The herald., 1897-03-15
UNIyERSALIST CHURCH
"christianity a Universal Religion by Rev.
A. A. Dice

At the Universalist church the pastor.
Rev. A. A. Rice, yesterday gave the last
of the series on great religions, the sub
Religion" taking for his text Math.
xxii-37-39.
He said in brief:
In the minds of some persons the rea-
son that Christianity is considered to be
little if any better than other great re-
ligions of the world, and that it is not
a universal religion, lies in the fact that
comparisons have been made with the
artificial, fictitious and unreal systems
which are but the accretions of Chris
tianity and not the vital truth left by
Jesus Himself. All other religions are
based on an imperfect conception of
God, either because they fail to read
His personality in His works or having
assigned Him personality, fail to ep-
phasize the important features of His
being. OF the religions Of the Aryan
branch of the human family which we
have examined, Confucianism but indis-
tinctly feels the supreme power which
lies under the universe, while 1t really
worships the sense of right which that
power planted within man, thus giving
the world only a negative golden rule
with negative morality. Buddhism,
which is taught in Christendom today
under another name, so extravagantly
reads the law of cause and effect in hu-
man action that it sees in the universe
no necessity for anything more or high
er than that law and thus congeals
mans life blood in tie chilling atmos-
phere of pessisism. Brahamanism con-
ceives God to be combination of the
immaterial or spiritual and the intellec-
T.x~ x~~I tf.l vol
world which conception lifts man COM
pletely above a common morality into
a stupenduous system Of caste or dis
union. Now Christianity embraces the
good in all these and says with Confu-
cianism, Every one that committeth
sin is the bond servant of SIM" with
Buddhism, Whatsoever a man sows,
that shall he also reap and with Brah-
manism, God is spirit" And when
comparison is made with the Semitic
religions of which Christianity is one,
and all of which have arrived at belief
in personal God Christianity preserves
correct balance of the attributes of
that God, and places its emphasis on
such as are most important Moham
mechanism, of which we have said so
much, exalts the will of God to the neg
lect of His intelligence and affections
and as result predicates in the world
the Christian system declares of God,
Thy will be done" it also takes full ac-
count of His omniscience and infinite
benevolence.
But above all other things Jesus en-
phasiZed the affectionate nature of God.
1t is He who said God is love- and in
this emphasis the chief difference be-
tween His and other religious teachings.
1t is said that the passage of scripture
wherein we are told that "the spirit OF
God moved upon the face of thu waters"
might be rendered ''and the spirit of
God trembled with love upon the face
of the deep" Man was not called into
existence because of Gods intelligence
or will though both were essential to
that end, but because "the spirit of God
trembled with love-" 1t is to this affection
for God and for man that Christ calls
us, and his religion is universal becauce
it combines all the good elements OF
others and leavens the whole system
with love.