ITS NOBLEST EXPRESSION OF CHRISTIANITY.

"The noblest expression of religious faith possible to mind and heart is given by those who accept the sublime theory, and who are called by the name, of Universalists. No form of religious faith is at once so definite and assured as that which exibits mankind as children of a universal Father, Parent, and Friend. All other theories of religion essentially fail where ours as completely and triumphantly succeeds. Nothing can be hoped for or desired by mankind in their noblest and their best estate, except the eternal harmony and reconciliation of all things in heaven and in earth. Universalism is the truest and most philosophical of all religions. It is wisdom personified in God and in Christ, and expressed in their attributes, nature, and character. God is Father, and man is child. Earthly relations are types of heavenly. The government of God is parental; and the obedience and submission of his children are required, because these are for their best good. Universalism forever ignores and rejects the tyrannical form of government. It is a theory of faith which neither spares the rod nor spoils the child; which, while declaring eternal enmity against sin, still loves the sinner. Indeed, it points to the stripes and chastisements it inflicts and permits for the evidence and proof it gives that the sinner is loved, and the sin alone hated.

"Universalism is a very imperfect and inadequate name for a most harmonious and philosophical system of divine . truth. The name is the briefest, yet most comprehensive, one that can be given when we consider the magnitude of the objects and subjects embraced. It certainly expresses,

with the greatest possible brevity, the spirit of our blessed faith. That we aver to be universal in extent, in impression, in power. Universalism treats of an infinite purpose and plan, confined to no sect, race, or clime, but embracing in its unequalled benefits and blessings universal humanity. The glorious pillars upon which our spiritual fabric rests are faith, hope, and charity. But the greatest of these,' as saith the apostle, 'is charity.' Therefore, its strength and inspirations are enforced and expressed in a divine and catholic charity.

"Think of what is signified by this name and this faith. Think of the comforting and consoling truths it implies and embodies. Think of the conditions it enjoins and the promises it makes, conditions and promises worthy alike of Creator and created, of parent and of child. When we reflect upon what Universalism is, and upon what it seeks to accomplish; when the glorious vision arises of the sublime results it will surely achieve for humanity, we are 'lost in wonder, love, and praise.' In view both of the promises and blessings it exhibits, how can any, possessing this faith, be ashamed to confess, to honor, to defend?

"Finally, we remark that this glorious sentiment of Universalism is advancing in the minds and hearts of men. This symmetric faith which we preach and defend is achieving victories on every hand. It assails hoary errors in church and in state, and these crumble and fall before it. As a pervading and beneficent spirit, it is embodying and expressing itself in science, in literature, and in art, in the noblest monuments genius is rearing, in story and in song, in history and in philosophy. In all that men do and are in the generation that records their progress and their march, the spirit, if not the letter, of our blessed faith

is most manifest. Poet and painter, sculptor, historian, novelist, philosopher, every embodiment of science and every expression of art, in thoughts, in words, in deeds, - bear universal testimony to the incarnation of our triumphant faith. God hasten the dawning of the day when it shall have achieved its last and noblest victories; yea, when its final triumph shall have come; when hope shall have flowered into fullest fruition; when the redemption and reconciliation of humanity shall complete the kingdom of Christ and of God; yea, when God himself shall be all in all.' ," (112)

A NEW ARGUMENT FOR UNIVERSALISM.

"Now, it is a grand thing for any people to have arisen with a distinctive idea in the Christian church, so distinctive as to have caused them to stand apart from all the rest, if not by their own will, then by the will of others, who would not have them stand together. It is a grand thing, I say, to have such a distinctive idea, and to have stood forth and battled for it, and even though, after one hundred years, we but now find ourselves with an assured position in the church, yet if, after that one hundred years, we stand upon an assured position, conceded by all Christian people, within the lines and bounds of the Christian church, then, I say, it is a grand thing for any one to have had any part in such a conflict; and to-day it is a grand thing to have a part in this celebration of the victory which we have achieved in securing that position in the future.

"And now, I wish to say this one thing, which I believe to be a new argument that to-day has been completed in the heart of Universalism, and which furnishes a sufficient

cause for the existence of the denomination as a distinctive branch of the church. I mean this, - that we have been the educator of the world upon one of the most important questions which to-day is agitating the minds of the religious people of this country; I mean, more particularly, the lib eral-minded religious part of the Orthodox churches of the land. Where there is not a profound conviction that the theology is true, and that everything is an error, there is necessarily a query existing in the mind as to whether the old dogmas of the church are really essential to the existence of the church, or to the truth and goodness which the church has in its care. If, therefore, we as a people have demonstrated this grand truth, which I believe we have, then we have achieved one of the momentous successes of the religious age in which we live; namely, we have shown to the world that there can be a Christian church rooted and grounded in the Christian Scriptures, firmly attached to the one rock, Jesus Christ; and with all the spirit, with all the energy, with all the consecration, with all the selfsacrifice that are essential to carry forward the religious and the educational movements of our period, without any one of the old motives to piety, to self-sacrifice, or for obedience to God which the Orthodox church, even in its liberal forms, maintains are necessary to-day. I say, we stand before the world as a Christian church, utterly bereft of and having cast away all the old hopes of heaven for having done our duty, and all the old fears of hell if we do not do our duty. Therefore we stand before the world in this new aspect, of a church grounded in the Scriptures, loyal to Jesus Christ, and yet going forward with zeal and determination to do the work of the church of Jesus Christ, and establish his kingdom in the earth, without any

of those old motives and incentives which we have been told so many times are absolutely essential to the perpetuity and maintenance of a Christian church in this wicked world.

"I say, this is wherein we are more than any other branch of the Christian church to-day; and I tell you, I maintain that it is a new argument for Universalism; for if we can prove, as we are now able to demonstrate, that the doctrine of endless damnation is a useless doctrine in an educated land, then we have shown to the world a new argument, which utterly does away with that which God has no longer any need of in this world, and which especially man has no longer any need of. However we may regard, in the light of general intelligence, the existence of certain old erroneous ideas and dogmas, in the discipline and education of the world, yet, when the world grows to that point wherein it discerns that the old idea is an error, then the world casts it aside, while still the grand and noble movements of the world go on without it, although that idea may have been held and cherished as a profound truth by those who have been engaged in the noblest works and reforms of the world." (140)

THE UTILITY OF UNIVERSALISM.

"A belief in the utility of any religious truth can rest on no higher evidence than that which is involved in the consideration itself, that the truth believed to be useful is a truth. We have a right to assume, without any attempt at proof, that whatever God has seen fit to reveal to his creatures will, for the very reason that he has revealed it, be of service to them. If God reveals one of his purposes to