than can be made within the limits of a newspaper article, serves but to confirm the statement of the Proposition with which this writing is headed. The whole career of Jesus indicates its correctness. It has been the source of the real life of the Church. It is the faith towards which every Christian reform moves. It dreads no science; it is in peril of no criticism. It can well claim universal empire, for its dominion would compel humanity to render God a loving service; and it would realize the millennium which has been so long the dream of inspiration.

Christianity is the Christian religion. It is not a creed of the brain, so much as a belief of the heart. It is not a thought, so much as a life. It is an enthusiasm for holiness and love; it is the spirit of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. This being trne, the hierarchies, ecclesiasticisms, and confessions of faith, which modern science has been forced to oppose, are not the effects of Christianity but of superstitious ignorance.

C. THE THIRD PROPOSITION.

Comparative Religion reveals Christianity to be the highest form of Religion, and thus commands for it the respect and allegiance of those who have the best knowledge.

In other words, a free examination of the reported words of the Founder of Christianity having formulated the definition of Christianity as the Christian Religion, a free comparison of Christianity with the other forms of Religion clothes it with the highest authority.

We know that a fair treatment of this Proposition involves an extensive examination of the results of discoveries which the opening up of the world, by international intercourse and the work of science, have brought to us. Through the one, access has been gained to the most isolated portions of the earth. Through the other, our prejudices have been so well destroyed that we are enabled to study the histories and present organizations of foreign. nations with that candor and patience, without which the nations would better have remained in their seclusion.

Almost all we can do, therefore, in this limited space, is to assert the truth of our Proposition, urging it upon our readers in a way that may stimulate them to study for themselves the confirmations of our assertion which are made with the publication of every book of foreign travel, and by each new translation of the records which embody the religious histories and aspirations of humanity.

We can now, intelligently, study the myriad incantations of Fetichism, the devotions of Polytheism, the adorations of Monotheism, and the speculations of Pantheism and Atheism. The legends of Obi-worship; the savage thoughts of the South-Sea Islanders; the rude traditions of the Americans, are embodied in printed words. We have the Sagas, the rugged sacred poems of our own ancestors; the hymns of the Hindoos and their million-worded Shastras; the Zendavesta, rays from the Golden Star of of the Orient; and the practical Classics of China. We can read the thoughts of the Egyptians and Ninevites from their pictured stones; and we have the sanctified words of Moses and the Prophets side by side with those of the Al Koran. From Buddha to Hegel, and from Confucius to Comte, we have preserved the speculations of mankind on the problems of the Infinite, the Eternal, and Life. We have, within easy accesss, almost everything in which our fellow-creatures have sought satisfaction for their spiritual nature.

In them all, we discover widely divergent intellectual conceptions of Deity and Nature; but, in them all, there is manifest one religious spirit, shown in as different degrees. of excellence as light has brightness. In them all, through the most diverse theologies, there is a recognition of the practice of obedience and worship of Deity, and of duty to be performed among His works, but so dimly in some and so uncertainly in others, that we feel they are only prophecies of some future Light of the World. This Light is revealed the moment Christianity is compared with them. This is shown to be the Sun of Righteousness. It rises above them, lifted up by its royal worth over all. It proves to be itself the source of what is good in them, the power which holds them, the impulse which bears them onward.

It is enthusiasm for holiness and love-Religion's most exalted form.

No genuine Fetichism will yield the law of might to the law of right; no real Brahminism will let go the aristocracy of caste for the democracy of universal brotherhood; no true Buddhism will accept a millennial earth for the dead Nirvana; no faithful Judaism will allow the God of Israel to be the God of Philistia. China is the Celestial Empire, no other country is; Confucianism is philanthropy, it is never love of God; Islam is submission, it is never love of God and man. But Christianity is piety towards God, and justice, equality, universal benevolence, charity among men; it is, towards God and Man, whatever holiness and love, in their most comprehensive sense, demand. It sets the mind forever free; it is not "Plato's brain." Its civilization lies in the conquests of peace; it is not " Cæsar's hand." It evolves a truer harmony for the world than "Shakespeare's strain." It is the "Lord Christ's heart." Except under the authority of holiness and love, it is perfect freedom.

