The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-11-27

| outside, and not commit the treason
of scuttling the ship while you are
passenger, or one of the crew. 1t is
only members of churches, who some
times abandon the principles on
which those churches are founded, and
insist on advocating vagaries that
pervert and destroy them.
DR.. Briggs has a right to say, and
we say with him that the Bible is not
an inerrant book; but he adds what
our church and most Christians be-
lieve, that the religious teaching con-
tanned in the Bible are infallible and
authoritative. This is exactly the
sentiment of the Winchester Pro-
fession. 1.-THE Bible contains reve-
lation.' So far as this goes DIR.
Briggs is with us, accepts the doc
trines for which we have stood for a
century, and has abandoned the Pres
byterian position that the entire
Bible is an infallible, plenarily in
spired revelation.
DIR. Briggs is right in accepting
and advocating our view or any
other, but he is wrong in continuing
inside an organization into which he
gained admission by protesting
different sentiment. He is not free
to do 80 any more than one who has
gained admission into masonic
lodge has right to remain a men,
Der after he has repudiated the
principles of the ord Or. DR.. Briggs's
view of the Bible is correct-if it were
not he has the right to hold it-but
he is wrong in insisting on remaining
in body into which he gained ad-
mission by advocating contrary
sentiment
A Unitarian in a Trinitarian body,
Trinitarian in a Unitarian body, a
Universalist in an orthodox church,
Catholic in a Protestant member
ship, an unbeliever in Universalist
society, anybody anywhere holding
principles hostile to the very. life of
the organization with which he is
allied, should have respect enough
for others rights as well as such a
sense of propriety as to go to his own
place. There is more freedom for
me outside any church besides my
own than there is inside any such
church. There is larger liberty for
any one inside church whose prin-
ciples he accepts, however small that
church may be, than in any other,
however large.
And in these days when one volun-
tarily or involuntarily becomes a
martyr by leaving religious organi-
cation, he is not often loser: the
penalty is not great, even in worldly
matters. Martyrs in these days are
apt to receive increased salaries, and
a larger following. Many minister
only known to a few till he raised
his heels against the Bible, or thrust
his irreverent scalpel beneath the
shroud of Lazarus, all at once has
become famous, and has been cred
tied by those who followed him with
abilities of which his most intimate
friends never suspected him before.
Each Christian sect employs its
principles as the tools and imple-
ments with which it is doing Christian
work. Any one who having used
them wishes to discard them, should
be encouraged to do so and he will
be hard to suit if he cannot find a
congenial atmosphere somewhere
else
A modern catch-word, a popular
slogan, is the word "broad." Does
man accept the New Testament
record of our Lords life? Oh, no;
he is too broad for that. Does he
believe in our Lords divinity, and
miraculous power? Then he is
narrow. Some people seem to forget
that there is quite as much danger
in breadth as in narrowness. "Broad
is the road that leads to death. y
Wisdom has always shown narrow
path. Straight and narrow is the
road that leads to life, but there is
more genuine freedom in it than in
the widest highway of evil. Not a
few people in these days are illustrat-
ing the saying concerning a certain
New Hampshire statesman. He was
quite man in his own State, but
spread out over the entire country, he
was exceedingly thin. He was too
broad.
Most men would be vastly i'm
proved by substituting little more
height and depth for some of their
breadth, or at least by struggling
to become as high and deep as broad.
Few of US would be so very broad if
we were symmetrically developed in