The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-09-25

| happy Is Hoj Happy 10 bhus pcOplO
whose God is the Lord;" Blessed"
!. e. very happy, "are they that keep
his testimonies" And in the New
Testament: BLESSED are ye when
men shall hate you;' BLESSED are
they who are prosecuted for right
eousness, sake" "If We be reproached
for the name of Christ, happy are We,
for the Spirit of Glory and of God
resteth upon you" And SO Jesus
speaks of JOY, which is the word
designating the highest happiness, as
his portion even when he knows that
he is about to experience the severest
physical anguish, and says to his
disciples: "These things have
spoken unto you, that my joy might
remain in you, and that your JOY
might be full"
Bishop Butler has said: Virtue
must be the happiness and vice the
misery of every creature" And
Matthew Arnold renders John i, II:
Happiness and reality came by
Jesus Christ Indeed, for us to
deny that holiness and true happi-
ness are inseparably connected, is to
deny what Universalsts have taught
in the past, and still continue to
teach, concerning the perfect har-
mony of Gods commands with our
moral constitution, and to make the
result of holiness arbitrary and not
causal
1t is further objected to Article Ill,
that it is utilitarian in it's doctrine,
that believers ought to be careful
to maintain order and practice good
works, for these things are good and
profitable unto men," Wherein does
this essentially differ from the state
ment and exhortation of Paul to
Titus Faithful is the saying, and
concerning these things | will that
thou affirm confidently, to the end
that they who have believed God
may be careful to maintain good
works. These things are good and
profitable unto men," And if we
remember that the uniform tenor of
the Scriptures is, that "godliness is
profitable to all things" producing
peace, content, putting man into
harmony with all good; that Ought"
is expressive of moral obligation to
obey, to "be bound in duty or by the
principles of right" and that, as has
been said by an eminent writer on
ethics, 1.-The question why | ought to
do right? shows that oughtness
takes precedence" and by another
that ''the word ought is the strongest
ethical word in the languages" and
if we further consider that the good
sought by such ethical demand must
be moral good, must exclude merely
sordid ambition for the things that
are less than moral good, the utilitar-
ianism vanishes; and the words of
Article III set forth in tersest form,
the doctrine of Che Scriptures and of
the highest moral philosophy.
The latest objection in the chrome
logical order, is to Article l., that in
its statement that "the Holy Scrip
lures of the Old and New Testaments
contain a revelation of the character
of God" ETC., at makes too much of
the Scriptures" This is certainly a
strange criticism to make on any
Christian creed, and most strange of
all to come from members of a
Christian sect which claims that it
sets forth the highest Interpretation
of the Scriptures and whose history
shows its uniform appeal to "Thus
saith the Lord" And it is glazing
inconsistency that these DIRECTORS
nevertheless profess that they accept
Jesus Christ 'as spiritual Leaders"
for where, in the whole range of the
universe do they learn what he was
and what he taught, except in the
Holy Scriptures? And equally true
is it that the same Scriptures as
plainly teach that he is the revealer
of God, commissioned in a special
sense to authoritatively show men the
Father, "the brightness of Gods glory
and the express image of his person."
the only one to whom the Father has
committed the reconciliation of the
world to Himself, and through and
by whom "God shall be all in all"
AS logical necessity, therefore, the
Universalist Church as a Christian
Church must believe that "the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Tesla
ments contain a revelation of the
character of God and of the duty,
interest and final destination of man
kind"
AS no statement has yet been Of
fered, nor, considering the peculiar
tiles of thought prevailing among
tbooa UuhO would ha on, hiti0ua m