Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-15
SOME UNITARIAN DOCTRINES,

AS Set Forth by AeV. M1nOt Js savage of Boston Before a Large Audience at Warner Rall-Pofnts From His | Remarks-The Revelation to the | Modern world-ss There Was No I ~Fan''-The Death KneH of the Old l Religions.
 Rev. Mlnot J. Savage of Boston con- dacted the Unitarian services at Warner hall last evening. There was large audi ence present. and he spoke as follows on "Fhe Changing Form and the Eternal Els sence of Religion: ."Christ brought to the world new con- captions of the Father in Heaven. But as he attempted to reform the religion of his time, he was attempting to do in his higher and nobler way precisely what his prede- cessors had attempted to do in their eruder ways.
 "But the theories of religion have changed. Different perceptions prevail. The whole conception of things is changed. People are tryivg to get into right relations with God. So you may ask why we are here tonight. Why is there break in the ranks of the old religionistsa Why
 
 because we believe that we have 8 newer and higher revelation of God in thie, our modern, world. Scientists are trying to arrive at the adjustment of man to his environment and reconciliation to God. There never has been @ time nor there never will be time when men will not try to get into better, higher, closer and truer relations with God. John Burroughs in commenting, recently, in the New York Critic, on the death of Tennyson, said that on his death bed he had copy of Shakes peare instead of the Bible and that all who were at his bed side were the members of his family and the doctor. He says that this Is a significant fact, and it is doubly orthodox England. It goes to show that people are drifting away from the sanctity of the old religious systems.
 "In examining society find two classes of people, one which believes that religion is dying and are glad of it, and the other which is afraid that religion is dying and are sorry for it. I cannot understand the position of the latter class which is afraid that the old religion is dying. If their rs. ligion is right and true it will never die, bat will be immortal. But this fear in the hearts of those who say they believe in this old religion makes them afraid of the light of investigation. I tell you that fear of higher criticism or lower criticism or any other kind of criticism is the only danger ous infdeiity in the modern world.
 "The Christian who fears to have his re- hgion tested by the highest principles of truth does not but half believe. think that religion is the grandest thing in human life. I do not hope 1t is going to die. But let us see what is really the meaning of re- ligion. When 8 scientific man gives def milton nf a v6rfahrafa ha 1oaa mt any particular vertebrate, but the essen- tials of all vertebrae. Therefore the first principle of religion is mans thought of his relation to God, and after that comes mans thought about any thing that con- cerns him and moves him, and so we have the emotional side. And the feeling sl- ways corresponds with the thought that produces it. If your thought is grand and noble, your feeling will be grand and | noble. But if it is poor and weak l 30 will your feeling be. All the religious feeling of the world is the incarnation of the religious thought that produces it. "Man has always been thinking of this power that was here before he was born | and will be here after he dies. The effort | of his religion has always bsen to change the actual poor relation with God to the | better ideal relation. Religion Is the moet permanent and essential relation of human life because it concerns the highest rela. tion. Religion, then, is always to remain and be the most womanly and manly no tive of the human race. The change from organism to Christianity was as nothing to the vast changes which are now going on as the result of the new revelation that has come to the modern world. We are living in new universe. The old religions can not stand under it's light.
 "The Bible tells us of the perfect man, Adam created in the Garden of Eden 6, GOO years ago. But the best scientists and ohronolegists to day say that man has been on the earth at least BOG, ,O00 or 400, 900 years. Every one of the old Christian as a fundamental belief and elevation from it's curse as motive. It is the old Ptole
 maic theory of the universe. About the time the town of Boston wss laid out Milton was writing Paradise Lost," in
 which he says the evil Angels were nine days falling through space from heaven te hell. But when we consider that 1t takes light from the nearest star three years tc travel to our earth, although it can travel from the sun, 6 distance of 192, SOC, ,000, we feel that Ailton's ideas must have been very narrow and crsmped. There was nc fall. Man does not need to be saved in the theological sense of that word. He if not sepal ated from God. On the contrary God is close to him and is his tender and loving guide and conductor. There is nc anger to be appeased.
 1.-The old religions must die. Their death knell was sounded the moment Gal. ilso with with his little telescope saw the moons of Jupiter. True. they were still believed in by the pope and defended by every ecclesiasticin Europe. But still they were dead, because he had discovered 6 fact which was inconsistent with the Ptolemaic theory of the universe.
 "We now have an entirely different con- ception of what it is to be saved. We dc not believe that there is any place in this universe mans getting into which can constitute his heaven or his hell.
 "Every man Is his own heaven or hell. Getting out of right relations with God is the greatest hell there can be. We trust that neither in this world or any other will you get into any more heaven or hell than you get into yourselves. We ibers are often accused of being careless about our doctrines of retributien, but we are the only people who are not. People who can be saved by a little water or holy oil, even when they are at the point of death, they are the real careless ones.
 ''These, then, are the beliefs that make me Unitarian. They are the beliefs of an intelligent, truthful creed. For religion is an endless search for the truth of life and through it we have the possibility of immortalitvn