PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
 ^^^/^ 
 
 a 
 
 BX 9941 .W7 1903 
 
 The Winchester centennial, 
 1803-1903 
 
THE 
 
 WINCHESTER CENTENNIAL 
 
 1903. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2009 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/winchestercentenOObost 
 
REV. HOSEA BALLOU. 
 
THE 
 
 WINCHESTER CENTENNIAL 
 
 1803—1903 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCH 
 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSALIST PROFESSION OF BELIEF 
 
 Adopted at Winchester, N. H., September 22, 1803, 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 ADDRESSES AND SERMONS 
 
 Commemorative Services held in Winchester, Rome City, Ind., and 
 Washington, D. C, September and October, 1903. 
 
 BOSTON AND CHICAGO 
 
 UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 1903 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 UNIVERSALIST PUBLISHING HOUSE 
 
 A. D. 1903 
 
TO 
 
 HON. NEWTON TALBOT 
 
 THE 
 
 VENERABLE TREASURER OF TUFTS COLLEGE 
 
 AND THE 
 
 FRIEND AND PARISHIONER OF" 
 
 HOSEA BALLOU 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED WITH 
 
 CORDIAL ESTEEM 
 
 AND 
 
 FRATERNAL REGARD 
 
WINCHESTER CHURCH. ]SO;i 
 
 WINCHESTER CHURCH, 190.1 
 
profession ot JBeltet 
 
 Adopted in 1803 
 
 We believe that 
 the Holy Scrip- 
 tures of the Old 
 and New Testa- 
 ments contain a 
 revelation of the character of God and of the 
 duty, interest and final destination of mankind. 
 2. — We believe that there is one God, whose 
 nature is love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, 
 by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally 
 restore the whole 
 family of man- 
 kind to holiness 
 and happiness. 
 - 3. — We believe 
 that holiness and 
 true happiness 
 are inseparably 
 connected, and 
 that believers 
 ought to be careful to 
 maintain order and practice 
 good works; for these things 
 are good and profitable unto men. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 
 I. The Winchester Profession and the Men who 
 
 Framed it... 3 
 
 Rev. J. S. Cantwell, D. D., Chicago. 
 
 II. The New Test ofXjur Faith 43 
 
 Rev. J. Coleman Adams, D. D., Hartford, Conn. 
 
 III. Reviewing Magisterial Ground 60 
 
 Rev. S. HyM'Collester, D. D., Marlboro, N. H. 
 
 IV. Universalism in the Layman's Life 87 
 
 Hon. H. W. Parker, Claremont, N. H. 
 
 V. History of the Winchester' Church 103 
 
 Miss J. Grace Alexander. 
 
 VI. Before and Afte»''Winchester 113 
 
 Rev. J. A. S toner. New Madison, Ohio. 
 
 VII. The Winchester of Today. ..y. 129 
 
 Rev. Clarence J. Harris. 
 
 VIII. The Old and thjKNew 133 
 
 Rev. F. A. Bisbec, D. D., Boston, Mass. 
 
 IX. Exposition of Ui^iversalism 143 
 
 Rev. J. M. Pullman, D.D., Lynn, Mass. 
 
 X. The Spiritual Side of JJJ^iversalism 151 
 
 Rev. I. M. ^twood, D. D. 
 
 XL The Story of God's Love 160 
 
 Rev. W. C. Sellcck, D. D., Providence, R. I. 
 
 XII. The Genius of Universalism 164 
 
 Rev. C. E. ^ash, S. T. D., Galesburg, III. 
 
 XIII. The Washington Commemoration 178 
 
 XIV. Letters and Recollections 189 
 
 Appendix 200 
 
 IX 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This volume, embracing the several commemorations of the 
 one hundredth anniversary of the Winchester Profession, while 
 largely occupied with the history of an event which took place 
 a century ago, is itself a contribution to the future history of 
 the Universalist Church. It is prepared not only for this genera- 
 tion of Universalists, who, it is believed, will find instruction in 
 its pages, but also for those in future years who may desire to 
 know something of the temper and spirit of the spiritual de- 
 scendants of the Winchester Fathers after one hundred years of 
 the Profession adopted in 1803. 
 
 These men are not to be numbered among "the Fathers who 
 lived among the falling and fallen leaves of the old world." 
 They were rather the seers and prophets of the New Time, who 
 handed down the torch of truth to enlighten and bless succeed- 
 ing generations. While they are given due honor in the following 
 pages, it will be seen that the new duties and responsibilities of tTie 
 Universalist Church are recognized as vital in the principles of 
 the Winchester faith. We can best honor the Fathers by carry- 
 ing on their work. 
 
 "How changed by all the passing years" is the Universalist 
 denomination now from what it was in the time when the Win- 
 chester Profession was adopted! But the change is particularly 
 marvelous in the direction emphasized in these anniversary dis- 
 courses, namely, the broadening out of the great hope as to 
 destiny and the enlarged spirit of charity that now prevails in all 
 Christian denominations, the full flower of the religious freedom 
 that has come during the century, of which the Winchester Pro- 
 fession was an early expression. The glances at the past and the 
 outlook on the future embodied in this volume must prove a 
 study that will give new confidence to every endeavor that is 
 made in behalf of the church that has been so largely instru- 
 mental in bringing these things to pass. In this belief it is sent 
 forth on its mission, with the prayer that it may be found worthy 
 of the blessing of God and do some good in the name of Jesus 
 Christ the Lord. 
 
 Chicago, November 30, 1903. 
 
CmtmniaE ^'bhnBMS. 
 
SPEAKERS AT THE CENTENNIAL— I. 
 
 JOHN S. CANTWELL. 
 
 SULLIVAN H. m'cOLLESTER. FREDERICK A. BISBEE. 
 
 JAMES M. PULLMAN. 
 
The Winchester Profession and the 
 Men Who Framed It.' 
 
 J. S. CANTWELL, D. D. 
 
 Great events in life or history are like mountains. 
 They need distance for their perspective. Near to them, 
 or on their own levels, we do not see them aright; away 
 from them we see how they emerge from their surround- 
 ings and tower above them, filling the mind with a proper 
 sense of their magnitude. They are thus seen in their 
 true relations and we arrive at an understanding of their 
 significance to the cause or movement of which they form 
 a part. 
 
 One of the great events which stand out as mountain 
 peaks in Universalist history is that whose centennial 
 we observe this day, and which has also engaged the at- 
 tention of our church throughout the country during the 
 last month with excellent results. It has recalled and will 
 securely fasten in the memory of this generation of Uni- 
 versalists the most important event in our denominational 
 annals after the landing of John Murray on these West- 
 ern shores. 
 
 One hundred years have fled since that September day 
 of 1803 — day never to be forgotten, whose sun will never 
 
 ^Delivered at the Centennial of the Adoption of the Profession of 
 Belief, Winchester, N. H., October i, 1903. Given also, in part, at the 
 Rome City (Ind.) Assembly, September 2, and at the commemorative 
 service of the General Convention, Washington, D. C, October 27. 
 
 (8) 
 
4 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 set in our liistory — when the Articles of Faith of the Uni- 
 versalists of this country were born in this ancient town, 
 whose name has been associated with them during the 
 century. We are now brought together to survey them 
 under the perspective of the century and to honor the men 
 who framed and adopted them, and are assembled for that 
 purpose in the old meeting-house where they first saw the 
 light. Surely it is an occasion of memorable and touch- 
 ing interest and one well worthy of the gathering of this 
 day. We have come from homes and churches near by 
 and distant, as on a pious pilgrimage to an ancient shrine, 
 to view the historic spot endeared by the memories of the 
 hundred years, and, we trust, to find a new inspiration 
 for the work handed down by the fathers to their descend- 
 ants of a third generation. 
 
 Winchester! "Little town of Winchester," great 
 has been thy privilege to have been the Bethlehem of the 
 immortal document whose century we celebrate. Thou art 
 nowise least among the princes of Judah, for out of 
 thee came forth that which we honor today. With the 
 Universalist Profession of Belief thy name and history 
 will be forever connected. Thy walls have been salvation 
 and thy gates praise for three generations of our people. 
 Venerable walls ! ye have witnessed to a great event in 
 this old house. Would that ye could speak and tell us 
 more of the men we honor, who were once living and 
 acting here, but now have been long resting in their quiet 
 graves amid these surrounding hills and by the resounding 
 sea with its eternal note of sadness. 
 
 "The Knights are dust, 
 Their swords are rust, 
 Their souls are with our God, we trust." 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 5 
 
 We honor the men of 1803 because "that which may 
 be known of God was manifest in them ; for God shewed it 
 unto them/' (Romans 1:19.) They were among the 
 sturdy defenders and pioneers of religious freedom in this 
 land, and bearers of a message that inspired their noblest 
 energies and made them heroes of the faith. As Bradford, 
 the Puritan leader of 1640, expressed himself in "sweet 
 simplicity" as to his fellow religionists, so may we say 
 of the men of 1803 : "They had a great hope and inward 
 zeal of laying some good foundation, or at least to make 
 some way thereunto for the propagating and advancing 
 the gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in these parts, though 
 they should be but as stepping stones unto others for per- 
 forming so great a work." If we failed to honor these 
 early defenders of Universalism we would render our- 
 selves liable to the reproach implied by Macaulay, when 
 he remarked that "any people who are indifferent to the 
 noble achievements of remote ancestors are not likely to 
 achieve an5^thing worthy to be remembered by their de- 
 scendants." 
 
 Let us now pass rapidly in review the times in which 
 our articles were formulated and the period which pre- 
 ceded that action. 
 
 John Murray arrived in this country as the uncon- 
 scious messenger of Glad Tidings, on one of the last days 
 of September, 1770. His first sermon in America was 
 delivered in the Potter Meeting-house in the woods of New 
 Jersey, the earliest shrine of Universalist worship, on Sun- 
 day, September 30, of that year. Thirty-three years after 
 the advent of Murray, in the same month, September 22, 
 1803, the Winchester Profession was adopted. Those who 
 
6 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 are fond of tracing coincidences and finding mystic signifi- 
 cance in certain parallel dates, will count it somewhat re- 
 markable that this event took place exactly the years of 
 a generation after John Murray's landing in New Jersey, 
 
 The progress of the Universalist cause in the years 
 from the advent of Murray to the Winchester Convention 
 was in numbers far from encouraging. At the beginning 
 of the nineteenth century our historians agree that there 
 were only twenty-five or thirty preachers of our faith in 
 all the land, and these mainly in New England, but the 
 leavening power of the truth and the animating spirit of 
 the new faith were entering upon a significant sphere of 
 infiuence. 
 
 There were indications all around of a new upspring- 
 ing of the greater faith in the hearts of men. As when, 
 in the early spring time, we find the new and more balmy 
 atmosphere bringing healing in its wings, and detect the 
 preparations of nature for the coming season in the signs 
 of awakened life everywhere around, the earth giving forth 
 its pleasant odors and making ready for the quickening 
 of the seed soon to be cast into her bosom, the grass be- 
 coming green once more and the trees tremulous with new 
 life, with the buds swelling almost ready to burst into leaf 
 and flower amid the sunshine of the spring days, so it 
 was in this period. There was an awakening abroad and 
 many souls were ready to receive the new teachings of 
 God and destiny when once given voice in the words of 
 men's enlarged faith and hope. The handful of corn 
 on the top of the mountains was destined to grow and 
 shake as Lebanon. 
 
 New England was then under the despotic sway of the 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 7 
 
 Calvinistic theology, but beams of light were beginning 
 to shoot athwart the theological heavens, prefiguring sun- 
 rise and the coming of a new day. The reaction which set 
 in during the next generation after the revival of 1740, 
 styled "the Great Awakening," under the elder Edwards 
 and George Whitefield, is described as marking the clos- 
 ing years of the eighteenth century as "the lowest low 
 water mark of the lowest ebb-tide of spiritual life in this 
 century."^ "Calvinism," remarks Professor Diman, 
 "throughout all its camps lay entrenched in the outworks 
 of the understanding, but to souls sated with theological 
 formulas, Methodism, with its direct intuitions of divine 
 truth, came like springs of water in a dry and thirsty 
 land." Say what we may, as TJniversalists, of the doctrines 
 of Methodism, it was a large advance over Calvinism 
 and a positive preparation for a nobler faith. 
 
 But this great change was not to take place for many 
 years. Even at the beginning of the nineteenth century 
 Calvinism was the dominant faith among the Presbyterians 
 and the more numerous body of the Congregationalists 
 and also among the Baptists, then struggling with their 
 own problems, "and God," says Thomas Whittemore, 
 "seems to have raised up the TJniversalists to make the 
 first inroads upon it." The Westminster Confession and 
 the Saybrook platform, were the creeds of the period. 
 Great multitudes of the people "lived and worked and 
 suffered and died, with few exceptions, in an awful sense 
 of flying time, brief probation, a certain hell and a very 
 uncertain Heaven." 
 
 Even in the latter part of the previous century we 
 
 ^Leonard Woolsey Bacon, "History of American Christianity." 
 
8 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 find extreme Calvinistic opinions puslied to tlieir "most 
 appalling conclusions with unflinching fearlessness" and 
 a certain New England teacher noting in his diary: 
 "Enjo3'ed some hours of comfortable m.editation on the 
 infinite mercy of God in damning little babes." It is 
 also interesting to recall that in 1803 New England was 
 only removed by some thirty or forty years from the time 
 when Michael Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom" was used 
 as a text-book in the schools^ and children initiated into 
 the mystery of the divine mercy as set forth in the dam- 
 nation of "all who died in infancy," as a direct conse- 
 quence of "old Adam's fall." Wigglesworth, however, was 
 kind enough to make it as comfortable as possible for 
 these unregenerate babies and makes the divine judge say 
 to the condemned children: 
 
 "A crime it is; therefore in bliss 
 You may not hope to dwell "• 
 
 But unto you I shall allow 
 The easiest room in hell." 
 
 But the better day was rapidly advancing. 1800 was 
 the turning point and the new century was breaking into 
 light. In the meantime as Murray receded in the dis- 
 tance the star of Ballou was to rise ia the heavens, the 
 Morning Star of a reformation more hopeful for human- 
 ity than that of which John Wicklif was the forerunner. 
 Ballou was the Ajax to snatch the lightning from Calvin- 
 ism and render it potentially harmless for the incoming 
 fifty years of the new century. 
 
 If we could now roll back the curtain of one hun- 
 dred years and place ourselves at the period we are de- 
 
 iThe Quarterly Review, Vol. LXIIIV, p. 194. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 9 
 
 scribing, what should we see and hear on that memorable 
 Thursday, September 22, 1803, in the old hill town of 
 Winchester ? 
 
