The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-08

fore no one needs to be saved in the
cd sense Such a salvation is i'm
possible. No intelligent person seeks
or desires such salvation, or believes
it possible, or has any interest in it
whatsoever And all energy ex-
pended to obtain such salvation is
necessarily superstitious waste of
energy, and damage and a degra
dation to man.
1t is in higher and in a more real
and immediate sense that the intelli-
gent man today desires to be saved
and to save others.
What then is salvation in it's most
rational and comprehensive sense, in
its truest and highest Christian sensea
Is it not educations Is it not the
complete development of man, of
society, of the entire race7 Is it not
manhood, womanhood? Is it not
fidelity to our human nature-not
change of nature, nor the getting of
new nature, but simply the right,
full and perfect use of the nature we
already have? Is it not the natural
and perfect use and development of
all our powers7 In the moral and
spiritual realm, is it not the hating
and forsaking all that is selfish, un-
just and evil, and the loving and do
ing and being of all that is unselfsh,
just and noble2
This view of salvation recognizes
that religion is natural to man; it is
not any thing unnatural nor super
natural. The truly and perfectly
natural man is the most truly and
perfectly religious man. It is only
as man departs from nature, violates
nature, lives unnaturally, that he be-
comes irreligious. God is not only
the author of nature; he is the author
of human nature as it exists to day.
Human nature is not therefore a
spoiled specimen of Gods work; nor
is it standing illustration of an out
witted and defeated God. What is
salvation then but right life, right
character-life and character disci-
plined, developed, educated into wis
dom, strength and beauty here and
now in this world life and charac-
ter enthroned in knowledge and love
and righteousness.
And what is all this grand and
Christian conception of salvation but
the product of education7 Can you
gain results like these by any spasm
of emotion, or by any instantaneous
fash light of the Holy Ghost vouch-
safed by special request to some re-
vival meeting? A true Christian sal
vation then, must be something fun
damentally different; something
much more real and rational and
more beneficial to man; something
much more present and immediatein
it's benefit, than any thing which the
church has mainly believed and
taught. True salvation does not con
sist in the saving of any one from tie
penalty of any sin here or hereafter.
1t does not consist in saving any
one from bad place, and getting
him into a good place in a future
world; but it is the eternal develop
ment of right and divine order of
thought and life, of character and ac-
ton, here in this world, or wherever
we may be.
Suppose then, that all ministers
and churches, and all religious peo-
pie, should entirely stop trying to
save men, to save souls, in the old
superstitious and impossible sense,
and should turn their attention alto
gether to saving men in real sense.
here and now, would it not be infn-
itely more Christian, and infinitely
more beneficial to man and therefore
infinitely more acceptable to God?
Must we not therefore make saliva
ton mean all that education near
in its most comprehensive sense, or
else abandon the word salvation and
put the word education in its steadi
1t may not seem quite SO religious,
but in reality it is vastly more reli-
gious and rational than is the word
salvation with the meaning ordinarily
attached to it.
Do the great masses of thoughtful
men, and especially the more free
and enlightened among them, any
longer believe in the common notion
of salvation taught by the churches
or care larthing fer it9
And at the same time, and for this
very reason, do they not believe all
the more profoundly in God, in Jesus
Christ, in the moral and religious
constitution of man, aud in doing all
that can be done to lift man every
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