Our Unitarian Gospel | Page 6

heart of the universe. Third, that God is not only
wisdom and power and love, but that he is the universal Father, not
merely the Father of the elect, not merely the Father of Christians, not
merely the Father of civilized people, but the Father of all men, equally,
lovingly, tenderly the Father of all men.
In the next place, being the Father of all men, he would naturally wish
to have them find the truth. So we believe in revelation. Not in
revelation confined to one book or one epoch in the history of the
world, though we do not deny the revelation contained in them. We
believe that all truth, through whatever medium it comes to the world,
is in so far a revelation of our Father; and it is infallible revelation
when it is demonstrably true, and not otherwise.
The next step, then: in the words of Lucretia Mott, we believe that truth
should be taken for authority, and not authority for truth. The only

authority in the world is the truth. The only thing to which
intellectually a free Unitarian can afford to bow is ascertained and
demonstrated truth. We believe, then, in revelation.
In the next place, we believe in incarnation. Not in the complete
incarnation of God in one man, in one country, in one age, in the
history of the world. We believe in the incarnation of God
progressively in humanity. All that is true, all that is beautiful, all that
is good, is so much of God incarnate in his children, and reaching ever
forth and forward to higher blossoming and grander fruitage. The
difference between Jesus and other men, as we hold it, is not a
difference in kind: it is a difference in degree. So he is the son of our
Father, our elder brother, our friend, our leader, our helper, our
inspiration.
The next principle of Unitarianism is that character is salvation. We do
not even say that character is a condition of salvation. Character is
salvation. A man who is right, who is in perfect accord with the law
and life of God, is safe, in this world, in all worlds, in this year, in all
future time.
And, then, lastly, we believe in the eternal and universal hope. We
believe that God, just because he is God, is under the highest
conceivable obligation, not to me only, but to himself, to see to it that
every being whom he has created shall sometime, somewhere, in the
long run, find that gift of life a blessing, and not a curse.
We believe in retribution, universal, quick, unescapable; for we believe
that this is mercy, and that through this is to come salvation.
These, then, are the main principles, as I understand them, of
Unitarianism.
There is one point more now that I must touch on. When I was
considering the question of giving this series of sermons, one of my
best friends raised the question as to whether I had better put the word
Unitarian? into the title. He was afraid that it might prejudice people
who did not like the name, and keep them from listening to what I had

to say. This is a common feeling on the part of Unitarians. I was trained
as a boy, and through all my youth and early manhood in the ministry,
to look with aversion, suspicion, on Unitarianism, and to hate the name.
But to-day, after more than twenty years of experience in the Unitarian
ministry, I have come to the conviction, which I wish to suggest to you,
that it is the most magnificent name in the religious history of the world;
and I, for one, wish to hoist it as my flag, to inscribe it on my banner,
not because I care for a name, but because of that which it covers and
comprehends.
Now, not in the slightest degree in the way of prejudice against other
names or to find fault with them, let me note a few of them, and then
compare Unitarianism with them. Take the word "Anglican," for
example, the name of the Church of England. What does it mean? Of
course, you know it is simply a geographical name. It defines nothing
as to the Church's government or belief or anything else. There is the
word "Episcopal," which simply means a church that is governed by
bishops; that is all. Take the word "Presbyterian," from a Greek word
which means an elder, a church governed by its old men or its elders.
No special significance about that. Then "Baptist," signifying that the
people who wear that name believe that baptism always means
immersion, indicating no other doctrine by which that body is known,
or its method of government. "Congregational," no doctrine
significance there. It