 We would witness the gathering of the believers in 
 universal love on the second day of the Convention of 
 the Kew England states. Eighteen or twenty ministers 
 and twenty-two laymen as "messengers," or delegates, rep- 
 resenting thirty-eight societies, made up the assembly. 
 It was a little band, but mighty in faith and purpose. 
 They came from various parts of New England, while 
 Pennsylvania and New York were represented by two 
 visitors, the New York visitor, then in his beautiful and 
 consecrated youth, to become in subsequent years, our be- 
 loved Father in Israel, Nathaniel Stacy. Winchester 
 must have been a favorite place for the annual meetings 
 of the Convention as it met in the town five times in the 
 first thirty-three years of its history, namely, 1796, 1803, 
 1813, 1816 and 1829. 
 
 Eev. Zebulon Streeter, of New Hampshire, one of 
 our early saints, a preacher since 1791, and already a pa- 
 triarch in the denomination, was the presiding elder, or 
 moderator, and Eev. Edward Turner and Rev. Noah Mur- 
 ray were the clerks. Edward Turner was then at the 
 zenith of his remarkable career. He was quite prominent 
 until 1811 and is described by Dr. Hosea Ballou, 2d, as 
 "for a long period one of the most distinguished ornaments 
 of our ministry," and by the late Dr. E. G. Brooks as 
 the ''Jonathan to the elder Ballou's David in our forming 
 church." It is one of Turner's several distinctions in con- 
 nection with our denomination that he served on our 
 earliest committee to consider a denominational school. 
 
10 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 He faded almost out of recollection after the Eestorationist 
 controversy. 
 
 Noah Murray was a convert from the Baptists, an 
 old preacher who figured subsequently in the Convention 
 by amusing, if not conclusive, remarks against the adoption 
 of the creed. 
 
 We have no basis for comparison, but the Winches- 
 ter Convention must have been more than an average one 
 as to numbers and ability. Undoubtedly a special interest 
 was felt in the possible action touching the proposed Pro- 
 fession of Belief. We can well imagine how deeply inter- 
 ested the brethren were in regard to this, and with what 
 anxiety they awaited the report of the committee appointed 
 the previous year, who were charged with the duty of sub- 
 mitting it as part of a plan of association. This com- 
 mittee consisted of Zebulon Streeter, George Eichards, 
 Hosea Ballou, Walter Ferriss and Zephaniah Lathe, and 
 on the second day of the session they submitted their 
 work for the approval of the Convention. The record 
 states that the report was adopted after having been "de- 
 liberately read, naturally considered and seriously inves- 
 tigated." One account says that the articles were adopted 
 "unanimously," but another records the votes of Noah 
 Murray and Solomon Glover against adoption, and it is 
 understood that Eev. Edward Turner aJso opposed them. 
 
 It would be of surpassing interest if we had the 
 complete record of that day's proceedings, with the re- 
 port of the debate, which Stacy says v/as "probably the 
 longest and warmest that had ever been known in that 
 deliberative body." How interesting it would be to have 
 Hosea Ballou's argument in advocating the report, with 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 11 
 
 the remarks of George Eichards, the poet-preacher of 
 Portsmouth, and those of the distinguished Edward Tur- 
 ner, afterward a conspicuous leader in the Eestorationist 
 controversy; of the fair minded Streeter, and those of 
 Walter Ferriss, who presented the creed, with what was 
 said by the other ministers of Vermont and New Hamp- 
 shire, so vitally interested in the subject of the debate. 
 But we look in vain for any of these precious bits of 
 information in the absolutely colorless official record. We 
 can only infer the drift of the discussion from Noah Mur- 
 ray's speech as handed doM^n to us as late as 1850, and 
 from other recollections of Nathaniel Stacy in his inter- 
 esting and valuable autobiography published in that year. 
 Noah Murray's remarks have been often quoted and 
 are well known. He likened the Profession of Belief to a 
 calf, harmless as a calf when its horns have not made 
 their appearance. "But," he said, "it will soon grow older, 
 its horns will grow likewise and then it will begin to 
 hook."^ The metaphor thus employed recalls a strikingly 
 similar remark made in the seventeenth century as record- 
 ed by Dean Stanley, when the saintly Archbishop Leighton 
 was asked what he thought of the "Beast" mentioned in 
 the Revelations. "If I were to fancy what it meant," 
 was the reply, "it would be something with a pair of horns 
 that pusheth his neighbors as both have so much practiced 
 of late in church and state." But Noah Murray was well 
 answered by the witty and ready Zephaniah Lathe : "Al] 
 that Brother Murray has offered would be correct," he 
 replied, "had he not made a mistake in the animal. It 
 is not a calf; it is a dove; and whoever heard of a dove 
 
 ^Stacy's Autobiography. 
 
12 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 having horns at any age." Bating the fact that the dove 
 is not happily designated as an "animal," this was a neat 
 and effective reply. It shows that humor cropped out at 
 least once in this serious assembly. Two slight verbal 
 changes only were made in the proposed creed. 
 
 It is remarkable also that no hint is given as to any 
 existing controversy of the period, religious or political, 
 cropping out in the debate. The discussion among the 
 orthodox of that time as to the "Halfway Covenant," as it 
 was called, attracted as much attention then as the re- 
 vision of the Westminster Confession in our day, and 
 divided great bodies into hostile camps; the Arminian 
 controversy was already on, Methodism had to be reckoned 
 with, and the high Calvinists were on the rampage. 
 Thomas Jefferson was President of the United States and 
 1803 was the year of the Louisiana Purchase, which in 
 the fine phrase of James Parton, gave "imperial magni- 
 tude and completeness to this country." It was a time 
 of high politics and the Federalists were bitter and un- 
 relenting. But not a glimpse of any element of contem- 
 poraneous interest appears. The events in the outside 
 world of Europe and America in that memorable year have 
 left no trace in the proceedings. It might be said of the 
 framers of our creed what Carlyle so well says of 
 his father, that "the things they had nothing to do with 
 they did nothing with," and they went on with their work. 
 
 Eliminating at once from their thought the metaphys- 
 ical conceptions of the old creeds, they set forth in the 
 three articles a doctrinal expression of the faith which has 
 stood the test of the century. 
 
 Their work was a providential one in our history, then. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 13 
 
 but dimly conceived, even while nobly expressed. It re- 
 sulted in establishing a sound foundation for the edifice 
 of American Universalism to be reared in coming years. 
 They undoubtedly builded wiser than they knew, but they 
 built in faith that God would raise up seed to those of 
 the Abrahamic faith and would not allow his truth to 
 suffer for a witness in all time to come. 
 
 It may also be noted in this connection that the men 
 who had the most to do with framing the Profession, and 
 who were the principal actors in the scene at Winchester, 
 while age now hallows their memory, were then young men. 
 Zebulon Streeter and Noah Murray were in venerable 
 years, but the three prominent members of the original 
 committee had not reached middle life. Edward Turner 
 was then in his twenty-eighth year; Hosea Ballou was 
 thirty-two; and Walter Ferriss thirty-five. Zephaniah 
 Lathe was probably on the sunny side of fifty. John Mur- 
 ray was living, but was not present in 1803, and had 
 nothing to do with the Profession and probably did not 
 like it. It is passing strange that we have no record of 
 any suggestion from Hosea Ballou as to the makeup of 
 the creed, either at the time or afterward. The only ref- 
 erence to it in any way, that we can find, occurs in his 
 speech at the Cambridgeport meeting of the Boston As- 
 sociation in 1847, during our first Kationalistic controversy, 
 when he was in his seventy-sixth year, and said in the 
 course of debate that "the Profession was framed and de- 
 signed for the purpose of distinguishing Universalists from 
 all other Christian denominations, and this," he added, 
 "it effectually does." Why this silence of Ballou? No 
 explanation has been thus far found. 
 
14 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 We all know that it is not uncommon to find a great 
 movement in religion or in politics beginning blindly, 
 and only gradually awakening to its highest meaning as 
 the recognized expression of a great idea. It was not 
 this way with the movement which found expression in 
 the Winchester Articles. They were born, full orbed, in 
 their own resplendent truth. The fathers did not begin 
 at random; they knew what they believed and also how 
 to express that belief and in the century which has been 
 opened for their investigation no advance has been made 
 in the clearer expression or more logical order of the sev- 
 eral statements they set forth. It was a broad and cath- 
 olic declaration, worthy of any century or any church, 
 and has not thus far been excelled or even approximated 
 as a confession of personal or institutional belief. 
 
 We stand now on the threshold of the new century of 
 this Profession when we can survey its history amid all 
 the emergencies of our denominational existence for the 
 hundred years. It has stood the test of time as one of 
 the shrines of the dawning speech and thought in Ameri- 
 can Universalism, No association, conference or any as- 
 sembly of Universalists ; no State or General Convention 
 and but a single church in recent years has dissented from 
 its statement of doctrine or impeached its general prin- 
 ciples. On the contrary, time and again, its principles 
 have been reaffirmed and its several statements recognized 
 as our accepted creed. The Profession anchored us in the 
 beginning and the anchor holds to this day. Amid the 
 storm and stress of many a trying period it has held us 
 steadily to the sanctities and validities of a Christian 
 church. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 15 
 
 It undoubtedly will appear singular to some, perhaps 
 many, that we observe this centennial of a creed and that 
 Universalists have a creed to recognize as one of the pos- 
 sessions of the century. It will be curious information 
 to all such that the Universalists of this country not only 
 adopted a creed in 1803, which has lived as a vital in- 
 fluence for the hundred years, but that even the Win- 
 chester Profession was not the earliest creed of Ameri- 
 can Universalists. As early as 1790 and again in 1794 
 articles were adopted in convention to express the exist- 
 ing belief before that belief became determinate and crys- 
 talized in our present Profession. Still, it must be es- 
 teemed remarkable that these men, only recently eman- 
 cipated from the tyranny of the orthodox confessions, 
 should undertake to add a new creed to those already 
 existing. They avoided the term, we know, and christened 
 it in the beginning "Profession of Belief," not even calling 
 it a confession, and this has remained unchanged to this 
 day. It would have been sorry business, indeed, had they 
 attempted to formulate a document in any respect like the 
 old creeds in limiting freedom of opinion in the churches 
 and making its letter authoritative and binding upon 
 others. The articles were, however, accompanied by a 
 declaratory statement that relieves from this criticism. 
 After a well conceived introduction, in which the claim of 
 being a separate denomination is well stated, the commit- 
 tee went on to say that "while we, as an association, adopt 
 a general profession of belief, and plan of church govern- 
 ment, we leave it to the several churches and societies, or 
 to smaller associations of churches if they exist, to con- 
 tinue or adopt within themselves such more particular arti- 
 
16 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 cles of faith or modes of discipline as may appear to them 
 best, under their particular circumstances, provided they 
 do not disagree with our general profession and plan." 
 
 Such was the polity adopted at Winchester ; full liberty 
 of opinion was recognized and conceded, the creed itself not 
 being binding as to exact forms of expression and requir- 
 ing only that its principles be recognized. The far-seeing 
 wisdom of this provision was not fully recognized until re- 
 ceent times. 
 
 We can safely venture our poor words of eulogy on these 
 men of 1803 and the work which they accomplished, and 
 this notwithstanding the advances which have been made 
 since their time. Perhaps our denomination is not any 
 more given to boasting than others; but undoubtedly we 
 have those among us who sympathize with the remark of 
 the Scotch theologian, who said, when speaking of the 
 progress of theology, "It is a mistake to look on our fathers 
 as our seniors; they are our juniors" — referring to the 
 advance since their time. 
 
 We have heard similar remarks from men in our own 
 church. No doubt it is true that in many respects we 
 are in advance of the Winchester fathers. It would be un- 
 fortunate, indeed, if the hundred years had slipped by with- 
 out enriching their descendants. But let us candidly ask, 
 "How better could we have acted in their time?" Is it 
 at all likely that we could have made any more honorable 
 record to be handed down to posterity? Transplant us 
 now, with all that we have gained in the hundred years, 
 back to their time, with our schools, colleges, and 
 theological institutions; with our books and period- 
 icals, and all the agencies of an established and ambi- 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 17 
 
 tious church, and, think you, would we not have seri- 
 ous business before us to equal, not to say rival, their 
 splendid heroism and the zeal, earnestness and devotion 
 which they carried into their work, making them now 
 worthy of our highest honor? How should we have fared 
 had we to meet their responsibilities in the constant con- 
 flict of opinions, amid the social ostracism of the time and 
 the persecution and bigotry which attended them on every 
 hand? These glorious old saints labored and suffered re- 
 proach for their trust in the living God v\ho is the Saviour 
 of all men, and this faith fired them with the noble courage 
 which their descendants could do no better than to emulate. 
 It is well for us to think of these things when the at- 
 tractive thought of superiority enters our mind. "They 
 were plain, earnest men," says A. D. Mayo, whose brilliant 
 youth was given to our church, "these early defenders of 
 Universalism, armed at all points. To the arguments of 
 their adversaries they opposed a logic like that of Ballou, 
 simple as the talk of a little child, strong as the tramp of a 
 giant. They had not all come up to the mount of their 
 elevation by the same path, but the sublime truth that 
 God is Love burned like an undying flame in their souls 
 and united them like brothers."^ And we may add that in 
 the generation immediately following Winchester they had 
 noble successors — men of strong minds and warm hearts, 
 of logic and eloquence, aflame with the same love and heroic 
 purpose to carry forward the Faith. Such men as Thomas 
 J. Sawyer, Stephen R. Smith, Isaac D. Williamson and 
 George Eogers, to go no farther in the mention of sacred 
 names, were worthy successors of the Winchester fathers. 
 
 ^Sermon at the funeral of Rev. Thomas Jones, Gloucester, 1846. 
 
18 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 We make no doubt that the royal line will be duly con- 
 tinued while our church stands. 
 
 All the foregoing has been said with the understand- 
 ing that the Winchester creed is well known to those pres- 
 ent. We come now to speak of the several articles with 
 some comments involving an analysis and possibly an 
 "interpretation." We follow the creed and explain it with 
 our own understanding thereof, as Charles Sumner, you 
 may remember, accepted the constitution of the United 
 States. 
 
 I. 
 
