills and spurs them on to an enthusiasm
of fuss and Hurry, which ends in the
etferyescence OF all real and lasting pur-
pose. Such natures will not believe that
lie is what We make it, but delude them
selves with the belief that this world is a
fairy-land wherein wishes come true by
merely wishing and wherein evil can be
made montreal by disbelief in its reality.
False hope is inspired by belief in
fictitious values, is back of most of the
speculations of Wall street and State
street, 1t builds railroads where there is
no possibility Of traffic, and booms cor
ner lots until suddenly the bubble bursts
and the burdens of LIES realities are too
heavy to be borne, and no way seems
left to retrieve the past but suicide.
iG faI fl,n -trN
ing by it the lesson that all should learn.
False hope lives in the imagination
dresses upon expectations, thinks in
dreams and dies in despair. e
True hope, supported by faith, has al
ways been an attribute of pure religion,
and religion of some kind is native to
human nature. II is not something that
can be caught from without, like dis
ease, but an lndwelllng sense of depend-
cnce, and is common to all, rich or poor,
high or low, in the church and out of it:
and when allowed to develop naturally,
without having its faith warped by false
knowledge or turned into superstition by
fear or willful ignorance, it becomes tree
OF life, whose fruit, true hope, heals all
sorrows and gives the soul joy and peace.
Jesus, the best example in history in
whom hope was the product of naturally
pure faith, exhibited the same loving,
trusting attitude toward both God and
man, whether hanging upon the Roman
cross or sitting by the seaside teaching
that the kingdom OF God is in the soul of
man; and though a false messianic hope
accompanied 10y craven fear nailed Him
TO the cross, He yet had faith in human
nature, and prayed that the sin of ignor-
ance might be forgiven.
Such hope is the birthright of our Uni
tartan religion, a true conception of which
enables the thoughtful mind to grasp in
the one idea of unity the whole vast uni
verse of whirling suns and systems to-
gether with the seeming irregularities and
lmperfecuons of q developing conscious
ness in the life of the world and see in it
all the unfolding panorama of perfection
back of which is the perfect thought of
perfect love in the soul of the Infinite
Such a conception robS death of its
sting, the grave of its victory and finds all
hearts together in the unity of one great
aspiration, which bridges time and eter-
nifty, making the progressive develop
ment of each individual human soul an
infinite process. Other things being
equal. the hope Of the liberal faith must
become the hope of the whole wide world.
1t is your duty and mine to see to it that
pessimism is never written across the
banner of our faith.
Ii is my honest belief that any system
of religion which leaves infinite hope for
man out of tile catalogue OF the POSSIBLE
ties OF Gods life, as manifested in this
universe, Is either partially or wholly
false.