USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Bridgewater > Semi-centennial discourse before the First Congregational society in Bridgewater, delivered on Lord's day, 17th September, 1871 > Part 2
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The force of early education is as persistent as the force of habit; and it is with difficulty that either can be withstood or counteracted. In the case of the former, inasmuch as it originates in the mind, -that faculty which constitutes man to be man, - the results of its exercise may be of a to- tally different character, and consequently to be deprecated or commended, in proportion as it is guided by the power of truth or misguided by the
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agency of error; whereas habit, or any particular habit, has reference, originally, to the action of some one of the functions of the bodily organiza- tion, involving consequences of less moment to essential principles. In the early direction of the mind, moreover, it is to be observed there are various influences at work, such as affection, sym- pathy, union of interests, which may or may not have the sanction of coming from an exalted source; that is to say, from the Fountain of Truth. We may say, and say it emphatically, that it is of the high- est importance that authority should be especially heeded in the spring-time of the mind's culture, especially in relation to its religious growth. But as society is now constituted, in the interdepend- ence of mind upon mind, I suppose it is in vain to look for an entire freedom from extraneous mo- tives, or to expect that there will generally be un- biassed study of the primitive principles of truth, or of truth as it exists in and of itself. Still, the axiom is none the less well founded, that the stream will partake of the peculiar qualities, whatever they may be, of the source whence it springs; or, to speak without a figure, that the action of truth, so far as it is in the power of the human mind to ac- quire truth, to be possessed of positive efficacy, should be independent of all extraneous influences, save the one of paramount importance, that of the
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Holy Spirit. How essential is it that educators themselves be truthfully educated! Of what su- preme moment is it that those who would teach on the authority of Jesus Christ should know whereof they teach, in its simplicity and purity, its beauty and power!
This digression, for such it may seem, on the subtle and controlling power of education, in its earliest stages, with reference to religion, has a significant meaning in its connection with this dis- course.
Take two children of equal capacities and of open affections : let one of them be taught the Assembly's Catechism ; let him attend a Sunday school in which the creeds of the leaders of sects are made the exponents of the Word of God ; let the counsels and devotions of the pulpit and of the family, so far as they are within his comprehen- sion, attended too by the sympathies they inspire, be marked as proceeding from the same sources of assumed sacred learning; and can it for a mo- ment be doubted what will be the prejudices, or, if you please, opinions, of that child on the subject of religion in after life ? Let it be noted that the credibility of these opinions is not now within the province of our consideration. It is only the almost indissoluble adherence of them to the mind, under the circumstances which
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gave them being, with which we are at present concerned.
Take the other child, and let him never have known of such a Catechism as that of the West- minster Divines, in its larger or smaller form; let him be entirely ignorant of creeds and sects and parties, the creations of ambitious leaders and bold theorists ; let him be taught at his mother's knee, under the holy influence of a mother's love, the truths which Jesus Christ taught, in the simple language of the New Testament ; let the sermon on the mount be made, by parental care, to interest his young mind and to engage his innocent affec- tions ; let the Lord's Day come to him not as a day of unwelcome study, or of irksome restraint, but as a day of calm enjoyment, springing from family endearments and from associations of high and immortal thought connected with the hallowed time : now, I am confident that, to a mind so trained and disciplined, the opposing teachings of contending theologians, in the maturity of life, would be strangely in conflict with its established convictions of Christian truth and Christian hope. Here, again, I wish to concede that the course of thought has no reference directly to the truth of doctrines, but only to the strong power of educa- tion. It is, however, to be remarked that, in the case of the first child whose early experiences were
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noted, his opinions of what he deemed to be reve- lations of the Gospel were primarily derived from the fallible creeds of men. Whereas, in the case of the second child, his thoughts of divine truth rested primarily on the word of God, without any knowledge of confessions of faith originating in human authority.
The preceding remarks have been introduced for a specific purpose. They rest on something more solid than the exterior of rhetoric. My own ex- perience confirms them.
