become a brilliant spot in my memory, all the elements were against us: here they are in our favour. Here is clear air in our mouths; here is beauty about us on every side. The sacrament is administered to our eyes: O God, that I could administer such a sacrament of beauty also to your ear, and through it to your heart!

Bear with me and pardon me when I say that I fear that, of the many persons whom curiosity has brought hither to-day to behold the beauty of these walls, I cannot expect to gather more than a handful in my arms. Standing in this large expanse, with this crowd on every side, around and above me, and behind, I feel my weakness more than I have felt it ever before. If my word can reach a few earnest and holy hearts, and appear in their lives, then I thank my God that the word has come to me, and will try not to be faithless, but true.

I know my imperfections, my follies, my faults, my sins; how slenderly I am furnished for the functions I assume. You do not ask that I should preach to you of that; rather that I should preach thereof to myself, when there is no presence but the unslumbering Eye, which searches the heart of man.

If you lend me your ears, I shall doubtless take your hearts too. That I may not lead you into any wrong, let me warn you of this. Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect. Be true to your own mind and conscience, your heart and your soul. So only can you be true to God.

You and I may perish. Temptation, which has been too strong for thousands of stronger men, may be too great for me; I may prove false to my own idea of religion and of duty; the gold of commerce may buy me, as it has bought richer men; the love of the praise of men may seduce me; or the fear of men may deter my coward voice, and I may be swept off in the earthquake, in the storm, or in the fire, and prove false to that still small voice. If it shall ever be so, still the great ideas which I have set forth, of man, of God, of religion,—they will endure, and one day will be "a flame in the heart of all mankind." To-day! why, my friends, eternity is all around to-day, and we can step but towards that. A truth of the mind, of the conscience, of the heart, or the soul,—it is

the will of God; and the omnipotence of God is pledged for the achievement of that will. Eternity is the lifetime of truth. As the forces of matter, from necessity, obey the laws of gravitation; so the forces of man must, consciously and by our volition, obey the infinite will of God. Out of this absolute religion, which I so dimly see, and it is only the dimness of the beginning of twilight which I behold, and whence I dimly preach, there shall rise up one day men with the intellect of an Aristotle and the heart of a Jesus, and with the beauty of life which belongs to human nature; there shall rise up full-grown and manly men, womanly women, attaining the loveliness of their estate; there shall be families, communities, and nations; ay, and a great world also, wherein the will of God is the law, and the children of God have come of age and taken possession. God's thought must be a human thing, and the religion of human nature get incarnated in men, families, communities, nations, and the world.

Can you and I do anything for that? Each of us can take this great idea, and change it into daily life. That is the religion which God asks, the sacrament in which He communes, the sacrifice which He accepts.

A FRIENDLY LETTER

TO THE

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION.

TOUCHING

THEIR NEW UNITARIAN CREED OR GENERAL PROCLAMATION OF UNITARIAN VIEWS.

TO MESSRS REV. SAMUEL K. LOTHROP, D.D., REV. CALVIN LINCOLN, ISAIAH BANGS, ESQ., HON. ALBERT FEARING, REV. HENRY A. MILES, D.D., REV. GEORGE W. BRIGGS, AND REV. WILLIAM A. ALGER, LATE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN UNITARIAN ASSOCIATION."

GENTLEMEN N:

At the recent meeting of the American Unitarian Association, on the 24th of last May, you submitted to that body a Report," containing certain matters which lead me to address you this friendly letter. As a life-member of long standing in the Association, I feel called on to do this. For while in virtue of my membership, I enjoy the privilege of receiving the "tracts," published from time to time, I am aware that I also owe certain duties consequent on my membership, and on the enjoyment of that privilege. And though the membership was conferred on me without any action of my own, still I must look upon it in the nature of a trust, as well as a benefit, and must discharge the duties it involves. It is, therefore, in my capacity as a life-member of the American Unitarian Association, that I write you this letter, though I confess I feel that I owe likewise a duty to some Unitarian ministers younger than myself, and to the public at large, which I think I cannot accomplish without writing you this letter.

