Published weekly. Price $1.50 a year, or 5 cents single copy. Entered at the Post-office, Boston, Mass., as second-class mail matter. Life. 12mo.. 1.00 Cloth The Minister's Hand-book. For Christenings, Weddings, and Funerals. .75 Sacred Songs for Public Worship. A Hymn and Tune 1.00 1.50 Unitarian Catechism. With an Introduction by E. A. Horton. 1.50 Cloth, 46 2.50 Mr. Savage's weekly sermons are regularly printed in pamphlet form in "Unity Pulpit.' single copies, 5 cents. Subscription price, for the season, $1.50; GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. OLD WORLD RELIGION.* THE story used to be told by the Greeks that the goddess Athênê, the Goddess of Wisdom, sprang completely developed, in full armor, from the forehead of her father Zeus. And it was also held that the statue of the great goddess Diana fell straight down out of heaven to the city of the Ephesians. In like manner, it used to be believed that Christianity came into the world suddenly, miraculously, to all intents and purposes completely developed and full-grown, and that the only real change of the last two thousand years has been the advancing conquest which it has made over the hearts and minds of men. In times when belief like this was held, of course it was of no sort of importance for people to inquire concerning the religions that preceded Christianity, for Christianity was supposed to stand in no sort of historic or genetic connection with these Old World religions. I used to picture Jesus to myself coming suddenly into the world, and Christianity full-grown standing out against a background of nothing. It was no matter what the past had been, when a theory like that was generally held, because a knowledge of that past could throw no light upon the peculiar features of the new religion. But the investigations, the careful study, and the discoveries of the modern world have given us an entirely new point of view. Mr. Max Müller is reported to have said that the man who knew only his Bible did not know his Bible. Why? Because no one book can stand alone by itself and be comprehended. You must put it in relation with other books that have preceded it and that are around it. If Shakspere * Stenographically reported. were the only book that we possessed, there would be no such thing as ranking Shakspere, as classifying, as comprehending him. He would stand in no sort of relation to the literature of England or any other part of the world. And precisely the same thing we know to be true now of any one religion. We do not believe any longer that Christianity is the one only true religion, and that all the other religions of the world are to be put one side in a class by themselves and labelled "false." However great may be the difference between the early religious thoughts of the world and the highest and divinest development of Christianity, we believe that from the beginning unto the end, from the lowest point to the summit of all, they are equally the natural outcome of the religious nature and aspiration of the human race. The difference, then, between Christianity and the other religions is not what it used to be supposed, a difference in kind: it is rather a difference in degree. A difference in degree, indeed, may be carried so far, may become so great, as practically to result in what we may very rightly look upon as a difference in kind. For instance, take the tiniest scrub oak that grows down on the Cape, and compare it with those magnificent specimens of the Mariposa Big Trees in California. You may make the difference between them as large as you please; but we know that they are equally natural, and there is no gulf of separation between them. It is the same power that germinated and developed in one which under other conditions has manifested itself more magnificently in the other. So to day we have learned lo look upon the old religions of the world as standing in this sort of relation to each other. I beg you not to misunderstand my meaning, when I say that all the religions of the world are equally the product of the natural religious aspiration and endeavor of the world. I do not mean to say that they are any the less divine than they were supposed to be in the light of the old theories. God is equally the author of them all, though he have produced them as the result of natural forces instead of by a sudden and uncaused miracle. We know now that we cannot understand Christianity alone. The man who knows only his own religion, to paraphrase Max Müller, does not know his own religion; for nothing in this world is what it is isolated, unrelated, alone. It is what it is by virtue of its origin, by virtue of the relations in which it stands to all other kindred things on earth. And so we can understand any one religion only as we compare and contrast it with other religions. Evolution is proving itself to be the master-key of the world. There is nothing that is not being reconsidered and rearranged in the light of it. From the development of the solar system to the growth of the tiniest and most insignificant interests of the race, the one universal method of law is observable. Under this one method, then, we shall find that all things have developed, have come to be what they are to-day. If, then, we wish to understand Christianity, to know where we are in the line of religious progress, to understand why we are where we are, if we are intelligently to forecast anything in the future, we need at least to know something of the early thoughts, the early hopes, the early religious aspirations, of the world. Wordsworth has said that "the child is father of the man." If you wish to comprehend a character, you need to trace his birth, his surroundings, the method of his growth, the forces that have shaped him and made him what he is. And so, if you want to understand the man-world, you want to understand the child-world which was its father. Of course, I cannot go into many details. I cannot expend any time in outlining or dwelling upon the different religions. My purpose will be attained if I can give you something of a clear and comprehensive idea of some of the early thoughts of man concerning these great problems that have always interested the world, and must continue to be the one theme of paramount importance to the very end of time. I need not go into detail concerning particular religions, because, so far as the great general principles are concerned. with which I wish to deal, they are substantially the same in all the early religions of the world. |