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CHAPTER FIFTH.

THE FAITH I HAD GAINED

As the ministry in Waltham had practically no connection with the conflict through which I passed in the winning of my Faith, there is no need to recall here much of my personal experiences during the years in which I was honored with that office.

a. Lessening of Controversial Mood.-One notable fact in that ministry, however, is of interest for these "Memories." Consequent upon a free, rational study of the Christian origins, and an increasing acquaintance with the science and philosophy of the times, my emancipation from the Creed of Calvin had been accompanied, as I have said, by a controversial mood.

With the settlement in Waltham this mood rapidly lessened. I began, moreover, to feel a return of the ardor characteristic of my Orthodox youth. This warmth of emotion soon became all pervading. Ere long I was confident that any lasting and genuine usefulness I might gain as a Unitarian minister would depend, in large measure, upon my positive attitude, as a teacher of Faith rather than of doubt; and upon seeking, for myself and the people, sincerity and fervor as professed followers of Jesus Christ. Intellectually, I was thoroughly rationalistic, critical, and radical; but religiously, I was profoundly moved by spiritual aspiration, and by "intuition" of ideals. In my reading, I remember, I found, to my great

joy, a new "friend in the spirit," who made amply good the loss I had borne in parting fellowship with "Robert Murray McCheyne," the spiritual comrade of my Orthodox youth. The new friend was "Frederick W. Robertson," a knightly saint of the English Broad Church. For many years I received unfailing inspiration from the writings of this free, brave and aspiring spirit. He seemed to me to realize the Christian "Ideal."

This restoration of the religious sensibility of the earlier years gave me a great deal of happiness. And I am sure, now, that the devotion consequent upon its revival went far to guide my Waltham ministry into the happy and measurably useful service it gradually achieved in both parish and community.

1.

Summary of my Faith.

It will be well, I think, to take the opportunity which this recollection of that restful Waltham ministry gives, to summarize the articles of the Faith I had won during the tribulations of the three preceding years. I find much of that Faith quite well presented in some articles which I published in the Christian Register, during the weeks that elapsed between my leaving Rochester and my installation at Waltham, together with some special addresses made while I was minister in Waltham. The Faith embodied in these papers and addresses may be regarded, so far as the substance of its tenets about the Christ and Christianity is concerned, and so far as its fundamental philosophic and theologic principles are involved, as the Faith that has since that time been dominant in my religious speculations and convictions.

This Faith became mine through much trying personal struggle; and it has ever been cherished as essentially the nearest approximation to spiritual, or religious, truth possible for me. All the studies and discoveries of the years since it was won have but served to show this Faith in new lights; or have specialized and amplified it; and also have disclosed for it, by its harmonious relations with many other forms of sincere faith, an approximation to universal value. It shines for me, still, as "the master light of all my seeing;" opening for me a way to the deepest apprehension of God; of Christ; and of the nature and the career of Man, that have been possible to my brain and heart.

I.

AN APOLOGY FOR CHRISTIANITY.

The articles which I wrote for the Christian Register, just before I was called to the Waltham pastorate, were entitled "An Apology for Christianity;"-the word "apology," of course, being used in its technical sense. In literary quality the articles, naturally, were quite crude.

The immediate reason for their writing was that, at the time, (1869), there were among my new friends a good many who, under the name "Radical," were disposed to give up their "Christian" confession. I was a very immature novice among them; but I believed that these "Radical" friends were not at all antagonistic to the "Christianity of Christ," but only to "Christianity" as identified with the dogmatic cult of the historic Ecclesiasticism which has borne the name of Christ.

My purpose, therefore, was to show "by a free investigation of the reported words of the Founder of Christianity, and by a free comparison of the religion of Christ

with other forms of Religion, that Christianity is worthy of the respect and allegiance of those who have the best knowledge." So soon was it that I, who had ventured all in gaining freedom from my Inherited Creed, was impelled to put myself forward as conservative of the Faith I had

won.

A. THE FIRST PROPOSITION.

No Religious Reformation has originated in a surer Radicalism than that of which Jesus Christ was the Soul and John the Baptist the Herald.

We nowhere read of more revolutionary words than those heard in "the country round about Jordan," when "the Baptist" began to proclaim the "baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," instead of the ancestral privileges of the Hebrew nation and the rites of the Temple. John set aside the most cherished traditions of the elders. He claimed to be "a voice crying in the wilderness," those wonderful words of Isaiah, ending, "and all flesh shall see the salvation of God." He met the multitudes, who came to him for baptism, with the severest questions and most rigid demands. Though a Jew, he ignored a Jew's proudest possession, his national birthright. He said, "Bring forth fruits worthy of repentance and begin rot to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham." He insisted upon the uselessness, in religion, of the honors of family or nation, for "the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire." Those who had possessions and sought his advice, he told to divide their clothing and food with the needy; the publicans, to gather their taxes with justice; the soldiers, to be merciful and contented. He dared to say boldly to Herod, whose incestuous conduct endangered the purity of the nation, "It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife." Until his death, with a heroism never surpassed, John the

Baptist proclaimed goodness of life to be the supreme human duty.

After the imprisonment of John, Jesus of Nazareth commenced the great work of which "the Baptist" had prophesied, and to which he had been baptized. His voice was the same as that of his cousin. It was the call for repentance and godliness, as necessary for every soul. Then was made the homily from the hill-side, called the * Sermon on the Mount," which we shall see was the inspiration of the whole life of Jesus. In it, rigid morality and charity were held up as the great virtues. Claiming that he did not come to destroy the law and the prophets," the preacher went on to say that for which any Pharisee would willingly have stoned him to death. He made the holy law of Moses the basis on which to put his own deeper truths. "Ye have heard that it hath been said," but I say unto you," he repeated over and over again, adding some more radical truth at each repetition; one of the vital moralities which have since given Christianity its transcendent power. He closed the discourse with the astounding declaration that though any one might call, never so vehemently, to him, "Lord! Lord!" one should not enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he should do the will of the Father in heaven.

Not one word of theology was uttered in this first sermon except recognition of God as the universal Father; not one belief offered for a "creed" except faith in holiness; not one system of rites and ordinances was proposed except that of trusting God in the heart and doing good from the heart. Throughout his life, Jesus insisted upon the practice of goodness as essential in the life of man. He sought, with an untiring diligence, to deliver the soul from every bondage of form into the liberty of spirit. Among his last words were scathing denunciations of the ecclesiastical Scribes and Pharisees, sitting in Moses's seat, and binding heavy burdens, and laying them on men's shoulders; broadening their phylacteries, enlarging the borders of their garments; putting themselves forward in the synagogues; shutting up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; compassing sea and land to make one