The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-10-07
In the Stronghold of Unitarianism

In the Stronghold of Unitnrianism
 Few works recently published give a better insight into Unitarianism in Mas sachusetts in the middle of the last cen tury than Moncure D. Conway's auto biography" said professional man.
 q read Emerson in my youthful days and read him over again after my mind had matured. have been charmed by the great 'transcendentalist' although the transcendentalism of Emerson always seemed vague to me. I have usually thought of Emerson as primarily poet. and his liberal theology never tended in any way to shake my faith in 'ortho- doxy': but Moncure Conway while he was a young Methodist preacher was very much upset by reading Emerson. and when he gave up the Methodist ministry and entered the Harvard Divinity school. and made the personal acquaintance of Emerson. he had become 0 full fiedged Unitarian, and radical one at that. He called himself free thinker and after an experience of several years In the Uni- tarian ministry he left the denomination and established a church of his own in London called the Free Theistc society. or something of that sort.
 .'It seems that most of the Protestant clergyman of Boston--orthodox as well as rationiallstic-felt the influence of Emer- son. Those who knew him came under his spell. Conway tells of going to hear aFther Taylor. famous Methodist. Someone says Conway, told mo that Taylor was a sort of an Arian; also that in a circle of his ministerial brethren, where Emerson was spoken of as leading young men to hell. Father Taylor re- marked: "It may be that Emerson is going to hell. but of one thing I am cer- tain He will change the climate there, and emigration will set that way" After listening to his. sermon-plain, prac- tical, in no part sensational-I approached Father Taylor and told him I had just left the Baltimore conference. He urged me to go home with him, and on the way was at first severe about my leaving the Methodist church. I answered that If I could, like himself, be a Methodist and ignore the Trinitarian dogma, I would have done so; but Methodism in Boston and that in the Baltimore conference dif- fered. The old man relented.'
 ''Dr. William Ellery Charming. known as the apostle of Unitarianism. had been dead some years when Conway entered Harvard, but through the combined infiu- ence of Charming and Emerson a large part of the Congregational church in New England, which had remained orthodox up to 90 or co years ago, became Unitarian. What surprised me very much in reading Conway's autobiography is that while he was a member of the Baltimore confer epce Che was a native of virginia) he avoided certain doctrines that were held by the Methodists, among them that of the Trinity, that of the atonement and that of future punishment. In my time the Methodist church has been careful to examine its candidates for the ministry. It is certainly stricter today in that re- spect than it was when Moncure D. Con-
 way began to preach
 Newell Dwight Hills on Newman In the last century few men were so
 much discifssed in religious or university circles and few indeed were so much writ ten about in the leading reviews as John
 Henry Cardinal Newman. The great man of letters has now been dead nearly a quarter of century, but he is the theme of much discussion still
 | wilfrid Wards life of Cardinal New
 man." in two volumes, is having large , sale. A writer in one of the British. re- views wrote an article in which he ad- versely criticised Newman's attitude to-
 ward the Anglican communion: and Ward
 answered it vigorously. Book reviewers
 on both sides of the Atlantic have been
 husy with articles on this exhaustive bi- .,..... md unn lAf the InaSt elnullcnt