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is meant the whole body of doctrines, or a certain considerable number of them, which have been and are taught in the name of Christianity, then Christianity does not give it support. If it is made to include such doctrines as the infallibility of the record, original sin, total depravity, the trinity, imputed righteousness, a vicarious atonement, and endless punishment, then so far criticism is unfriendly to it. If, however, it means that Jesus lived; that he was a personality of unsurpassed moral and spiritual greatness; that he taught a morality and religion founded upon the doctrine that God is the Father of men, and all men are brothers, the central, practical precept of which was love to God and man; that he lived a blameless, worshipful life of consecration and service, in which his great teachings were eminently illustrated; that he performed some works which in his age were regarded as wonders; that, after an amazing and brilliant career of a few months in Galilee, he was crucified at Jerusalem, and that he was thereupon in some way manifested to those who had loved and followed him as victorious over death,—if these are the essential contents of historical Christianity, then it finds in criticism not an opposing and destructive agent, but a helpful ally."*

Thus it is seen that, while Dr. Cone's book is uncompromisingly radical in its methods and its conclusions, its outcome is thoroughly constructive and Christian, in the sense of giving us a solid basis for the Christianity, not, indeed, of the creeds, but of Christ. It is a book of rare strength and poise. The intelligence with which its author takes his positions, the precision of his language, the candor and logic of his argumentation, the breadth and firmness of his grasp upon the almost bewildering mass of material to be handled, and his courage in announcing his conclusions, are worthy of the highest praise.

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kind, content to expend its energies in efforts to discover a textual basis for the doctrine of universal salvation. And to-day the general attitude of Universalists toward the Bible is perhaps more conservative and timid than that of the Broad Church Episcopalians or the Andover Congregationalists. This is an unnatural condition of things, and must pass away. This book of Dr. Cone is a clear note, announcing that something better is coming. It is so thorough and broad in its scholarship, so masterly in its handling of its subject, so fair and just in its spirit, and so constructive while so radical in its outcome that it can scarcely fail to create an epoch in the thinking of its denomination on Biblical subjects. By its own worth and weight it must become a standard. At least the younger men of the denomination will follow Dr. Cone's strong leadership. That a new Universalism is rising, broader, more free, better furnished, more progressive, and at the same time more religious, and destined to do a more living and a larger work in the world, this book is one of many signs.

J. T. S.

A CHILD OF TO-DAY.

To-day I hear the voice of God,
As in earth's Eden, close to men;
I see, where saints of old have trod,
Our feet can find pure paths again;
I look a moment at their grace,
Admire their faith, their struggles sore,
Then turn determined, in my place,
To reach the life so blest of yore!
Our God is still the God of men,
Our hearts are still his hiding-place,
His word is writ by many a pen,
His spirit breathes through all the race;
And in our upward striving now,

Man's growth of thought and vast desire, Love's crown is set upon our brow,

Our souls aflame with sacred fire! New knowledge comes,-it comes as truth; New duties dawn,-they are our day; New inspirations thrill our youth,They are to us the life, the way. The Christ reveals himself once more, And walks with us to vanish not: Poor fishermen beside the shore,

He enters in our common lot. He is behind each earnest hope,

Each aim that light or comfort yields; His gospel has a wider scope;

He sows his seed in broader fields, Till waste and wilds as gardens grow, Till deserts drear produce the rose; While living rivers grandly flow

From creedal mountains' melting snows

To sense how holy is this hour,

Yea, how sublime the needs we feel,

Is to respond to prophet power,

To have God's spirit o'er us steal. Eternal in its consequence,

Decision well and wise we give To conquer wrong, to shame pretence, And aid fair truth and love to live!

I would be faithful to my day,

Count every movement as my own;
My sword shall flash to help its fray,
My loyalty in deeds be shown.
God leads us on to better thought,—
To love divine, to goodness great;
To serve my time my life is brought,
To live to-day is highest fate.
Malden, Mass.

WILLIAM BRUNTON.

WHAT HAS SPIRITUALISM TAUGHT AND DONE?

The following statement relating to the teachings and achievements of Spiritualism was laid under the foundation-stone of the Spiritual Temple, Oldham, Lancashire, Eng., April 19, 1887. It is interesting in itself; and it is also interesting as showing how near Spiritualism in its best form comes to Unitarianism:

1. Spiritualism proves man's immortality and the existence of a spiritual universe.

2. It destroys all fears of death, annihilates the doctrine of eternal punishment, and substitutes the cheering assurance of eternal progress.

