The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-06-13
THE MISSION OF THE UNI
VERSALIST CHURCH,
BY REV. t. B. GREGORY.

|
many years President of the Canton
Divinity School, gave us, one day, a
bit of his childhood experience. His
parents were rigid Calvinists, and, of
course, the children were brought up
according to the strictest teachings of
John Calvin and Jonathan Edwards.
The wretched Gospel of those great
but misguided men was instilled
into the children's minds early and
late, in season and out of season, at
home, at church, and in the Sunday
school. No opportunity was allowed
to pass by unimproved that afforded
them any chance to teach the glories
of Calvinism.
Now DIR. Fisher, even in his child
hood, was serious and thoughtful,
his head was clear and his heart was
warm; and the lessons impaired at
church, in the Sunday-school, and at
his mothers knee, made strong i'm
preston on him. He began to think,
and to feel, and the more he thought
and felt the deeper became his dis
gust for the things they would have
him believe. In fact, he rose in re-
bellion against Calvinism, and one
day his father caught him out in the
field in the act of throwing stones at
God! why said the good Doctor
to us, | hated him SO [ wanted to kill
him"
All it will never be known how
much men suffered from the teach
ings of that old theology The half
of it has never been written, never
will be written. Old Scotland, old
England, the old New England, was
the theater of reign of terror which
was, and is, indescribable. The
agony of the damned was the daily
experience of all believers" The
shadow of some terrible curse rested
upon the world. Over the beauty of
the fields and the glory of the skies
a gloom rested-as though nature
was in mourning. Ninth was muz-
zled-only sorrow was unconfined.
| There was time to weep, but there
was no time to laugh; there was
time to mourn, but there was otime
to rejoice. The preacher opened his
mouth and the congregation trem-
bled, frothed at the mouth, grew
frantic with fear, for the preachers
voice was the voice of God, and God
was remorseless demon! If they
turned not God would whet his
sword; and woe be unto those against
whom that weapon flashed! There
was no mercy in it. 1t clave and
pierced to the very marrow in the
bone, without pity and without COM
passion. Hell's lurid glare was re-
fected everywhere, and with what
little Joy there might have been, was
mingled the echoes of the wailing of
the lost.
Well, our church was organized as
a protest against such conception of
God and the world. The grand old
fathers of our faith went forth, few in
numbers, but brave of heart, to beat
down the lie that had SO long ter
rorized mankind. With their immor-
tai battle cry: God is Love-" they
pushed into the arena to battle for
nobler credible creed of Divine
Fatherhood and Human Brotherhood.
From the very start such was their
battle cry, and such the creed for
which they fought.
The fact is worth noting, and
worth emphasizing repeat it, worth
emphasizing. There are two liberal
churches today, between which there
is but trifing difference, if there is
any difference at all. Universalists
and Unitarians agree upon all of the
grand essentials. But it was not al
ways so. There was time when the
two churches were separated by the
whole diameter of thought and hope.
Unitarianism, to begin with, pro-
claimed neither the Fatherhood of
God nor the Brotherhood of Man.
The earlier Unitarians believed in
and preached the creed of the sinners
endless damnation. 1t was only by
degrees that they ceased to proclaim
that horrible notion. And certainly
the doctrine of eternal punishment
can by no manner of means be made
to consort with that of the Father
hood of God and the Brotherhood of
Man. Affirm the one, and you nee
essarily deny the other. Opposed to
one another they are-and that eter-
nally.
But to the everlasting honor of our
church be it said, that the Fathers
from the start, took Hannibals oath
compromising neither the divine
goodness or the human kinship. God