The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-13
81 SERMON. M
THE HOLY COMMUNION

There are many people, = and
among them some whose lives are
richest in the virtues which this rite
symbolizes-who do not find the
communion service spiritually help
full; and who, for that reason, prefer
not to observe it. To all such our
church says: "This is matter which
your own conscience must decide.
To make any formality a moral obi
CATION is to exalt the letter above
the spirit. Essential goodness is the
only thing which we demand from
those who have united with us because
they share our faith and purpose. AS
for symbols, they are spectacles, in
tended to assist spiritual vision; and
each soul must judge for itself as to
whether it can see better with or with
out them"
| wish, however, to remind you
that any objection urged against this
special custom applies with equal
force to all similar observances; and
that, in the realm of spiritual interest,
as in that of physical and social ex-
perience, our lives would be some
what barren if deprived of all things
which are not strictly necessary.
1t is possible that God could have
made a world in which every plant
and tree would have borne its fruit
and reproduced its kind, without hav-
ing first blossomed into beauty and
fragrance. Birds might have fulfilled
their mission of destroying insects in
fields and orchards without having
been endowed with the gift of song.
Night and day might have alternated
without the beauty OF the dawn and
splendor of the sunset, which always
seem to me natures morning and
evening hymn of alteration, in which
the notes are colors instead of sound.
1 can imagine a world in which the
leaves, having finished their work,
should disappear in a fashion which
attracted no attention; but instead OF
that, nature always keeps an autumn
holiday, in which her children ex-
change their working dress of green
for robes of golden and russell, scar
let and crimson beauty Not one OF
them is overlooked. Not only the
great oaks, and naples, but even the
tiniest bush and shrub and creeping
vine are aflame with beauty, the gift
whereby the universal mother ac-
knowledges that they have done what
they could and are entitled to honor
able mention. It is just like the Sun
day-school, in which we offer prizes
to the most deserving, and end by
giving something to all, because we
do not want single little heart to
carry away with it the pain which
comes of being neglected. | don't
know that this last has much to do
with my subject; but I have been led
into saying it by thinking OF that
wealth of color which, in the autumn
days seems literally to have rained
down from the mellow splendor of
October skies, baptizing fields and
woods with the hues of sunset,-a
glory which fingers in our memory
through the wintry weather; and I'M
til the spring returns to adorn the
earth once more with living beauty.
What / began saying is that nature
loves beauty, symbol, rhyme, and
rhythm, and is quite as interested in
producing these as in the more pro-
sale work of manufacturing corn and
wheat. The garden soil is just as
kind to the pansies and geraniums
which please our senses, as to those
plants which serve the more direct
use of nourishing our bodies; and in
that service which, in natures temple
celebrates the procession of the sea-
sons, there is wealth of illumina-
ton, song, and picture which shames
the feeble imitation of church and
cathedral.
| believe, then, in the use of sym
bols; provided, always, that those
who employ them realize that not
the formal custom, but the duty
which it represents, is the real sacra-
ment. l also believe that, for most
people, symbols, when thus employed,
are morally and spiritually helpful.
A child, for instance, is as truly en-
titled to the name it bears before as
after the baptismal water has touched
it's brow; and the duty of the parents
to minister to its welfare would have
been just as real and great if they
had never stood before the altar and
publicly recognized that responsible
ity by their part in this time honored
ceremony. Nevertheless, few people
are insensible to the appropriateness
of the naming and dedicatorY service;
anI roost oaraofo find in tho ranoa,,,