3. It sweeps away the idea of a personal devil, and locates the sources of evil in man's own imperfections.

4. It denies the doctrine of any vicarious atonements for sin, and on the testimony of millions of immortal spirits solemnly affirms that every guilty soul must arise and become its own Saviour.

5. It ignores the degrading conception of a partial and vindictive God, and substitutes the worship of an Infinite, Eternal, and Allperfect Spirit,- -an Alpha and Omega, all Love, Wisdom, and Law.

6. It demolishes the materialistic conception of the theological heaven and hell, making each a state of happiness or misery dependent on the good or evil within the soul itself.

7. It is the friend and promoter of all reforms that tend to elevate and benefit humanity.

8. While Spiritualism proclaims that there

is a standard of truth in everything, it acknowledges man's incapacity to discover all truth, and therefore it fetters no one's opinion, and teaches, but never forces, its belief on any one.

9. Concerning all spiritual life, state, and being, Spiritualism accepts no theories that are not sustained by proven facts and corroborative testimony.

10. Its phenomena-being all based upon immutable principles of law-open up endless arenas of new research for science, its consensus of revelation-being founded upon facts-tends to place new religion on the basis of science and vitalize science with all that is true and practical in religion.

11. Spiritualism is a ceaseless incentive to practise good. It reunites the friends separated by death, strengthens the weak by the presence of angel guidance, cheers the afflicted with the certainty of another and better world, where justice will be done, every wrong righted. It is terrible only to the guilty, proving that spirit eyes read every secret crime, and that all crimes must be abandoned and atoned for by personal suffering and personal compensation before any guilty soul can attain happiness here

after.

12. Spiritualists have no creed, but may all unite in the following simple summary :I believe in the Fatherhood of God, The Brotherhood of Man, The Immortality of the Soul, Personal Responsibility,

Compensation and Retribution hereafter for all the good or evil deeds done here,

And a path of eternal progress and good open to every human soul that wills to tread it by the path of eternal good.

EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN.

RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.

We have once or twice mentioned the striking case of religious bigotry and intolerance which has lately come to light in South Carolina. Prof. W. J. Alexander, who for some years has filled with confessed ability the Chair of Logic and Rhetoric in the South Carolina College, has been dismissed from his place because of his Unitarian views.

At a recent meeting of the vestry of the

Unitarian church in Charleston, the following preamble and resolutions were unanimously adopted :

Whereas the board of trustees of the South Carolina College, at its recent reorganization, has seen proper to deprive Prof. W. J. Alexander of the Chair of Logic and Rhetoric on account of his Unitarian views of religion; and

Whereas the South Carolina College is a State institution, non-sectarian in character, and committed to the teaching of no system of theology, and is supported, like other State institutions, by taxation imposed upon all citizens of the State, irrespective of their religious beliefs; and

Whereas being a Sta e institution, thus supported, it can admit of no religious test, or require its professors or candidates for professorships to conform to any standard of religious faith; and

Whereas the said board of trustees, by their aforesaid action regarding Prof. W. J. Alexander, have applied such religious test contrary to the rights of free citizenship under the law and Constitution of the country, and against the peace and dignity of the State of South Carolina; and

Whereas such action of the trustees unjustly discriminates between Unitarians and all other denominations of Christians by placing the former under civil disabilities so far as the holding of any office in the South Carolina College is concerned,-

Therefore, by the vestry of the Unitarian church of Charleston, S.C., a society chartered by act of the legislature of the State in 1817, be it

1. Resolved, That we deplore the action of the trustees of the South Carolina College, recited in the foregoing preamble, and regard it as subversive of the principles of religious freedom, and of those rights to the same which we, with others, have had guaranteed to us by the laws and Constitution of the country.

2. Resolved, That said action is an illadvised interference with the private rights of conscience in matters of religion, for which no apology or excuse can be offered.

3. Resolved, That it applies without warrant or authority of any sort and in an unbecoming manner a religious test where none is admissible.

4. Resolved, That it not only discriminates unjustly against a people noted for Christian character and love of righteousness, but stands as a menace to all free and impartial inquiry after scientific truth in the chief institution of learning in our State.

