Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-12-15
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- 30
PEOPLES PULPIT.
An Unitarian Sermon.

j.
Many Unitarians in ottumwa and
elsewhere would be glad to read the
following extracts from sermon by
Rev. Mary A. Stafford, delivered in Des
Moines on Sunday, Dec. 8. 1t was I'M
doubleday called out by reason of the
union revival services now being con-
Quoted In that city BY DIR. j. Wilbur
Chapman and the other evangelists
The Register and Leader, in publish
Ing the sermon says:
''In the face of the perfect storm of
sermons which tell the gospel story,
raising the Christ to the dignity of
God and relying on the help of the
power with which He is thus endowed,
for the transformation of countless
lives, the Rev. Mary A. Stafford of the
Unitarian church preached yesterday
strong sermon setting forth the con-
trary view, that Jesus was a man,
good man, it is true, but nevertheless
man, subject to the limitations of
the flesh, and should therefore not be
worshipped in the place of the God
of the monotheists"
Parts of her address are as follows:
Shall we worship God or Jesus?
We find an answer to this question
IN John iv:23-24.
But the hour cometh and now Is
when the true worshippers shall wor-
ship the Father in spirit and In truth;
for the Father seeketh such to worship
Him. God Is spirit and they that
worship Him must worship Him in
spirit and in truth"
Accept His Teachings.
Unitarian churches accept the relig-
ion of Jesus, holding, In accordance
with His teaching, that practical re-
ligton is summed up In love to God and
love to man. We have no creed which
is made test of character or fellow
ship.
We worship, as Jesus worshipped,
one God, the Father of all-the eter-
nal life-soul of the universe.
We do not think it essential to pray
In the name of Jesus, for He himself
said, After this manner pray ye," and
then uttered the beautiful prayer,
which begins, "Our Father who art in
heaven" and closes without any rev
erence whatever to the name of Him
who taught mon thus to pray. But this
religion of Jesus which we accept diff
fers widely from the Christianity of the
creeds.
For this reason, strange as 1t may
seem, those who worship the God of
Jesus are regarded as heretics by those
who worship Jesus himself.
We do not call them heretics. how
ever.
In a noble human being we have
the highest manifestations of duty. In
SO far as worship is but recognition of
true worth, loving reverently for lofty
character, Unitarians heartily unite
with Trinitarians in tribute Of honor
and praise to the high souled Galilean
teacher who went about doing good.
But His own teaching and our own
reason forbid us to exalt this noble
leader to the place of God. We cannot
adore him as the creator and supreme
ruler Of the universe. For to u.s. as to
Jesus and to Paul. there is one God
and Father of all, who lis above all
and through all and in us ALL This
being true the great Galilean-while
nobly manifesting the divine-could
not completely incarnate deity
So to worship Him as the infinite.
eternal God Is to make the part equal
to the whole. 1t is to condense into
one life the universal life.
Not IN ACCORD with Reason.
Yet, while belief In the deity of Je.
sus does not accord with his own teach
ing, nor with the teaching of modern
science and reason, the origin and
growth of this belief Is plain.
AS were the rest of his countrymen,
SO was Jesus, a strict monothiest or
believed in our God. Had He believed
himself to be the infinite, eternal God,
surely ne would have affirmed his SUI
preme divinity. He would have taken
great pains to impress this belief on
the minds of his disciples. 1t was so
foreign to their thought that it would
nave been necessary for him to state
IT clearly and strongly over and over
again to lead them to accept it, But
the gospel records contain no such
teaching. Neither do they reveal any
thing of the sense Of awe his disciples
would have felt had they believed
themselves to be in the presence of
the Almighty Ruler Of the universe
embodied in a human form.
To the disciples as to all of the early
Christians, Jesus was the honored
teacher, the long expected Messiah,
the Good Shepherd of his flock of faith.
full followers. But while the Jews of
the time OF Jesus were strict mono
theists earthly heroes were often DEL
fed in the Greek and Roman worlds,
where Christianity had its early
growth. Among the Greeks and Ro-
mans belief in gods in human form
was common.
AS the figure of the noble Nazarene
receded farther and farther into the
past more and more was he exalted in
the minds Of his followers.
At last in accordance with the
thought of the age, he too was deified
and worshipped as God.
Not Dishonor.
No, we do not dishonor Jesus be-
cause we. do not worship Him as the
incarnate God, for He never claimed
such worship. Because Jesus was our
brother man, who had to face the
worlds temptations as we must face
them and fight life's battles as we must
fight them His victories give us