Our Unitarian Gospel | Page 3

the attempt, unhampered by the Church's dogma
or power, to understand the world in which we live.
As a result of this Renaissance, what happened? Let me run over very
rapidly the condition of things in Europe at the present time, with some
glances back, that you may see that Unitarianism has played just as
large a part as you could expect it to play, larger and grander than you
could expect it, considering the conditions.
In Hungary, one of the few countries where freedom of thought in
religion has been permitted, there has been a grand organization of the
Unitarian Church for more than three hundred years, not only churches,
but a Unitarianism that has controlled colleges and universities and
directed the growth of learning.
Let us look to the North. In Sweden and Norway it is still a crime to
organize a church that teaches that Jesus is not God. So we may expect
to find no Unitarian churches there; though there are many and noble
Unitarian men, thinkers and teachers. Come to Germany. There are no
organized Unitarian churches under that name here; but there is a
condition of things that is encouraging for us to note. There is a union
of the Protestant organizations, in which the liberals, or Unitarians, are
free, and have their part without any question as to their doctrine.
There are hundreds and thousands of Unitarians in South Germany. In
the city of Bremen I called on a clergyman who had translated one of
my books, and found out from him the condition of things there. The
cathedral of Bremen has half a dozen different preachers attached to it.
Some of them are orthodox, and some are Unitarian, all perfectly free;
living happily together in this way, and the people at liberty to come
and listen to which one of them they choose. This is not an uncommon
thing in Germany. That is the condition of things, then, there.
In Holland there are no Unitarian churches, no churches going by that
name; but there are thousands of Unitarians particularly among the

educated and leading men, and one university, that of Leyden, entirely
in control of the liberal religious leaders of the country.
When you come to France, which you know is dominantly Catholic,
you still find a large body of Protestants; but one wing of their great
organization is virtually if not out and out Unitarian. And a few of the
most noted preachers of the modern time in France have been
Unitarians. I have had correspondence with men there which showed
that they were perfectly in sympathy with our aims, our purposes, our
work.
In Transylvania and Poland there were large numbers of Unitarian
churches which were afterwards crushed out.
You find, then, all over Europe, all over civilization, just as much
Unitarianism as you would expect to find, when you consider the
questions as to whether the law permits it and as to whether the people
are educated and free.
I should like, not for the sake of boasting, but simply that you may see
that you are in good company, to mention the names of some of those
who are foremost in our thought. Take Mazzini, the great leader of Italy;
take Castelar, one of the greatest men in modern Spain; take Kossuth,
the flaming patriot of Hungary, all Unitarian men.
Now let us come a step nearer home: let us consider England, and note
that just the moment free thought was allowed, you find Unitarianism
springing into existence. Milton was a Unitarian; Locke, one of the
greatest of English philosophers, a Unitarian; Dr. Lardner, one of its
most famous theological scholars, a Unitarian; Sir Isaac Newton, one of
the few names that belong to the highest order of those which have
made the earth glorious, a Unitarian.
And, then, when we come to later England, we find another great
scientist, comparatively modern, Dr. Priestley, who, coming to this
country after he had made the discovery of oxygen which made him
famous for all time, established the first Unitarian church in our
neighbor city of Philadelphia.

The first Unitarian church which took that name in the modern world
was organized in London by Dr. Theophilus Lindsey in 1774; and its
establishment coincides with the great outburst of freedom that
distinguished the close of the eighteenth century.
You must not look for Unitarians where there is no liberty; for it is a
cardinal principle of their thought and their life.
Soon after the London movement, the first Unitarian church in this
country was organized, or rather the first Unitarian church came into
existence. It was the old King's Chapel of Boston, an Anglican church,
which came out and took the name Unitarian.
There is a very bright saying in connection with this