The Sixteenth Century was the time of its new birth. Rome was not it, nor of it. The life of Rome, persistent in the corruptions of Protestantism, is not it; nor of it. An ecclesiastical handwriting of ordinances, and a creed purporting to be God's counsels concerning Man,-proclaiming the triune Being of God; man's apostacy from holiness to total depravity; man's salvation solely through the completion of a vindictive act on Calvary, and by the election of the Holy Ghost; and condemning to eternal torment all who will not thus believe, has no fellowship whatever with the Christ who said that "all the Law and the Prophets" hang on the two commandments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," supremely, "and thy neighbor as thyself."

The remaining assertions which I made under this "Proposition" were for the most part but repetitions of what had already been claimed. They need not be reproduced here. My belief was sincere that a comparative study of religions shows that Christianity, as I had learned of it, "is the

highest form of Religion" and "as such commands the respect and allegiance of mankind."

But, as a young man twenty five years old, and of not much more than a three years' experience in a free study of Christianity and of the other forms of Religion, evidently I was not prepared to make good my assertions through adequate illustrative comparisons.

This essay should be remembered, therefore, merely as a suggestive exhibit of some of my experiences in the winning of the personal faith which I am describing. Mature study has strengthened my youthful conviction; but" that is another story."

11.

THE WORK OF UNITARIAN CHRISTIAN CHURCH:

HOW IT SHALL BE DONE.

My Inaugural Sermon to the Waltham parish, January 2nd, 1870, elaborated the theme embodied in this heading.

Compared with the sermon I preached when I began my ministry at Depere, Wisconsin, four years before, it hardly seems possible that the two deliverances could have come from one mind and heart. There is no difference between the earnestness of religious feeling pervading both, but the intellectual principles and methods of one are almost wholly diverse from those of the other.

In order to make a graphic illustration of the purpose with which I had undertaken my ministry in this pastorate, -my first, professional engagement without a definite time limit,—I chose a highly interesting episode in the history of the Jews.

The parish thought the sermon worth publishing.

INAUGURAL SERMON AT WALTHAM

"WHEN Nebuchadnezzar invaded Judea, Jerusalem was laid waste, and the people carried to Babylon in captivity. About fifty years after, under the reign of Cyrus, the Hebrews were permitted to return to their country to try to re-establish their nationality; but it was not until Nehemiah, an officer of the court of Artaxerxes Longimanus, became their governor, that their endeavors were successful. He consecrated his energies to his people; and through him Jerusalem became again the pride of Judea. This success was achieved with great difficulty. Throughout his work, Nehemiah was resolutely opposed. When Sanballat, the Horonite, heard of his appointment, “it grieved him exceedingly that there was come a man to seek the welfare of the children of Israel." When he heard of the rebuilding walls, "he was wroth, and took great indignation and mocked the Jews." He endeavored to make war on them, but was foiled. He attempted duplicity, but Nehemiah could not be diverted from his work. Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, 'Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages of the plain of Ono!' But they thought to do me mischief, and I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down; why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you?' Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner."

As this is the first Sabbath of our union as pastor and church, I will add to our congratulations some thoughts about the purpose of this union, and the manner of its accomplishment. As a basis of what I have to say, I know of nothing better than this history of the unswerving devotion of Nehemiah to the work he undertook for the benefit of his fellow-men. To us, the successful building of our City of Peace is as important as the establishment of the old Jerusalem was to the Hebrews; and until we become like Nehemiah, all our aspirations and endeavors for the building of this city will be as fruitless of joy and as fruitful of sorrow as the strugglings of the Israelities