The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-10-31

dOopoE tudu hli tuob6, III tu6 IeRlOu VI
spiritual realities. People who love the
same great interests and pursuits will
be in the same bonds, whatever their
surface names may be.
Chemical unity is always closer than
mechanical unity ever can be. and in
tae human life of the world, its unity
takes the type of the former. The basis
of an abiding unity between Christian
people must ever be love and good will.
and mutual ambition to achieve the
highest results. The world has been
broken into fragments by the dogmas OF
Christianity and this crime can never be
atoned for except by mutual love. The
tragedies of religious history. the trage-
dies Of Christian history, have been
enacted in the struggles to force uni
formity of belief.
The horrors Of st. Barth holomew's eve
we're perpetrated in the vain attempt to
enforce uniformity of belief in France.
Some of the darkest stains in our Colo
nial history were from the same
cause. To believe right was the great
demand down to century ago, and peo-
pie Of the same belief were supposed to
be in the same fellowship.
But new day dawns, new law seeks
engrossment in human souls.-the law of
a common and enduring love. To live
right is coming to be regarded as of
greater Importance than to believe
right, and the thinking of the liberal
churches falls in with this order of su
periority with an easy grace impossible
to the more dogmatic types. II we are
less divine we are certainly more hu.
man, and when the human is deeply un-
derstood the human will be seen to be
divine.
Until the greater religious organiza-
tiops can move for lsA-er unities l do
not know that the LED churches can
do better than devote their energies to
the task of building themselves into
ever enlarging proportions, developing
greater strength after their own meth
DDS of work, yet ever holding them
selves in readiness to enter into any and
all honorable fellowship with all other
churches whenever the opportunity
shall present. We do not need to cringe
or fawn to win the respect of others.
1t is better to demand or win it by a
noble self-respect than to seek it in the
dust. In the real religious economies
the small sect is equal in honor with the
larger sect, and the "suppliant hinges
OF the knee" are not required in winning
an honorable fellowship. A brave and
intelligent pursuit of the Christian pur-
pose wins the recognition of all who can
appreciate noble service, and till such
recognition can be bestowed we have bet
ter conditions in our solitude, making
companionship with our own high re-
solves.
Let us forever refuse to beg crumbs
at the back doors of our religious neigh
bors. but when the banquets are spread
in the noblest halls of the worlds relig-
ious festivities let US be no strangers
at the board, but instead the peers of
the most honorable and chosen ones. l
do not know that we need to be sectar-
ians as a final consideration. / think
we need to avoid precisely this. We are
here in the world to find and use the
noblest truth for the development of
the noblest life and our sectarianism is
only incidental to this. The harvest is
entirely consistent with the telling of
the forest trees, the plowing and the
sowing. and all our Telling trees and our
plowing and our sowing are not intelligi-
BILE till we reap the golden grain; nay till
we convert the very grain into food for
the nourishment of life. Life is the
justification of all toll. In the history
of the Universalist Church there is
some ground Of suspicion that many
people figuring therein have been good
slashere of trees. They have been
mighty fellers of the orthodox forests,
and it is possible that they have forgot.
ten sometimes that there was something
more to do. The sound of falling dog
mas has been sweet to their ears, and en-
chanted by these sounds they have not
always gone forward in the processes of
life to the times and conditions wherein
they could hear the happier sounds of
children's voices and witness all the glad
activities in happy homes and remuner-
ating happy industries. Simply to cut
down the trees in the orthodox forests
has been the last ambition of too many,
probably. 1t is needful to do it, but to
cut down the forest is not enough.
Simply to oppose orthodoxy is not
enough.
In the larger responsibility of active
and positive administration our church
has not been 80 thoroughly schooled. 1t
is good fighter; it is not equally we'll
trained as an administrator. 1t must
learn the arts of industrious peace. 1t
is learning those arts. 1t must not for
get the skill Of self defense for its very
existence is sought by the unenlight.
ened prejudice that still exists in many
quarters, but it will exterminate it's enc
mics quite as soon by pushing its pacific
industries into the religious markets of
the world as by any direct warfare.