I t? "^ ^""

OCCASIONAL SERMON,
DELIVERED BEFORE THE
United States' General Convention of Universalists,
H E i. D
IN BOSTON, SEPT. 17, 1845.
BY REV. E. H. CHAPIN'

' what ;lack i TET ?' Malt. xix. 20.

OCCASIONAL "SERMON,

DELIVERED BEFORE THE

United States' General Convention of Universalists,

IN BOSTON, SEPT. 17, 1845.

BY REV. E. H. CHAPIN.
hi

' WHAT LACK I YET V Matt. xix. 20.

BOSTON :
A. TOMPKINS, 38 CORNHILL.
1845.

SERMON.

' WHAT LACK I YET ?' .... Matt. xix. 20.
All attainment results from a sense of imperfection,
coupled with earnest desire. The Arts that have exalted
and blessed humanity — the Discoveries that have enlarged
its knowledge — have originated in dissatisfaction and in
want. 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' The de
grees of civilization have been evolved by the pressure of
circumstances. Truth, however near us, is veiled; only
the inquiring mind penetrates its mystery — and, therefore,
intellectual progress keeps pace with intellectual aspiration.
The ignorant and the thoughtless are contented with their
position. The persevering toiler, the humble yet restless
explorer, looking out from the shore where he seems but a
collector of pebbles, discerns the new lights that break in
upon the infinite Reality, and gathers the rich treasures
that flow to his feet. The more he aspires the more he
receives ; while his unsatisfied capacity and his intense
desire, beating against their present limits, prophesy im
mortality. It is thus with spiritual affairs. The sensual, the slug
gish, the self-righteous, make no progress ; for they have
no desire for improvement, and indeed no conception of it.
But they who are alive to their deepest interests — who are
convinced of the necessity for moral and religious growth,
and are anxious for it ; not in the vain confidence that
their attainments are perfect, but with a deep sense of want
and an earnest aspiration for something better, will often,
yea, constantly, ask the question which the young man ad
dressed to our Saviour — ' What lack I yet?' Such a ques
tion, in such a spirit, is always a sign of promise, of in
ternal life# and vigor, and of higher good.
As with individuals, my friends, so with associations —
so with any religious denomination. It is not improbable
that every sect has its mission. It forms around some im-
krfbwn or neglected idea, and exhibits, defends, and pro-

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pagates it. In the earlier stages of its movement, it may
be carried forward by the force of new truth and of earn
est conviction. But its developing relations demand pro
gressive methods of action. There comes a period when,
as an integral part of that great organism by which the
kingdom of Heaven is advanced in the earth, it is called
to work out not only the interests of a sect, but the broader
interests of humanity, of religion, of God. A period when
its internal life becomes more important than its numerical
extension. When it must exhibit something more than
the destructive talent that demolishes error : namely a
constructive power that establishes nobler and higher truth ;
a spiritual force operating upon the world — operating upon
individual hearts.
Permit me, my brethren, to employ the present oppor
tunity which you have afforded me, in considering a few
answers to the question which forms my text. I have
chosen this course, not because I overlook past good or
present attainments, but because I deem that, upon this
occasion, provident forethought may be more beneficial
than mere congratulation. And if I, perchance, should
speak upon any point in a style that you may deem un
warranted by my age or my experience, I must plead
the authority of the office to which you have elected me.
' What lack I yet ?' Three answers to this simple ques
tion, will form the body of the present discourse ; and those
answers are — Education — Individualism — Spirituality. —
To the consideration of these I now pass.
I. We need Education. Of course, I mean clerical edu
cation — that kind of education whiph is peculiarly con
nected with the true progress of the denomination. ' True
religion,' says Spurzheim, ' is central truth. And all
knowledge, in my estimation, should be gathered around
it.' The primitive propagation of the Gospel was not a
work of this world's wisdom. The words of its early
teachers dropped not in classic purity from their lips. —
No polished, artificial rhetoric runs through their simple
narratives. They drew no aid from profane learning; they
let alone Delphos in its subtle imposture, nor moistened
their lips with the bright waters of Helicon. Bu^ a Power
kindled within them, mightier than the strength of human
learning — more vital than all the ancient philosonhies.-^*-
What needed they of written scroll, or disciplined inrellect ?
They spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost—