I was brought up by a mother, whose memory is deeply and tenderly sealed in my heart, to read the Scriptures diligently with the view of establish- ing myself on the true foundation of being. The precepts of the Great Teacher, as embodied in the entire sermon on the mount, were early committed to memory. In the ethics of the Gospel I saw a beauty that reflected the glory of their Author. With regard to the metaphysics of the schools of theology, I did not even know of their existence. The little Catechism that was put in my hands contained a simple declaration of the primitive truths of Christianity, unaccompanied by commen- tary and unburdened by proof-texts. The Father- hood of God, the Sonship of Christ, the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit or of God, the brotherhood of man, the divinity of virtue, the
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curse of vice; revelations involving promises, aids, hopes, aspirations, that concerned man both as a mortal and an immortal being, were revela- tions that met the deep wants of the soul. They needed no extraneous support. They were truths that found a ready reception in my youthful mind. All the institutions that are considered as sacred were held in reverence by me theoretically and practically. With such an education of the mind and the heart, and with a desire, associated with my earliest recollections, that God in his provi- dence would constitute me a Minister and Servant in the kingdom and service of His Son, I was matriculated a student of Harvard College. Soon after entering upon my collegiate course, a dear friend who was then studying with a view to the Christian ministry, but whose studies, in his early manhood, were brought to an end by an insidious and fatal disease, -Friend of my heart; it cannot but be that memory is a revealer of immor- tality! - this friend sent me a published sermon of Rev. Samuel Worcester, D.D., of Salem, "On the Doctrine of the Trinity." I had not before so much as heard that this doctrine held a place in the creed of the Christian Church. I read the pam- phlet with intense interest. The arguments upon which the doctrine was based appeared to me to be entirely inconsistent, one disproving another,
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and the whole at variance with my established ideas of the teachings of the Christian Scriptures. In the spirit of an inquirer after the truth, I wrote a review of the sermon, based on the authority of the New Testament, in which, to my own mind, I invalidated the theory advanced in the publication. This review was in the form of a letter to my friend, and constituted part of a correspondence that was continued until death interrupted the intercourse.
From this incident in my life, - why should I not signalize it as an event in the providence of God? - I infer, and infer with a good deal of confi- dence, that the doctrine of the Trinity is not a doc- trine of the Scriptures, but a doctrine of education, and that it is mainly, if not entirely, dependent upon the almost irresistible power of education for the prominent place it holds in the Christian world. Were it within the scope of this discourse to treat with fulness of the doctrine, I should have some- thing to say of its being a doctrine of inference, and also a doctrine of adaptation, to make it coin- cide with the theories that controversialists, in their limited wisdom, have set up.
It is apposite in this connection to remark, that the doctrine of the Trinity, I believe, is not held so strictly now as formerly; and, so far as it is received, it is held with various modifications. To
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easy minds I can imagine that, in some one of the many forms it is made to assume, it might be entertained with ready homage. I use the word " easy" in no dishonorable sense. For in the di- lemma supposed to exist, are not the questions apposite and of great comfort? Is the consumma- tion of being under God, or the soul's final victory, to depend upon an undefined position of the mind, fallible, though it be pre-eminent ? Is there any saving grace in an intellectual faith or a ceremo- nial creed ? Is there any innate morality in the hard deductions of metaphysics ? Is not the heart with its true affections, in the Divine account, of more value than the mind and its theories ? And, again, the potency of numbers and the charm of antiquity, together with the air of obscurity that surrounds the doctrine, may be sufficient, as in sev- eral cases they are known to have been sufficient,
to justify the faith of its supporters. Confirmed by my personal experience, I am satisfied that the word of God impartially examined affords no solid ground for such a faith. The undivided Unity of God appears to me to be everywhere written on its pages. And if here and there a text seems con- tradictory of this revelation, it may be made with- out violence to coincide with it by just and estab- lished laws of Biblical criticism. As it regards antiquity, the undivided and unparticipated oneness
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of the Divine Being, as a sublime reality, is fixed to no point of time within the comprehension of the finite mind. It dates back to that which had no beginning, Eternity. I may here remark, that I never was in favor of teaching any positive philosophy in relation to the " deep things of God;" that in the course of my preaching I never but once used the word " Unitarian," a word that has no significance, except in relation to the ecclesias- tical doctrine of the Trinity; that I disavowed all sectarianism; and that the only appellation, in con- nection with any communion that worshipped God and honored His Son, which met, or could meet my approbation, was the distinctive one of Christian.
