Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1906-01-01
UNITARIAN SERMON.
Rev. Eddy's Subject, yourselves, On
Friends and Our Work.

Rev. Frank Fay Eddy preached yes.
terday morning IN the Unitarian church
Friends. snd our Work in the New
Year. He said In parts
yourselves, our friends and our
work In the new year Ia my somewhat
scattered subject. IL my subject Is
diffuse It Ia nevertheless logical. we
must always start any such train OF
drought by first considering the per-
sonal equation. II Ii not what thing
means In q general sense that ~ I'M
portant to us individually so much as
what thing means to us personally.
so IN any consideration OF the new
year, we must fret ask ourselves what
kind of an ego has come as a compos'
tie result Of all the ancestral inherit
lance and personal experience OF the
mast. The chief question for you or me
individually Is Just this personal one as
to what kind of q self or soul each OF
us Is facing the new year with. Then
comes the matter OF our friends In the
broad sense OF the term--the compan-
ionships and associations we make ma
turaily our own. Finally comes the
aims and objects we consciously strive
for or internationally promote; this II
our work. How, then, do we face the
new year? With what personality?
With what companionships, and with
what aim?
Intentionally omitted to take .
text for this sermon. From the Unitar-
ian point Of view at least the sermon
has long since ceased to be mere ex-
pository homiIy of certain portions OF
the word OF God and. therefore. ! am
not especially called upon to defend
this course. The fact Il needed not
one but three texts for this sermon, and
1t was easier to md terse and pertinent
expressions Of the three seed-thougf1ts
about which this discourse n gathered
in Shakespeare than In the Bible. And
In truth what ID Shakespeare plays
but part OF the larger human Bible?
Hence let old PoIonlous give us our first
text.
'srhis above all: to thine own self b.
true,
And it must follow as the night. the
day,
Thou canst not then be false to any
man."
onious we ought to read. To thine own
seif-interest be true.' For Polonious,
willy old politician and courtler. had
grown senile in craftiness. and perhaps
veyed by his own advice. II that be 80.
1t Is no reason why we should be I'M
responsive to the finer. notjler thought.
TRUE to ourselves. How frequently we
fall in this kind Of loyalty. This means
loyalty to the higher self. We are al
ways loyal to something in ourselves,
whatever we do or say or think. But II
may be responsiveness to the brute In
us, or 1t may be yielding to the sell
Ash and unclean. and evil elements In
our nature from which none. OF us are
entirely free. This verse may mean
then and ought to mean; Be true to
thy own higher self And so trans
cribed II 10 ~ noble an admonition as
was ever penned.
''To be true to thine own self Ii
simple direction. but surprisingly dim
cult to follow. To no one else are we
30 often traitors ~ to ourselves, The
world knows not how many battles are
life. Slowly We are all changing from
day to day for better or for worse.
And II II all determined by the attitude
OF loyalty or disloyalty to the higher
self upon this inner stage Of the soul.
If we are true to our own higher self
we are told, II must follow that we can
not then be false to any man. No man.
no corporation, no government has
right to ask a fidelity to themselves or
their interests that ovcrrules this pri-
mary fidelity to ones own higher self.
We may sometimes seem ungrateful In
opposing the cherished plans Of those
who have aided us, but II we see those
plans to evil there 10 no other course
unless we compromise with conscience
or our higher self. When Joseph Folk
prosecuted the men who put him In Of
Nee and landed some Of them behind
the bars, he seemed to them--and we
have their own words for TIA cur and
a traitor of the deepest dye. But he was
acting on just this principle OF fidelity
to his higher self and he really was not
false to the men In question, only dis.
loyal to their Ubiquitous system and
their crimes"