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cloven tongues, as of fire, hovered over them. God, in
effecting his designs, employs means, and those means are
always adapted to circumstances. And sfarely this ordering
of the matter in its earlier stages, denotes Infinite Wis
dom, and proves the authenticity of the Gospel. Had it
originated among scholars, had it been disseminated by
the efforts of philosophy, it would have appeared like the
systems of Plato, or Aristotle, or Epicurus ; and its suc
cess would have been attributed to erudition and eloquence.
But the poor, and the despised of this world were its
earliest missionaries. From minds uneducated, in the
human sense, flashed out the brightness of the new Reve
lation. And over the wisdom of all the schools that sim
ple Revelation triumphed.
But, I repeat, God always adapts means to circum
stances. Even in the midst of the apostolic age, evident
ly in respect to new relations, new men, men of lofty
and varied acquirements, were selected as champions of
the Gospel. When from the miracle-guided Jew, the doc
trine of Jesus and the resurrection went out among those
who toiled in profound philosophy, and entrenched them
selves in dialectic skill, who had penetrated the mysteries
and grappled with abstract truth ; when the Stoic and the
Epicurean were to be converted; when it was required
that the refinement of Athens and the voluptuousness of
Corinth should be dissolved in Christian love and faith,
and the altar to ' the unknown God' kindle with the fire
of true worship ; then were chosen such men as Paul,
learned at the feet of Gamaliel ; and Apollos, an eloquent
man, and mighty in the Scriptures.
But who, at the present day, assumes to stand in the po
sition of the primitive Teachers of the Gospel ? Who feels
his commission breathed directly upon him in supernatural
wisdom, or beholds its promise in cloven tongues as of fire?
Once more, I say, God adapts means to circumstances.
The circumstances have changed. We trust that now, as
of old, the Holy Spirit operates. That it seconds the good
man's effort, answers the good man's prayer, and aids him
in his labors of righteousness. We know that even now
the noblest wisdom, the best knowledge of all, is that of a
pure, earnest, loving heart. There is a knowledge in
which man grows as he truly grows in religion. The har
mony without t responds to harmony within. The good
man Erone reads the Wisdom printed on leaf and flower.
God has made'the sea, a great organ, whose pedals and

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stops are in the heart of the earth ; only the good man's
soul discerns its melody. He has made the rainbow, beau
tiful to the eyes of a little child, but only faith and love
can interpret its meaning. He has made the stars, golden
ladders through infinity ; only the purified spirit shall tread*
them. He has given us, best of all, the divine life of
Christ, only the Christ-like soul shall understand it and
live it. Here are sources of knowledge, here is a power,
richer than any other, which the ignorant may possess, and
the wise be ignorant of.
But there are a knowledge and a power essential to the
minister of the Gospel, at the present day, which can only
be attained by study — by earnest and diligent effort. They
come not as inspiration came of old ; they are not given
direct from heaven like the power of miracle. Circum
stances have changed, and God has changed the means.
Philology supplies the place of the gift of tongues ; and the
printing press causes every nation to see and hear in its
own language. Instead of the mysterious faculty that call
ed the dead to life, and healed the withered limb, history
summons around the Gospel the accumulating witnesses
of ages. A true and reverent philosophy points to the eter
nal evidence that lives in the human heart. And science, .
the interpreter of ' the elder Scripture,' from the starred
scroll of heaven, from the sun- written sea, and the eloquent
earth, reads lessons that corroborate those taught on the
slope of the mountain, and on the shores of Gennesaret.
They, then, who reject and despise the aid of learning,
because the Apostles established the Gospel not with hu
man wisdom but against it rather, are as literal and as
fantastic in their interpretation, as tljey who would assume
the garb, or adopt the precise manners of those primitive
teachers. They must then re-cast the features of the nine
teenth century in the mould of the first. They must take
Christianity back to the upper room in Jerusalem and to
the house of Cornelius ; they must stand close to the open
sepulchre of Christ and the fresh miracle of his resurrec
tion; and corroberate what they have seen and heard, by
sisns, and wondrous works, of more than human skill.
For the preacher of the present age there is only the al»
ternative of employing the means that lie at hand — means
adapted to circumstances. He needs all the advantages
that the best education can afford him. For what^re th«
purposes of his preaching, and what is his position 9 If he
be a true man, he aims to pro'duce faith in rfie. Gospel, and

