Fifty Notable Years

2. And this leads us to speak, briefly, of the true Christian life which this Church should seek to commend to the world. Here is the Apostle's direction which opens to us most clearly the practical influence of the faith of the gospel: "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men hath appeared, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world."68 It is the indwelling heavenly love, the love which Christianity is ever indicating and proving, that will find its expression in the true Christian believer. It is the practical interpretation of that text from John, "We love him because he first loved us."69 It is the faith with works, proving its spiritual vitality. It is at war with sin and wrong; it comprehends the scriptural statement, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." And it realizes how evil is to be overcome and put away. It aims to live here and now as it becomes the soul born of God to live, "soberly, righteously, godly." What words more expressive of its life can be given? They sum up the whole of the Christian life.

This religion which the Christian Gospel recommends is reverential and worshipful. The flippant inquiry of atheism of olden or modern time, "What is the Almighty that we should pray to him or serve him?" it answers, rationally and emphatically, "The Lord he is God; serve him with gladness; for he is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endureth to all generations." Worship is the natural utterance of the true believer as he looks upward to the Father. Forms of worship are means by which his adoration finds expression. Monotony, routine, repetitions, drony formality, will not be in the offering, for the reason that his whole soul is seeking God, and finds the enjoyment of his holy presence and ineffable light.

This religion is affectional and emotional. It is intellect awakened into love; it is sober thought seeking most earnest expression; it is logic on fire. Those who have no taste for the emotional in religion have only a partial conception of the most effective expression which the Christian religion seeks, and in which it may properly and profitably indulge. The needy, empty-souled, impulsive world-masses are not to be reached and warmed, uplifted and inspired, by clearly exact and well-stated and well-worked-out theological problems. The multiplication table is true, and useful, but we do not look for any spiritual inspiration in it. The religion that has most blessed the world is a religion that appeals to and draws out the affections; that, while it repudiates imprudent zeal and fanaticism, insists on that earnestness which everywhere meets us in the New Testament Gospels and apostolic records and epistles; which reaches men's hearts and convinces them of their need of heavenly aid; awakens the question asked by the converted soul, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" and realizes the significance of those apostolic declarations, "Be filled with the spirit, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts unto God the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." All this signifies living interest, fervor of spirit, emotional, wakeful expression.

This religion is, moreover, eminently practical. It is not only ready to say, "Lord, Lord!" but to do the Lord's work as well. It forecloses this inconsiderate criticism sometimes heard, "Why all this wordy demonstration and noise about religion? Good works are of a thousand times more avail; the best religion is to do good." True, indeed, and this is what Christianity is constantly teaching. No one taught it more forcibly than Jesus himself. The parable of the Good Samaritan is emphatic on this point, that the reputed unbeliever who did good was worthy of more praise than the most punctilious professor of religion who was deficient in the essentials of the Christian kingdom, – Justice, Mercy, and Love. "What doth it profit, though a man say he have faith and have not works? Can faith save him? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."70 But good works do not exclude these other manifestations of the true religion. "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

3. Once more: this religion is reformatory and progressive. Reformation and progress are words always indicative of the Christian dispensation with man; the call to holiness and the response to it, growth in God's grace, new achievements, – never resting in present attainments, but ever striving with fresh inspiration for new accomplishments in the heavenly course. Most religions (especially under the Christian name) have some of these characteristics; but the religion nearest to that which Christ taught and exemplified will have them all. To secure the highest blessings of the Christian kingdom, the churches must be based on the principles, and conform to the requirements, of this kingdom. The Universalist Church must. Its true prosperity has been and will be in accordance with its fidelity in this particular. One of its earnest preachers of the present time has truly said: —

"Opinions as faith will never serve to build up any Christian character. There is not a saved soul in any paradise anywhere which was ever saved by any opinion. It is only when opinions become faith – become rooted forces of the soul – that they have any effect."

