The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1892-10-07
SUNDAY SCHOOL WORK.
Unitarians Discuss It's Purposes and
Methods.

of their Experience and Opinions.
The annual meeting of the Unitarian
Sunday School Society, which opened so
admirably with Mr.. Savage's powerful
sermon, at the First Parish church, We'd
nesday night, continued throughout yes
terday with a good attendance.
The devotional meeting at a. m. was
led by Rev. Alfred Gooding of Ports
mouth, N. H., who questioned whether,
in our Sunday school teaching, we make
enough of the dependence of the ethical
upon the spiritual, or the connection be-
tween the moral and the religious. Are
we not apt to halt in the path that leads
from the region of experience to the
region of faith? Are we not denying our
selves the greatest help in teaching when
we stop at so-called practical results?
For instance, without honesty the social
structure could not exist, but the world
would revert to barbarism-andt this fact
alone may be enough to compel honesty
in everyday life; yet much is gained by
going beyond the consideration Of tenn
poral ll-being into higher region and
showing that honesty is imbedded in the
very constitution of the universe: that
this world in which we live is an honest
world. Are we not prone to underrate
the children's capacity for appreciating
the larger and deeper significance of
things? To stop short of the highest
leaves them with a sense of deficiency,
though they be unable to tell what is
lacking. We must rise above the ethical
into the religious.
Rev. E. @. Guild of Brunswick spoke
of ethics as the eff1orescence of religion,
but does not see how we can get any true
ethical range without consciousness of
the present God in the heart, and sense
of personal relation to Him who
breathes into us the breath Of life.I
Rev. w. II. Savary of Boston was
struck by the depression, 1.-THE honesty
of Nature" We often hear of the relig-
iousness of Nature; why do we not hear
of her morality, her unspeakable truth
fulness and Interchangeable honesty?
Rev. Lyman Clark thought that if we
had to choose between a moral man with
out religion and a religious man without
morality, we would be likely to choose
the moral man; yet he cannot bear ever
to disassociate the two.
Rev. L. B. Macdonald thinks teachers
are hampered by a fear of teaching what
L. Az -; al al
stancing the little girl who asked her IA
you only preaching?'' The great thing
is to teach the child that this is Gods
world through and through, to convince
him that it is as full of divine life as it
was 1000 years ago.
Rev. DR.. Nichols said we can never get
ahead by pulling on only one oar, it
takes both. Let us teach not only that
righteousness is salvation, but also that
God is Spirit and in Him we live and
move and have our being. Teach your
boy that God sees him always, and that
will help him to be honest always.
William Ell. Baldwin, president of the
Boston Y. M. G. Union, would have
teachers bear in mind that children are
impossible, and that they remember
what is said to them in Sunday school.
He told an anecdote of little girl who
was required to write composition on
"The Cow and produced this: "a COW
is the most useful animal in the world"
but when she was to show it to her min
lister added, ''except religion"
In opening the business meeting at 10
O'Clock, President Horton referred grace
fully to the societys appreciation OF its
opportunity for coming to Portland and
of the open-handed hospitality of the
Old First Parish people.
The minutes of the last annual meet
ing were duly read by Secretary E. J.
Lewis, Jr., and stood approved.
Treasurer Humphreys printed state
ment showed a balance September Both,
of $685. Al, with S795 in bills not collect
ed. but no outstanding bills unpaid.
The president, calling Mr.. Baldwin to
the chair, then read the annual report of
the directors, showing large increase in
the circulation off Every Other Sunday"
1000 bona fide subscribers having been
gained in the past four months; sketch
ing the years work in the lines of publ
cation, of consultation with ministers
and teachers all over the land, from
Maine to Oregon-for though we are To-
Gated in Boston, our work is national in
scope-and of our meetings held in Bos-
ton last winter and spring, and at The
Weirs, N. H., in August. all manifesting
increasing interest in the religious well
fare of the young, upon which depends
the hope of our denomination, yes, the
future of broad and happy religion.
There is great call for our Sunday
school literature, not only inside but out
side Unitarian lines; and therefore head
quarters for it's distribution have been
established in New York, Philadelphia,
Denver and San Francisco. We need a
great deal more money for publishing
carefully selected works and to carry out
plans for kindergarten and Bible lessons,
song and service book that shall be
characterized by compactness, cheapness
and melody-in short to push the cause
of the moral and religious education of
the young The need is great, but the
outlook is cheering, for there is also
great readiness to support the directors
and cooperate with them in their striv-
ing to do the best they know.
Mr.. Baldwin spoke in high terms of
President Horizons work and of the re-
port which the meeting accepted and
adopted mem con.
Rev. Lyman Clark pronounced the re-
port eminently satisfactory and encour-
aging, but urged the importance of con-
an agency which is ever undoing
~ ba To J,a