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obedience to its requirements. He aims to enlighten con
science, purify motives, and enlarge the sphere of religious
thought and life. He aims to do this as an agent, of course
— as a means through which higher agencies act — yet as
an agent occupying an efficient and responsible station. —
He is an illustrator, enforcer, orator of great truths, which
men need constantly to see and be impressed with ; truths
which elevate humanity, draw out its highest faculties, and
lead it to perfection. In order to fully accomplish his work,
then, the preacher must hold a treasury of knowledge,
from which he can bring forth things new and old. fie
must be original, he must have enlarged conceptions of
things, must not tread merely an old, beaten track, must go
out of it and exhibit all the wonders and works of God in
Nature and in Revelation — pour light from a thousand
sources upon the incentives to religious action ; and here,
in this thronged, busy maze of human life, where immortal
souls are struggling, where conscience grapples with
temptation and battles for momentous issues ; perilled, tried,
every hour; requiring light for every step; here does he
need to utter his teachings, his exhortations, his warnings.
The teacher of the human heart, that is his designation,
that is his office ; and who does not perceive that he must
be a man ' thoroughly furnished unto every good work V —
Knowledge he must have, either natural or supernatural.
This has always been theTequirement. It is the require
ment at this day.
The preacher must be furnished, moreover, to meet not
only these demands that are the same in all ages, but also
the specific requirements of the present age — an age of ex
pansive, various and searching thought, combining much
that is profound and tnie, with much that is superficial and
false ; each requiring the discriminating attention of the
preacher. Great questions are stirring that demand deep
study and varied learning — questions which that denomi
nation that would maintain its influence and serve the
truth, must answer through its organs : questions not mere
ly upon sectarian points of theology, but questions that
pierce to the very foundations of sects, and of theology it
self. The great battle of Protestantism is to be resumed.
The argument for Christianity is to be discussed on pre
mises mofe vital than ever before. The preacher of the
Gospel cannot ^rest his cause to-day. upon any ground of
formal wr conventional prejudice. He must surrender all
sufh helps: — hetmust meet, and I rejoice that it is so, he

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must meet the opposition to Christianity face to face in the
open field of free, manly discussion. And much of the un
belief of our day is sincere. It springs noj from hostility
to religious faith, but from an earnest craving after religious
faith. In the agony of its desolate scepticism it cries out,
as from the gloom of a sepulchre whence the stone has not
been rolled away, for the light that it cannot see. There
is, too, a form of unbelief, as many term it, that springs
from a profound spiritualism, which in its distaste for the
letter, attacks not merely the sanctities of Orthodox cre
dence, but almost or quite assails the fundamental stand
point of Christianity itself. And the questions raised from
this quarter, serious and important, must all be discussed.
And, again, there are those who wearied and dissatisfied
with popular dogmas, reject with the false forms the essence
of the Gospel, and these the minister of, a more liberal
faith must meet and instruct. Said I not truly, then, that
the preacher of our day, needs all the advantages that the
best education can afford him ? Encountering this all-
searching, all-grasping spirit of investigation that charac
terizes the nineteenth century ; encountering these various
wants that are opening and appealing around him, is he not
greatly lacking, who is not well furnished with knowledge
for conquest, for defence, and for supply? He cannot re
ly merely upon the dignity of his office, .and the sacredness
of his truth. He must go into the field a ready-armed and
vigorous man — if he would be, or do much for God and for
humanity. ' The clergy,' says a writer, ' the clergy can
never again enjoy advantages which they have possessed,
as an order ; their mere professional influence has forever
past away. The warrior, the priest, the merchant, having
had their day, must hand over their influence to the man
of great intellectual and moral power  Those who
elaborate new thoughts, and shower them on the under
standings of mankind, — 'those who dart a ray of discovery
into some unexplored recess of God's creation, — those who
by profound converse with their own affections win power
over others,, and learn to sculpture forth in visible language
the viewless emotions of the mind, — those who can well
persuade the reason, and powerfully stir the general sym
pathies, and quicken the virtuous efforts, and freshen trie
immortal hopes of men,. — will be thought to p%rform the
highest office, and wield the most beneficial power for our
race. Into this class must Christian ministers throfv them
selves ; on these qualifications for influencegnust they ifly.