It should have the Christian missionary inspiration and action, should open its eyes to the magnitude and glory of the missionary outlook which no faith short of that of Christian Universalism presents to every lover of this humanity now groaning in bondage, and waiting "for the manifestation of the sons of God." It should rise to a new and grander conception than has been realized by those who have borne to souls in the darkness of heathenism the limited doctrines of human wisdom. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." To no other church in Christendom does this great text of the ages speak more explicitly than to the Universalist. It has the truth of the Human Brotherhood, which all the world should understand and embrace, for which all heathendom is waiting, and to which in the long run it will come if this favored church is true to its heavenly calling. That it may be thus true, it is not to deceive itself with any false ideas of the leavening process which is to go on in other churches, while it is inclined to do the least and not the most to keep the leaven in healthy and constant operation. When Rev. Otis A. Skinner was canvassing New England to raise the first one hundred thousand dollars for Tufts College, he was met with such suggestions as this from certain ones who professed friendliness to the success of his movements: "Is it really necessary to make this attempt to build a new college? Why not keep quiet, and wait until the time comes when Harvard College will fall into our hands?" Supposing such short-sightedness and apathy had prevailed, where would Tufts College with all its benefits have been to-day? Universalists should be about their own church missionary business. It is theirs, and no others are called upon to do it for them. Dr. Edward Beecher, in his "Records of the Church in the Third Century," – many of whose members were avowed believers in the final reconciliation of all souls, – states that they were among the most zealous and devoted Christians of that age in personal piety and in active missionary labors. They sent out the Gospel to the remotest shores of the then known world. Here is the same world to be reached by the messengers of this very Gospel to-day. "How shall they hear without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent?" No corner of the earth is exempt from the benefits of this message; no means should be left unemployed to send it forth. Are Universalists acquainted as they might be with the missionary work that has been already done by the other churches around them? Are they familiar with their reports and other publications involving the missionary enterprise, showing what good they have accomplished in opening the Christian Scriptures and aiding a Christian civilization in other lands? Do they realize that if these missionaries have propagated errors in theology, they have cleared the way in part for a better dispensation of Divine Truth by the translations of the Bible into other languages, which they have made? These are important considerations, and Universalists will do well to act upon them.

As the Lord liveth, the now "open questions" will one day be settled, and settled on the side of the Divine Beneficence. The love of God in Christ has come into the world, and will not go out of it until its work is here done; love that is long-suffering, that rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; that beareth, believeth, hopeth, and endureth all things, and that never faileth; love that will bring the last lost one home, that will obliterate all the hells, and people all the heavens in the universe.

1

Oration of Governor Long before the municipal authorities and citizens of Boston, July 4, 1882.

2

Eph. iv. 13.

3

Milman's "History of Christianity."

4

Civitate Dei, lib. xxi., chap. 16.

5

Civitate Dei, lib. xxi., chap. 16.

6

For evidence of the many utterances of the Universalist idea in the literature of the past, the reader is referred to the volume entitled "A Cloud of Witnesses," by Rev. John W. Hanson, D. D., Chicago, 1880.

7

Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. viii.

8

Acts, xvii. 24, 28.

9

Rev. v. 18.

10

1 Cor. xii. 14, 26.

11

When Rev. John Murray first preached in Faneuil Hall, Nov. 26, 1773, he discoursed from this appropriate text: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." – John, viii. 36.

12

Rev. T. Whittemore, D. D. Speech at Faneuil Hall Festival, 1858.

13

Rev. J. H. Tuttle, D. D.

14

Rev. J. Smith Dodge, D. D.

15

Rev. A. D. Mayo, Sermon at Funeral of Rev. Thomas Jones of Gloucester, Mass., 1846.

16

Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner, Discourse at Gloucester, September, 1870.

17

Comm. on Acts, ii. 23.

18

Heb. ii. 9.

19

Rev. H. W. Beecher.

20

John, xii. 32; 1 Tim. ii. 4.

21

John, iii. 16, 17.

22

Dr. Taylor Lewis.

23

The volume on the Atonement, issued in 1805 by Rev. Hosea Ballou, was the first of any note, in this country, in which the subordination of Christ to the Father was maintained. Dr. Mayhew and Rev. James Freeman, of Boston, had already preached anti-Trinitarian views in that city, and Dr. Priestley and a Mr. Butler had preached them in other parts of the country. But Mr. Ballou's circumstances had not, it is likely, allowed him to know what these men believed and taught. – Rev. Dr. A. P. Putnam, in "Religious Magazine," April, 1871.

24

Mr. Parker's views were the subject of special note and examination on the part of the Universalist journals. A candid and able review of his opinions was given in "The Universalist Miscellany" of April, 1845, by the editor, Rev. O. A. Skinner. Rev. Mr. Lothrop, of the Brattle Square Church (Unitarian), delivered and published a strong discourse in opposition to the Rationalism of Mr. Parker.

25

Anti-Supernaturalism, a sermon delivered July 13, 1845, before the Senior Class of the Divinity School, Harvard University.

26

Biography of Ralph Waldo Emerson, by G. W. Cook.

27

This circular was signed by the sub-committee, Rev. J. G. Adams and Rev. E. H. Chapin.

28

Memoir of Dr. Gannett, by his son, p. 294.

29

Heb. viii. 21, 22.

30

Chambers' Miscellany.

31

New Amer. Enc.

32

Universalist Quarterly, Vol. VI. No. 4, October, 1849.