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In "The Twenty-eighth Report of the American Unitarian Association," you say the tracts of the Association are carried to the remotest and least inhabited portions of our broad land, and are read with avidity by the pioneer in our country's civilization;" and add, that "in many portions of our country, the inquiry, 'What is truth?' has lost none of its significance, and cannot be slighted, if we would be faithful to the cause of our Master." Still further you ask, "Is not one of the pressing wants in all new societies, that of well-considered and clearly-defined opinions, as to what the New Testament teaches, and what it requires ?"

From these and other statements I infer that you desire to make known, widely and rapidly, the peculiar doctrines of religion which you hold dear. You say,-

66 During the year we have been encouraged in our work by witnessing in different sections of our body a deep-felt desire for a closer alliance among those holding our common faith, a more intimate union of our churches, a convention of their moral forces in accomplishing appropriate Christian objects." (Report, p. 12.)

I rejoice with you in this encouraging aspect of things, and share that desire.

You add, moreover, that a clergyman from one of the Western States assured you

"That there were large numbers earnestly desiring a church organization which would secure mental independence, and waiting to hear the Gospel interpreted more in harmony with the instructions of enlightened reason, and the clearest dictates of our moral nature." (p. 13.)

You express a desire, "not only to enter upon, but largely to occupy this field of labour,”—that is, if I understand your language correctly, you wish to establish church organizations, which will "secure mental independence," and furnish a form of religion that is perfectly in harmony with the instructions of enlightened reason, and the clearest dictates of man's moral nature. You declare that

66

Long-established formulas have, to no small extent, ceased to express the results of individual experience, and have lost much of their power over the common mind.” (p. 13.)

دو

After stating that the receipts of money for the purposes of the denomination "fail to indicate the required fidelity to our trust, as stewards of divine mercies in Jesus Christ,' "ask attention to the present attitude of our body, the difficulties with which it struggles, and the special duties incumbent upon it." You say,

you

"We find that there were in the so-called Unitarian Controversy three primary drifts of meaning and purpose. First, it was a maintenance of the fullest right of individual freedom of judgment in all matters of opinion, a protest of discriminating consciences against the tyranny of church parties, tests, and creeds. Secondly, it was an assertion of the right province of reason in the interpretation of Scripture, and in the decision of religious and theological questions -a protest of enlightened understandings against the unnatural and repulsive points of the prevailing theology. Thirdly, it was a claim for a more genial and winning expression of the Christian character, a more hopeful and elevating view of man and nature in their actual relations to God—a protest of generous hearts against the stiff and stern formalities of the Puritanical piety." (p. 15.)

You state the occasion of that controversy:

"Among the people here, the congregational system of church government, established from the first, had fostered in a high degree the spirit of liberty, personal freedom of thought and speech. Their marked intellectual characteristics, and admirable educational system, had developed, to an uncommon extent, the spirit of intelligence and inquiry. Their ancestral experience, with its transmitted effects, had eminently nourished the spirit of loyalty to individual convictions of truth. And the strong humane tendencies of the age had kindled the spirit of philanthropy. Under these circumstances eagerly in

terested, and deeply versed, as both clergy and laity then generally were in researches and discussions on all the mooted subjects of theology-a decided and somewhat extensive advance of rational and liberal views could scarcely fail to result."

Accordingly, the offensive forms in which the darker dogmas of the common theology were at that time held, were emphatically assailed by many, and really rejected by more. This led to discussions, dissensions, bitter charges, and recriminations. The exclusives demanded the expulsion of their liberal brethren from fellowship. The liberals declared that the only just condition of a right to the Christian name and fellowship, was acknowledgment of the revelation by Christ, and manifestation of a Christian character and life. Their opponents insisted on the acceptance of the prevalent creeds in detail. By votes of majorities, they made such a test and com