5. Resolved, That, in the dismissal of Prof. Alexander for his religious views, not only has the South Carolina College lost one of its ablest and most distinguished professors, but the cause of religion has been injured more than it has been helped by those who profess to be its friends.

6. Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon the church records, and that copies of them be given to the press of the State for publication. A. H. PETSCH, Secretary.

ORGANIZATION AND LIMITATION.

It was a significant utterance of Mr. Crothers at one of the meetings of Anniversary Week in May last, when he said that we of the broader faith are likely to find ourselves saying to our fellow-workers, "I won't work with you unless you will fellowship everybody." We are, also, quite likely to forget that a platform may be exclusive by what it omits as well as by what it includes. No amount of freedom in fellow

ship would tempt a prohibitionist to join forces with a liquor league.

All organization exists as a means to an end. Whether that end be definitely expressed or not, it determines the scope and character of the organization, and acts as a principle of selection to attract advocates and exponents. If an organization does anything, its purpose and aim will somehow leak out, so that it is a saving of time and trouble to have that purpose definitely stated at the outset.

Organization necessarily implies limitation. So soon as I begin to act I begin to A differentiate myself from my fellows. bond of co-operation implies simply this: that we who thereby join ourselves together agree that, aside from the various things which we individually wish to do, there are certain things for which we will work in common. This common purpose constitutes the basis of our union. out such common purpose, expressed or understood, no organization is possible.

With

It is marvellous that Unitarianism has done so much and preserved its organic integrity so well, when we consider the loose policy it has always maintained. But its past success is no argument for further laxity. The conditions of the religious world have changed since the first organization of Unitarianism. In these days of intellectual chaos, when the fountains of the great deep are broken up, we are likely to be overwhelmed in the floods of new thought, unless we take to some safe ark of refuge. It will no longer serve for each man to seek a plank

for himself. We must unite in the building of an ark for our common salvation. Let us not quarrel too much over plans and specifications, dimensions, and materials, but get to work on some definite plan, and discuss our minor differences afterward.

The great realities of faith are in imminent danger. God, immortality, prayer, worship, these stars are like to be obscured by the clouds of our scientific doubts. Let us not be narrow or intolerant, but let us yield no jot or tittle of these central realities of religion in the interests of a fellowship and freedom which could serve no lofty end without them. When, as the price of union, we give up everything worth uniting and working for, what reason is there for our organic existence? It is to serve these great realities that churches and conferences are organized by men.

If there are any who object to the Christian name, for reasons good or bad, but who by some other name mean all that is implied in the term "liberal Christianity," we need not hesitate to give these hearty welcome among us; nor need they exclude themselves from our full fellowship, for it is not names, but the realities which dwell behind names, that we are working for. But, when any man, Christian or Jew, seeks to ignore those great realities which are the very spirit of the Church, he has no place among the servants of God, and should not wish to come in to be an element of weakness in the organic structure; nor ought he to enter, with agnosticism in his heart, and his sword of faith rusted in its scabbard, though he pronounce seven times the shibboleth of a

name.

As Unitarians, let our purpose be large, and our method as broad as possible; but let us have both a purpose and a method, and let us, moreover, be not too much afraid of making them definitely known among our fellow-men. Timidity and nebulousness are not great virtues. Honest outspokenness and courage are not qualities that need be apologized for or hidden under a bushel. Great aims, clearly discerned, profoundly believed in, earnestly striven for, and held up distinctly and without apology in the sight of all men,-these are the indispensable conditions of success for the religious movement in which we are engaged.

GERONE.

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Go back in imagination to the year 1501, and see a young monk in the University of Erfurt turning over the rolls of manuscripts. Suddenly he comes across the Holy Scriptures, which he has never seen before. Reading them with care and avidity, a new light breaks upon his mind, and he sees everything in a new aspect.

In ancient times, when parchment was expensive, scholars wrote over the writings of former generations, using the same parchment often for four or five successive manuscripts. This we call a palimpsest. We have now discovered a way of erasing one after another of these writings until the first or lowest becomes visible.

On the 1st of June, 1886, in the presence of the Khedive of Egypt and representatives of all civilized nations, the wooden case from the mummy 5233 was removed, then winding-sheet after winding-sheet, bandage after bandage, was unwrapped, until at last there was the fine linen covering the face. This, too, was taken away, and men were face to face with the great Rameses II., the Pharaoh of the Oppression, the mighty Sesostris of secular history.

