Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-22


of the conference had been prepared and
he asked that before it was sent to Dr.
Hale the conference express its approval by
rising vote. The telegram was then read
and formally adopted. The telegram was
as follows:
ITO Dr. Edward Everett Hale, first sec
rotary of the conference and veteran OF the
council-The national conference sends af-
fectionate greeting in memory of his many
distinguished services, and with tender
sympathy for the anXieties and sorrows
which deprive the conference of his pres
ence and fellowship"
Rev. Mr.. Bachelors Address.
By far the most important matter of
business on the program for the morning
vas the address by Rev. George Bachelor
of Cambridge, Mass, the chairman OF the
council, and also the secretary of the Amor
:can Unitarian Association. This address
or report. was submitted to the council and
was approved, with a few trifi,nS
amendments, as expressing the sentiments
of that body.
Rev. Mr. Bachelor is an eloquent
speaker, and his address was frequently
interrupted by applause.
Demand for Organization.
Rev Mr. Bachelor said among other
things:
THE first fact which confronts us is Il
lie mand for more and better organization
The ears of this conference are always open
TO that cry. For out CT such demand
made thirty years ago this conference
came. Since that event the following things
have happened: One hundred and fifty
churches have been organized. All the To-
cal conferences have been formed, except
ing the Maine. New Hampshire and west
ern The Ministers Institute was created
by act of your council. The Womens Ali
ioto become. a
national organization. Unitarian clubs
rave sprung up, and have revealed new
possibility i'll the organization OF men,
Unity clubs. religious guilds and lend a
hand clubs have been multiplied through
out the lar d. The Sunday school societies
east and west have enlarged their work End
greatly improved the quality Of their pup
locations. The ladies' commission on Sun
day school books has sifted literature for
our children with signal success. The Uni
tartan Association, which thirty years ago
was a private corporation. has become
national representative organization
After further reviewing the progress OF
thirty years. Mr.. Bachelor said:
by preaching, by holding conventions,
by the spread of Unitarian literature. by a
wide diffusion of the ideas for which we
stand, our constituency should be greatly
enlarged without immediate reference to
the founding of churches. But to carry out
this large purpose 1t is also necessary to
have influential churches as object lessons
and centers of influence. The Unitarian
Association Is prepared to undertake these
tasks with enthusiasm and energy
AS to the ministry, he said: I'VE have
three sources of supply-the unsectarian
divinity school of Harvard University. the
Unitarian Theological School at Meadville
and the ministry of other denominations
One of the inconvenient results OF our pro
gress Is that the change in other churches
takes effect with the ministry before 1t
does with the laity. The result Is an in
creasing demand for admission to our min
istry and work under our auspices: Under
these circumstances we say to the faculties
of our schools that the needs of the Uni
tartan Church now require not many grad
yates so much as graduates of a hlgn Or
DER
Religious Unity.
Under the head of religious unity the adj
dress said:
"A new sense of the need of unity per-
vades the religious life of the world. Among
the many indications which might be cited
are the Lambeth proposals, the Grindel-
wald conferences, the letter of Leo XIII
inviting the Protestant world to return to
the Roman Church. Less notable, but near
err to us, are the liberal congress at Chi
cago in May, the one at Toronto in July,
and numerous meetings of ministers of diff
ferent denominations, such as those at Aver
and on Cape Cod Mass. With the purpose
of these meetings your representatives are
most heartily in sympathy. But they hold
that, to succeed, all such plans must look
toward a voluntary cooperation of churches
and individuals who are prepared for union
There can be no union under compulsion
There is no value in union of the disin-
tegrated remains of institutions that have
been broken up for that purpose. The law
of evolution in nature is that the highest
forms of life express themselves in the
most refined and beautiful variety. For
four thousand years denomina tions-that is,
groups Of mel and women drawn together
by some common purpose and important
enough to be denominated-have been the
forms through which the advancing re-
ligious life of the world has expressed it
self. Where there no religious denomi-
nations there is no religious life. That
they are numerous and active in any coun-
try is the token of high stage of religious
evolution. The true method of union is to
go forward into sympathy and cooperation
The true type is happy social union like
that in which many families cordially unite
for common purposes.
brotherhood and Progress.
eff we think of all the races, religions and
churches in the world" said Mr.. Bachelor
las looking in one direction, each one occu-
pied with the ends and ideas which are near
est, but all together slowly advancing to-