The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-01-28
MORE FREEDOM IS NEEDED
REV. M. ID. SHUTTER, OF MINNEAP-
OILS, breaches ON NEW
UNIVERSALISM
FAR TOO MUCH NARROWNFss
fierced Hand Has Thrown Open the
Gates of Religious Prisons
and Wider Thoughts
Prevail.
FAR TOO MUCH NARRowNEss

Kew Marion D. Shutter, of Minneapo-
us oellVered sermon at the Universal
ISL Church of the Redeemer, in St Paul
Yesterday afternoon. His subject was
The New Universalism and Its Reli-
s1ous Possibilities and the text 81 et
your manner OF life be worthy of the
Gospel of Christ" The sermon follows
in part:
The writer of this epistle is tryins to
impress upon the minds of his PhiIippIan
brethren the higher responsibilities that
go with their higher thought They are
no longer in bondage to the unworthy
notions of the past, to the fears and SUI
persutions in which they were reared
They have put away the things of child
1shness and ignorance. The pierced hand
mas thrown open the gates of their pris-
ons and brought them into fuller reyela-
ton of the divine glory and beauty.
Nobler thoughts of God sit enthroned In
tnelr brains, and grander views of life
unroll before their vision The logic Of
it all is that they themselves ought TO
De better. Increased knowledge and en-
larged privilege do not mean license and
recklessness; they mean a more serious
purpose and a deeper conviction of dutv
Privilege is the mother of obligation.
freedom from narroWness, prejudice
and fear do not mean freedom to do as
we please: it means freedom to do as
we ought. Every new thought that rolls
the burden of an old and oppressive be-
lief from the soul ought to make the
soul more active in the use of its I'M
numbered powers-more reverent towards
God, more sympathetic towards our fell
low men, more interested and enthusiasts
tic for the emancipating truth A bet
ter belief ought to make a better life
And so the apostle continues: "And this
pray that your love may abound yet
more and more in knowledge and all dis
cernment; so that We may approve the
Things that are excellent; that We may
be sincere and void of offense unto the
day of Christ; being filed with the
fruits of righteousness which are through
Jesus Christ, unto the glory of Cod
This is the result for which the apostle
looks and prays, in the lives of those
who have accepted the new truths en-
bodied in the gospel of Christ. The more
truth, the more goodness; the higher the
thought, the better the life! This is the
logic of the gospel
1t will not do to preach breadth and
proctice narrowness-to preach ten-acre
fields and practice cemetery lots 1t
Will not do to proclaim a gospel of
love, and then go snarling and swapping
and barking at every pair of heels in
some pathway of duty different from
ours
There are still people who think that
the only thing necessary to constitute
liberal religion is to say, "I don't be-
lieve in hell!' and then for one to go
piping his cheap negations upon the air,
in season and out of season, till gods
and men are wearied of his denials-and
even good Universalists are tempted to
wish that he might be mistaken. The
true liberal is not the man who denies
but aff1rms; not the man of least faith,
but of the greatest The true liberal Is
the man who is hospitable to truth from
all sources, and who is much more anx-
ious to discover a new fact than to shout
over an exploded falsehood!
The first thing 1 wish to impress is
that Universalism is a positive faith
The formula is not: 1--WE don't believe;'
but 1--WE do believe" and we believe
very much.