Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-15
UNION SERVICE.
Distinguished Unitarian Clergyman at
Congregational Church.

The friendly relations existing between
the South Parish Congregational church
md the Unitarian Society of this city
were further emphasized Sunday night
when the two churches met in a we'll
attended union service at the ConSrcSa-
tional church to listen to q sermon by
me of the leading Unitarian divines of
the country, Rev William Wallace Fem,
D. D., dean of Harvard Divinity school.
DR.. Fem began by saying: I'VE would
not expect a Jew of the 18th century B.
c. to be a very tolerant man. Leaders of
crusades are not usually tolerant men,
still less when they enter upon their cru
SADIE with the Semitic intensity"
The speaker spoke of Moses staying
those of his own followers who Worship
ped the golden calf, Samuel hewinS ASag
in pieces, and Elijah butchering the
priests of Baal. Then he spoke of the
great revival of Yahweh worship in the
18th century B. c., to which came visitors
from the North who had not cleasned
themselves according to the rites of the
sanctuary, yet HeZekiah, Jew of that
time, offered a prayer in their behalf,
saying: The good Lord pardon every
one lHdI SGllcl Ills ilcdlI " SSSh INC Sou
If his fathers though he be not cleasned
according to the publication of the sane
-uary.'
The speaker gave illustrations of this
principle of eXclusiveness in literature
art. music and in ones personal judg
ments.
In literature q new writer is criticised
by conventional standards. The critics
do not consider that his thought may be
fresh and new, that it may be the thought
Of genius itself, unable to express itself
in the conventional forms. He cited
Keats, Tenny son, Browning and Emerson
as illustrations. In our social life he
cited Dr.. Holmes censure Of men who
Eat with their knives" as though they
1ad reached a depth of degradation be-
rond which they could not sink. He re-
ferrcd in passing to Abraham Lincoln
and his lack of conventional refine
nent,' a man who was derided and Will
fled. ridiculcd because Of the length of
MS stumbling limbs, his gaunt, gnarled
lands, his bristling hair, and his being
i'll at ease.
lie referred to Paul's reply to this
very controversy, the first controversy
If the Christian church, and Paul's liber-
III answer in the spirit of Hezekiah' S
prayer.
The preached spoke of the exclusive at
titude of the Christian church, shutting
out from its sympathy those who called
God by another name than "Gbd'' and
yet who "set their hearts to seek the God
IF their fathers The same spirit has
been deplorably present within the
Christian church, one set of Christians
refusing to acknowledge another set be-
cause they We're not CLEANED according
to the publication of the sanctuary.'
He concluded by saying that the Chris
tian church was now coming and fast
coming to the knowledge that the hearts
desire and the hearts purpose are worth
more than the conventional cleansing of
the sanctuary. All that God requires of
mon is their consciousness of their need
of Him.
Dr. Fem addressed a large audience
Sunday afternoon at 40 at the Unta-
rian church. giving a thoughtful and
practical sermon from the text This is
your hour and the power of darkness"
in which he urged his hearers to rule the
mood of the hour by the thought of the
of formal wears