The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1897-05-15

and statements, it is not that he de-
MES principles, but the forms in which
the principles are presented. To
fight dogmas and creeds is not to
fight religion or truth ;-often it is to
get truth and religion out of the pris-
on of tradition and form into the wider
world where they perform their mis-
sion more completely.
Church Traditions.
There is no doubt that there is
war going on between what men have
been taught to believe, and what in
their hearts they do believe; and for
the sake of sustaining churches, men
have been so dishonest that they have
said that it does not make much diff
ference what a man believes in his
heart, but he must not disturb the
traditions of the church. How can
Christian ministers say this! If there
is God and such things as truth,
justice and retribution, what is to be
the fate of the man who believes one
thing, and, for the sake of peace in
his congregation, breaches the very
opposite? He surely is establishing
poor premise for the preaching of
future hell in the next world and is
digging pit for himself to fall into.
The world demands of men today
that they preach what they believe
creed or no creed-and that they try
to meet the demands OF the souls of
men who have been fed so long on
the husks of tradition and unreal
ity.
The idea of judgment is one of the
providences of life. 1t is benefcent
in it's relation of mankind. Instead
of far-off judgment day, we believe
that every day is Judgment day,
and that man reaps as he sows. He
is not always conscious of his sowing,
but nature keeps true account. The
body is stronger or weaker each day
according as it has been used or mis-
used. One cannot pay out physical
strength without he replenishes the
waste and obeys the laws of nature.
The summary of life in all depart
ments is not put off till some unknown
day, but is coming all the time. At
the end of each twenty-four hours a
man IS either better or worse, accord
ing as his actions or thoughts have
been.
Religionists have seemed to hold
up the idea of the judgment as of
something awful; to suggest that
most people must expect to be lost.
Yet experience all tends to the oppo-
site. Happiness is more the lot of man
than misery. Good is more generally
the disposition than evil. Days and
weeks go by and we do not think how
happy is life, but there comes one day
of misery and the world is darker for
many week. If this happiness is
the work of the devil, as many theol-
ogians would have us think, then the
devil is a truer friend of man than
God, who, according to these same
theologists, is going to send most to
endless woe for doing what he made
conditions so they could not help do
ing. Judgment is not to reveal the
greatness of evil but the richness of
good. 1t is not to pass curse on
man but to call him to see the great
chances of this life. / do not believe
in great judgment day. Let us not
trv to avoid something no one ever
saw or feels is reasonable as a sequ-
ence of moral and soul life, but let
us avoid what we all too often expert
ence-the repoach of hearts of earth
to whom we bring pain by our heed
lessness or bad habits. Let us avoid
this worlds mad rush that causes us
to defraud ourselves of the higher
cultivation of our nature. Then shall
judgment be something real, and
something that every man shall feel
relates to the rational conditions of
human character-building.
DETROIT, Mich.