The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-11-28
SENATOR HoAR's Address

In the year 1s47, just before the in
corporation of the city of Worcester
and just before the end of the first hair
of the nineteenth century, a little com
pany of men and women, some of them
newcomers to the town Of Worcester,
and others from Unitarian and Ortho-
I dox parishes here, founded the Church
| Of the Unity. They called Edward Hale
| to be their pastor and accepted the re-
! port of the committee that they had
found suitable lot for a church in the
south part of the village They we're
taking a long forward step in the re-
| l1gtous progress of New England. They
called themselves Unitarians. But they
| differed from the settled and accented
| Unitarianism Of that time almost as
much as that differed from the Puri-
tanism of Cotton Mather. They had no
distinct church separating itself not
only from the world, but from the con-
gregation. The Unitarians of that day
while rejecting the five points of Cal
vinism, still chung to many Of its stern
dogmas. They stood in quite as much
terror of reformers like Emerson and
Theodore Parker, as did their Ortho-
doX contemporaries. They were in gem
eral strict Sabbatarians. They believed
| that man was made for the Sabbath
certainly that boys were made for the
Sabbath, and not the Sabbath for man.
Sunday in their homes was a day of
gloom. They still adhered to the ter
rible doctrine of eternal punishment
and to the conception of the character
and justice of God which logically fol-
lows that doctrine. l suppose there are
scarcely more than a dozen persons now
surviving of our original company. /
myself came here two years afterward
But l am one person-in-law with one
of them. l can speak Of the history
purpose and quality of this parish from
an intimate knowledge of more than
fifty years.
If were to give a title to this church
which would describe its distinctive
quality, I should say that it is the
church of Week-day-of 7-day-Chris-
tianity. The lessons that have come to
US from this pulpit from the beginning
have been lessons of the conduct and
character which belong to the practi-
cal, every day life of the men and wo-
men of an American city. That Is what
in our judgment the church is for the
parish is for, the pulpit is for and the
| clergyman is for. This church has
been a great power house whose invisi-
BILE electric current has been felt in
every dwelling and workshop and bank
and Office where the congregation had
a representative. Now, in this matter
we by no means claim or admit that
we have been separated from the great
body of Christian believers, although
we do claim to have given a special en-
phasis to this view Of the function Of
the Christian church. 1t is a doctrine
that has come to us by lawful, spirit
ual inheritance. If we do not go back
to Salem we go back to Plymouth, we
go back to Delfthayen To Leyden we go
back: we reYerently trust we go back
to Nazareth. John Robinson's definition
of a church is this; "A company con-
sisting though Of but two or three sep
arated from the world. gathered into
the name of Christ by covenant made
to work in all the ways of God known
to them, is a church and so hath the
whole power of God" John Robinson
also said that he was very confident
that God had more truth to break out
of the bosom of his word. / believe he
would have delighted in our amendment
to his statement: "A company consist
ing though OF but two or three, not sep
arated from the world, gathered into
the name of Christ by covenant made
to work in all the ways of God known
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