The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-11-07

izement and worldly ambition which
seem ever trying to work themselves
into the control of human institutions.
Notwithstanding it's constant temp
tation to lean too heavily upon the
arm of flesh, and its constant sin in
yielding to the temptation, the church
has been helpful as storehouse and
conserver of spiritual attainment, a
resting place for the world-weary,
home for devotion. Still it is far
from identical with Christianity.
Indeed, use language as subtle
and flexible as you can command, it
is difficult to characterize in any ade-
quate fashion SO subtle thing as
Christianity. Here lies its greatness;
while it may be realized it cannot be
defined. Thou canst not tel whence
it cometh or whittier it goeth." 1t is
fact
Invisible as music
But positive as sound"
Still, it is necessary to attempt Its
characterization. Spurning the limi-
tations of creeds as though they were
grave-clothes and tomb, entering
and retiring through the closed doors
of ecclesiastical establishments as
though it were risen spirit, refusing
to be localized, 10 here, or 10 there,
and appearing where it listeth, it is
a moral force, an exalted and ener-
giving spirit of life in human souls
making ever for righteousness and
human betterment. Having its orig
in as distinct historical force in the
teachings, career and spiritual mag
netism of Jesus of Nazareth, it has
continuing power in the world today
through the workings of the Ideal
Christ. If any one feels the necessity
Of resolving these two into one, to
him | relegate the task. But two or
one, there is in the world today, sub
tie and invisible, but positive and po-
tent, vital religious Ideal, with most
intimate relations to human life and
character, individual and social, which
we call indifferently Jesus, or the
Christ, or Christianity. Philosophi-
cally speaking, my religion is theo-
centric, as Jesus was, but historically
speaking, it is Cnristocentric; for,
our very philosophy is shaped and
colored by the ideas that are current
and the influences that surround US
in that great stream of life, which
flows, broadening and deepening,
down through the centuries from the
Manager of Bethlehem. Says James
Henry Allen, GAS soon as we think of
any part of our intellectual or spirit
ual inheritance, we see that it has
come to us, if not always from
| Christian source, at any rate, through
a Christian channel. When we
look at the religious side of our life,
we find ourselves Christian, not by
choice, but by unconscious inheri-
lance. Many good man, who
thinks that he has outgrown his
Christianity and cast it off, like a
garment moth-eaten and old, would
find by better self-knowledge, that
his moral motive, his Judgment, his
ideal, all that we call his conscience,
was shaped in mould not of his
making, and that every drop of his
blood runs Christian to his finger
ends" Whatever there may be in
energizing systems of philosophy, in
the enlargement of knowledge and
quickening of intellectual life in
the play of elemental forces, nat
ural and social, and surely no one
would wish to lessen the debt of the
world to them for moral advance,
still must we place foremost, as the
power of reform, that spirit of life
which we call Jesus, or Christ, or
Christianity.
Was there ever a light in which
the necessity for reform was SO clear
ly revealed as this Ideal when incan
descent in human souls7 1t comes
into the world with an enthusiasm
for righteousness and radiant dream
dearer than any reality, for man; and,
wherever it goes, into whatever land
or cline, nation or society, it inspects
everything in the light of these glow
ing principles and tests everything
by its bearing upon them. Let moth
ing think to escape the test. Con-
yinced that its enthusiasm for right
eousness is but the active side of its
dream for man, that only in right
eousness can man be bettered and
lifted to full participation in Gods
life, this Ideal fixes its gaze upon
everything that enters into the en-
vironment, concerns the thought or
constitutes the practice of human
beings, and it adopts or brands with
condemnation as knowing itself in
vasted with supreme authority,