 "We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and 
 New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of 
 God and of the duty, interest and final destination of man- 
 kind," You notice (1) that it is not the individual "credo" 
 which is here set forth. "We believe." The growing 
 brotherhood was recognized; they spoke for all who pro- 
 fessed the faith, for the collective body of believers, for the 
 infant church. (2) The Holy Scriptures are affirmed to 
 "contain" a revelation ; they are not themselves the revela- 
 tion; they are the conveyance to make the divine will 
 known to men. "Holy Scripture is the word of God," says 
 the Westminster Confession. "They contain the word of 
 God," affirms Winchester. Observe (3) it is a "revelation" 
 which is made through the instrumentality of the Book. 
 It is not a discovery or origination of the human mind, 
 evolved amid the gray particles of the brain in their own 
 unassisted evolution, but a revelation, or divine disclosure 
 of "the duty, interest and final destination of mankind," 
 this revelation involving ethical relations, moral duty and 
 guidance, and affirming final destiny. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 19 
 
 II. 
 
 The second article puts the supreme affirmation of all 
 true religion in the very heart of the creed. "We believe 
 that there is one God." (1) This is the all sufficient af- 
 firmation of Theism and it finds a place here, that the 
 creed may be Theocentric— one God, the Absolute Being, 
 at its heart and source, whose existence, thus recognized, 
 is the reason for all things else. (2) But he is not the 
 unknown God; he can be known; he is known, for this 
 God is ''revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ" and his nature 
 is love. Here is the disclosure of the loving God as a 
 fact of the revelation. "This," says Newman Smyth, in 
 "The Orthodox Theology of To-Day," "is the Christian 
 philosophy of God, working itself through the centuries, 
 freed from the corruptions of paganism and clearing itself 
 also from the shadows of scholastic theology." The revela- 
 tion is conveyed to mankind, notice further, (3) in the one 
 Lord Jesus Christ, who makes this Absolute Being we call 
 God known to men in the disclosure of a divine personal- 
 ity. (4) All this through the influence of the Holy Spirit 
 as the medium of communication, between the divine and 
 the human. And by the combined influence of the one 
 Lord and the Holy Spirit of Grace, operating and in- 
 fluencing mankind, the God, who is the object of revelation 
 and is revealed, "will finally restore the whole family of 
 mankind to holiness and happiness"— equivalent to the 
 statement that God will sanctify and save the universal 
 family of mankind. 
 
 III. 
 
 The third article is noticeable for the fine distinction 
 which is implied between happiness of the worldly and ex- 
 
20 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ternal order and the true happiness with which holiness 
 is associated. It would not be true to say that holiness and 
 happiness are "inseparably connected/' for saints and holy 
 men are not invariably happy according to worldly 
 standards — indeed seldom so — but it is strictly accurate 
 to say that holiness and true happiness, that which results 
 from the spiritual estate and possession, are "inseparable/ 
 Our Lord, even in view of the crucifixion, bequeathed his 
 joy, the supreme happiness of the soul, to his disciples, and 
 all Christian experience attests the vital and enduring 
 connection between holiness and the higher happiness here 
 signified. It follows that 'Tjelievers ought to be careful to 
 maintain order and practice good work," for the reason, 
 among others, "that these things are good and profitable 
 unto men." 
 
 The charge of utilitarianism, leveled against this lat- 
 ter clause in recent years is purely academic and can not 
 be maintained. It does not follow that when the father^ 
 commended "order and good works" as things "good and 
 profitable unto men" that they discounted virtue or dis- 
 placed the higher motives for the Christian life. While 
 these are supreme, it will always be true that good works 
 are incumbent upon mankind and useful in their exercise, 
 and, doubtless, ever pleasing to the God who seeks the best 
 earthly good of his creatures. This article, in fact, safe- 
 guards Universalism from the charge of ignoring virtue and 
 makes a serious appeal for an orderly life in accordance 
 with the principles and teachings of the holy faith. 
 
 It is thus seen that the Articles have important se- 
 quences. They declare the sacred deposit of the faith 
 touching Holy Scripture, God, Christ, the Holy Spirit and 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 21 
 
 the Final Eestoration. They announce the moral duty of 
 believers in emphatic terms. They commit us to the strict 
 unity of God. Hence we are Unitarian Theists, believers 
 in the one living and true God, and only Him, revealed 
 in one Lord Jesus Christ, whose spiritual leadership and 
 authority is implied. AYe are therefore Christians, be- 
 lievers in a divine revelation to mankind, and can not be 
 Deists, who deny revelation, although Universalism as a 
 philosophical principle may be held without revelation. 
 They further recognize the Holy Spirit, a doctrine peculiar 
 to the Christian religion, which is intelligible, even in the 
 metaphysical statement of Jonathan Edwards, that this 
 Holy Spirit does "in some ineffable and inconceivable 
 manner, proceed from, and is breathed forth, from the 
 Father and the Son, by the divine essence being wholly 
 poured out and flowing, but in infinitely, intense, holy and 
 pure love and delight."^ 
 
 And then, the one resplendent affirmation of our 
 church, challenging the attention of the world today as the 
 only creedal statement of belief in the ultimate success, 
 alike in time and eternity, of the divine administration, 
 the final holiness and sanctification of all souls. This final 
 consummation, with times and season and all methods of 
 discipline and salvation, remains with our wise and good 
 Father in Heaven, but finally, at last, "far-off," it may 
 be, but at last, all, the undivided family of mankind, 
 shall be gathered home. Such is the sublime consumma- 
 tion of all things in the perfect and blessed will of God 
 made known and declared to all the world as an Evangel 
 in the articles of 1803. . 
 
 iQuoted by Dr. A. G. V. Allen in "Religious Leaders of America." 
 
22 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 We might with this exegesis allow Winchester 1803 
 to speak for itself. As Webster said of Massachusetts, 
 "There she stands !" In fact, the exceptional value of the 
 articles is that they do thus stand, speaking in no uncertain 
 tones in regard to the great verities of the Christian re- 
 ligion. They are all inclusive, compact in expression, 
 clear as crystal and luminous in simplicity. They are as 
 solid as the granite of the New Hampshire hills; as im- 
 movable as the rock-bound coast of New England ; and yet 
 as warm with the sunshine of divine love as the noonday 
 heats of midsummer on the prairies of the West. More- 
 over, they can have but one meaning for all Christians, and 
 are not susceptible, by any turn or twist of the phraseology, 
 of expressing anything but what is clearly intended by 
 their authors. 
 
 It is said of the Westminster Confession that "we 
 hear sounding through it the tramp of hosts, the clash of 
 arms and the shout of victory."^ The spirit of our Pro- 
 fession is irenic; it breathes only the sweet note of con- 
 fident assurance and the tone of profound conviction. The 
 great articles express to this day our doctrinal unity in an 
 admirable manner. They signify not alone the faith early 
 formulated, but that which obtains now quite generally 
 among our people when the hundred years have gone by. 
 We wisely put them into the bond of belief in societies and 
 churches, we teach them to our children, we repeat them 
 in our Sunday Schools, making them a part of religious 
 instruction, we condense them, with a single exception, in 
 our Five Principles and they are written in the hearts of 
 all our believers. 
 
 iRev. Wallace Radcliffe, D. D., Westminster Assembly Address, 1898. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 23 
 
 But just here we arrest the strain of eulogy to remark 
 that there is one blot on the fair escutcheon of the heraldry 
 of the fathers. They seem to jiave ignored the fact that 
 any form of a written creed may prove inadequate in future 
 years of the church to the needs of an expanding Christian- 
 ity, as new relations of the faith develop, and "more light 
 breaks out of God's holy word," demanding restatement 
 and new expression. They unwisely declared that "No al- 
 teration of any part of the three articles that contain the 
 profession of our belief (was) ever to be made at any 
 future period." 
 
 We pause before that statement in amazement that 
 such a thought could enter into the mind of these far- 
 seeing and broad-minded men. It laid down a principle 
 which, if accepted, would check all growth and progress. 
 There is not, nor can there be, any finality with creeds. 
 No "dead hand," whether of Winchester, Boston or Chi- 
 cago, must ever hold in its clutch the destinies of our Uni- 
 versalist Church. We revere the creed and honor its found- 
 ers, but it will be rewritten whenever it is no longer rec- 
 ognized as the fittest expression of the Universalist belief, 
 or when the need exists for a new emphasis on any point 
 of doctrine or the religious life in the more advanced de- 
 velopment of a Christian society. But that time is not yet, 
 nor is there any sign of its coming. 
 
 It is now well understood that the Profession was pre- 
 pared for the committee by Eev. Walter Ferriss, a native 
 of New York, and then a Vermont pastor. To this member 
 of the Convention of 1803 is sometimes assigned the honor 
 of the authorship of the several articles. As early as 1833 
 Eussell Streeter, in his "Familiar Conversations," wrote 
 
24 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 that they were "said to have been penned by the venerable 
 Ferriss/' This is probably the first mention of Walter 
 Ferriss as their possible author, but he was not then "ven- 
 erable/' nor was he at his death in 1806, for he was then 
 only thirty-eight years old. It will be noticed that it only 
 took thirty years to put Ferriss in the calendar of ven- 
 erated memory as a father of the church. 
 
 Walter Ferriss, however, was not, in any proper or his- 
 torical sense, the creator of the Winchester Profession. It 
 has already been stated that the Profession was not the first 
 creed of the Universalist Church, and whoever will exam- 
 ine the five sections of the platform of faith, adopted by 
 the Philadelphia Convention of 1790, as reproduced from 
 the records in Abel C. Thomas' "Century of Universalism," 
 will at once recognize the original sources from which the 
 Winchester Profession was formed.^ These Philadelphia 
 articles had been adopted by the New England Conven- 
 
 'Follovving are the Philadelphia articles of 1790: 
 
 Sec. 1. We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament 
 to contain a revelation of the perfections and will of God, and the rule 
 of faith and practice. 
 
 2. We believe in one God, infinite in all his perfections, and that 
 these perfections are all modifications of infinite, adorable, incomprehen- 
 sible and unchangeable love. 
 
 3. We believe that there is one Mediator between God and men, 
 the man Christ Jesus, in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the godhead 
 bodily; who, by giving himself a ransom for all, hath redeemed them 
 to God by his blood; and who, by the merit of his death, and the efficacy 
 of his spirit, will finally restore the whole human race to happiness. 
 
 4. We believe in the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to make known 
 to sinners the truth of their salvation, through the medium of the Holy 
 Scriptures, and to reconcile the hearts of the children of men to God, 
 and thereby to dispose them to genuine holiness. 
 
 5. We believe in the obligation of the moral law, as the rule of life, 
 and we hold that the love of God manifest to man in a Reedemer, is the 
 best means of producing obedience to that law, and promoting a holy, 
 active, and useful life. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 25 
 
 tion in 1794. Words and phrases in this previous creed 
 reappear in that of Winchester, this fact leading inevitably 
 to the conclusion that it was actually a composite produc- 
 tion, or evolution from existing material, Walter Ferriss 
 simply blending, or fusing, the several statements, excising 
 here and condensing there and compressing the all-im- 
 portant truth into three articles instead of the original five 
 sections, and arranging them in logical order, undoubtedly 
 after consultation with the members of his committee. 
 
 Eeviewing the articles of 1790 and 1794, we find 
 confirmation of the fact that they were the quarry whence 
 came the fine material for building the new creed. In the 
 first section the Scriptures are recognized and asserted to 
 "contain a revelation," that most valuable and discriminat- 
 ing word being used. The belief in one God is asserted in 
 the second section ; Jesus Christ as Mediator and Eedeemer 
 is recognized in the third, with the "restoration of the 
 whole human race to happiness," mind you, to happiness 
 alone ; the Holy Ghost in the fourth and good works in the 
 fifth. While, therefore, Walter Ferriss can not be consid- 
 ered strictly as the author, in the sense of conceiving the 
 thought and the exact words of the Profession, he made 
 excellent use of material already to hand and embodied 
 in the three well arranged articles the essential faith of 
 the church. 
 
 We fail to find any new thought in the Winchester 
 creed that was not already embedded with much extraneous 
 matter in that of 1790, with the exception of the question- 
 able addition of the word "holiness" in connection with 
 restoration. The eminent Dr. Benjamin Eusli, a signer of 
 the Declaration of Independence, revised the creed of 1790 
 
26 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 before its adoption in convention. Walter Ferriss revised 
 his revision with great advantage to the clearing faith of 
 the church. 
 
 When we come to consider the facts now related we 
 recall the historical precedent furnished by the declara- 
 tions of faith throughout the ages. All seems shadowy and 
 uncertain as to beginnings with the exception of the West- 
 minster Confession. Of that we have ample knowledge 
 attending its production and the debates during the five 
 years and six months of its incubation in the Jerusalem 
 chamber of the famous abbey. It is admitted, also, that 
 the language of the creeds generally, from the so-called 
 Apostles' creed down to the thirty-nine articles of the 
 Church of England, Westminster and Augsburg, reproduce 
 in their formal statements pre-existing phraseology, reveal- 
 ing constant traces of the discussions and controversies of 
 the period. The articles of the Church of England fur- 
 nished the material for John Wesley when he amended 
 them for his ^Methodist societies as they stand today in 
 the discipline, just as our Walter Ferriss made our creed 
 mainly out of that already in existence. 
 
 We have grown up as a church with the understanding 
 that the Profession was established to provide Universal- 
 ists with a method of escape from taxation to support the 
 "standing order," otherwise the Congregationalists of that 
 day. It was the period when New England was ruled by 
 an onerous and exclusive ecclesiastical legislation, the near- 
 est approach to the union of church and state that this 
 country has witnessed, the remnants of which did not dis- 
 appear in Connecticut until 1818 and held Massachusetts 
 in its dying grip until 1834. It was the era when the town 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 27 
 
 conclaves elected the Congregational popes, the selection 
 of the ministers by the church requiring the consent and 
 endorsement of the town. 
 
 It is needless to go into the particulars of the situa- 
 tion any further than to say that Universalists, with others, 
 suffered in this way and taxation without religious repre- 
 sentation was the order of the day. It has always been 
 understood that this necessity developed the enactment of 
 the Profession to give us standing as a denominational 
 body before the law and to mark us as a body distinct and 
 separate from the Congregationalists, This position re- 
 mained unchallenged until 1874, when, as against the re- 
 corded testimony of previous history, Dr. Eddy's articles 
 in the Universalist Quarterly — 187-i-80 — developed the fact 
 that it was a distinctive plan of government as a church, 
 a legal organization, and not the adoption of a creed that 
 was the sole requirement of the occasion. This contention, 
 apparently well authenticated by the manuscript decision 
 of the judge who rendered the decision in the contested 
 case of Erskine, a prominent layman of New Hampshire, 
 surprised many who had implicit confidence in the denomi- 
 national tradition, endorsed and supported by men who 
 were supposed to know the exact facts and who lived a 
 generation before the new contention was broached. 
 
