The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-06-22


and profounder problems. The great
mass of thinking people are asking
not, Will all men ultimately be saved
but, Is there a God or future life ]?
Is the Bible true7 Who was Jesus
and what did he do for the world
Is salvation necessary How can
the Gospel be adapted to the condi-
tions of modern life? How can life
in this world be made brighter, purer
nobler and happier? These are the
burning issues of the day, and the
!Universalist Church should therefore
lay especial stress upon its teachings
on these subjects. If our church is
true to its fundamental principles il
will have but little difficulty in meet
ing and turning the tide of modern
skepticism. Her Profession Of
Faith" is very simple and unobjec-
tionable and furnishes broad foun-
dation upon which to build. We
should therefore welcome to our fell
lowship all earnest minded men who
desire to co operate with us and to
promote truth and righteousness
The Universalist Church can not be
narrow, intolerant and exclusive, for
if SO it will deny it's own faith and
will commit suicide. 1t occupies a
most advantageous position between
radical skepticism on the one hand,
and orthodoxy on the other, and if
we can get our claims considered we
should have but little difficulty in at
tracing to our fellowship those who
are in search of higher faith. The
vast majority of men today are not
irreligious or atheistical, but it is the
peculiar tenets of orthodoxy that they
can not accept. There are a few
atheists, no doubt, and still more
agnostics, but most men are believers
in God, and simply reject the Trini
tartan explanation of the nature of
the Deity; and since Universalists
also reject the Trinity and assert the
Unity of God, his love and wisdom,
they should be prepared to welcome
to their fold all those who are
searching for a nobler God to wor-
ship than the God of orthodoxy.
Very few men object to Jesus as a
moral and religious teacher and ex-
ample, but it is the traditional doc
trine of his deityship which they can
not accept. Here again we are pre-
pared to meet their wants, and should
welcome to communion all those who
accept the spiritual leadership of
Jesus and his great ethical princi-
pies. There are only few superb
cial, flippant and half-informed skep-
tics who reject the Bible. The vast
majority of serious minded skeptics
have the utmost respect for the Scrip
lures and while they reject their
errors they accept all their truths.
Thus Prof. Huxley, one of the most
radical skeptics of our day, and the
founder of Agnosticism, says: "By the
study of what other book could child
rem be so much humanized and made
to feel that each figure in that vast
historical procession fills, like them
selves, but momentary space in the
interval between the eternities; and
earns the blessings or the curses of
all time, according to its efforts to do
good and hate evil, even as they also
are earning their payment for their
work." And again he says: at ap-
pears to me that if there is anybody
more Objectionable than the orthodox
Bibliolater it is the heterodox Philis-
tine, who can discover in literature
(the Bible) which, in some respects,
has no superior, nothing but subject
of soothing and an occasion for the
display of his conceited ignorance of
the debt he owes to former genera
tions." And, finally, he says: "In the
eighth century before Christ, in the
heart of world of idolatrous poly
theists, the Hebrew prophets put
forth conception Of religion which
appears to me to be as wonderful an
inspiration of genius as the art of
Phidias or the science of Aristotle"
(Huxley's "Some Controverted Cues
tions," PIP. 3S, 80 and 72.) And this
is the opinion of all scholars, hetero
dox as we'll as orthodox. The objec-
tions which that popular agnostic,
Col. Ingersoll, is now urging against
the Bible in the lectures he is deliv-
ering in our towns and cities, do not
affect the historical and religious
value of the Bible. They destroy the
orthodox theory of the infallibility OF
the Scriptures, but that is all; and
Universalists need not be the least
disturbed by the defects which this
skeptic points out For all these rea-
sons 7 hol] that the TTniversalist