The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-11-27
THE UNITARIAN POSITION
Sermon of Rev. A. Carver at the First Unitarian Church Preach
ed November II and Published by Request

, they are accepted by the scholars of
all countries in all religious bodies.
Andoyer and New Haven welcome
them as we'll as Cambridge. The Meth
odist Mitchell teaches them as well as
the Anglican Driver and Cheyne,s or
| the Unitarian Martincau, or the Ger
man Hamack.
In this new light the Bible becomes
books, deprived Of none of their lofty
| quality. but set in true historical re-
lations, and interpreted as the express
sion of the time. The liberal position
| here as in other fields, is not pro-
| test, not denial, but simply the CAIN
submission of the mind, because II
| loves the truth, to the declared fact
If that fact be that Moses dld not
write the Pentateuch, or David any OF
the Psalms, the liberal does not re-
bel; if the application of the same
method of inquiry leads Hamack, IN
his latest book, to affirm that the old
est gospel tradition knew nothing or
any stories of Jesus birth" he adjusts
himself to that conclusion.
l might lead you out into yet WIDER
| ranges of thought. We are charged,
as a strange eccentricity, with having
sympathy with the higher forms of
pagan religion. When nothing was
known of pagan faith, and they were
| ignorantly regarded as false, such
sympathy might seem strange. What
bond is there between light and dark
ness? But those faiths are known now.
| There is a science of comparative re-
| ligions which shows that the same ele-
ments, in varying proportions, exist
in pagan and Christian systems. Is the
doctrine of the trinity the watchward
| of the Christian and evangelical
| church? A professor in a theological
school writes book on the Ethical
| Trinities. Are there miraculous birth
stories in the New Testament? They
are matched in other lands. Is there
noble spiritual idea of God in the Bible?
| You find kindred states of knowledge
and feeling in other nations. Is there
breath of tender pity and charity in
the gospel? Shall we not hail the same
spirit as it develops in India? Here
are the facts. They do not show that
| the religions of the world are of equal
worth, but they prove them to be of
| the same family. Does the lover of
pearls care from what source or land
or time they come. Can he who loves
| the truth, praise it when he hears it
| from Jewish lips, and withhold his adj
miration when it is spoken in Greek or
| Persian accents? Can he do that and
| be true?
But enough of these general illus
trations. I want you to see that there
sions touching every field of inquiry;
there are still questionings about de-
tails, but the main facts are estab-
lished beyond dispute Here is the in
tellectual production of the modern
world
We have not constructed it, but we
build upon 1t. Here we stand. This Is
not on religion; this is on position, and
shows why we no longer cling to the
! theological view or to any shadow of
it. But these general conclusions touch
and define every phase and article of
religious thought. The mind that loves
Cod not only accepts the great facts,
but is compelled to take with them
their rational opinions.
The Unitarians have no doctrines of
their own, the product of their eccen-
trio position. They deal with the com
mon coin of the intellectual world. And
| if it be real true, as was asserted,
a week ago, that there is a chasm be-
| tween the Methodist and Unitarian
churches as wide as Heaven and earth,
| which can never be bridged, (and that
is true. if at all only of intellectual
points, not of great beliefs) that is
| but another way of pointing out the
distance between Methodism and mod
ern thought.
When the same preacher asks not to
be blamed for believing so much more
| than the Unitarians, he can only mean
| that he has a larger room for ideas
and conceptions which modern knowl-
| edge has done away. and smaller ca
pacity for those grander revelations
to the mind of our time which have
given us new heaven and a new
| earth
The commandment of God is exceed
ingly broad. 1t touches the spirit of
| man and wakes it to a service whose
passion is love. 1t touches the mind
and stirs it to life whose passion is
truth.