 We may accept Dr. Eddy's contention, so well fortified 
 by the facts that he adduces, that the adoption of the creed 
 of 1803 cut no figure in the case. But there will always re- 
 main perplexing questions to be settled before a satisfactory 
 solution is reached. Why the prevalence of the former 
 view, unquestioned, from 1803 onward to our own time? 
 How does it happen that Nathaniel Stacy, a visiting mem- 
 
28 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ber of the Convention, expressly states that the creed was 
 adopted to relieve Universalists from this burdensome 
 taxation; that Thomas Whittemore, writing in 1829 and 
 again in 1850, declares the same; that Hosea Ballon al- 
 lowed the statement to pass muster and grow into general 
 circulation, when a word from him would have settled the 
 question? If there was any question about it previous to 
 the year 1829 or 1830, why did not Whittemore consult 
 Ballou ? But then, on the other hand, should not the judge 
 who presided be accorded the credit of understanding the 
 exact legal question involved? But again, the existing 
 creed, already adopted in 1794, and incorporated in the 
 records of the Convention, why a second one? We pass 
 these interesting questions over to the higher critics of a 
 hundred years hence, who will have considerable to do, we 
 are sure, if they know their business, with this problem 
 and others arising out of our early history. At the same 
 time we are pleased to know that this old tradition, which 
 represented our fathers as "whipping the devil around the 
 stump" on this taxation business, is badly shattered by Dr. 
 Eddy and is not likely to hold in any future review of the 
 case. 
 
 But now, waiving this disputed question, there was, 
 we may be confident, deeper and even more significant 
 reasons for adopting the profession lying back of all this. 
 "A creed," remarks Dr. Schaff, "is the response of man 
 to the questions of God," and Harnack has more recently 
 Baid that "the inclination to formulate the content of re- 
 ligion in articles of faith is as natural to Christianity as 
 the effort to verify these articles with reference to science 
 and history." These words indicate the relation to spir- 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 29 
 
 itual experience that brought forth our profession. It was 
 the matured response of Winchester to questions of God 
 and of human destiny. These men had come into posses- 
 sion of the truth of God's Universal Love and his benevo- 
 lent purpose in the salvation of all souls, and why should 
 they not give their faith expression in a rational and be- 
 lievable creed? They wrote what they believed because 
 they believed something and could express it in more satis- 
 factory terms than heretofore. It was the natural and in- 
 evitable result of their new found faith, the sunburst of the 
 divine love over New England ! A new Evangel was 
 abroad in the land from henceforth, conveying a blessing 
 sufficient to create a soul under the very ribs of death. 
 
 But we must now turn again to some controverted 
 opinions. At times in our history it has been asserted that 
 the articles were intended to avoid conflict with the exist- 
 ing remnant of the opinions of the system of John Murray, 
 who was a Trinitarian and advocated Trinitarian Universal- 
 ism, and the future punishment views of Elhanan Win- 
 chester, both of whom had followers in the Convention of 
 1803. 
 
 It has been claimed several times in our history that 
 the second article will bear a Trinitarian interpretation on 
 account of the threefold belief expressed therein, that of 
 Father, Son and Holy Spirit. But it was far and away, 
 we may be sure, from the purpose of the framers of that 
 article to refer to the Trinity, even indirectly, much less 
 to sanction it by what they express. The three great beliefs 
 of the Christian church — fundamental and universal al- 
 ways in Christianity — are affirmed, but they are expressed 
 as distinct and separate objects of the cardinal faith and 
 
30 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 can not be deemed an equivalent of the common doctrine 
 of the three persons in the one Godhead of the orthodox 
 confessions. There is no hint of any such doctrine in the 
 article. 
 
 We may — yea, we must — as Christian believers hold to 
 the faith in God the Father, in Christ the Eeedemer and 
 Lord, and in the Holy Spirit as the three great pivotal 
 points in the religion we profess — may our church never 
 part from this threefold faith ! — but this does not conflict 
 with our position as to the strict unity of God. "We be- 
 lieve in one God" and only one. That made us Unitarian 
 before Unitarians were known as a distinct sect in this 
 country. And it is a Unitarian of the Unitarians, Dr. 
 Frederic D. Hedge, who says that this belief in the Father, 
 Son and Holy Spirit "embraces and oecumenizes Christen- 
 dom as one household of faith." Dr. Hedge, moreover, 
 further says: "But if Unitarianism were understood to 
 deny the doctrine of Father, Son and Spirit, or even to 
 waive and ignore it as unessential, then should I repudiate 
 the name, renounce the connection, and desire that my 
 name were expunged from the muster-roll of that com- 
 munion."^ When such a distinguished Unitarian as Dr. 
 Hedge recognized the threefold belief as historical Chris- 
 tianity and held to it, notwithstanding his Unitarian opin- 
 ions, Universalists certainly need not hesitate to accept the 
 faith, notwithstanding the claim that it identifies us in its 
 "affinities" with the Trinitarian sects. 
 
 To touch upon another mooted point, namely, the 
 theory that the articles were a compromise among conflict- 
 ing opinions, it is well to remember that compromise indi- 
 
 i"Unitarian Affirmations" (Washington, 1879), page 22. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 31 
 
 cates postponement of crisis as well as concession. There 
 was no crisis of faith impending at the time the articles 
 were adopted, and no need, therefore, for an adjustment 
 of the beliefs of the Winchester fathers. If there was any 
 crisis at all in 1803, it related, as we have seen, to the civil 
 powers of the time in conflict with the individual rights 
 of Universalists. We know that there were many crude 
 opinions held and substantial differences of opinions among 
 those assembled in 1803. We might make a creed for the 
 Tower of Babel out of the vagaries and mysticisms of 
 Eellyan Universalism as held by John ]\Iurray and his 
 followers. It would be a hard-hearted Calvinist, indeed, 
 who would not be satisfied with Winchester's 50,000 years 
 of future punishment, and Hosea Ballou himself had not 
 then advanced very far beyond the period of the crude and 
 fanciful interpretations displayed in the Notes on the 
 Parables. 
 
 It was well recognized, even at that time, that Eestora- 
 tionism was Universalism — with delay extending into the 
 future. No one ever questioned Winchester's Universal- 
 ism, plus 50,000 years of future woe. The dear man was 
 allowed that comforting addition to his hope of the final 
 heaven without any impeachment. The fact undoubtedly 
 is that the fathers placed the word "finally" in the creed 
 as the strongest word to express the ultimate result, the 
 crowning consummation of all redeeming Love. To repre- 
 sent it as a compromise is not to be entertained. It is 
 probable that the majority held to some degree of restor- 
 ation as the condition of future blessedness; but re- 
 membering that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, 
 the word took its place in the creed as the most decisive 
 
32 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 and expressive one that could be used. It was chosen, we 
 may believe, not as a refuge from any complication, but as 
 the one word that covered the Universalist thought. It 
 does^ that today as well as when it became a part of the 
 creed. 
 
 We have now to notice three occasions in our later his- 
 tory when the creed was made the subject of discussion in 
 our church, growing out of the action of the General Con- 
 vention. 
 
 ( 1 ) We refer, first, to the Declaration and Interpreta- 
 tion adopted at Baltimore in 1867, setting forth the "evi- 
 dent intention" of the authors of this confession "to affirm 
 the divine authority of the Scriptures and the Lordship 
 of Jesus Christ," and voting this interpretation essential 
 to a "sincere acceptance of our fellowship." Although 
 adopted by the remarkable vote of forty-nine to one, this 
 was clearly outside of the province of legislation, as well 
 as a work of supererogation. The Profession means exactly 
 this and could never be made to mean anything else, regard 
 being had to its exact affirmations and the accepted mean- 
 ing of language. If one interpretation was allowed, there 
 might be need at some future time of an interpretation of 
 the interpretation. Winchester needs nothing of the kind. 
 
 In case any seek to break into our fellowship by evad- 
 ing our historical position as to Holy Scripture and the 
 Lordship, or take any advantage of its broad and inclusive 
 terms, in these or any other directions, the document itself 
 convicts them as guilty of intellectual dishonesty, which is 
 worse than any heresy. It seems to be the unwritten policy 
 of our church to let the responsibility rest on all such in 
 the final outcome. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 38 
 
 But while this is true, there are, of course, reserved 
 rights implied in the privilege of our fellowship, but rarely 
 exercised in our history, although we have had our share 
 of eccentrics, malcontents and disturbers. John Wesley 
 once ended a protracted debate among his followers by re- 
 marking : "I have no right to object to a man for holding a 
 different opinion from me than 1 have to differ with a man 
 because he wears a wig instead of his own hair; but if he 
 takes his wig off and begins to shake the powder in my 
 eyes, and makes me sneeze, I shall consider it my duty to 
 get rid of him as soon as possible." 
 
 (2) In 1870, our centennial year, on the reorganiza- 
 tion of the General Convention, the Winchester creed was 
 made a part of our constitutional law and enacted as a con- 
 dition of fellowship. While this, as we have seen, was not 
 intended by the original framers, it was a wise action at 
 the time, the strongest possible reinforcement of our doc- 
 trinal position. It was a notification to the world that we 
 were not a church of all outdoors, but that American Uni- 
 versalism had a creedal incarnation, with a heritage of rec- 
 ognized beliefs, from the beginning of the century. 
 
 Previous to this, the Winchester declaration was not 
 widely known among the new generation. It was hence- 
 forth to be recognized as our denominational platform, and 
 believers were summoned to follow the flag and do service 
 under the recognized banner of a church that had a definite 
 Christian work before it in the new century of TJniversal- 
 ism then opening with promise. Churches were to be or- 
 ganized and ministers trained and educated under the re- 
 sponsibilities of a recognized system of faith and in the 
 name of a church that embraced the largest hope for man- 
 
34 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 kind. The years that we wrought under that organization, 
 with the Winchester creed at the heart, record a progress 
 far beyond all the achievements of the previous century. 
 It has witnessed our growth in all the material essentials 
 and resources of the organized church and made us what 
 we are today. That record should be carefully studied by 
 the younger ministers of our church. 
 
 A new generation has come upon the stage of action 
 since that time. It is well nigh on to forty years ago, and 
 many, too many, of the devoted men who led the victorious 
 movement for the present organization of our church, con- 
 summated in 1870, rest from their labors and now belong 
 to the "General Assembly and church of the first born who 
 are written in heaven." We can not call the long and honor- 
 able roll of these departed worthies, but we remember 
 gratefully Elbridge Gerry Brooks, Alonzo Ames Miner and 
 William Henry Eyder as pre-eminent organizers in the 
 heritage which has been handed down to us. 
 
 (3) We speak, in the third place, of the controversy 
 in our own day to remove the word "Eestore" in the second 
 article involving, as it was asserted, the Calvinistic doc- 
 trine of the disaster in Eden, of which the serpent was the 
 instrument and the devil the primary cause, the fall and 
 a ruined ancestry being the direful result. It was charged 
 that the fathers held this belief and placed the word in the 
 creed to set forth a return to the favor of God of our fallen 
 race. We refer to this controversy with no desire to revive 
 it in any of its relations, but it belongs to history. 
 
 That controversy was at first as the shadow of a man's 
 hand on the horizon, but grew by what it fed upon, as all 
 such controversies do, until it became a serious menace to 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 35 
 
 our peace and for years interfered with our common work. 
 As the debate progressed, it was seen that "restore" was 
 not the objectionable word, although it had to bear the 
 brunt of the conflict. When the Psalmist said, for exam- 
 ple, "Eestore unto me the joy of thy salvation," and af- 
 firmed with holy delight, "He restoreth my soul," he had 
 no reference, we may be sure, to the doctrine of the fall 
 embraced in the orthodox creeds. 
 
 Nor is there any evidence that the framers of the creed 
 held to this particular doctrine of the federal headship of 
 Adam, with its ruinous consequences. That man had 
 strayed from primeval innocence and fallen into sin and 
 needed restoration was conceivable, without charging them 
 with the acceptance of a belief which must have appeared 
 to them as immoral and irrational. It is equally true, 
 moreover, that they did not believe in what is expressed by 
 the vicious epigram of Theodore Parker that "every fall 
 is a fall upwards." Such a statement would have been 
 spurned by these devout men, to whom sin was a reality 
 and the grace of God its only antidote. 
 
 The debate turned, we all remember, on "restoration 
 to holiness," and on this the final argument rested. This 
 marks the one point in which the Winchester articles are cer- 
 tainly vulnerable. This was the "fault" in the fine vein 
 of the creed, the flaw in the diamond, the one verbal error 
 which mars the masterly work. Holiness is an achieve- 
 ment of personal character. It has to be worked out in 
 personal development, as an attainment of righteousness 
 and accomplishment of spiritual life. You can not restore 
 to holiness for 3'ou can not reinstate a condition that exists 
 
36 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 only in and by personal achievement. Eestoration to 
 happiness is conceivable, but not the former. 
 
 But how all this oppresses us, even as a reminiscence 
 of the debate in which our church was for many years en- 
 gaged ! We rejoice that it is now happily ended and ful- 
 filling the splendid image of Burke, which Dean Stanley 
 was fond of quoting: "Old religious controversies," said 
 Burke, "are volcanoes burned out; on the lava and ashes 
 and squalid scoriae of old eruptions grow the peaceful 
 olive, the cheering vine and the soothing corn." Let us 
 believe in the olive, the vine and the corn. 
 
 Out of this prolonged discussion, extending over many 
 years — a debate by far the ablest in our history — emerged, 
 as another instance of the "soul of goodness in things 
 evil," the action first proposed at Chicago and finally ap- 
 proved and adopted by the Boston Convention of 1899. 
 Efforts to change the creed were fruitless; every change 
 proposed was defeated by decisive votes. The old creed was 
 found too strongly entrenched in the affections of the peo- 
 ple to permit even amendment of the time-honored phrase- 
 ology. 
 
 It was in this extremity that the old light flashed anew 
 from Winchester to guide our church into the safe haven of 
 1803. The creed was taken out of its mandatory relations 
 in the law of the church and returned to its true historical 
 setting, requiring only allegiance to its principles and al- 
 lowing full play for the expression of individual and parish 
 belief. The Five Principles were adopted as an alternate 
 declaration, with the Winchester articles unchanged as 
 the original symbol, to remain as a classic, without binding 
 authority as to exact words, but with its unescapable con- 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 37 
 
 elusions as to Christian doctrine remaining, to stand in 
 silent judgment on all future administrations of Universal- 
 ism in the Universalist Church, Peace has since spread her 
 white wings over the united church. 
 
