The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-26
UNITARIANISMI IS
FURTHER EXPLAINED
Mr. Billings breaches His
Fourth Sermon Here
ON 1.-THE DIGNITY OF MAN"
Claiming and Other Early Unitarians
Revolted Against Hopeless Thought
of Man Being Ruined by
Sin of Adam.
ON 1.-THE DIGNITY OF MAN"

morning was the Dignity of Man. This
/ completes Mr.. Billings fourth Sunday.
and is his last in the city, as he returns
north this week. During the four Sun
days he mas made the people here familiar
with the Unitarian thought and temper.
His first sermon emphasized the deeper
thought aud love and life for which Uni
tariansm stands, and in succeeding SER
mons he sought to show how this thought
and temper reached forth for loftier ideas
of God and Christ and humanity.
I ON the Dignity of Man" the preacher
+ spoke in part as follows:
What is man, that thou art mindful of
him.
And the son of man, that thou visited
him.
For thou hast made him, but little lower
than God.
And croWnest Him with glory and honor.
The dignity of man. though it is not ex-
pressy stated In the five points of our
creed Yet is implied in all of it. 1t is
one of our fundamental doctrines It is
one that Claiming most strongly en-
phasized.
Sin of Adam.
The old idea was that man had fallen
through the sin of Adam. His nature was
ruined by the fall of his first progenitor.
lie needed regeneration before he could
take his place among the sons of God.
But even regeneration could not always
save him, for God had predestined only
the elect few to be saved.
From this boDpleSs tbouobt af man
Claiming and the earlier Unitarans re-
Nolted If God made man in His image.
there must be God-lke nature in men
worthy of our reverence. and man was
not ruined but Incomplete If seldshncss
was inherent in his nature, God was there
also, and the good might conquer the evil
The life of God found expression i'm all
nature and It's highest expression In hui
manlty.
And yet, though the idea of the worth
of the individual is slowly gaining ground,
there Is much in our civilization To OBJ
seure that worth Still we have a feeling
akin to that expressed by the Psalmist
When we consider the heavens, when we
look upon the sea, catch the vivid light
ning's flash, or read of the Wholesale de-
structon of earthquake and volcano, We,
too say, What is man, that, thou art
mindful of him?"
Even the natural progress of history
seems to emphasize mans littleness.
Nothing is so interesting in the study of
evolution as the persistence of certain
| species yet at what a cost often to the
individual! And still nature seems at
strife with man.
so careful of the type she seems,
SO careless of the single life"
And i'll the march of human history
many an individual has been left be-
hind, and in certain periods has seemed
10 be completely absorbed In the work
, that he accomplished. The great cathed-
rails preserve in many instances The
names of their builders but they are
more monuments of art and religion than
of the men who devoted themselves &,
erecting them.
So men come and go. and no man seems
essential to the life or welfare of the
community. Our places for the most part
are quickly filled when We depart
Tendency of History.
And this obscurng of the individual is
not merely the tendency of history. bat
the ideal of our time. Man must sacrifice
himself for the good of the whole, This
ideal is everywhere manifest.
The trades unions set n standard of
work often for mento do. no man must do
more lie may be capable of doing
more and earn more money, but he must
| car Fof tbn
whole SO in labor and capital. the en-
ployer no longer hires the laborer, but
the labor, and II the labor is not salts
factory, the man is not wanted. Further
the laborer is not working for his en-
ployer, he is working for wages, and all
the relations between capital and labor
are become more and more impersonal
The worth of the individual is obscured.
The same tendency is observed in the
demand for socialism and municipal own
ershlp. Private greed must give way to
public good. Even our social life grows
more superficial. We rarely have time OF
opportunity to come in contact with the
best and deepest side of those we meet
And all these tendencies and demands
seem to emphasize mans lttleness.
But all this thought of the individual
seems to imply opposition between the
world and the individual. The welfare
of the one seems to exclude the welfare
of the other
Mans Dignity.
The marvel of the eighth Psalm is that,
while 1t recognizes mans littleness. II
also realizes that he is little less than
God. and God has crowned him with
glory and honor. And in the ultimate
analysis there is no opposition between
the welfare of man and the welfare OF
the world. When man is working fol
| others he is surely developing his best
self And when he is developing his best
self, he is surely giving the world the
best gift in his power. For the strength
of the world is its strong men. 1t is not
the number of regiments that makes the
army strong, it is the strength of the regl-
ments 1t is not the size of the country
nor its resources that makes a country
powerful: It is the character of the peo
pie. 1t is not creed or ritual or organi
cation that makes a church strong. II Is
the character of the men who worship
within its walls.
All great ben strengthen the institutions
TO which they belong and which they
serve. That is why the "blood of mar