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The artificial associations with their office, which gave
them, till even recent times, a preternatural position above
other men, have disappeared. The tide of conventional
power has ebbed from them, and left them on the common
strand of humanity, and they must trust to the recognized
means of human persuasion, to the natural energy of their
own faculties, the resources of their own knowledge, the
glow of their own affections.'* This is stated strongly —
some may think too strongly, but it shows us the thought
and tendency of the age respecting the Christian ministry
— it shows us the resources of that ministry as adapted to
the age — it shows us that the clerical name and function
will no more justify ignorance or inanity, than moral obli
quity or indecorum.
I know there are anxious and faithful hearts who fear
lest human learning should eat out the life of devotion, and
kill religion at the very core ; who fear that instead of sit
ting at the feet of Christ, men will wander along the dubi
ous paths of their own invention, or poise the truth on the
hair-lines of their attenuated speculation, and beat about in
the mists of vain philosophy. These are not ungrounded
fears. Learning and philosophy have too often lost the life
of religion in their pursuit. But for this as for all things
else there are the use and the abuse. There is a seeking
of knowledge for high and noble ends ; there is a point of
elevation where the religious and the intellectual life blend
an d kindle together, soaring to all heights and exploring
all depths; and there is : a little learning that is a danger
ous thing' to truth and to the soul. For such we should
breathe the noble prayer of Lord Bacon — ' This also we
humbly and earnestly beg ; that human things may not
prejudice such as are divine ; neither that from the unlock
ing of the gates of sense, and the kindling of a greater na
tural light, any thing may arise of incredulity or intellectu
al night towards divine mysteries, but rather that by our
minds thoroughly purged and cleansed from fancy and
vanity, and yet subject and perfectly given up to the Divine
Oracles, there may be given unto ' faith the things that are
faith's.'
* But, say others again, 'The Bible, the Bible, is the
minister's text-book — it is all he needs.' True ; it is his
text-book, the great Record of Christ and of immortality.
But what is the Bible ? Do not many have very vague
« * Martineau.
2

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and erroneous notions respecting it ? It is not true that
the superficial and unlettered can understand it all. Look
at the ebullitions of fanaticism and imposture that have
followed the attempt. The magnificent and sublime ima
ges of prophecy perverted to sensual and trivial occasions —
the language of oriental speech used to horrid effect — the
close reasoning and intricate style of Paul applied to every
circumstance and to every creed. Isolated verses made
the bases of sects, and a play upon words the source of
doctrines. Composed of different books, written in differ
ent ages, bearing the mark of changes that time has wrought
upon the human race, some intended for local, some for
the most comprehensive purposes, some addressed to par
ticular individuals, some to particular Churches, some to
the Christian world at large ; it requires all the research of
the scholar, all the reasoning of the philosopher, all the
skill of the interpreter, and all the comprehensive sympa
thy of the poet, joined to the devotion of the Christian, to
make plain all the truths written between its lids. Man
ners, customs, idioms, history, poetry, all these must be
known in order rightly to understand the Bible. True,
there is much that can be understood by the unlettered
mind — by the little child — by the simple. And these, let
us be thankful, are practical and devotional portions of
Scripture. But even these seem to deepen and broaden
and glow with a richer light, as we come to them with fac
ulties more and more instructed. Nor can we complain
of this fact any more than we can complain that those
Scriptures are unknown to millions — that they were origi
nally shrouded in Hebrew and in Greek — where they
would have remained had there not been those who knew
the use of learning, and its intimate connection with the in
terests of religion.
You may accuse me of dwelling too long upon truths
that to many are trite and self-evident, but I think that
the discussion which I have given them is demanded by
the circumstances of our denomination. If I mistake not,
there are those among us who are opposed to a systematic,
ministerial education ; or if this be not so, certainly the
great mass of our denomination needs to be aroused to ac
tion upon this subject ; and I have spoken in order to ex
cite a result better than a mere vague assent to the impor
tance and the necessity for an educated ministry. The
time is ripe, fully ripe for action. We need not, we* ought
not to shrink from an expression of the fact, #that we are

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sadly in want of a higher intellectual culture. Our Soci
eties call for educated men— the mind of the age demands
them. Educated, I mean, not merely in the learning of
books, but in discipline of mind— in free and original
thought, in matter and in manner. We need to cherish
the interests of collegiate and theological education. The
ology, what is it, in its primary, its essential meaning? A
discourse, a reasoning concerning God. I like old Hook
er's definition of it : ' The whole drift of the Scriptures of
God,' says he, ' what is it but to teach theology ? Theolo
gy, what is it but the science of things divine ?' And I
like Locke's definition still better : ' I mean theology,' says
he, 'which containing the knowledge of God and his crea
tures, our duty to Him and our fellow-creatures, and a
view of our present and future state, is the comprehension
of all other knowledge directed to its true end ; that is, the
honor and veneration of God, and the happiness of man
kind.' In this noble and free definition of the term ' theol
ogy,' not as the study of mere dogmas and technicalities,
but, as ' the comprehension of all other knowledge directed
to its true end,' in this definition of it do I say that we
need to cherish the interests of theological education among
us ; and of all true intellectual culture. Our want of it is
too palpable to require discussion. And this is no dispar
agement of past efforts, or of any among us whose merits
contradict the remark. It is a general observation, having
its exceptions. 1 say, it is no disparagement of the past.
It is a simple fact applicable to the present, and having a
bearing upon the future. Those rare and original men
who are passing away, cannot be imitated. The circum
stances with which they labored are passing with them.
New circumstances require new means. Those means are
growing up for us. An Institution already flourishing, in
a neighboring State, requires only that we waive all local
preferences, that we recognize the want existing among us
— the want of an educated ministry ; that we act upon
that fact, and the want will be supplied. But I have de
tained you long upon a single point in my discourse. I
shall pass over those that remain, more briefly.
II. Another answer to the question, in our text, ' What
lack I yet ?' is Individualism. Individualism ! I mean by
this the action of an independent mind, standing out in
relief from the back-ground of sect, and the relations of
party, and seeking for truth as it breaks in from all quar-

