Our Unitarian Gospel | Page 8

the secret, the centre, the hope, the
outcome of the universe? Greatest name in the religious history of man,
it coincides with that magnificent hope so grandly uttered by Tennyson,
"One God, one law, one element, And one far-off divine event, To
which the whole creation moves."
"WHAT DO YOU GIVE IN PLACE OF WHAT YOU TAKE
AWAY?"
MY theme is the answer to the question, What do you give in place of
what you take away? For my text I have chosen two significant
passages of Scripture. One is from the seventh chapter of Hebrews, the
nineteenth verse; and it sets forth, as I look at it, the drift and outcome
of the process of which we are a part, the bringing in of a better hope.

Then from the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, the thirty- ninth and
fortieth verses, expressing the relation in which we stand to those who
have looked for God and his work in the past: And these all, having
obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise; God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should
not be made perfect.
What do you give in place of that which you take away? This is a
question which is proposed to Unitarians over and over and over again.
It is looked upon as an unanswerable criticism. We are supposed to be
people who tear down, but do not build; people who take away the dear
hopes and traditional faiths of the past, and leave the world desolate,
without God, without hope.
Not only is this urged against us, from the other side, but there are a
great many Unitarians, possibly, who have not thought themselves out
with enough clearness to know the relation between the present
conditions of human thought and the past; and sometimes even they
may look back with a regretful longing towards something which they
have outgrown, and left behind.
I propose this morning to answer this question, just as simply, as
frankly, as I can; to treat it with all reverence, with all seriousness, and
try to make clear what it is that the world has lost as the result of the
advances of modern knowledge, and what, if anything, it has gained.
But while I stand here, on the threshold of my theme, and before I enter
upon its somewhat fuller discussion, I wish to urge upon you two or
three considerations.
It is assumed, by the people who ask this question, that, if we do take
away anything, we are under obligation straightway to put something in
its place. I wish you to consider carefully as to whether this position is
sound. Suppose, for example, that I should discover that some belief
that has been held in the past is not well founded, not true. Must I say
nothing about it because, possibly, I may not have discovered just what
is true?

To illustrate what I mean: Prince Alphonso of Castile used to say, as he
studied the Ptolemaic theory of the universe, that, if he had been
present at creation, he could have suggested a good many very
important improvements. In other words, he was keen enough to see
that the Ptolemaic theory of the universe was not a good working
theory. Must he keep still about that because, forsooth, he was not able
to establish another theory of the universe in its place?
Do you not see that the criticism, the testing of positions which are held,
are the primary steps in the direction of finding some larger and
grander truth, provided these positions are not adequate and do not
hold?
The Rev. Dr. George A. Gordon, of the historic Old South Church in
Boston, told us, in an address which he gave in Brooklyn the other day,
that Calvinism was dead; that it was even necessary to clear the face of
the earth of it, in order to save our faith in God. At the same time Dr.
Gordon said frankly that he had no other as complete and finished
system to put in place of it. Was he justified in telling the truth about
Calvinism because he has not a ready-made scheme to substitute for it?
I wish you to note that I do not concede for an instant that I must not
tell the truth about anything that I perceive because I have not a
ready-made theory of some kind to put in the place of that which is
taken away. It is my business to tell what seems to me true in all
reverence, seriousness, earnestness and love, and trust the
consequences to God.
In the next place, another consideration. I have been talking as though I
conceded that Unitarians, or that I myself, sometimes take away things,
beliefs.