 And just here we may, for the nonce, recall as an illus- 
 tration how history repeats itself in small as well as great 
 things, that the Westminster divines of the seventeenth 
 century were commanded by King James and the Parlia- 
 ment to revise the articles of the Church of England. 
 They could not agree in the revision, but wrote instead, 
 after the deliberation of more than five years, the West- 
 minster Confession.^ Our revisionists could not change 
 the Winchester articles ; they wrote instead the Five Princi- 
 ples, adding: ''The Winchester Profession is commended 
 as containing these principles," but this is a conspicuous 
 error. The Profession does not "contain" either the mat- 
 ter or the thought of the fourth specification relating to 
 "Eetribution," whether it may be esteemed a "principle" 
 or otherwise. 
 
 Will these five points of the faith stand for a hundred 
 years ? Possibly ; but not, we venture to say, with that un- 
 fortunate word "Eetribution" included in their categories 
 — a word conceived in the very spirit of the Latin theology, 
 whose synonyms are vengeance and retaliation, a word con- 
 sequently opposed to the spirit in which the loving God 
 deals with his children and that is entirely separated in 
 theological significance from the thought of future re- 
 demptive influences — not, we say, with this word included, 
 and with the unaccountable omission of the Holy Spirit, 
 
 ^Westminster Assembly Addresses, 1898. 
 
38 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 which, thank God, was not forgotten by tlie framers of the 
 old creed. 
 
 "Hail," then we say to the men of Winchester! In 
 Matthew Arnold's words, in another connection : 
 
 "Hail to the courage which gave 
 Voice to the creed, ere the creed 
 Won consecration from time." 
 
 And so they went forth bearing their precious mes- 
 sage amid the valleys and hills of New England, in the 
 mountain towns of Vermont and New Hampshire and into 
 loyal and responsive Maine ; again following the Connecti- 
 cut Valley and into New York on the line of the Hudson 
 and the central part of the state and the Mohawk, where 
 these preachers of an Unlimited Gospel planted the seed 
 of prosperous parishes. 
 
 The Iliad of the first twenty-five or thirty years of 
 the nineteenth century has not been written, recording the 
 story of these early defenders of Universal Salvation and 
 their pioneer brethren of the West, with that of the devout 
 laymen, some of them descendants of revolutionary , sires, 
 who, after adoption of the ordinance of 1787, flocked into 
 the new lands of the Connecticut Western Reserve, and the 
 others also, who, in this notable year of 1803, founded 
 Ohio, the early settlement at Marietta being made by the 
 descendants of Gen. Israel Putnam, Universalists who had 
 received the faith from the New England preachers, with 
 Timothy Bigelow, an old Winchester pastor, as the first 
 Universalist preacher of the state — this story has not been 
 written in its fulness, but some future generation may 
 listen to its refreshing and inspiring strains. 
 
 But it is high time to fling a thought ahead. How 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 39 
 
 stands Winchester today amid the changes in theological 
 opinion? "Human thought/' says Lamartine, "like God, 
 makes the world in its own image." If this be true, may we 
 not conclude that the thought of our forefathers is ful- 
 filling a like mission today and that it has done its part in 
 the mighty change in religious opinions which the century 
 has wrought? 
 
 It would be an easy task to show, if time permitted, 
 how the Christian world is approximating to the exact doc- 
 trines of the Winchester declaration, and our modern 
 Christianity verifying its credentials anew by an appeal to 
 the principles therein laid down as the faith of our church. 
 
 The undoubted trend of thought shows that things 
 are rapidly coming our way. The Universal Fatherhood of 
 God is now proclaimed from the housetops of Orthodoxy, 
 and while many of the clear-sighted recognize this as log- 
 ically involving Universalism, it is accepted nevertheless. 
 The spiritual authority and leadership of Jesus Christ is not 
 denied even by those who repudiate the supernatural 
 claims of Christianity. The trustworthiness of Holy 
 Scripture as containing a revelation is conceded in many 
 directions as affording a basis for the only defensible the- 
 ory of inspiration. As against verbal inspiration. President 
 Bascom declares, "There is no reason why the casket (the 
 Bible) should be more precious than the truth it contains." 
 Then as to our one resplendent truth of the final holiness 
 and happiness, not many intelligent observers of the signs 
 of the times will object to the statement that Universalism 
 is, at the present day, the most widely diffused sentiment, 
 not included as an article of the orthodox faith, in the 
 whole range of modern religious belief. 
 
40 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Goldwin Smith is on record as declaring, substan- 
 tially, that one of the notable events of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury is the establishment of Universalism as a religious 
 faith, and John Fiske paused, amid his studies of Evolu- 
 tion, to commend the Winchester Profession. 
 
 Eeginald Campbell has recently crossed the Atlantic, 
 bearing the message to his Congregational brethren in this 
 country that Universalism is permeating the Evangelical 
 churches of England. We knew that before he came, and 
 the same testimony could as truthfully be rendered in re- 
 lation to the American churches. "If God succeeds," says 
 Dr. Gordon, of Boston, one of the brightest minds among 
 the Congregationalists, "If God succeeds, universal salva- 
 tion will be the result." That is what our Universalist 
 fathers always contended, and when the question is reduced 
 to this alternative it will not be difficult to foretell the 
 final outcome. God will succeed, says Universalism, 
 though every pillar of orthodoxy falls and crumbles into 
 dust. He can have no rival in his blessed sovereignty over 
 the world of souls, nor permit a severed and divided hu- 
 manity to exist as an everlasting token of his failure. 
 
 Eemembering that our forecast on this jubilee occasion 
 has to stand and be judged at the other end of Time's Whis- 
 pering Gallery, we venture the prediction that by the end 
 of another hundred years, the idea of an endless punish- 
 ment in any form, medieval or modern, will be obsolete 
 among all Protestant churches, and that Universalism, even 
 if not everywhere received, will resume the place it occu- 
 pied in the faith of the early church, when it was held by 
 the "Merciful Doctors" and saints without the reproach 
 of heresy and as a prevailing faith. 
 
WINCHESTER PROFESSION. 41 
 
 It is the one great interpretation of the Gospel that 
 can not be side-tracked or lost sight of amid the impending 
 changes of the religious world. Even now, while still un- 
 recognized, it is steadily winning its way to its coronal 
 position as "the heir of all the ages in the foremost files 
 of Time." Its only possible rival for supremacy is the dark 
 contention, sometimes called "the alternate theory" of the 
 final extinction of sinful and unyielding souls and their 
 consequent failure to achieve immortality. In this case 
 God also signally fails, for he is represented as not per- 
 petuating the spark of his own divine life which he has 
 set aflame in the souls of his children. 
 
 James Martineau somewhat mournfully says : "In 
 the education of our race it is inevitable that the children 
 should outgrow the father's house and emigrate to new 
 lands of thought; and could the men of old come back 
 among us and look at us with their patriarchal eyes, who 
 knows but that we might ask their blessing in vain, and 
 Abraham, perchance, would be ignorant of us and Israel 
 acknowledge us not." 
 
 Martineau's prognostic might be accepted if we did 
 not believe that in Universalism we have reached ultimate 
 results as to destiny; the point beyond which, in this par- 
 ticular at least, further advance is not conceivable. We are 
 here on the solid bed-rock of conviction and faith. We 
 ask reverently for the scrutiny of patriarchal e3^es on us 
 here assembled for the centennial observance. We rejoice 
 in the belief that our fathers will not regard ns as having 
 strayed from the old fold on any spiritual emigration, even 
 in the third generation from their time. Nor do we antici- 
 pate any future time when Abraham will be ignorant of us 
 
42 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 and Israel acknowledge us not. Even while it is conceded 
 that we live in a time when there is sure to come a recon- 
 struction of all religious beliefs, we have no doubt as to the 
 permanency of the Christian faith which this church repre- 
 sents. 
 
 Neither the new philosophy, nor the advance of Bib- 
 lical criticism, nor yet the popular sociological theories 
 which some believe are to supercede Christianity, en- 
 dangers the ancient Winchester Faith; on the contrary, 
 they may enrich, enlarge and re-establish it for the benefit 
 of future generations. Holy Scripture will still contain, 
 and breathe out to receptive minds, the word of truth. 
 Man, while he remains a sinner, will always need restora- 
 tion to divine favor. God will still be transcendent over 
 and in his creation, and revealed in fatherhood; and just 
 as nature is the expression of the divine immanence, so the 
 Christ will remain as the translation of God in the terms 
 of human experience. By his immanence, the transcendent 
 God will also continue to speak in the articulate words of 
 the Holy Spirit in the new Pentecost of a thousand tongues 
 in nature, experience and the soul of man, while all things 
 shall tend onward to the universal harmony of a reconciled 
 universe. Then 
 
 "Earth rolls her rapturous hosannah's round." 
 
SPEAKERS AT THE CENTENNIAL— II. 
 
 CHARLES ELLWOOD NASH. — AT WASHINGTON. 
 ROSEA W. PARKER. JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS. 
 
 ISAAC M. ATWOOD. 
 
The New Test of Our Faith/ 
 
 JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS, D. D. 
 
 When I was asked to "prophesy" I was at a loss to 
 know what I was to do. I have no gift of second-sight. 
 I can not even forecast my own behavior twenty-four hours 
 at a time. My only attempts at anticipating the event 
 are in the way of guessing about the weather; and this 
 favorite amusement frequently turns out another name for 
 blundering. I recalled what George Eliot calls prophecy — 
 "the most gratuitous form of error" — and I made up my 
 mind that this could not be what your program committee 
 wanted of me. So, as I often do in times of perplexity, I 
 opened the dictionary for light. I found that to 
 "prophesy" meant "to declare or to interpret the divine 
 will ;" also "to warn, exhort, and comfort." In such 
 prophecy as this I felt myself more at home. It is the 
 business of my life. And so today all I hope to do, as 
 prophet, is what the bearers of that name and office did 
 in Old Testament days — to declare, to interpret, to warn, 
 exhort, and comfort — in brief, to preach. And this is 
 what I feel called to prophesy: The spirit of the Lord 
 came to John the son of John. And he opened his mouth 
 and spake, saying: 
 
 f count it one of the privileges of a lifetime to be 
 present on this day in this place, to assist in this com- 
 memoration. To my mind the adoption of the Winchester 
 
 'Address at Winchester Centennial, Thursday morning, October 1. 
 1903, announced on the program as "Prophecies." 
 
 (43) 
 
44 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Profession of Belief was one of the chief events in the 
 theological history of this country. It was the birth of 
 the new theology. The Profession v/as the first explicit 
 statement in the form of creed, or articles, or profession, of 
 the great fundamentals of what has come to be known as 
 "liberal Christianity," or the "new orthodoxy," or "broad 
 church theology." It was at once the Magna Charta and 
 the Declaration of Independence of the Broad Church in 
 America. For it both affirmed the new principles which 
 had been for nearly a century working themselves out in 
 the religious consciousness of the land, and it sounded the 
 note of freedom from the "standing order" of the church, 
 and ran up the colors of an independent body, resting on 
 the new principles affirmed. This priority of our fathers 
 in the faith is an honor of which we can not be too proud, 
 for which we can not be too thankful. Winchester was 
 the place where the new theology — the theology which 
 starts from the fatherhood of God and proceeds to the uni- 
 versal harmony of the moral creation — was first set forth 
 in a creed. Walter Ferriss and those associates of his who 
 formed that famous convention were the men responsible 
 for this signal event. I do not think that the "Philadel- 
 phia Articles" ought to be granted priority in this count, 
 for they voiced the sentiments of a body not yet out of 
 thrall to the old theology — a body made up of believers in 
 the Trinity and the Vicarious Atonement. But the men 
 who stood behind the Winchester Profession were men who 
 had come out into the new light and lined up to the new 
 views of Hosea Ballon ; and these are the views which have 
 been gaining ground steadily for a hundred years. 
 
 The first explicit statement of the new faith, in Amer- 
 
NEW TEST OF FAITH. 45 
 
 ica, was dated at Winchester, September the twenty-second, 
 1803. These walls looked down upon a scene destined to be 
 most memorable in the religious history of our land. Let 
 us preserve them sacredly, for a wiser and less prejudiced 
 generation than ours will make pilgrimages hither as 
 patriots now flock to Independence Hall. Twelve years 
 before Jedediah Morse's book on "American Unitarianism" 
 forced the liberals in the Congregational body out of their 
 negative attitude and hastened their separation from the 
 Trinitarian churches, and seventeen years before the Berry 
 Street Conference — the first gathering of these Unitarian 
 ministers for mutual counsel and support — the Winches- 
 ter Profession of Belief was put forth to express the faith 
 of the ministers and churches, already overwhelmingly Uni- 
 tarian, who were following Hosea Ballou into the territory 
 of the new, the emancipated, the reconstructed theology, 
 soon to be set forth in the "Treatise on Atonement." Sixty- 
 three years before Horace Bushnell published his work on 
 "The Vicarious Sacrifice Grounded in Principles of Uni- 
 versal Obligation" these men were teaching and preach- 
 ing all the essentials of his doctrine, today openly held in 
 pretty much all the Congregationalist churches. Seventy- 
 four years before Frederick Farrar's sermons on "Eternal 
 Hope," which have been so widely read and so influential 
 in this country, these men had reached the same broad in- 
 terpretations which they embody, and were preaching them 
 wherever hearing could be had. They were, in simple truth, 
 the vanguard of the new theology. They stood for the 
 universal fatherhood of God ; for man's sonship to God, as 
 typified in Jesus Christ ; for the atonement as the reconcil- 
 iation of man to God ; for the certainty of retribution, here 
 
46 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 or hereafter ; for the final harmony of all souls with God. 
 They were the first to write into a formal statement of 
 faith the bold outlines of the new theology whose corner- 
 stone was Divine Love and whose capstone was a redeemed 
 human family. When all the creeds shall have been revised 
 into conformity with these great truths; when the new 
 thought shall have asserted itself in every church in Amer- 
 ica; when the scales shall fall from the eyes of believers 
 everywhere, the historians of another century will direct 
 their steps to Winchester church, to study and record the 
 events we commemorate, and will engross in characters of 
 gold the famous document which was here proclaimed. 
 