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ters of the intellectual and moral universe. There are,
and always have been, some such men. Jesus designated
them in his sublime answer to Pilate : ' To this end was
I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I
should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of
the truth heareth my voice.' ' Every one that is of the
truth !' To all such he confidently left his claims. He
felt that from the Pharisee, or Sadducee, the Jew or the
Gentile, wedded to prejudice, entangled in sectarian in
terests, bigoted and proud in opinion, he could expect no
justice. But they who are of the truth, and that alone,
he knew would, in that age, and in all ages, hear and
believe him. And it is a noble testimony for Jesus, that
he thus calmly left his doctrine, to attract inevitably, by
its own intrinsic value, all true minds unto it.
Now Romanism produced unity. Thought might play
upon a free axis but must not radiate beyond a certain
circumference. Opinions might heave and agitate as they
would, but must not rise above a given level, nor break
the monotony of the Catholic faith. The spontaneous
heresies of the individual soul, the results of too-curious
speculation, the murmurings of premature dissent, were
hushed and decided by ,fhe awful voice of authority, the
authority of the Church. There was unity, then; at
least, an apparent unity. Whatever disagreements there
may have been below, upon the surface they were amal
gamated and incrusted into one.
Protestantism produced diversity. At its advent that
shell of apparent unity heaved asunder, and was shatter
ed into fragments. Speculations long pent up burst from
countless sources, and assumed innumerable shapes. —
Men rallied around, this or that idea, and parties were or
ganized. The great mass was in a whirl, and at every
new revolution, like the sun in the nebular hypothesis,
ejected a new planet, which, internally convulsed, in turn
threw off its minor fragments. The battle of the sects
began. A battle which with divisions and subdivisions,
with zeal and with acrimony, is carried on to this day.
But there is, my friends, a better form of Christianity
than Romanism or Protestantism. It is Individualism. It
is the last result of Christian freedom, arid of the noblest,
severest discipline of the soul. It springs from exclusive
loyalty to truth ; because truth is something that each
must seek for himself. He must rely upon his own pow
ers, aided by God only. He must make his ow*i investi-

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gations. He must think his own thoughts and not merely
the thoughts of his sect. He must recognize that the in
terests of truth are higher than the interests of party. 
This course of action will naturally cause him to stand
out by himself, and bear the impress of peculiarity, even
while he may link his sympathies with a sect, and unite
his action with it upon many points.
You will not understand me as recommending a spirit
which affects peculiarity — which looks around for some
thing only novel and startling— which, in order to show
its contempt for authority and for that which to others is
most venerable, studies how it may express the most shock
ing sentiments in the roughest way, and deserving not
even the credit of patient toil and original research, snatches
its dogmas at second-hand, and throws out by impulse the
unassimilated mass, with the mark of another not half ef
faced from it.
True individualism is reverent, cautious, slow to speak,
apt to hear and to inquire. And yet it is always inde
pendent, and peculiar. He who is true to his individuality,
is as jealous of the influence of sectarism, as of the as
sumptions of Romanism. If the one represses free thought,
the other embarrasses it. Most of the sects have exerted
an authority as imperative and dogmatic as Popery itself.
But even in the more liberal denominations, sectarism
may and does wield a pernicious influence. The individ
ual has taken his position, has signified his decision upon
the great questions that divide the Christian world — his
reputation for consistency is at stake, there is around him
a spirit of party, that bears upon him and decides and
constrains, with a force as strict and severe as that of
creed or council. All these considerations compromise the
individual to the party, and paralyze his sense of allegiance
to the simple truth — lull within him the suspicion that he
may not yet possess all truth, or have viewed every side
of it. This is not a favorable atmosphere for freedom of
mind, or its clear sense of responsibility to God and to
itself. Let it not be understood that I speak against legitimate
sectarism. So far as a man believes the progress of truth
to be identical with the triumph of a denominational inter
est, he is bound to be sectarian. But while he maintains
this proposition in his mind, joined with it, paramount to
it, let him hold another proposition, viz : ' truth before sect,
before interest, before prejudice or pride of opinion!' —

