The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-10-09
THE UNIVERSALIST CHURCH.

the day of Pentecost, when "All that
believed were together, and had all
things common; and sold their pos
sessions and goods, and parted them
to all men, as every man had need"
This charming communion did not
long continue, for the inward sell
fishness, and greedy, grasping covet-
BUSINESS of even pious men soon
blasted the rich promise of the glori-
Gus springtime of the faith. Yet to
those who study nat ure carefully,
there is much to be learned from the
hour of bloom regarding the ultimate
destiny of all growing things.
1t is instructive, for instance, to OBJ
serve how the coloring of vegetation
in October is precisely the same as it
was in May. Autumnal tints were
prefgured by vernal bushes. The
mature foliage of tree and plant re-
turns to the glory which it wove
when it burst its cerements of winter.
So is it in human life. The second
childhood fulfils and justifies the first.
Our earliest recollections are also our
latest. When life and love are new,
we note the probable character of
! age. Thus, watching an infants un-
selfishness, the cynic may sneer be-
cause it will not last, but the wise
man rejoices, for this fair blossom
predicts what men may become under
| more perfect conditions. 1t is GER
tainly saddening, when autumn
comes, to remember the blossoms of
spring, and to see how few have ma
tured. This also applies to the
pathos of life. Of thousand babies
that are born, how few come to ma
turity! In nature and in human life
there are far more blossoms than
fruit, but the fruit remains. And so
those early Christians, who came to-
gether and had all things common
soon got scattered and went home
again, and eventually the secular
world resumed it's sway over them.
Nevertheless, there remains that
bright prophetic hour of Christian
brotherhood. And when all believers
can continuously live together well
and gladly, and with purity of heart,
the new Jerusalt m will indeed have
come to stay, the heavenly city will
have descended, Christ will have con-
quered, and God will be all in all.
| have no expectation that such a
season of spiritual ecstasy will come
again for many weary year, but |
have every hope that it will come ul-
timately. 1t is the revealed purpose
of God in Christ, the unconscious but
certain object of Christian civiliza-
ton, the conscious aim of all holy
souls, the dream of all great and in
spired spirits in every age. Those
pentecostal children predicted better
than they knew, perhaps, the social
consequences of the Gospel of loving
kindness among men.
This may be taken as one of the
scriptural grounds of our faith. It's
germ was in the soul of Christ; and
the history of Christendom ever
since illustrates the various attempts
towards its realization in the life and
ways of humanity.
The results have often been dis
heartening, but never hopeless. Only
when each soul on earth and
in heaven is touched and toned
by the spirit of the Master, will
the absolute or ideal church find
complete expression. Until then,
and as helping ON the grand consum-
nation, sectarian or partial churches
will probably continue to exist,-al-
though forms and symbols and creeds
are worth nothing, except as scaffold-
ing for something nobler. The Wis.,
ible church itself is not an end. The
soul is higher. The Holy Ghost, we
may be sure, would rather dwell in
the heart of the humble, than in any
ceremonial or outward temple what
soever. Yet churches are needed. l
think they have genuine work to do,
and that each has some real and
legitimate contribution to the great
whole. 1t takes them all to make
the church universal.
Now, among these churches l claim
place and work for the Universalist
Church. 1t may not contain all pos
sible religious truth, though should
like to say of it what st. Cyril, of
Jerusalem, said of the church in his
day, that it sis called Catholic be-
cause it teaches catholically, and
without defect, all the doctrines
which ought to come home to the
knowledge of all men, whether con-
corning things visible and invisible,
or concerning heavenly and earthly
things; and because it universally
treats and heals every species of sins
that are committed by soul and body;
and because it has in possession