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

liable territory to the church OF his
choice. He has secured as much val
liable reputation as one may reasona-
bly, ask, for handsome conduct, learn
ing and critical acumen. His char
acter has not. and never had, one
stain. He has doubled his influence
by his Incorporating fidelity.
Planting himself on what he felt to
be eternal truth, he has raised the
challenge always
Come one. come all! this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as B"
1t happened after time that
troublesome dissensions arose, con-
corning the supernatural element in
religion, in our own borders, and a
seductive importation of German Ra-
tionalism laid seige to our church, as
it did to other religious bodies in
America, and during all this storm
and stress, DR.. Sawyer was our Glib
ralter of defence. l have not space
to enlarge upon the matter. Who
will write full and impartial history
of those perilous days7 Who will
attempt to compute the benefits
which DR.. Sawyer and his associates,
ministers and laymen, wrought for
us, yea and for the cause of Chris
tianity, then? / fancy l can hear
now the reverberations of those guns
of argument which these men fired
with calm and steady aim; / fancy
too that l witness now the dismay
which those fatal shots caused among
the raw ambitious recruits which that
radical movement brought together!
DIR. Sawyer's criticisms were severe,
awfully severe, in some cases; unne-
cessarily 80, it may be, and they left a
deep hurt here and there. | myself
carry, to this day, two or three scars
left over the wounds his sharp jave-
lin made, and made with good in
tent, l do not doubt. The wounds
were better than the evils he tried to
pierce. A few of us pleaded that he
should put more sugar in his reason
ing, and have more faith, than his
pungent language indicated, in the
sincerity of his opponents, but he
felt morally compelled to cry aloud
and spare not. He bore no i'll will
to any body. He had the force of
lion but the heart of lamb.
l have gone over again in memory
as far as l have been able, the fields
on which those mental battles were
fought; have studied again briefly,
the events which followed, and while
I cannot commend all of DR.. Saw
yer's methods of controversy; while
he still seems to me to have been
carried by his conservatism into
few theological statements that
needed modification; while l believe
more conciliatory course would have
saved some needless irritation, and
kept among us many good souls who
unwillingly retired to other COM
munions or non-communions, never
theless feel unspeakably gratiHed to
DIR. Sawyer that he lent his imperi-
GUS talents to keeping the Universal
list Church on its old Christian foun-
dations; that he took his turn with
other strong helpers at the ships
helm and safely guided us past the
threatening reefs.
Take away then all DR.. Sawyer
though he has been but one among
many efficient and honored workers
has done for the Universalist
Church; all he has added to it, Great
ed in it, engraved upon it, and it's di-
mansions would be more than mott
ceably lessened.
l have said that DR.. Sawyer was
grand preacher, and l will not re-
tract this statement; no reader of the
article who knows the man to whom
it applies can wish me to retract it.
/ will rather reaffirm and magnify it,
And yet he seldom used his whole
power;often enough however, to prove
that he possessed it in extraordinary
dimensions. | once heard him say
of another great preacher: Zone who
can preach as we'll as he, should
preach better" This could frequent
ly have been said-I speak of him in
the past tense as he was in his palm
lest days, of course-of DR.. Sawyer
himself. He seemed generally to
have an immense reserved force back
in him somewhere. The lion little
more than purred when he should
have roared. He had queer habit
so some of us thought-of keeping
his best sermons for stormy Sundays
and small congregations. We might
have reasonably said to those who
were particularly anxious to have
heard him at his best, "Come to
obrrob mban II rains too hard IN