The record-union., 1893-05-15
PRIVATE JUDGMENT.
The Principle for Which Unitarians
Contend.
They Claim the Right to Use 1t in Mat
ters of Religion-Synopsis OF Rev.
Mr.. Horner's Sermon.

In his sermon at Pythian Hall yester-
day the Rev. T. ]. Horner said: IF
there is any one principle held more in
common among Unitarians than any
other, it is the right of private Judgment
in all matters pertaining to religion.
'If there is any one principle in re-
ligion which separates us from Roman
Catholics or Evangelical Christians more
than another, it is just this-that it is the
right, nay the duty, for each individual
to think for himself; in fact, to make his
own creed and choose his own method of
worship, untrammeled by any external
authority to which his mind and heart
cannot give their full and free consent.
The Unitarian Church is a creedless
church for this reason and for no other"
In support of this position the speaker
said that its foundation was fixed broad
ald deep in human nature. Mans
natural religion begins with man and
reaches out toward God. All supernatural
religions begin with God and are
supposed to come to man through reve-
lation. Aside from revelation man
naturally trusts himself, MS own powers
OF mind and heart, and from knowledge
gained thus by experience advances into
f9
finds. as evidence grows more and more
scant, that others, exercising their own
powers, differ from him; and, unless by
sweet reasonableness'' he can convince
them that he Is right and they wrong, he
is bound to concede to them the right to
think which he has exercised for himself.
'Secondly-Adding education to native
endowment, the principle finds support
in the scientific doctrine of the relatively
of knowledge. No two people ever see
the same rainbow, the same clouds back
OF it, or, in fact, the same anything. The
moon will look as large as plate to one
person and as large as a cartwheel 10 an
other standing in exactly the same spot.
1t is the same moon, of course, but what
Is seen Is the image on the retina, and as
no two eyes are exactly alike aud no two
minds back of the image exactly alike III
acumen or i'll furnishing, the thing seen
can never be the same. The relations can
never be the same. How can | say that
what is true to me must also be true to
you? There may be Il wonderful agree
ment, but nothing, no thing or thought,
can ever be exactly the same to any TWO
people. Much less to a multitude. How
then can we ever agree as TO creed con-
corning God and man and duty?
"Thirdly-And in support of this last
principle, is its kindred doctrine of the
'persistency of energy in the world.
Every atom in this universe is in cease
less motion, whether in the center of the
sun or in the center of my brain. 1t is
singing It's little song and dancing to the
tune of it now. 1t always has been and
always will be, there or elsewhere
Change is the order of all life. The atoms
of which /, you and the universe are COM
posed are never two moments in the
same relations.
''When | look into your faces next Sun
day | will not see the same faces that |
see to-day, nor will you see the same
man at the desk. We can never be again
exactly what we were a week ago, nor
should we wish to be. The old home that
we long to visit is never what it once was
to US, nothing is what it used to be, and
why? Because we ourselves, as well as
| they, are constantly changing 1t is the
order OF nature. Stop it, and we cease to
develop into higher order of beings.
| Stagnatlon is the advanceguard of decay.
Change being the order OF my life as
| long as there is spark of vital energy in
my soul, how then can l say that what is
true to me to-day will be true to me to-
| morrow? How can l formulate creed
to-day that would be true to me year
| from now?
'Our opposition to creeds, for which we
are often accounted iconoclastic comes of
our belief in the right of private judg-
ment, which grounded in nature and
supported by science leads us to think
that no hard andtaSt lines can be drawn
without injury to the cause of truth as it
unfolds to the mind OF man in the ever
moving panorama of creation"