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For each one of us is an independent mind, directly in
contact with the realities of God, endowed with the sov
ereignty of thought, and the immunity of the universe.
Shall we read only with Newton's eyes ? shall we reason
merely by Bacon's method ? shall we rest satisfied upon
Luther's conclusions? Lo! we live in the same world
that they inhabited. The same royalty of thought is ours.
To us is given an entrance into the same wide empire of
reality. The same voices speak to us. The same eternal
truths shine into our souls. We can lay our hands upon
the same solid facts and say, ' We know ye !' We should
ever maintain and vindicate this independence of thought.
We may not be able to obtain all truth at first hand, but
it should be in us the result of original conviction, not of
hereditary faith or sectarian acquiescence. The conviction
of an original, independent mind ! How grandly it shone
in the great Reformer ! I see him now in that august as
sembly, standing up before princes and nobles, prelates
and ambassadors. And I feel how much stronger than
the banded legions of the mighty, than the decrees of kings,
is one free, earnest soul, as he utters those words which
shall move a hundred generations — ' Here stand I — I can
not otherwise — God help me !'
In saying that we lack this true individualism, I do not
imply that we are in a peculiar case. As with others, so
with us. There is to some extent among us, it is to be
apprehended, a narrow, sectarian spirit — the spirit of mere
ism — too much stress upon fixed forms of thought and ex
pression — an undue deference to the old and the establish
ed. I have yet to learn that the excellence of any creed
necessarily prevents its advocates being bigots. We should
beware how we exalt sect before truth — we should beware
of any federated power that may have the tendency to
cramp individualism. But we should not occupy merely
a negative position in this matter. We should develope
and nourish a free individualism. That party whose cen
tral principles shall be so alive with Christian liberty as
to produce this result, will be best entitled to the terms
Universal and Catholic. Universal, because it places it
self in the condition to receive all truth. Catholic, because
it recognizes the good that- there is in others, and there
grows up a liberal sympathy between those whose ends are
solely truth and righteousness, which links them with
stronger bands than the decrees of authority, or than iden
tity of opinion. Away with the idea, that such* freedom

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induces self-conceit, and pride of opinion, which narrow
the soul and darken the truth. If I should seek for
charity, it would not be from the ignorant bigot who says
it is rash to inquire, who says I know I am right; but
from him who has wept and prayed in the difficulties of
research, and watered the rugged path with his tears. —
He can pity my fallibility, because he too was long in the
mazes of error before he reached the supremacy of truth.
And were I to seek for humility, it would not be of the
sciolist vain over his pebble or his plant; but of him
whose knowledge is the broadest ; who, step by step, has
climbed those keen Alpine heights of wisdom. He must
be humble, for, looking off, he sees not the dead wall that
seems to line our vision — but a universe, in which break
waves of being without an echo, and around which hangs
the awful darkness that conceals the springs of nature and
the mysteries of God !
And away, too, with the idea that this individualism
induces schisms and divisions. It insures the true unity,
the only unity that Christ contemplated — not that of faith,
but of life, of dispositipn — ' the unity of the spirit in the
bond of peace' — a unity that harmonized in the light of the
cross, the fervent Peter, the loving John, and the heroic
Paul. This separates from the congealed masses of error,
and prejudice, and pride, those fragments of truth that
have been tossed about on the billowy contentions of ages,
and unites them and builds them up into the great Church
universal — where meet the good ana the true of all sects —
alike, because they bear the image of Jesus — united, be
cause they are all ' of the truth.' This is Catholicism :
this is Protestantism : this is Universalism.
III. Another want remains to be considered, and that is
Spirituality. My own inclination and the importance of
the subject urge me to say much upon this point. But
time admonishes me to be brief. And the importance of
the subject furnishes an excuse for such brevity. It is too
plain and too great a subject to require labored discussion.
Spirituality! I mean by this true Religious Life. The
establishment and growth of Righteousness in the indi
vidual soul. The love and assimilation unto ourselves of
those principles which are based on the sanctions of God
— the eternal Good and Right ; when we seek no evasion
of the strict law of rectitude, observe its spirit under all
conditions," and feel that it is violated in the least as in the