Among a people enjoying the revelations that come from a Divine Source, Unitarianism, in its true meaning, giving animation to the faculties, the aspirations, the hopes of the human soul, is the dis- tinctive faith of no one class of rational and im- mortal beings doing daily and devout homage to their high and responsible privileges and oppor- tunities; privileges and opportunities baptized by the Spirit of a loving Father, in the gracious mis- sion of His beloved Son to be the Saviour of the world. Unitarianism, as I define it, in this Script- ural sense, is identical with Christianity.
By Christianity, I hardly need say, I mean that system of theology and divine philosophy, of which
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Christ, in whom God Himself vouchsafed to dwell, was the Author. I have not yet learned to merge, in the influences that are harmonizing with the de- signs delineated by a Divine Hand in the ultimate glory of the universe, that influence which rested upon and abode in Him who gave full and suffi- cient testimony that He was the Son of God, there- in holding a relation which no other being ever did or ever will hold to the Source of all temporal and of all spiritual life.
Although civilization is but a partial exponent of Christianity, yet I know not how adequately to speak of the power of Christianity in elevating and refining the condition of humanity. I believe that the Gospel in the fulness of its light and love has still brighter revelations to make, by which the world will be brought to see new avenues to pros- perity, new auxiliaries of social elevation, and in so far new sources of delight. It is one of my hap- piest thoughts in relation to Christianity, that it is not bound, that it is not made, and will not be made, to shut itself in by fragile creeds of to-day or of any day, but that it is to manifest its wisdom and its power with continually increasing beauty and strength from age to age.
Science and Christianity harmonize each with the other. It cannot but be that they should do so, inasmuch as they originate in the same Divine
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Source. But I apprehend that science affects more immediately the outward relations of life, while Christianity affects rather those that are inward and spiritual. Social organization is acted upon by science. Civilization, involving the finer proper- ties of social organization, is acted upon by Chris- tianity.
The achievements of science in various directions, within the last half century, have given additional proofs of the versatility and comprehensive grasp of the human mind. All the interests of life, com- mercial and industrial, educational and domestic, have been ameliorated and enlarged, by the dis- covery and subjection to skilful control of some of the hidden forces in the realm of Nature. The solar rays, in combination with chemical agencies, are made the means of producing pictures that satisfy the love of the grand and beautiful in Nature and Art, and the higher claims of a refined love springing from the heart. The traveller from a cherished home may now carry with him portraits of those who, in their absence, will live intensely in his affections, and on returning may bring with him graphic memorials of beautiful scenes, or of the works of celebrated masters in architecture, painting, and sculpture. Electricity has given wings, on which, in calm and in storm, are borne from land to land, and from continent to continent,
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over mountains and under waves, thoughts affect- ing the interests of the civil, social, literary, and religious economies, indeed whatever appertains to the government of life. The power of steam in the direction and adaptation of material industries, and in the facilities of social intercourse which it affords, has been discovered and made subject to the laws of scientific mechanism, within the period of time now in review. The discovery of the an- æsthetic properties of ether, by which the surgeon's office is greatly assisted, and the patient's comfort essentially promoted, will not only form a promi- nent event in the history of recent years, but will frequently occasion the outpouring of devout grati- tude to the beneficent Giver of all good for such a transcendent blessing. Men of science, until a recent period, in their studies, have regarded the forces in the material world, - such as light, heat, electricity, cohesion, gravitation, - as unrelated to, and independent of one another. The opinion is now tending to unanimity, that there is but one force in the mechanism of the external world. This would seem to be in accordance with the harmony of de- sign, which is everywhere apparent to the critical scholar. It affords, too, a new and interesting proof of the Unity of the Divine Being and government.
