The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-19

cutting loose, in a larger degree, from
decentralization, gave their SER
mons a larger range of topics, more
decided literary sound, and SO caught
naturally the ear of a wider public.
Henry Ward Beecher, for instance,
championed no one sect scarcely,
more, except in name, than another.
His pulpit was cosmopolitan Congre-
gationalism; his creed was inconspic-
uous in his religious platform. He
was not in the slightest sense syco-
plant or compromises, but he was
seldom obliged to stife applause by
belligerent or sectarian attack on
prevailing interpretations of the Bible.
The Universalists were the proud
and fortunate possessors of DIR. T.. ii.
Chapin's name, for it enriched them
immensely, and he never allowed. by
word or deed, any well-grounded
suspicion to rest on his denomina-
tional attachment, but he devoted his
affluent speech, his surging energy,
his matchless eloquence, chiefly, to
the calculation and enforcement of
great principles rather than to the
exposition of doctrines which, had he
thrust them to the front on all occa-
sions, would have been an interrupt
ing weight on his advance in public
favor. The sermons of Phillips
Brooks were Enthusiastically spirit
ual, ethical, not doctrinal; and this
was one obvious reason for his easy,
and unconscious capture of the good
will and praise of all the churches.
He was not stopped in his swift race
toward the goal of fame by theologi-
cal disputes, for he engaged in none.
About the only signs of his peculiar
church relations were his gown and
prayer book. His magnificent phys
ique, his inspiring sincerity, and over
whelming earnestness, had free,
open field, and all New England for
their audience. He had his work to
do and he did it amazingly well. Let
us not question his method. Univer-
salists helped to swell the storm of
applause which, gathering around his
pulpit in Boston, swept westward with
unprecedented force and volume to
the Pacific, and which instead of
abating, increased at his death.
DR.. Sawyer was altogether a differ
ent man, but not whit inferior to
the men l have mentioned. His work
was different but not less difficult nor
less important. Expounding doc
trines was to him paramount duty.
Seeing that the Scriptures, the uni
versally accepted word of God, were
everywhere innocently quoted in de-
fence of orthodoxy, he was deeply
convinced that Universalism could
make but little progress until the peo-
pie were brought to understand that
these Scriptures not only did not in
culcate the doctrines of total deprav-
ity, vicarious suffering and endless
punishment, but that they did con-
tain plain, comforting promise of the
final holiness and happiness of all
mankind. So he undertook the task
"a task rendered gigantic by the
wide spread, deeply-rooted prejudices
of the churches, to show that the Bible
was really Universalist book. And
what followed7 This, at least, was
done-Thomas j. Sawyer and his con-
freres went about in the wilderness
of religious thought and prepared the
way for the men referred to. But for
Ballou, Miner and Whitemore, and
their heroic associates. Beecher and
Brooks, and others of their kind,
would have been impossible, impossi-
BILE until later age at least. The
Universalists, and Unitarians-in be-
lief-were part, and no small part,
of Beecher's and Brooks's congrega-
tons, not only in New York and Bos-
ton, but wherever these persons
preached; and they helped nightly,
in one way and another, in educating
the other parts to hear the liberal
| word.
We should realize more than we do
the immense debt we owe to the pio-
neers in our cause. John Murray
found his way through the woods
when there were no blazed trees to
guide him. Ballou's book on the
Atonement, being the first of the kind,
required an intellect of prodigious
power Right ethics are comparative
ly easy when wrong doctrines are out
of the way. If our fathers had piped
only the poor melodies that the null
titude would march after, who would
have been prepared to keep step to
any better music3
do not say that no John the Bap-
fist appeared in those days besides