These three seemingly unconnected things are illustrations of what is going on at the present day in religion.

For the last twenty years men have been finding the Scriptures. Like Luther, they are reading them for the first time, and a great light is making its way. The Bible, in its glory and integrity, was unknown to our fathers' fathers, and its divine light of truth is only breaking forth now.

It has been like a palimpsest. Over the first writing wrote Augustine and Athanasius and Origen, Calvin and Edwards and others; and only in the present time are the Scriptures, in their original and undefiled integrity, becoming visible. Writing after writing has been rubbed off until the words of Peter and Paul, of John and Jesus, stand forth in the radiant light of truth, calling men to life.

There are ten great religions, of which Christianity is the last. It had become a mummy, and, swathed in bandages and wrappings, was shelved away in the museum of time as No. 10. It has been brought into the light the wooden cover and winding

sheet and bandage and fine linen are removed, and men see at last the face of Christ.

Compare for a moment the Sermon on the Mount with the Thirty-nine Articles. Was ever a religion, its founder and his real teachings, so strangely obliterated? Compare Jesus as pictured in the limpid stories of these Gospels, in his daily life among men and women in the fields and by the lake, with the Christ in the Assembly Confession, -a Judge implacable, a King with triple crown, a Conqueror, stern, relentless. Compare the pictures, statues, and carvings of Christ, the bloody torture and sacrifice by which the walls of Europe's galleries are red, with Doré's nineteenth-century "Christ leaving the Prætorium." The trial before Pilate is ended. The final journey to the cross begins; but we feel instinctively that he who there descends the steps in the majesty of his divine presence is our Master and Guide, who, tempted as we are, withstood the temptations and trials of life, making God's will his will, -truest and highest example of that manhood we should all strive after.

Like Mary that morning at the sepulchre, the centuries have been searching in vain for the body of the Lord. Oriental mystery, the Nicene Creed, and the Athanasian Creed with its curses, have been weaving and wrapping the bandages about Christ. The logic of the Middle Ages added its cases and coverings in the Thirty-nine Articles and the Westminster Confession until the wooden case seemed naught but dead, impenetrable wood.

But the new age has begun. It is not what Drs. Briggs and Newton say. They are mere straws in the march of time. The emancipation of Christianity is taking place, the proclamation of the good tidings can be heard. Everywhere we see the unveiling of the face and form of the divine Man, who, sharing our humanity, did not yield to its trials and temptations, thus showing us what we can do if we but follow in his footsteps.

Baltimore, Md.

CHARLES R. WELD.

I think the great main doctrine of Christ is that truth is light, and they who love the light come to it.-F. W. Robertson.

AN APPEAL FOR MEADVILLE.

To the Editor of the Unitarian:—

The enclosed "Appeal" in behalf of Meadville was written by Miss M. Adelaide Bird of Brooklyn, the secretary of the Post-office Mission work for the Church of the Saviour. It has the approval of Mrs. Sarah E. Hooper, Chairman of the Meadville Endowment Fund Committee, and some of the women hereabout who are most interested in our work. At their request, I forward it to you for publication in the Unitarian; and I trust you will give it a place in your columns at an early date.

D. W. MOREHOUSE.

FOR ALL UNITARIAN WOMEN.

To all careful readers of the Unitarian magazine, and to all Unitarians, readers or not readers, careful or careless, the Meadville Theological School is known,-how well known is sufficiently doubtful to make the few following remarks reasonable, if not rhythmical.

The most interesting facts about this school are that it is distinctively Unitarian; that its tuition, library, and text-books are free to all; that it is in a quiet country town, where living expenses may be kept down to $120 a year; and that it is poor and needs professors, books, and, therefore, money.

Poverty is not often graceful, tender, beautiful; but at Meadville it is all three, and something else besides,-inspiring. Let any one doubting the assertion visit Meadville at any part of the school year, but most wisely at Commencement in leafy midJune. Then can be seen the joy, ardor, and manly anticipation of the graduates, men and women, without prospects, without money, eager to set out and fight their battles for "the truth that has made them free." Equally impressive are the determination and subdued impatience of the undergraduates, who, after a hard year's work, long for a "summer opening" which will give them experience and possibly the wherewithal for the next year's living.

In the presence of so much earnestness, so much self-denial, such forgetfulness of money and position, one overpoweringly feels the nobility of this single-hearted search for truth and the supreme usefulness

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