The record-union., 1897-01-17

(Unit) of Boston, that it can concen-
trate its attention on the one thing that
is before it to do. 1t has no old creeds,
articles or standards which need to be
amended or revised. 1t is not to be
frightened or revised. It is not to be
frightened by the ghost of dead past.
1t may forget the things that are be-
hind, and press forward to those that
are before. 1t may set aside everything
else and devote itself to the one purpose
of developing its own spiritual and or
ganic life. Unitarianism would have
nothing to gain, but much to lose, by
giving up its own special work to take
up that of any other denomination. II
has stood for freedom of inquiry; it has
stood for the ethical and spiritual as
poets OF Christianity as against the dog
matism of the schools. 1t has meant
reason in religion; it has stood for char
acter rather than for creed. There will
always be place for a church that
puts it's emphasis upon these things, and
the only real question it has to consider
is, not how to define it's life, but how
to give it expression
THE serious disappointment of the
Universalists who have grown old in the
faith," says the Christian Leader"
Uniy) of Boston, lis in the lack of
numbers-the relatively few who pro-
fess the faith and accept the name If
every year adds to the number of par
ishes and ministers, the addition Is re-
latively few. Such were the zeal and
the hope of Universalists half century
ap,o that the expactation uac tho ao,,i
valent of foregone fact, that before the
century ended the Universalist denomi-
nation would rank conspicuously for
numbers. No such result has followed
The great surprise and the special joy
of Universalists is in the fact that Uni
versalism as a principle, indeed under
another name, is in all the churches.
Calvinism has been Universalized in
one direction, and Arminianism in the
opposite direction. The doctrine of end
less punishment is seldom preached un-
less it is done by ministers who lack the
prestige to call attention to the words
they speak. 1t is openly, formally aver
red that fear is a selfish instinct and
that exclusive or emphatic appeals to
it debaSe the character of the converts
thereby made. Love, 1t is almost gener-
ally averred is the only really saving
power; and most of the sermons which
reach a reading public are based on the
attractivenesS of virtue and not on the
penalty, great or small, supposed to be
annexed TO diSobedience. The creeds
which get preached, and which get into
periodicals and books, are essentially
if not formally and verbally Universal
list. The success in this regard is so
great as to surpass belief. One who has
been a Universalist half century can
in this matter hardly believe the evil
dence Of his own eyes and ears
The flippant use of the names Oar
win, Huxley, Tyndall and Spencer a
few years ago, in the pulpit and i'm the
religious journals, by men who had
never read the works of the men they
We're striving to annihilate, is becoming
obsolescent," remarks the Central
Christian Advocate" (Meth.) of Chicago.
''The honesty and ability of these men
have become recognized generally, as
well as the virtues and beauties which
adorned their private lives. and the
answering devotion with which they
sought after scientific truth. 1t is not
to be doubted although we may not
elaborate the fact here, that, by giving
exclusive attention to the phenomena
OF the natural sciences they ignored,
and finally lost the power to discern,
some Of the higher forms Of truth,
those which have to do with worship,
prayer, religious trustfulness, devout
aspirations and ideals, and many other
phases of the inner life Indeed, Mr..
Darwin lamented late in life that some
of his faculties-those through which
he had apprehended and enjoyed
poetry, music and painting-had be- |
come by long disuse completely afro |
phied. Mr.. Spencer, however, has rec
ogntzed, throughout his Investigations,
the existence of an Unknown and I'm
movable Power behind all the phe- |
nomena Of the universe. He has not |
recognized the personality of this |
power; yet he bears this testimony in |
his final volume But one truth must |
grow ever clearer-the truth that there |
is an inscrutable existence everywhere |
manifested, to which one can neither
find nor conceive either beginning or
end. Amid the mysteries which be-
-~NNAN
they are thought about. there will re-
main the one absolute certainty, that
one is ever in the presence of an infinite
and eternal energy, from which all
things proceed "
There Is another last day beyond |
which there shall be no last day of year
or life, the true and only day of days"
says the New York Christian Advo-
cate" (Meth) 1T is not the fashion
TO speak Of 1t except with bated breath,
and even many deny that doomsday
will ever come or shrinking from that
extreme of reckless speech, affirm that
none can know whether there will be
such day or not. But Jesus four
times affirmed 1t, saying, And this is
the viii of Him that sent Me, that every
one which Seeth the son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life; and
L VIII raise him up ait the last day
Paul also on Mars Hill declared to the
of Athens, God now COM
mardeth all men everywhere to repent;
because He hath appointed a day, in
the which He Will Judge the world in
by that man whom He
hath ordained: whereof He hath given
assurance unto all men in that He hath
raised Him from the dead Without
such day Christianity has no voice
the future, no vindication
oil Gods justice, no explanation of the
limitation of human life by death, no
adequate motive to rouse sinners to
repentance, no justification of Christ's
sufferings and death. Because the un-
welcome truth slips out of the minds
of men, iniquity of all kinds aboIrnds |