It is impossible but that the activities resulting from such liberal and enlightened sources as those
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just enumerated should tend to enlarge the public mind and to expand the public heart. And, ac- cordingly, it is with great pleasure that I testify that asperities which entered largely into social life, in generations not long antecedent to this, have given place to amenities more becoming beings alike dependent and alike provided for.
Calvinism is not preached now as it was fifty years ago. It has almost ceased to be a word of party distinction. It is a system admirably held together by bonds of metaphysical invention. The premises that it lays down give support to its con- clusions, or, rather, its conclusions coincide with its premises according to the laws of logical de- duction. But it has been found that its premises are at variance with the teachings of Nature and of revelation. Truth, having its origin in God, and not in the mind of a fallible reformer, has set the system aside as derogatory to the most sacred phil- osophy. The sons of fathers who were, in their day, the sturdy advocates of the doctrine inculcated by the Genevan teacher, would hardly now be con- sidered as the representatives of their progenitors in the same school of theological culture. And a similar transformation, it must be confessed, is witnessed in minds disinthralled by creeds, and earnest for the earliest revelation.
I have learned, in my somewhat protracted study
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of life, to place little confidence in the efficacy of creeds and forms of worship in bringing man to a true knowledge of himself, and of his relation to his Maker. Means are valuable as means, but they can never be substituted for the end which they were intended to subserve. The soul must re- ceive a baptism which owes its essence to some- thing that partakes not of humanity. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;" not temporal liberty alone, but, in a large and triumphant sense, spiritual liberty, " the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free."
All denominations have had representative men and representative women to do honor to their respective communions, men and women who have illustrated the principles of Christianity in the spirit of an enlightened liberality. And the sooner, I believe, the shibboleths of party are made to yield to the doctrines of the Great Teacher, who spake as the Spirit of God gave Him utterance, the sooner will the regeneration of the world be consummated, and the kingdom of truth, peace, and love be established.
Experience and observation are sometimes the sources of valuable thoughts and of useful counsels. Wisdom, it may be, is slow in adding to what it has already accumulated; but it is in the power of every enlightened mind, if not to increase, at least
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to attest its wealth. Care, however, should be had that to the contributions of learning, and of its im- mediate results, the seal of truth should be affixed. I would not seem to impugn the purity or sincerity of mental effort or of mental acquirement. I would not be thought to question the soundness of motive in maintaining independence of opinion in opposi- tion to the general sentiment. But it is possible, I suppose, that some incentive in the interests of selfishness or of ambition, or, perchance, of some far- off truth, may tempt or prompt to the promulgation of doctrines, seemingly at least, in discordance with the results of philosophical inquiry. There is no path of life, whether humble or exalted, that is en- tirely free from the temptations that are meant to test the excellence of virtue. And in no path of life should there be greater freedom from unworthy motives than in that which is pursued or supposed to be pursued in the love of truth and goodness, of humanity and of God.
One thought which has never left me, and which increase of years has tended to confirm, is the nec- essity of co-operation ; not in word only, but in deed ; not apparently, but really, on the part of those who have in hand, and who, it is to be pre- sumed, have at heart, the consummation of the world's happiness,- the establishment of the king- dom of Christ on earth. Individualism is selfish-
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ness. God did not intend that we should live an isolated life, insensible to others' wants, unmoved by others' woes. He has endowed us with powers and affections which ally us to the suffering and unfortunate, and also to the good and noble. The State shows itself to be actuated by the highest Christian principles in endowing hospitals for the deaf and dumb, the blind, the insane, the idiotic, and caring with an open hand and generous heart for those who cannot care for themselves. In this re- gard it imitates the benignity and universality of Providence. Christ himself went about doing good. If we would be His followers, we must make Him, so far as we can, our Guide. If we would be His disciples, we must learn of Him as our Teacher. The spirit of love was pre-eminently in Him: it should be predominant in us. The Apostle Paul gave an illustration of the full mean- ing of Christianity in the precept, "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ."