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greatest infraction. I mean by spirituality something
higher even than this. It blends with the true morality
the true piety It is a life hid with Christ in God — a life
that is drawn from invisible sources by living communion
with the Highest — a life whose view is comprehensive and
whose obedience is holy. I mean a life, broad, deep, lov
ing — pure within as the river of Heaven, reflecting all
heaven's realities. And yet a life active, full of blessed
deeds and grand endeavors. No indolent quietism, no
asceticism, from which a true spirituality differs as Christ
differs from Simon Stylites. I mean no ignorant fana
ticism, narrow and rapid and running to exhaustion. But
a spirituality that is compatible with the noblest tone of
social feeling, that blends knowledge and piety, that is not
so volatile as to escape at the first contact with worldly cir
cumstances, but draws from them and gives to them
a purifying and hallowing efficacy. That finds in its
highest knowledge its warmest element of devotion — that
in exercising reason approaches nearer to its Source, and
discerns in this gross and palpable universe a veil illumi
nated by eternal realities. That lives in close communion
with God in order that it may act — that acts in order to
gain closer communion. Whose secret retirement is popu
lous with blessed visitations — whose most crowded inter
course allows the happiest seclusion. This is the union of
faith and works. This is the reconcilement of time with
eternity. To live thus is Christ — to die thus is gain.
This is the kingdom of God within us.
Now all truth and all effort, all denominational action,
all appliances — education, individualism, intellectual and
moral culture, are valuable only as they produce in their
ultimate result, this spirituality. Whatever may be said
about righteousness rather than doctrine, it is certain you
cannot have righteousness without doctrine, any more than
- you can have effect without cause. Still, that religious re
form which only unhinges faith, and throws men into a
negative position or upon a mere ground of attack ; that
only excites antagonism to certain creeds, and ' purges the
abused eyesight' of men from certain errors, has done but
little in establishing God's kingdom upon the earth. That
kingdom ' is righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost.' These are the tenants of individual souls — these
are the fruits of individual righteousness. In the regene
ration of individual souls, then, is that kingdom to be
founded and built up. Our field is the world, and yet

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there is a world in every human soul, to be explored, purified
and redeemed. There is the central point, where truth must
rest its practical axis — in those floods of passion in those
awful depths of sin, among those half-kindled, half-
quenched aspirations, those capacities glorious and im
mortal, those coiled motives, those subtle deceits, those
contending affections, there is to be the great effort, to
draw out, to develope, to harmonize, to regenerate. It
is, then, a favorable sign when a denomination begins to
use the means of practical and personal religion ; to set
more and more value upon them, giving them serious and
zealous attention. Although there is a time in its earlier
progress, when from the necessity of the case its energies
are almost entirely absorbed in controversy, yet this ex
clusively salient position is unfavorable to spirituality.
But if that denomination has true life in it, it will soon
manifest spiritual tendencies, and the value of its doc
trines will come to be estimated by their influence upon
character and upon life. Then something more is de
manded than the tactics of theological warfare — than free
dom from error, antagonism and anti-orthodoxy. Then
the best products are pure and righteous, and Christ-like
souls. Our own denomination has manifested a great and fa
vorable movement in the direction towards spiritualism,
within a few years. A more reverent, and serious, and
devout spirit has fallen upon it. The culture of personal
religion among us is more evident. Yet much needs to be
done. We require an organization, which, while it shall
be jealously kept from undue power and interference, shall
at least secure the purity of our members, and especially
guard the door of the fold and the table of the Lord from
the irreligious and the unfit. We need a more careful dis
cipline in our Churches : but most important because most
effectual of all, a deeper, closer application of Christ's
spirit to the individual heart— with prayerful, loving, pa
tient effort.
But alas ! with us and with all Christendom, how little
is there of Christ, compared with what should be ! See
men living on dry formalities, on husky creeds, on puncti
lious observances, on sectarian names, rather than on that
which alone is life and power. Consider the bad spirit,
and the unworthy deeds that pass under the Christian
name, — the inconsistencies of faith and life— the asperity
of religious disputes, the low ideas of right, and, worse than
3

