spiriting is this opportunity that we shall misunderstand it if we approach it from the debatable point of view of comparisons with the past. Never mind whether past opportunities were less than the present or greater. Never mind whether the representatives of our cause in past days were our superiors or not. What we, the present representatives of Unitarianism, may well devote our attention to with exclusive urgency is the fact that we here and now can do for this world most important things which none others are doing or can do.

The question which our wiser critics are asking is, What is Unitarianism doing for mankind? That question we may from time to time address to ourselves. What is

the precise thing that we are to-day trying to do to justify our belief that the Unitarian Church has a right to an independent existence? A thousand noble undertakings which we simply share with other Christians might be named; but what is there that is peculiarly our own? If we can find that, then we shall know precisely what we are doing for the world because we are Unitarians, and could not do so well if we were anything else than Unitarians.

I am going to tell you what I think is the heart of our endeavor. It is nothing new. If it were, we might distrust it. I do not claim that we are the discoverers of this power. If I did, we might still more seriously distrust it. But I do claim that we are its peculiar and divinely ordained prophets. The mission of Unitarianism in the world to-day is to preach and live the gospel that life is worth living. Life is worth living not simply on the principle that, as a whole, mankind is progressive, not simply from a purely scientific theory or blind faith that the miseries of the few are blotted out by the combined happiness

of the whole, that conception of life may have less the aspect of gospel than that of merely a dogmatic opinion.

A gospel must speak to the individual, and our enlarging success as a denomination is going to rest, if I mistake not, upon our personal success in giving individuals, one after another, the divine self-respect which springs from the steadfast conviction that one's own life is worth while because of the natural dignity and personal nobleness of the individual soul.

We have long believed in the dignity of human nature. We have long believed in the progressive life. We have long believed that no soul can ever be so hard pressed by the conditions of life that he cannot find a way of moral progress. But general conceptions like this may lack the evangelistic fervor which alone can press conviction upon people so as to make it a controlling factor in their lives. More and more successfully we must make our respect for human nature blaze out in the ranks of mankind in the shape of prophecy and evangelistic preaching and Christ-like living, until, under our inspiration, human hearts everywhere do actually "vibrate to that iron string."

Broad, comparative studies of the condition of the religious world and our relations to other religious bodies may well be continued. But that is being done by people of every creed; and, if we wish to have Unitarianism stand for something distinctive, we must, I am convinced, give more and more attention to the patient work with individuals whereby we shall make one soul after another recognize that he is the child of God.

When you have made one person comprehend that, independently of earth and of heaven, aside from fear and from pain, in the midst of victory or defeat, his soul is the essential part of him, a force beyond the force of stars and

of ages, because of its natural greatness and its limitless moral possibilities, then you have put that person's life into line with the works of God. You have made certain that he will conquer his temptations, obliterate his sins, and stand in the ranks of the world's unselfish toilers. It is not our mission to offer salvation or simply to propose the removal of difficulty from human life, though incidentally we shall take our part in that kind of friendly endeavor.

Our peculiar mission, that which makes us Unitarians at the present time, is to endeavor to compel all men to comprehend that wholesome, happy, generous, righteous, Christ-like living is the crown and glory of the universe, now and for eternity, that such living is an absolute necessity in every individual, and more especially that this kind of living is possible to-day for every individual, there being no oppressive conditions that are equal to the divine power which glorifies and enlarges the human soul.

Not neglecting, then, any practical work for the betterment of the conditions in which our brothers live, not omitting careful instruction in religious truth and in all righteousness, not slighting the open-minded search for truth, we shall do our nearest work in the grandest way by giving an eager and prophetic fire to our divine expectation for each soul, our vision of what he is going to do in the way of taking noble command of his own life just as soon as he, too, catches the vision of the everlasting glory of his life.

A GREETING FROM SWITZERLAND

BY REV. ALFRED ALTHERR

I HAVE to thank you very much for your kindness in inviting me to assist in your May meetings, and for your kind reception and hospitality.

As it is for the first time I endeavor to deliver a public address in the English tongue, you will kindly pardon me if my English appears to you rather Swiss than English, if it sounds as harsh as the mountain air of my native country, if it has a share of rudeness which is peculiar to the Swiss people. But I hope you will not miss in the harsh words and strange sounds the good will and gratitude which your own kindness and good will have evoked.

I have the honor to bring you the greetings of Switzerland, of the liberal churches in Switzerland, of all those in my native country who love freedom, political, religious, spiritual freedom, of all those who know how deeprooted this freedom is in America, and how great and blessed your country is by this freedom.

I bring you the greetings of cultured people in Switzerland, who have learned, and are incessantly learning, what your heroes and priests of spiritual life-for example, Emerson and Channing and Parker have taught to mankind.

I bring you the greetings of a great many Swiss manu