 But it was not only a priority of statement which enti- 
 tles the framers of the Winchester Profession to honor. 
 They should receive the largest credit as the advance guard 
 of the organizations which were to stand in line of battle 
 in behalf of the new theology. This brighter day of 
 emancipated minds and hearts is not a free gift into whose 
 benefits men have come without struggle or cost. We can 
 not too often repeat that ancient sentence, "The blood of 
 the martyrs is the seed of the church." The old theology 
 did not slacken its grip until it was resisted, disputed, 
 denied and defied. There are those who would minimize 
 the work of these pioneers by asserting that they did but 
 little for a doctrine which was in the air and would have 
 prevailed without them. It might as justly be said that 
 the United States of America would have come into being 
 without the Declaration of Independence or the revolu- 
 tionary army. Neither theological nor political revolutions 
 happen. They are thought out, wrought out, and, if need 
 be, fought out. There is always some man or group of 
 
NEW TEST OF FAITH. 47 
 
 men who set them on foot. These men were the van of 
 the coming host which was to overthrow in the hearts of 
 the American people the theology of Edwards and Hopkins 
 and Emmons, and lay the foundations for the broad church 
 of Bushnell and Beecher and Brooks. Let me emphasize 
 this assertion, because the old habit persists of belittling 
 all that Universalists have done in the reformation of 
 American theology. The times justify the plainest speak- 
 ing. It is the fashion of our day to admit the truth for 
 which the Universalist Church has contended, but to forget 
 the fact that Universalists did battle for them. Channing 
 is lauded, but Murray and Ballon are ignored. Unitarian- 
 ism is credited with all the work ; the partnership of Uni- 
 rersalism is passed over in silence that can be heard. Bush- 
 nell's "Vicarious Sacrifice" is reread with approval, while 
 Ballou's "Treatise on Atonement" gathers dust on the 
 library shelves. Henry Ward Beecher is eulogized — or 
 anathematized — as the chief advocate in this land of the 
 doctrine of God's universal fatherhood — while it is conven- 
 iently forgotten that the Chrysostom of the American 
 church, Edwin Hubbell Chapin, was contemporaneously 
 preaching to a public as large the same noble faith, and 
 the pulpit from which he preached was significantly named 
 "The Church of the Divine Paternity." The positions of 
 Universalist exegetes and church historians are one by one 
 occupied by evangelical scholars; but nobody hears the 
 names of Hosea Ballon 2d, or Lucius R. Paige, or John 
 Wesley Hanson mentioned as the real pioneers in discov- 
 ering these positions. Last of all, and most astounding of 
 all theories of the modification of New England orthodoxy, 
 Jonathan Edwards himself is led to the front as the real 
 
48 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 and original author of the new theology ; as if Lucifer were 
 to be introduced into the economy of the scheme of salva- 
 tion as the chief agent of his own overthrow. 
 
 Dr. Allen, in his masterly life of Edwards, affirms 
 that "It is not too much to say that he is a forerunner 
 of the later New England transcendentalism quite as truly 
 as the author of a modified Calvinism/' and he names 
 Thomas Erskine, McLeod Campbell and Frederick Maurice 
 as "the true continuators of the work of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards." And Dr. Gordon, himself rejoicing in all the 
 premises of Universalism, from which, however, he refuses 
 to draw any conclusion, declares that "Edwards is the great 
 abettor of a new revolution in theology." Far be it from 
 me to deny the efficiency of any one of these agents or 
 forces to which attention is now being drawn or to slight 
 their influence as agencies under God in the destruction 
 of the old New England theology, the orthodoxy of Amer- 
 ica in the last century. But something is due to truth and 
 to fairness and to historic justice. And this occasion is a 
 fitting time to remind ourselves and our neighbors who 
 will listen, that the first organized body to wheel into line 
 of battle against the dreary theology which the eighteenth 
 century bequeathed to the nineteenth, were the Universal- 
 ists, flying the flag of the old Winchester Profession. And 
 they have been at the right of the firing line ever since. 
 
 I suppose it may seem a paradox to talk of Jonathan 
 Edwards as in any wise contributory to the Larger Faith 
 save as he, more than any other, created the revolt against 
 the Smaller Faith which it is so rapidly replacing. But 
 there is far more in this opposition than at first appears. 
 The backbone of Edwards' theology, into which all minor 
 
NEW TEST OF FAITH. 49 
 
 doctrines are articulated, is the sovereignty of God. He 
 could not endure to have the power of man and of his will 
 asserted at the expense of God. "To establish forever," 
 says Dr. Gordon, "in sunlight clearness and certainty the 
 absoluteness of God, Edwards wrote his great essay (on 
 the will)." It was the theologians of the Universalist 
 Church who first saw and pointed out, with a clearness just 
 as luminous, that the sovereignty and absoluteness of God 
 could never be vindicated save in the reconciliation of the 
 human to the divine. The great theologian is indebted to 
 the men whose doctrines he hated for saving his own sys- 
 tem from logical wreck and complete oblivion. If there 
 is to be a revival of the Edwardian theology, as seems pos- 
 sible, it will be a revival of only that part of it which 
 exalts God and his sovereignty, and that other part in 
 which he asserts that love is the very center and core of 
 the divine nature. And when that strange renaissance 
 shall have taken place it will be in order for those who 
 are bringing it about to make their acknowledgments to the 
 men who first presented these two halves of Edwards' sys- 
 tem in their proper relation and deduced from them the 
 doctrine of the final harmony of all souls with God. 
 
 Edwards had a disciple in thought, who detected and 
 repaired the flaw in his theology a hundred years ago. His 
 name was Hosea Ballou. There is very much in the writ- 
 ings and in the system of our great theologian to remind 
 one of Edwards and to show that, whether he had read his 
 writings or not, Hosea Ballou had been reared in an atmos- 
 phere in which he continually breathed the philosophy of 
 the Northampton logician. He had the same conviction 
 of the sovereignty of God. He accepted Edwards' doctrine 
 
60 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 of the will to a large degree. He is dealing continually 
 with a theological situation for which Edwards was largely 
 responsible. And in many ways he simply arrayed Edwards 
 against himself, appealing from Philip drunk to Philip 
 sober. He was the truest exponent of what was truest in 
 Edwards, because he seized the real core of Edwards' theol- 
 ogy and deduced from it a proper anthropology. He, to 
 Edwards' high conception of God, added a true doctrine 
 about man. He reconciled the contradictories of Edwards' 
 theology, as Edwards himself never could, in one sentence 
 in the "Atonement." "Which reflects the most honor on 
 the divine character, to contend that it was necessary for 
 him to create millions of rational beings to hate him and 
 every communication he makes to them to all eternity, to 
 live in endless rebellion against him and endure inconceiva- 
 ble torments as long as God exists, or to suppose him able 
 and willing to make all his rational creatures love and 
 adore him, yield obedience to his divine law, and exist in 
 union and happiness with himself." In a word, he saw 
 that to save the glory and honor of God we must believe 
 in the salvation of all his children. Edwards did not be- 
 lieve that the Great Absolute whom he called God could 
 be under any obligations whatsoever to his creatures. "If 
 God is pleased to show mercy to his haters," he says, "it is 
 certainly fit that he should do it in a sovereign way, not 
 acting as if in any Avay obliged." Ballou, on the other 
 hand, truly conceived God as bound by his very fatherhood, 
 and obligated to all that fatherhood requires and imposes. 
 "To say that he did not intend good," says Ballou, "to all 
 whom his acts concern would be limiting his goodness and 
 an impeachment on his justice." Thus Universalism cor- 
 
NEW TEST OF FAITH. 51 
 
 rects the gross errors of Edwardeanism and rectifies the 
 narrow logic of the prince of logicians. American Univer- 
 salists, the makers of the Winchester Profession, were the 
 first to organize under a reconstructed Calvinism which 
 should be consistent with reason and with itself. They 
 insisted with passionate urgency that God, by his very act 
 of a loving creation of the human race, had put himself 
 under bonds to his creatures, his children, the offspring 
 of his Spirit. They insisted that he could not be the 
 Father of men without becoming obligated to men ; that he 
 assumed the duties of a father when he called his children 
 into being, and by his own free act gave tacit pledge that 
 he would do all that love would dictate for his sons and 
 daughters. And thus they offset the sovereignty of God 
 by the responsibility of God, his absoluteness by his love, 
 and so took all the terror out of the theology of Calvin 
 and of Edwards. 
 
 The world still awaits the growth of this great faith 
 in a sovereign God, bound by his own love into a practical 
 working power in the hearts of men. The church still 
 needs to be brought up to the level of even Edwards' con- 
 ception, that God is ruler in his own universe. Modern 
 orthodoxy is at this disadvantage over that of the eight- 
 eenth century in that it is not sure whether God is ruler 
 over his own subjects. Edwards and his ilk were perfectly 
 clear. Their God ruled like a demon, but he ruled. He 
 did not let his universe get away from him. He was 
 working for his own glory. That was all he had in view. 
 One of Edwards' most famous works was called "The Last 
 End of God in the Creation," and he held that to be God's 
 self alone. His own glory. His own happiness. And God 
 
52 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 would see to it that this was secured, and not all the rebel- 
 liousness of his subjects could dim the lustre of his rule, a 
 rule of justice, of power, and of glory reflected on his own 
 name. Modern theology holds that God intends also the 
 good of his creatures. But he can not secure it for them ; 
 they will not let him. He has lost control of this universe. 
 It is a runaway cosmos, and he is powerless to keep it to 
 the highway of the destiny he purposed for it. That is 
 the universe as Lyman Abbott depicts it. The human will 
 is master of the situation, and forever thwarts the will 
 of God. 
 
 It is the joy and the glory of Universalism that it 
 holds up to the thought of the world a God who does not 
 abdicate his power in favor of his creature; a God who 
 has so beset the free wills of his children with influences 
 and with persuasions that they at last come to choose their 
 own good and glory in his service and love; a God whose 
 joy can only be fulfilled in the completion of the joy of 
 his creation. Of such a masterful God Universalism may 
 well say, using the very words of Edwards, cleared of all 
 the old terror and antagonism they carried when he used 
 them, "Why should a little worm think of supporting 
 himself against an omnipotent adversary ?" In the thought 
 of the absoluteness of such a sovereign we may confidently 
 rest our faith in man's return to God and his own blessed- 
 ness. 
 
 The generations of men to whom theology now ad- 
 dresses itself are and always will be educated and schooled 
 to the scientific ideal of God. They think of the First 
 Cause as a constant Cause, upholding all things by the 
 breath of his spirit. They think of this Power as eternal, 
 
NEW TEST OF FAITH. 53 
 
 incessant and irresistible. They have come to think of the 
 cosmos as a system in which order, harmony and law are 
 universal, a system moving majestically to its appointed 
 end. The words applied to Jehovah by James exactly fit 
 the conception of Deity which science offers to the modern 
 mind : "Without variableness or shadow of turning." The 
 words which Isaiah puts into Jehovah's mouth might well 
 be uttered by the God which science holds up to us, who 
 might say of his decree, "It shall not return unto me void, 
 but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall 
 prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." It must be the 
 aim of the theologians to square their conception of God 
 with such an ideal as that. There can be but one purpose 
 in the creation and but one direction in which it shall move. 
 And men who have learned this in their schools and in 
 their colleges will not be likely to accept any narrower and 
 less reassuring views in their churches. In the conception 
 of Fatherhood which is taking possession of the Christian 
 consciousness is to come the reconciliation of the contra- 
 dictions of the human and the divine will, the episode of 
 evil and the final prevalence of good, the battles of time 
 and the peace of the eternities. In this grand ideal the 
 thought of sovereignty is fused with the idea of love. The 
 absoluteness of God is wedded to the tenderness of God. 
 The will of God is seen as the activity of the affections of 
 God, and moves on the will of man through the affections 
 of man. The divine persuasions are amply strong to ensure 
 the divine success, and by processes which do not infringe 
 on the integrity of the human freedom. 
 
 Put such a faith as this into the heart of mankind and 
 we shall see new interest in the churches. Put such a faith 
 
54 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 into the heart of the churches and we shall see them turn- 
 ing to the masses with a new interest. Orthodoxy will have 
 to ccme back to Edwards' conviction of the sovereignty of 
 God or cease to have any real hold on those who have 
 learned to have faith in the cosmos and in its Infinite 
 Euler. Universalism wdll have to get a new hold upon its 
 own cardinal doctrine or lose all chance of leadership in 
 the practical mission work among living, thinking men. 
 The age when the church shows a real power over the lives 
 of men is the age in which it shows the profoundest faith 
 in the life of God imparting itself to men. The great 
 worker and the great warrior is the great believer in God 
 and in his prevailing might. 
 
 It is a splendid faith which the shipbuilder shows, who 
 takes the trees of the forest or the steel from the furnaces 
 and builds them into a ship that he declares will stand the 
 pounding of the waves and the hurtling of the tempest, and 
 will float and steer and drive her way to port. But that 
 is a finer faith which moves the heart of the navigator 
 who takes that ship from the builder's hand and trusts his 
 own life on her decks and his own treasures in her hold, 
 and steers her fearlessly out, actually to try conclusions 
 with the gales, and find a way across the field of the sea, 
 where no keel leaves a sign for others to follow. So that 
 is the most signal and the most vital religious faith which 
 takes the creed of a great theology and embarks on it for 
 a voyage to the great human utilities — the relief of the 
 oppressed, the saving of the lost, the succor of the weak. 
 This dear church of ours has to meet this last and decisive 
 test of religious vitality, courage and faith. Do we believe 
 enough in God to carry his message boldly to his children 
 
NEIV TEST OF FAITH. 66 
 
 in the firm faith that he will prosper our work and ensure 
 its success ? We say we believe in the sovereignty of God ; 
 do wo believe it enough to go into the thick of any battle 
 and risk everything "in his name"? 
 
 But if one great test of our call to live is to be our 
 faith in the absolute God who is the absolute Love, another 
 test, as severe and as practical, is our faith in the worth and 
 the salvability of human nature. The doctrine that all 
 men are to enter into the blessed life means that all are 
 worthy of that life; that all are capable of it. It carries 
 with it a tremendous faith in man and belief in his 
 capacities. The most conspicuous and repellant thing about 
 the theology of Edwards was his utter misconception of 
 human nature and his total failure to give it its proper 
 valuation in the scheme of things. For him man was a 
 creature totally corrupt and incapable of any good act. 
 The deepest root of his being was grafted in sin. He was 
 an enemy to God, hating God, and eager to pull him from 
 his throne. He is a viper, spitting out venom against God. 
 His young, the little children in his homes, were "young 
 vipers, and infinitely more hateful than vipers, and in a 
 most miserable condition, as well as grown persons." Of 
 course for such a being as this hell was plenty good and 
 the wrath and hatred of God only a proper attribute of 
 the divine mind. But we have entirely dismissed this 
 estimate of man and give it no room in our thought. It 
 is a horrible and blasphemous caricature of the children 
 of the most high God. The man whom Edwards thought 
 he saw walking about the earth as his neighbor, friend, or 
 child, never existed save in his own diseased imagination. 
 He was a theological fiction. Such a poor spiritual orphan, 
 
56 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 such a starvling of virtue, such a paragon of corruption 
 never dwelt on all the face of the earth. 
 
