The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-10-30

ment of the conditions in church and
parish and Sunday-school. We shall
not easily make these institutions all
we wish them to be. But let us all
go home TO work as best we may for
the betterment Of each part OF our
task.
Let not the shock of disappoint-
ment or of hope deferred destroy our
new found zeal. Our friends at home
have not passed with us through the
melting and transferring experiences
of this occasion. They have not
fingered with us upon this mountain
in glorious old st. Pauls's. They
know all too little of what a great
convention does to mind and heart.
Let us have care, then, that our
newly awakened ardor does not
shatter itself upon the immobility of
those about us who have not seen
these heavenly visions. If we are
faithful we may slowly but surely
send abroad the quickening life that
has come to us while here.
No church can afford to break
away from the multitudes about it.
We must go forward" but we must
not become mere "cult." We must
draw the world with us. l have
faith to believe that our ever watch
full and loyal officers will interpret
the prayer of the pastors, and organ
ize the campaign. We shall not fight
as those that wildly beat the air.
Some will be leaders and some will
follow, but the word has gone forth.
1t has seemed long in coming, but
its day has arrived, and with one
accord we obey its impulse forward"
An English officer in the cavalry
branch of the service, at the close of
one of the colonial wars, took fancy
to buy and take home to his estate a
lot of worn out cavalry horses. 1t
was his humane pleasure to care for
these dumb comrades of the past
campaigns, and he gave them ample
pasturage. One day a thunderstorm
passed over, and these old army
horses heard what they supposed
was the distant cannonade of battle.
With heads aloft and with many ex-
pressive signs, they wheeled into line
as the thunder rang among the hills.
To them the battle seemed to be on
once more, and they were soon to
charge into the heat of the fray.
Once more the peaceful pasture had
become a battlefield and the sur
vivers were brave as of old. So it is
with many of us. Old clergymen and
laymen of the church have heard the
cannonade of new campaigns, and
are ready to line up for the fray,
The campaign for social regeneration
is already on. The marching orders
have come again. A campaign for
spiritual awakening,-for purer life
and more generous thought and deed
has been planned. Garry the word
east and west, and north and south,
that our brethren far and near may
keep company with US in the great
campaign for social and national re-
generation. Happy the day when oul
ears have heard this noble word
Forward"
ADDRESS OF DR.. E. H. CAPEN OF MASS.
The English language affords nc
grander word than the one chosen fol-
the topic Of the evening. The word with
which the nineteenth century salutet
the twentieth; with which this mos
progressive age greets one more progress
sive. DR.. Capen sketched the condition
of the past in comparison with those Of
today. showing how the tallow dip ano
the stage coach we're succeeded by the
electric light and the locomotive, anC
yet this marvellous progress is but the
dawnipg of mechanical and industrial
possibility-and not less has been the
progress in the intellectual and religious
world. The theology of New Englanc
seventy-five years ago was distinct and
awful thing. 1t was a terror. Yet in
recalling it he would recognize it's mighy
power in the development of civilization
but it has passed away; now even the
Roman Catholic church feels the spirit
of the age and enters upon the forward
movement. What is the influence that
has been at work to bring about this
change? He did not hesitate to say il
has been the thought and activity Of
the founders and fathers of the Univer
salist church. The first man to teach
the ethical religion that is taking pos
session of the world was Hosea Ballou
The first man TO make use of The Higher
Criticism was Hosea Ballou. and the day
is coming when the position of oul
chu rch 10 these matters shall be recog
nized. Yet We have not reached the
bounds; we are only on the threshold
But how are we to go forward? First
through our organic life. The onl,