C 18 )
all, that central selfishness from which diverge so many
gross and wide-extended wrongs !
But a conviction seems to be springing up among men
which will ' try the spirits' — a conviction that if there is
any peculiarity in Christianity it consists in its purifying,
healing, regenerating power, and not merely in its articles
of faith — in its elemental force as a life, and not its mere
excellence as a theory. Other systems have presented
forms of doctrine, and maxims for action, but Christianity
must, and if it is from Heaven, does excel these, not only
in degree but in kind ; not merely in truths for the intellect,
but in power for the heart — a living power to move upon
and change the moral life of the world. This power Christi
anity does possess, and they who exhibit it in their own
lives, and exert it in their own conduct, are Christians. I
know not but that the time will soon come, when as with
the hammer and the fire, our existing sectarisms shall be
broken up and melted, their truth and error fused together,
and from the trial shall come forth purified and consolida
ted, those whose claims are not that jthey are of Paul, or
Apollus, or Cephas, but of Christ — a claim sealed and at
tested by their spirituality.
Thus, my friends, have I fulfilled the plan which I laid
out for this discourse. In those three elements — Educa
tion, Individualism, Spirituality, you have the springs of
truth, freedom and holiness, the motto of all truly liberal
Christianity, the objects of all noble and righteous effort.
Seeking these they shall be found, and being found, what
higher ends can be attained ? What lack we yet ?
And as to those great ideas that are to be associated with
these, look not for their advancement merely in the pro
gress of a sect— or in numerical increase. Seek them in
the spirit of the age, in the softening lineaments of sterner
creeds, in the general convictions of advancing humanity,
in the diffusion of nobler, and kinder sentiments, in the in
tuitions of genius, the spontaneous outspeakings of the hu
man heart, the conclusions of broad and thoughtful intel
lects. All things tell of the universal Father, all things
prophecy ultimate good. As science withdraws the veils
of nature, in every depth, in every recess, it discovers a
ray of that Love which was concentrated upon the Cross.
It sees no hopeless incongruity. It argues no endless suf
fering. The keenest analysis can detect no such thing as
unmitigated evil. It falls not as a residuum into any cru
cible. The bright worlds above tell of peace and harmony

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—and at the farthest verge of creation as at the centre, their
sparkling glories speak of Wisdom, Beneficence, and De
sign — the moving on of a great purpose encompassed by
infinite Love, as by universal space. Thus all nature
seems weaving the tissues of a sublime work. Slowly yet
surely, from the seeming evil evolves the substantial good.
The isolated fact which, yesterday, appeared so contradic
tory, to-day, as we open upon a higher series, exhibits
a beautiful adaptation. The discords which pained us so,
as we draw near them swell into a mighty harmony.
And literature, whether it plays upon the surface of fic
tion, or speaks from profound depths of philosophy, or
breathes from poetic inspiration ; kindles with lofty senti
ments of love and hope, of universal brotherhood — of higher
good. And human nature rises to vindicate itself from
long and harsh impeachment. Degraded, trampled, scar
red and peeled, it asserts its divine origin ; and, beneath
the smouldering embers of sin, flash the gleamings of better
life, breaks out the terrible anguish of a soul that cannot be
at rest with evil. And grand reforms start up with the
idea. They seek the lost and fallen, preach repentance to
the prodigal, and shake the chains of the oppressed, and the
•conventionalisms of ages, with their demand for human
rights, based upon human worth, and human capacity. —
And every argument that goes for these — yea, every argu
ment that urges the immortality of man, is an argument
for his final restoration.
And around that idea of universal holiness, gather the
¦best affections of the human heart. This satisfies them ;
this fills the capacity of that anxious desire that prays
and inquires not for the good and pure objects of its love,
but for the vile and the cast-away. Reason with this
idea 'justifies the ways of God to man.' And it is con
firmed by the spirit of that Christianity which ' came to
seek and to save the lost.'
A great thing is the perfection of a single soul — a great
thing is it to follow its progress from gross sensuality,
from strugglings with sin, from imperfection and tempta
tion, upward, upward to its union with God, its spiritual
likeness to the Perfeet One — when no more as expressive
of weakness or suffering, it shall ask for itself, ' What lack
I yet ?' A great thing is this ! But let me ask, will that high
state be only an elevated selfishness ? Will all sympathy, all
social yearning, all love for others, be lost ? Oh no ! Will
it not yet ask, ' What lack I yet ?' And the answer will

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be, ' That the good*. the pure, the loved, may gather around
me, and form a spiritual and beatified society ?' But when
these come, will it be satisfied ? If that soul has accom
plished perfection, then it will possess His spirit, who
yearned over the guilty, who shed his blood for the lost,
and poured benedictions from the Cross upon his murder
ers. If so, it will still ask, 'What lack I yet?' and the
answer will be, ' That the exiled, the wandering, the last
and lowest of the race may come — come home to their
Father and their God.' And when they come, should it
again ask, ' What lack I yet ?' it will receive no answer —
its nature will be satisfied — its harmony complete. Yes,
then there is an answer. Hark ! It breaks from one
great flood of praise and rapture, filling the ample uni
verse of God !

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