 So, therefore, the most radical change in theology in 
 the past hundred years — a change wrought jointly by the 
 larger religious view and the increasing light of science — 
 has been the change in our conception of man. Eeligion, 
 speaking in the Gospel of Jesus, sanely read now and intel- 
 ligently heard, has called him the child of God. When 
 Jesus put the universal prayer into men's lips and bade us 
 all say "Our Father," he forever silenced the protest of 
 those who would limit the paternity of God to the few who 
 have become like him in spirit. Science, speaking from her 
 new studies and brighter light, calls him the crown of the 
 creation. The sociologist pronounces him an individual in 
 an indivisible family, a developing soul, working off the 
 brute inheritance which holds over from the past, a scholar 
 under training for eternal life. This is the man that is — 
 sinful, but not fatally corrupt; depraved, but capable of 
 purity and rectitude; misled and stumbling and blinded, 
 but groping after the light, seeking the right road, never 
 content in his wanderings from home ; coming up into light, 
 not plunging into deeper darkness ; on his way home to his 
 Father's house, beginning to show gleams and flashes of 
 angelic light in his countenance. He is not the poor, 
 crawling worm, the venomous snake, the incarnate devil 
 he was once deemed. The real man has been discovered. 
 He is a son of God, a brother of Jesus the Christ, an angel 
 in the making. He has good red blood in his veins. It is 
 the very tide God poured into them out of his own life. 
 He is a prince now ! He will be a king by and by ! Only 
 give his Father time to train him and his Elder Brother 
 
NEIV TEST OF FAITH. . 57 
 
 time to lead him up, and at last all the sons of the morning 
 will hail him as brother and peer whom God has made a 
 little lower than the angels and crowned with glory and 
 honor ! 
 
 Now, if we believe in such a human nature as that — 
 and it is our frequent boast that we do — we are in duty 
 bound to stand to our creed; and the times are certain to 
 give us the most severe strain that such a faith and fidelity 
 to it can sustain. We shall be summoned to prove our 
 loyalty to our brother man by coming to his rescue when 
 we find him in his sins — by recognizing him under a dif- 
 ferent-colored skin from our own; by acknowledging his 
 kinship when he belongs to a -different race or nation. It 
 takes a strong faith to stand up against modern conditions, 
 the reaction toward savagery and caste and the lust for 
 rule, and assert the doctrine of the divinity of man ! All 
 the reviving spirit of race prejudice, of class distinctions, of 
 international hatreds, is a challenge to the Christian doc- 
 trine of man's kinship under God and through God to all 
 his fellowmen. The effort to crowd the negro into an estate 
 of permanent inferiority is a fiat denial of the divine in 
 the human. So is the mad and brutal treatment of the 
 Chinaman within our boundaries, and the Filipino in 
 his own land. The spirit which scorns, which hates, which 
 despises man, is a spirit of unbelief. It discredits the doc- 
 trine of the divine in man. If offers insult to God's life 
 and image incarnate in human form. If we are to be true 
 to our own faiths, we must be counted invariably upon the 
 side of him whose humanity is slighted, and by this slight, 
 whose divinity is treated with impiety. God is going to 
 save all these people in his world — black, white and brown ; 
 
58 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 laborer and capitalist ; unionist and non-unionist ; rich man 
 and poor man; degraded negroes and undeveloped Fil- 
 ipinos, and lazy Indians. They are not to be cast out from 
 his prosperous creation. There is no longer, for us at least, 
 any refuse heap of the cosmos upon which they may 
 cast. There is not one of them that can be spared from the 
 company of the redeemed when God counts his flocks in 
 the great day of the consummation of all things. And so 
 there is no excuse nor pretext for us to despise what God 
 values, and what we ourselves profess to believe will one 
 day flower out into the bloom of a purified life. The Uni- 
 versalism of the future will be counted no universalism at 
 all unless it enter heart and soul into the work, personal, 
 practical, particular, of rescue and of redemption for the 
 souls and bodies of the weaker and the wicked half of 
 society. We need a deeper faith in men, a heartier love of 
 them as brother men, a purer reverence for them as God's 
 men, made in his image, and meant to share his life. And 
 here is the supreme test to which we are to come at last. 
 
 In our earliest readings of American history I sup- 
 pose we all felt that the greatest peril to this land was in 
 the days when the weak colonies lay open to the attack of 
 savage foes, or stronger enemies from across the seas. Later 
 came Mr. John Fiske to tell us that the "critical period of 
 American history" occurred in the years in which they 
 had not found one another, and discord among themselves 
 threatened worse things than the king's soldiers. We who 
 lived through the Civil War thought that the hardest 
 strain. But we who have studied the land of late years 
 must have felt that we have come to a greater, a more 
 vital crisis, in these doubtful times in which it is still 
 
NEJV TEST OF FAITH. 59 
 
 uncertain whether we can keep America American, true to 
 the principles on which her life was begun, to which it was 
 rededicated when the Union was preserved. The hardest 
 strain on our national life is to come in keeping the spirit 
 of that life — freedom, equality, justice for all ; the right to 
 be one's self, the government of the community by the peo- 
 ple of the community, the supremacy of the law over the 
 mob, the open door of opportunity to every citizen alike. 
 Can America live up to her light? That is the crucial 
 question in the land today. It is the same question which 
 comes to our dear church. Can we live in the rare and 
 pure atmosphere of our own high faith? Can we achieve 
 the trust in God and man for which it calls? Can we 
 show the love of men, the care for their salvation, the 
 interest in bringing them to God which our theories about 
 them lay upon us ? If the nation's flag flies only as a sym- 
 bol of empire, of greed for rule and for gain, then the 
 decline of our power is at hand. If the banner of our 
 faith symbolizes nothing more than a theological opinion, 
 or a desire for denominational prestige, we might as well 
 haul it down, for it is a signal of decay. I pray that it 
 may mean more than this; that it may rally us all for 
 works of trust in God and trust in man ; for worship and 
 for brotherhood; for the faith which removes mountains 
 and the love which never fails. The years will tell. May 
 we win from them a verdict of praise. May we not be 
 condemned to hear the dreadful sentence, "The kingdom of 
 God shall be taken from you and be given to a nation 
 bringing forth fruits thereof"! But may our hearts be 
 gladdened by that cheering word, "Thou hast been faithful 
 over a few things; I will make thee ruler over many 
 things." 
 
Reviewing Ministerial Ground/ 
 
 s. H. m'collester, d. d. 
 
 Within the radius of fifty miles from our present 
 location, we think, more Universalist ministers have been 
 born and sent out into the world to proclaim the ultimate 
 salvation of all souls than any other area of the same di- 
 mensions to be found in this or any other country; and 
 we have come to realize that a land is really valuable just 
 in proportion to the men it has produced. What would 
 Concord be were it not for the blessings pronounced upon 
 it by Emerson, Alcott, Thoreau and Hawthorne? What 
 would Stratford-upon-Avon, Melrose on the Tweed, Athens 
 near the Pireus, or Bethlehem of Judea be without the 
 notables that they have given to the world? This is due 
 to the fact that mind is more than matter; that the spir- 
 itual is superior to the physical. 
 
 About one hundred and fifty years ago men began to 
 think and act whose hearts w^re intuitive of the love of an 
 All-Father, and as they advanced in thought and fervor 
 of soul they could not but proclaim a gospel of gladdest 
 news. The world had been long waiting for these tidings. 
 This was particularly true of Elhanan Winchester, Caleb 
 Eich, Adam Streeter, Thomas Barnes and others; and 
 these wrought wondrously well within our prescribed lim- 
 its. One labored more or less in Warwick and Eichmond, 
 another in Westmoreland, and another in Jeffrey. This 
 was about the time that John Murray landed upon the 
 New Jersey shore and preached in Potter's church. While 
 
 »At the Winchester Centennial service, Thursday evening, October i. 
 (60) 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 61 
 
 these divines were sowing precious seed as best they 
 could throughout this region there were born within its 
 precincts several boys destined to become valiant and 
 famous men, Tliey were receptive of the love of God that 
 seemed to be permeating the very air, blossoming in the 
 vales, and flaring on the plains and hills. Their minds 
 could read of the love of God as portrayed in the Scrip- 
 tures and the works of nature. They soon came to feel 
 that good is greater than evil, right stronger than wrong; 
 that joy would supplant sorrow, and that the kingdom of 
 God would ultimately triumph over the kingdoms of this 
 world. 
 
 Now let us by memory and mental vision call up these 
 characters and hold them in review, that we may see them 
 as they were, and so be stimulated to press on in faith- 
 fulness to God and man. 
 
 The first to come naturally before us is the Eev. 
 Hosea Ballon, born 1771, whose birthplace is but a few 
 miles eastward from this place. His was a picturesque 
 and sunny home, smiled upon by rarest beauties of vale, 
 hill and star. He early fell in love with his nativity, as 
 he has often affirmed. As he grew in body he waxed 
 strong and stronger in mind. He was fond of labor and 
 delighted to investigate. The Bible was about the only 
 book that he could obtain to read, and this he kept near 
 at hand in private and public places. Searching questions 
 while a youth kept arising in his mind, as "Why has God 
 made me to desire the salvation of all souls ?" "Can elec- 
 tion and reprobation be true ?" Through Scriptural study, 
 prayer, reasoning and communing with nature he was led 
 to believe in the ultimate salvation of all souls. 
 
62 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 In the fall of 1790 he attended the New England 
 Convention of Universalists at Oxford, Mass. In this 
 meeting by entreaty he was induced to preach. During the 
 discourse he related his experience as a Christian. He cap- 
 tured his hearers, even the ministers present, so that, as 
 Rev. Elhanan Winchester was delivering the last sermon 
 of the convention, the young evangelist being in the pulpit 
 with him, he pressed the Bible, taking it from the desk, to 
 the young man's heart, saying, "Hold to this book as the 
 written Jehovah." Upon which Eev. Joab Young quickly 
 rose and said, "I charge you, young brother, 'preach the 
 word.' " Thus Hosea Ballon was consecrated to the min- 
 istry, unexpectedly and without asking for it, being nine- 
 teen years old. 
 
 For some reason the friends of Hosea Ballon as he 
 entered the ministry were disposed to look upon him as 
 a young Moses, who would smite the red sea of error with 
 the rod of truth, that the people might go free. They 
 discovered at once that he was a stockholder in the bank of 
 original thought; that there was a close relationship be- 
 tween his head and heart; that the former thought and 
 felt, and the latter felt and thought. Lamartine has said : 
 "There are certain men that nature has endowed with dis- 
 tinct privileges. They do not aspire but they mount by 
 an irresistible force from the sole superiority of specific 
 ascendency." Thus it was with Hosea Ballon, rising to pre- 
 eminence in spite of himself. Star after star may dim; 
 stone after stone may crumble to dust; kings and war- 
 riors may be forgotten ; but so long as human hearts shall 
 pant for the love of God and pray for the salvation of 
 the human race, the name of Hosea Ballou will be held 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 63 
 
 in memory's treasury where moth and rust do not cor- 
 rupt, but love and gratitude brighten through the ages. 
 
 A few weeks previous to his departure from the earth 
 I saw him as he rose amidst a vast throng of jubilant 
 hearts in Boylston Hall, in Boston, to respond at a- May 
 festival of Universalists to the toast, "Our Denominational 
 Fathers." There he was, six feet tall, head crowned with 
 silver, cheeks flushed with rose-tints, form finely propor- 
 tioned and erect, his head well balanced; he looked as 
 though he was fully ripe to go hence, being eighty-one 
 years old. As he began to speak his voice was clear and 
 strong, his gestures graceful, his statements forceful and 
 logical, his head and heart were united in the effort. He 
 soon repeated the passage, telling how "a handful of corn 
 fell in the earth on the tops of the mountains, the fruit 
 thereof shake like Lebanon and fill the valleys." As he 
 finished the reading his face shone like a branch of stars, 
 and he said, "I have lived to see this Scripture fulfilled. 
 The few kernels of spiritual corn that were cast into the 
 soil of our Mount Zion took root and so grew as to be 
 yielding already sixty and a hundred fold." In substance 
 he continued, "Fifty years ago he little dreamed that his 
 mortal eye would ever behold what he sees today and on 
 many other occasions, proving to him that millions of 
 hearts were embracing and cherishing the Fatherhood of 
 God, the Sonship of Christ and the brotherhood of man. 
 His great concern was that his brethren should live their 
 blessed faith, and then they would speedily convert the 
 world to its acceptance." For twenty minutes this venerable 
 divine spoke with the tongue of a Cicero and the logic of 
 Paul, causing all hearts to burn with gratitude and respond 
 
64 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 with a loud "Amen" as he sat down. The following month, 
 while he was preparing to attend a Universalist state con- 
 vention, he was suddenly and happily translated, having 
 finished his course and gained the victory. 
 
 His life will bear scrutinizing, for he lived the doctrine 
 he taught. It required a great man to invent and pro- 
 mulgate successfully Calvinism, and it demanded a great 
 man to prove its falsity by the Scriptures, reason and 
 nature. Hosea Ballou did do this and did pave the way 
 for the overthrow of the doctrine of endless woe and prove 
 the positiveness of full punishment of every sin com- 
 mitted. 
 
 It is a great privilege to visit the birthplace of Martin 
 Luther at Eisleben, who was brave enough to tear off the 
 monkish cowl, go to the diet of Worms, teach justification 
 by faith and works, and plead for freedom of conscience. 
 True men esteem it a great blessing to visit the little 
 church of Frederic W. Eobertson at Brighton, England, in 
 which he preached so many masterly sermons, and stand 
 by his grave, on whose tablet his many friends have placed, 
 "We have lost him as a man, but gained him as a spirit." 
 So it must be our joy to visit the birthplace of Hosea 
 Ballou, and his grave in Mount Auburn, for the life he 
 lived, the doctrine he taught and the riches he has be- 
 queathed to the world. 
 
