Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-03-09
PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS.
"What Do Unitarians Believer" by
Rev. w. X. Hunt

|
The third in the series of meetings
known as the PARLIAMENT of Religions"
took place in the Unitarian vestry last
Wednesday afternoon. Rev. w. r. Hunt.
pastor of the Unitarian church, replied to
the question, "What Do Unitarians Be-
lieve?" He said in part
We cannot answer this question by
reading together creed or statement of
| intellectual belief, for the first article of
the Unitarian creed is that this church
has no creed. The aim of this church
and the reason for its being are not to com
pei men and women to think alike. but to
increase their moral and spiritual life
| Believing that any explicit formal state
ment of intellectual belief or opinion
would hinder and defeat, instead OF help
and aid this fundamental purpose, the
| Unitarian church presents no formal
| creed, the acceptance or nOn-acceptance
OF which makes man member or not a
member of its organization
In 1884 the following was adopted by
the national conference of Unitarian
and other Christian churches, as part of
the preamble to its constitution:
"These churches accept the religion of Jesus,
| holding In accordance with His teaching, that
| practical religion Is summed up in Love to
Cod and Love to Man. his conference recog-
| nizes the fact that its constituency Is coppre.
gational in tradition and poity; therefore 1t
| declares that nothing In this constitution is to
be construed rs an authoritative test. and we
cordially invite to our working fellowship any
who, though differing from us in belief are in
general sympathy with our spirit and practi.
cal aims"
unitarians have deep and abiding
faith in God. We look upon Him as the
| giver to mankind of every good and per
feet gift. In the words of Jesus we call
Him Father, and we see Him in His man
lfestatlons about us on every hand, in
heaven and on earth We use the word
God not to define and limit Him. but as
gathering up in itself that perfection of
| goodness, power, kindness and love which
we see manifest in the world about us
We believe that by His laws He guides US,
by His care He protects us, by His
strength He holds us, by His love He COM
| forts us-all these attributes of His made
known to US and revealed through human
| hearts, human hopes and human loves.
And so we believe in revelation, not as
signed, sealed and delivered but as being
| continued and made known through the
daily experience of life. We accept the
bible as the record of the continuous
| history for hundreds of years of people
who had peculiar genius for religion. We
hold that these facts of this early revela-
| ton are infallible which are in harmony
with the later revelations which God has
made. and shall make in the future, of
| His plans for man and the world. We
| n.
when read to-day, inspire to noble
thoughts and noble lives; any other test
of inspiration we cannot conceive.
We hold that revelation has been made
and is to-day being made to man, and be
cause this is so, we hold that man is the
child of God. We believe that man is
| being created daily in the image of God,
and that he is growing in His likeness
! We believe that man has grown little by
little from humble origin, and that his
history is gradual ascent from the lower
to the higher, from the animal to the
spiritual. We believe that man has been
searching always after God, if happy he
may find Him, and that his religious prac-
tees, symbols, institutions are the out
ward expression of the souls cry for God.
We believe that man is naturally re-
liglous being, that his natural tendency is
! toward goodness not evil, and that the
progress of civilization proves this, and
prophesies more glorious day yet to
come
We believe that Jesus was the son of
| God. born, like the other sons of God of
! human parents. We believe that he is the
grandest seer OF moral and religious
| truth which the world has vet seen We
| believe that the witnesses to this greatness
are the truths which he uttered and the
| life which he lived. We believe that the
Sermon on the Mount contains an
ideal of human life which, when it is fol-
on the earth. We believe that he laid
down not rules for conduct, but princi-
Piles of life. and that the spirit which
runs through these principles is the spirit
of Christ We hold that this spirit of
Christ is in the world to day. and that
upon it rests the hope of the betterment
of the world to day
We believe that evil is necessary in the
world, not as a thing but as condition,
out of which man grows into higher,
better condition: that sin is negative. not
positlve-in most cases conscious choice
of the less good in preference to the
greater.
And we believe that salvation is a learn
ing always to choose the greater, the
higher good which presents itself, conse
quently we base our hopes of salvation on
education of the intellect and the heart,
the mind and the feeling
We believe that prayer is the conscious
approach to God by word, thought, deed;
that it is communion of the finite soul
with the infinite soul; that it is the union
of father and child, and we believe that it
is the natural channel through whica the
soul reaches up to God.
We believe in a hope for immortality.
not as a place to which certain ones shall
60 but as the natural outcome of human
life. We believe that the kingdom of
/ heaven is where Jesus placed it; within
us, each one of US. and that to bring ii out
from us so that we and others shall really
know it is the grand object Of life. and So
we do not attempt to picture the place of
immortality or to prove 10y the logic of the
syllogism that it is, and who are to be its
Inha DltantS.
know not where His Islands
Lift their trundcd palms IN air,
only know cannot DRIFT
Beyond His love ami care.
LnI