The miracles that Jesus wrought involved bene- fits and blessings to the indigent and wretched. They never had reference to His own preferment, or to any ostentatious end. We who are disciples of Christ and votaries of His cause have something to do. The whole is not already done for us. We must take up the cross each for himself, each for herself, and not wait to have it taken up for us.
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Vicarious suffering is an obsolete doctrine of a by- gone generation of ecclesiastical sectarians. It is well, for the honor of God, for the honor of Christ, for the honor of humanity, that personal piety and benevolent activity are recognized as the constit- uent principles of the Christian religion. Let them be personally and heartily recognized. They are the guarantees, the sure guarantees, of happiness, of true happiness in this and in every world. Heaven, to be heaven at all, must be begun on earth. The facilities for Christian education, and the opportunities of Christian improvement, enlarge and expand from age to age and from generation to generation. The advantages of culture of all kinds are superior now to what they were a cen- tury or a half century ago. And the truth of the same observation will be confirmed by a compari- son with still earlier periods. In the progress of years it is applicable from one age to another. The sons of farmers have greater facilities than their fathers for the pursuits of agriculture. All classes of people have more and better facilities for indus- try and thrift than their predecessors had ; the mechanic at his anvil or his bench, the merchant in his counting-room, the teacher in his lecture- room. So ministers of the present day should do better and accomplish more because of their better means and greater advantages. The same law,
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both in its meaning and application, applies as well to the people or charge of ministers. Account- ableness will always be in proportion to advantages. And improvement will always be in proportion to the eagerness with which advantages are made availing.
The law of development, everywhere in motion, is continually demanding a higher grade of power for immediate and successful action.
I have no distrust with regard to the future of Christianity. That there will be some changes in its ministrations, it is very probable. I suppose, and the supposition is founded on an ardent hope, that intelligent and pure-minded laymen will speak eloquently and earnestly in defence and in honor of the Son of God. The earnest voice and the warm heart, trained and disciplined by study and prayer, and not written sermons, I apprehend, will be the practical sources of religious instruction. The manifestations of Christianity will be more in the life inspired by benevolence, and less through ap- pointed means ; or, rather, means will be regarded more as instruments and less as ends. At all events, I have a firm belief that the law of progress will have full scope, and that the all holy and lov- ing Father will be glorified by greater and nobler deeds and higher aspirations of his children. The prayer, " Thy kingdom come," will have a pro-
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founder meaning in saintly minds, and a deeper place in saintly hearts. It will be gradually ful- filled.
Were I to entertain a doubt of the consumma- tion of the will of God in the emancipation of man from sin, and in his elevation to absolute freedom ; in other words, were I to doubt of the coming of the kingdom of Christ, I should mistrust the benev- olence of God. I see everywhere in Nature evi- dences and tokens of infinite goodness and of infi- nite love. I see not only beneficent means adapted to beneficent ends, but those ends accomplished. I see in the moral world beautiful examples of self- dedication and self-sacrifice that must have received a baptism from the Spirit of God. The teachings of Nature, the teachings of a pure life, all in accord- ance with the teachings of Christ, tell me that there is a Divine Being who is all in all that is true and beautiful and good, and that the emanation is as eternal as the Source whence it emanates. Are you troubled about the meaning of Christianity ? The simplicity of its meaning is an evidence of its divinity. Christianity means a true life. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." " Christ, our Life," is the emphatic declaration of St. Paul. There is no discrepancy between a true life and
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