The Indianapolis journal., 1903-04-05
Some Unitarian
Literature

Perhaps no body of men Of equal num-
hers has ever performed as effective sers-
Zee In IT'S line as the New England UNI
farsans and their colleague who, Tor the
most mart. are confined to the North At
lzntfc States BY common consent their
founder and leader was the heaN
minded William +. Claiming. with tie
ucose Theodore Parker as an easy sse-5s
How Claiming came TO be Unitarian -
worth relating. He was a Rhode lsiaho
boy. His father was a very prominent man
IN the orthodox church. man OF wealth
and social influence, who carried Dig
gold-headed cane and rejoices in the honor
OF being called deacon. One Sunday ms
pastor preached one Of the old-fasnloneo
Calvinistic sermons in which he sent nine
tenfhs OF the inhabitants of this world 10
hell and then drew a terrific picture OF the
eternal tortures OF the damned-"the smoke
of whose torment goeth up for ever ana
ever" The boy William took 1t all serious
ry. At the close OF the meeting his father
congratulated the preacher with resound-
ing sound doctrine. sir. sound doctrine
The family went home. The boy was SO
impressed with the impending and awfui
doom Of the human race that he expected
his father, when he got home, to lament
weep and pray like the people OF Uneven
of old. Instead Of that his father ate Dig
dinner and then went TO sleep with re-
sounding snores and kept at II all the a1ter-
noon. That was the beginning of
New England Unitarianism. This oc-
currence led the thoughtful boy TO
examine the doctrine Of punishments
hereafter. and not only that but all
oil ha
credited the whole system. and in the end
started the Unitarian movement. Every
thing was against him, but he and his
church made such rapid progress that In
less than twenty-five years fully one-half
OF all the New England orthodox churches
became Unitarian; more than that. the
Trinitarian churches were silently recon-
structed. At first they loudly denounced
the new heresy. but after a while they be-
gan to say among themselves. 'Well. per-
haps these Unitarians are right, after all"
And now. without admitting it. the ma
5ority of old Calvinistic churches are quiet
ly teaching the Claiming doctrines. Last
year the Presbyterian Church, in its Gen
eral Assembly, went back" upon portions
of its time-honored creed and cast out the
doctrines OF election and predestination. 1t
nal punishment and all the other dogmas
based upon the fear of God and the bloody
sacrifice Of Christ will be eliminated and
the love Of God be made the cornerstone Of
our salvation. Everywhere in our churches
now the accent is laid upon the life and
spirit of Christ and not upon His death,
except illustrating His love.
"A little leaven leaveneth the whole
lump" This is emphatically true of the
Unitarian protest. What a splendid list of
great names does it present-Emerson
Hawthorn. Longfellow, Whittier, Chan
ming. Holmes. Lowell. all the great Ameri-
can historians and men OF letters and the
majority of great orators and statesmen
Of the last seventy-five years. But the
Unitarians seem, however to have done
their work. which critical, rather than
spiritual. This church's mission was to
overthrow the dogmas of Calvinism, and
having accomplished that, it now seems to
be in semi-moribund condition. IT was
never q missionary church. Its numbers
were always small. II does not now and
never did show the splendid energy of the
Methodists. Baptists Presbyterians
Catholics. At present its leader is Edward
Everett Hale, with half a dozen easy sec
onds. 1t still keeps on publishing books,
and not few notable volumes bear the
impress OF the American Unitarian Asso-
citation.
1.-The Smoke and the Flame" by Charles
+. Dole. is one Of the most brilliant little
books Of the season. While it is hyper-uni-
tarian none the less IL is full of stimulat-
ing chapters. The author begins with a
vivid picture of the teachings of Christ
and His apostles and the church during the
first century. Simplicity could not be simp-
Ter than their teachings. On account of
their simplicity the doctrines spread like
wild fire. The author shows how, however
In the second century, this new religion
fell into the hands of able and self-seeking
men who paganized it and built out of it
a powerful instrument for their self-ag-
grandizement. and in the third century how
they kept adding to it. For example, he
points out that in the year 800 in the great
council OF Nice, over which the Emperor
Constantine presided. the simple religion
OF the Master and the apostles was con-
verted into an incomprehensibIe creed and
that the Eastern division of the church
went from bad to worse until A. d. 60O
Mohamried arose and drove Christianity
out OF Asia, and erected upon its ruins
what he called the reformed religion Islam
Inc dutnOf cnaracter1ZeS the Catholic
Church OF the next thousand years, and
until the great German reformation, as "a
magnificent hierarchy, teaching supersti-
tion." At length came Luther and his ref
ormation, which. in the language of an
eminent English critic, was only broken
leg badly set and worse knit together"
The author is too severe when he says that
Luther only substituted for an infallible
church an infallible book. but still it can
not be denied that the political Christianity
or the Protestants in Luther's day and for
century afterwards was just as bad as
that or its enemies, the Catholics. 1t is
only during the last half OF the nineteenth
century just closed that the world has
really enjoyed religious freedom. Up to
1850 the social ostracism caused by free
thinking was as much a terror as the po-
litical prosecutions of the preceding two
centuries. And still let US be just. The au-
thor points out that all this was but .the
smoke" and that out OF IL, from the be-
ginning, came constant flame" of real
religion This flame burned brightest in the
hearts or obscure saints and martyrs. who
handed down, from century to century. the
lighted torch OF love TO God. love to man