Our Unitarian Gospel | Page 7

simply means a church whose power is lodged in
the congregation. It is democratic in its methods of government.
"Methodist,", applied to the members of a particular church because
they were considered over-exact or methodical in their ways. There is
no governmental significance there. The name Catholic? or Universal?
is chiefly significant from the fact that the claim implied by it is not
true. Now let us look for a moment at the word Unitarian, and see
whether it has a right to be placed not only on a level with these, but
infinitely above and beyond them in the richness, in the wonder of its
meaning. Let me lead you to a consideration of it. I want you to note
that unity? is the one word of more significance than any other in the
history of man; and that it is growing in its depth, its
comprehensiveness. What have we discovered? We have discovered in
this modern world, only a few years ago, that this which we see, the

earth, the stars, and all the wonders of the heavens, is one, a universe.
Not only that. We have discovered the unity of force. There are not, as
primitive man supposed, a thousand different powers in the universe,
antagonistic and fighting with each other. We have learned to know
that there is just one force in the universe. That light, heat, electricity,
magnetism, all these marvellous and diverse varieties of forces, are one
force, and can be at the will and skill of man converted into each other.
Next, we have learned that there is one law in the universe. Should we
not be Unitarians? Should we not believe in the unity of God, when we
can see, as far as the telescope can reach on the one hand and the
microscope on the other, one eternal, changeless Order?
Another point. We have learned the unity of substance. We know how
Comte, the famous French scientist, advised his followers not to
attempt to find out anything about the fixed stars, because, he said,
such knowledge was forever beyond the reach of man. How long had
Comte been dead before we discovered the spectroscope? And now we
know all about the fixed stars. We know that the stuff we step on in the
street this morning as we go home from church is the same stuff of
which the sun is made, the same stuff as that which flamed a few years
ago as a comet, the same stuff as that which shines in Sirius, in suns so
many miles away that it takes millions of years for their light to reach
us. One stuff, one substance, throughout the universe; and this poor old,
tear-wet earth of ours is a planet shining in the heavens as much as any
of them, of the same glorious material of which they are made.
Then, again, we have discovered the unity of life. From the little tiny
globule of protoplasm up to the brain of Shakspere, one life throbbing
and thrilling with the same divinity which is at the heart of the world.
We have discovered not only the unity of life, we have discovered the
unity of man. Not a hundred different origins, different kinds of
creatures, different-natured beings, but one blood to dwell in every
country on the face of the earth: the unity of man.
We have discovered the unity of ethics, of righteousness, of right and
wrong, one right, one wrong. A million applications, but one goal

towards which all those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are
striving.
One religion: for underneath all the diversity of creeds and religions,
barbaric, semi-civilized, civilized, enlightened, we find man, the one
child of God, hunting for the clearest light he can command, after the
one Father, that is, the one eternal, universal search of the religious life
of the race.
Religion then one; one unifying purpose; every step that the world
takes in its progress leading it towards liberty, towards light, towards
truth, towards righteousness, towards peace. One goal, then, for the
progress of man.
And, then, one destiny. Some day, every soul, no matter how belated,
shall arrive; some day, somewhere, every soul, however sin stained,
shall arrive; every soul, however small, however distorted, however
hindered, shall arrive. One destiny. Not that we are to be just alike;
only that some time we are to unfold all that is possible in us, and stand,
full statured, perfect, complete, in the presence of our Father.
Do I not well, then, to say that Unity, Unitarianism, is a magnificent
name, a name to be flung out to the breeze as our banner under which
we will fight for God and man; a name beside which all others pale into
insignificance; a name that sums up