33

"Gospel Banner," Augusta, Me., June 10, 1882.

34

The Governor of Wyoming affirms that woman suffrage is an unqualified success in the Territory.

35

For a more ample view of the position and work of the women of the Universalist Church, we refer the reader to the volume recently given to the public by Mrs. E. R. Hanson, entitled "Our Women Workers." Chicago, 1882.

36

A new edition of this valuable work, with an Introduction by Rev. Dr. Miner, Mr. Ballou's successor in the Boston pastorate, has just been issued by the Universalist Publishing House in this city. It ought to have a new and a larger circulation than ever. The writer owes his conversion to Universalism, by divine grace, to the reading of this book.

37

Account by Rev. A. B. Grosh.

38

"Universalist Quarterly" for April and July, 1871.

39

Rev. A. C. Thomas.

40

Rev. A. J. Patterson, D. D.

41

For a more particular account of Dr. Whittemore, the reader is referred to his Memoir, by the author of this work. Universalist Publishing House, 1878.

42

"Universalist Miscellany," Vol. VI., p. 290.

43

Memoir of Rev. Stephen R. Smith. By Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D. Boston: Published by Abel Tompkins, 1852.

44

The mother of Mr. King was a woman of keen intellect and of many virtues, and her talented son held her in highest esteem. As his popularity in California was increasing, there was a serious talk at one time of sending him as senator to Congress. The mother, hearing of this, wrote in a letter to her son: "Be on your guard. Don't let Satan take you to the top of Mt. Shasta, and show you Washington!"

45

See Harper's Monthly Mag. for October, 1874.

46

Rev. Dr. T. J. Sawyer.

47

For a more particular acquaintance with the life and character of Dr. Chapin, the reader is referred to the excellent Memoir of him by Rev. S. Ellis, D. D., just issued by the Universalist Publishing House.

48

"Our Woman Workers," p. 353.

49

The first Universalist woman who appeared in the pulpit as a preacher of the Gospel was Miss Maria Cook, who preached before the Western Association in Bainbridge, N. Y., in June, 1811. She is spoken of by Rev. Stephen R. Smith, in his "Historical Sketches" (Vol. I. pp. 31, 32). Notwithstanding the good impressions made by her as a speaker, there were those who deemed "so extraordinary an undertaking as an evidence of mental alienation!" A more enlightened and candid judgment in reference to this subject has since prevailed.

50

Rev. Thomas G. Farnsworth of Waltham, Mass., ordained in 1822, and Rev. Alvin Dinsmore of Woodland, Cal., ordained in 1823.

51

"Argument on the Right and Duty of Prohibition." By A. A. Miner, April 2, 1867.

52

Boston Transcript of May 1, 1882.

53

Rev. G. H. Emerson, D. D., Ed. in "Christian Leader."

54

Rev. J. W. Hanson, D. D.

55

Wilmot L. Warren, Esq.; Address before Alumni, June 20, 1882.

56

See an article in the Universalist Quarterly for October, 1882, entitled "The Universalist Origin of American Sunday-schools," by Rev. Richard Eddy.

57

Read at the Ohio Convention, by W. F. Crispin, Financial Agent for Buchtel College.

58

These significant words of an advocate of Universalism more than two centuries ago are in striking agreement with those of an advanced orthodox thinker of the present time. "It should never be forgotten that in the Biblical philosophy of salvation the life of the individual is bound up with the life of the whole, and reaches its fulness and completion only in the liberty for which the whole creation waits." – "The Orthodox Theology of To-day;" by Rev. Newman Smyth, D. D.

59

Article in the "Universalist Quarterly," for July, 1882, "The Divine Responsibility," by Rev. C. W. Biddle.

60

Published opinions of the Professors of Andover Theological Seminary, April 10, 1882.

61

"Christian Leader."

62

Rev. A. A. Miner, D. D.

63

Rom. viii. 38.

64

Rev. Hosea Ballou, D. D. Reply to Dr. Hawes's Arguments against Universalism. It was nearly a half-century ago that these words were written. And now at this very time there comes this echo of them in confirmation of the truth of the prophecy: "Little by little the pulpit shrinks from the mediæval theology. Ministers first gloss it by new interpretations, then they prudently hold it in suspense, then doubt it, then cast it away." Rev. H. W. Beecher, in "North American Review," July, 1882.

65

Oration of Hon. Robert C. Winthrop at Yorktown, Va., October 19, 1881.

66

Rev. F. B. Hornbrooke, in Unitarian Review, August, 1882.

67

Rev. James Pullman, D. D.

68

Titus, ii. 11, 12.

69

1 John, iv. 19.

70

James, ii. 14, 26.