 In 1782 Sebastian Streeter came into this world at 
 Monroe, Mass., and not long after this, his father moved 
 his family to Chesterfield, N. H. Here, in 1791, Eussell 
 Streeter was born. Subsequently the family moved to 
 Swanzey, where the boys mentioned were brought up on 
 a farm, learning to know what hard work meant. They 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 65 
 
 were bright youths and eager to learn. They made the 
 most possible out of the public school in their district, and 
 became readers of about all the books they could obtain. 
 Sebastian was straight and tall, temperament active, eye 
 sharp and dark. The neighbors were wont to say of him, 
 "a handsome youth." Eussell was more stocky, of sandy 
 complexion, having a blue eye, and full of vim. The 
 leisure hours of these boys were devoted to study and read- 
 ing, so as they increased in years they were enlarged in 
 knowledge. In the last part of their teens they took up 
 teaching and made it a success. At his majority Sebastian 
 decided upon studying law. At this period Universalism 
 seemed to be in the very air of this region. The father of 
 these sons became imbued with it and so did the boys. Se- 
 bastian was induced to talk upon it on a Sunday in the 
 schoolhouse in what is now East Swanzey. It was crowded 
 full of curious listeners. He had so prepared himself as 
 to surprise the people with his knowledge of the new faith, 
 and his eloquence so captured them that he was urged by 
 his father and others to leave the law and devote himself 
 to preaching the Gospel, which he soon decided to do. 
 While preparing he felt forced to preach enough to pay 
 his own way. This he did to the great satisfaction of his 
 friends and the people to whom he ministered. He soon 
 had calls to preach in Vermont, Maine and Massachusetts, 
 and after several settlements he was settled in Boston, 
 where he remained as preacher and pastor for thirty-four 
 years, and died there at eighty-four years of age, having 
 lived and proved himself a worthy disciple of the Master. 
 As I was wont to see him in his last years upon earth, I 
 could but admire the form, the fatvi and the man, and 
 
66 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 could readily understand why he had been a favorite 
 preacher at conventions and public meetings, and why he 
 should have been called upon to marry more couples and 
 attend more funerals than any other preacher of Boston 
 before or since his time. He had the power of making 
 others feel easy in his presence, causing them to depart 
 from him with pleasant memories. He achieved a great 
 work for our church, and went to his rest full of years, 
 bearing with him rich treasures to be used in heaven. 
 
 Eussell was not so even in his makeup as his brother, 
 but in some respects was more gifted and overpowering. 
 He was apt and witty. Not unf requently he would so mix 
 pathos with humor that the hearer would hardly know 
 whether to weep or laugh. One minute he would appeal 
 to heaven in a manner to lift his hearers into the higher re- 
 gions, and the next minute, with compressed lips and flash- 
 ing eyes, he would denounce some heresy or doctrine that 
 smelt of sulphurous fumes, making you wonder how any- 
 body could believe such nonsense. And then with sweeping 
 eloquence would laud faith, hope and charity. At times 
 he preached tremendous sermons, and then again he would 
 fall below high water mark. He did not rise to heavenly 
 activities till he had passed the line of four score years. 
 
 Samuel C. Loveland was born in Gilsum in 1787, 
 somewhat more than a score of miles from Winchester. 
 He was by nature serious, persistant and bound to suc- 
 ceed. He had an insatiable desire for knowledge. He 
 early came to feel that man with the help of God must 
 largely depend upon himself for an education. So he 
 early formed the habit of self-application, making the 
 most possible out of spare time. It was not long before he 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 67 
 
 had a good knowledge of English, Latin, Greek, French, 
 German and other languages. Through his study of the 
 Scriptures he was brought to believe in the restitution of 
 all men, and so entered the ministry to proclaim this truth. 
 He was ordained to his calling at Westmoreland in 1814, 
 during a convention. He received the appellation, out of 
 respect, "the walking dictionary," for he was accustomed 
 to walk to his appointments, were they not more than forty 
 miles away, and while he was doing this he was studying, 
 either preparing his sermon or translating some foreign 
 language into English. As I listened to his preaching, it 
 was plain, instructive and stimulating. He might well be 
 styled at his maturity a man of universal acquirements. 
 Because of his much learning many young men desirous 
 of entering the ministry studied with him, and were led 
 to love and honor him as a cultured minister and instructor. 
 His name ranks high on the roll of the Universalist 
 Church. 
 
 Less than forty miles from the center of our circle, 
 in Lempster, was reared another son, though feeble in body, 
 till he arrived to manhood. He revelled in the hills, val- 
 leys, lakes and forests of his nativity. While he enjoyed 
 fair academic training, he was largely a self-made man, 
 becoming so learned as to be an eminent instructor in an 
 academy and in college. This man was no other than 
 Eev. Dr. A. A. Miner, LL.D. What a bright and shining 
 light he was as a preacher, pastor, theologian, reformer, and 
 president of Tufts College! In his prime he was one of 
 the deepest and boldest thinkers, bravest and most eloquent 
 speakers in America. He dared to publish his convictions, 
 But few wanted to face him as an opponent. With his 
 
68 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 knowledge of men, with his logic and theology, he was all- 
 overpowering in speech and argument. He was tall, slim, 
 straight, surmounted with a thoughtful face, expressive 
 eye and broad and high forehead. In form, voice, manner 
 and speech he resembled Gladstone. He was a terse, vivid 
 and graphic writer. He must be placed among the greatest 
 preachers that America has produced. When he died, all 
 who knew him lamented. Miss Frances Willard wrote of 
 him upon his death, "Every phase of that modem move- 
 ment which seeks to enthrone the spirit of Christ in the 
 customs of society and the laws of the land has suffered 
 an irreparable loss. His truest emblem is the oak which 
 stretches out its roots as the foundation of a wide coronal 
 of leaves and is at once the steadiest and most hospitable 
 of trees, a great sheltering nature that gives repose to all 
 that dwells beneath its peaceful shade." Dr. Lorimer said 
 of him, "He was a grand, kingly man in his presence, in 
 his spirit, in his self-sacrifice, in his work, in his life and 
 in his death. He was fearless as the sun, tender as the 
 moon, and terrible as an army with banners. He stood for 
 righteousness in the name of truth and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." 
 
 About twenty miles to the westward, in Vermont, is 
 the town of Guilford — hilly and broken into lowlands and 
 highlands. It has been noted for its farming interests, 
 but still more for producing good men and women. Here, 
 in 1796, originated Eev. Dr. Hosea Ballou, 2d, born of 
 Baptist parents, and early trained with other children after 
 the strictest manner in keeping with the religious views 
 of their parents. He was schooled as best the times would 
 allow. Wlien but nineteen he was converted to Univer- 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 69 
 
 salisni, devoting himself strenuously to the study of the 
 Bihle and all other books that would help him in seeking 
 the truth. He studied Latin and Greek till he could read 
 these languages readily, and so be greatly helped in his 
 study of ecclesiastical history, which he mastered as but 
 few have ever done. In due time he was ordained as a 
 minister of the Gospel; held a settlement in Stafford, 
 Conn., afterward in Roxbury, and then in Medford, Mass. 
 He came to be regarded as a sound and learned preacher, 
 not given to display in the pulpit, but to imparting much 
 knowledge and wisdom. He was every whit a thorough 
 man and a rare scholar in certain departments of learning. 
 So he was sought to edit the Universalist Expositor, and 
 afterward the Quarterly, which under his guidance and pen 
 came to be a periodical of learning and authority. At 
 length he published a most valuable work, entitled "History 
 of Ancient Universalism," which v/as tlie outcome of pa- 
 tient research and erudite scliolarship. He clearly showed 
 that Universalism is no new doctrine, but as old as Chris- 
 tianity itself. Because of his scholarship Harvard Uni- 
 versity conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Divin- 
 ity. As Tufts College was about to open, he was the man 
 sought above all others as its first president. In this office 
 he not only showed tliat his knowledge was general but 
 specific in many directions. He was an honor to the col- 
 lege. His mild and loving spirit and tact to impart knowl- 
 edge won for him the esteem of the faithful who came 
 under his charge. He was a Christian scholar without re- 
 proach. It may truthfully be said of him in the language 
 of the poet : 
 
 His thoughts were as a pyramid up-piled, 
 On whose fair top an angel sat and smiled, 
 Yet in his heart was he a simple child. 
 
70 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Hosea Ballou, 3d, had two brothers, Levi and Williara, 
 who followed in his footsteps, becoming able and successful 
 preachers of Universalism. They were scholarly and nat- 
 urally strong moral and spiritual men. By their fruits 
 they published themselves as most worthy preachers and 
 pastors. As they passed up higher they left no spot or 
 blemish on their characters or ministry. 
 
 Hosea Faxon Ballou, son of Father Ballou, started in 
 this world at Dana, Mass., in 1799. He was long settled 
 in Wilmington, Vt., where he made his name famous as 
 a man and a preacher. He asserted in word and deed 
 that his father had no sympathy whatever in what was 
 termed the "Death and Glory" idea. He held his pas- 
 torate to extreme old age, finally passing away loved and 
 honored by all who knew him. Eev. Massena B. Ballou, 
 another son of Dana, was born in 1800, and departed this 
 life well known for his good works. Eev. David Ballou, 
 from ten years of age was raised in Eichmond and did 
 honor to the name he bore. Eev. Moses Ballou, D. D., his 
 son, was bom in Monson, Mass., in 1811. He became a 
 distinguished clergyman, and was regarded as one of our 
 most brainy men and was settled pastor over some of our 
 largest churches. He was quick-witted and sharp in re- 
 partee. He surely was about all Ballou. 
 
 Amory Dwight Mayo came into this world in War- 
 wick, Mass., in 1833. He has worked in our ranks and 
 in those of the Unitarians. He has been noted as an elo- 
 quent preacher and elegant rhetorician. He is still living, 
 and devoting himself to educational work in the South 
 with a success which has commanded national attention. 
 
 Eev. Asa Wheaton, born in Eichmond in 1794, was a 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 71 
 
 nephew of Father Ballou. He is reported to have been a 
 good preacher and pastor. Rev. Zebulon Streeter, who pre- 
 sided on the occasion when the Winchester Profession of 
 Faith was adopted, may have belonged to Kichmond, for 
 before he entered the ministry, in 1776, he went from Rich- 
 mond as a brave soldier to repel the British from Canada. 
 
 As we proceed we find that I. D. Williamson, D. D., 
 though born in Pomfret, Vt., in 1807, entered upon his 
 ministry in and about Alstead in this state. In the course 
 of events he became one of our greatest preachers. He 
 was firm and strong in build, with a large and fine-shaped 
 head set upon broad shoulders. He was quick to see and 
 ready to understand. His rhetoric was clear and his logic 
 unyielding. His sermons were not lengthy, but full of 
 meat. He was a deep reasoner and of a philosophical 
 mind. As a man I knew him to be warm-hearted and full 
 of good cheer, even after his body had become weak from 
 disease. His faith and trust in God as the Father of all 
 souls were unfailing helps all through his life, blossoming 
 out in fullness as he passed into the fadeless light, leaving 
 a memory redolent with sweetness and Christian fortitude. 
 He did a superb work for his church and humanity. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Lucius R. Paige, born in Hardwick, Mass., 
 became our great biblical scholar, and left to our church 
 a grand life. His Commentary on the New Testament 
 ranks among the best and highest for scholarship and ac- 
 curacy. Thomas Jefferson Sawyer, originating at Read- 
 ing, Vt., in 1804, was a marked boy and became a dis- 
 tinguished scholar and preacher. Though his birthplace is 
 a few miles beyond our range, yet he comes within it, as 
 he prepared for the ministry in tliis region. At length he 
 
72 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 was settled in New York City as an able and eloquent 
 preacher. By and by he was placed at the head of Clinton 
 Liberal Institute, and afterward became dean of the theo- 
 logical school of Tufts College. He was in his prime a 
 splendid specimen of a man in all respects, preserving 
 himself the same noble character till he was summoned on 
 high at the age of ninety-three years. 
 
 Eev. Dolphus Skinner, D. D., and his brother Warren, 
 were sons of Westmoreland, born in 1800 and 1803. They 
 were descendants of honorable stock, becoming stalwart and 
 popular preachers. They studied with Father Loveland in 
 their preparation for the ministry. As I saw them in ad- 
 vanced years and heard them speak in public meetings, I 
 was made to feel that they were noble and efficient workers 
 in the spread of the truth. They were heavily laden with 
 good works as they went up higher. To Warren while liv- 
 ing in Westmoreland was given a gifted son, Eev. C. A. 
 Skinner, who is at present one of our ablest and most 
 gifted Nestors in the ministry, who long since made him- 
 self deserving of the doctorate, and upon whom some of 
 our colleges should hasten to bestow the honor for the 
 sake of honor. 
 
 Then Otis A. Skinner, D. D., was born in Vermont, 
 but came forth as a minister from Langdon, some thirty 
 miles from this center. He was a student of Father Love- 
 land, and was christened by not a few, "the handsome min- 
 ister." Surely outwardly he was such, but could not have 
 been such had it not been for handsomeness within. He 
 was a settled preacher in Boston for many years, beloved 
 and highly honored. From the Warren Street church he 
 was called to the Orchard Street church. New York City. 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 73 
 
 He was largely instrumental in raising the first $100,000 
 to establish Tufts College, and afterward became the pres- 
 ident of Lombard University, Galesburg, 111. He earned 
 high honors in his long and faithful ministry. 
 
 If Richmond can not boast of being first-class in grow- 
 ing corn, it can in producing ministers, for she gave to 
 our denomination, in 1788, David Pickering, who accom- 
 plished a deal of good for our cause in a long and faithful 
 ministry. Though Rev. Caleb Rich was not born within 
 its limits, but in Sutton, Mass., in 1750, yet he was settled 
 for some time in Warwick, just on the border of Rich- 
 mond, and worked more or less within its precincts, doing 
 an immense amount of good in presenting the truth so as 
 to enlighten the people. Pie was settled in Warwick about 
 the time that Father Murray arrived in America. 
 
 Returning to Westmoreland we find that, in 1803, 
 Rev. Josiah Britton had his birth there, who became a 
 useful and true expounder of our faith ; and later Rev. 
 Jotham Paine and Rev. Lee M'Collester, D. D., had their 
 ingress to this life in this goodly town, standing, perhaps, 
 next to Winchester in notableness of liberal Christian 
 work. 
 
 Revs. Lemuel and John H. Willis came in their early 
 years to reside in Westmoreland. Their father was made 
 a convert to Universalism by Rev. Elhanan Winchester; 
 and the sons were students of Rev. S. C. Loveland. Lemuel, 
 I know from personal experience always preached well, and 
 held important settlements in our Zion. John was usually 
 very enthusiastic in the pulpit, and by spells preached great 
 sermons. 
 
 Revs. Joseph and William N. Barber, if they were not 
 
H CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 born in Alstead, they were brought up there, the former 
 opening his eyes upon the mortal in 1801 and the latter 
 some years afterward. Joseph first prepared himself to 
 practice medicine, but later of his own accord gave his 
 attention and devotion to the ministry. It was said of 
 him in his preaching that he was like a four-ox team 
 hitched to a plow, moving everything that came in his way, 
 leaving a clean track behind him. He was a grand man 
 and an excellent minister. William, perhaps, was more 
 pleasing in the pulpit and graceful in delivery. They were 
 both excellent men and honored preachers. 
 
 The Marvins, Eev. Levi C, born in 1808, and Josiah, 
 in 1817, in Alstead, were of superior stock. The first, after 
 he was fitted for the ministry, went West, where he spent 
 his life in the Master's service, while Josiah labored in this 
 vicinity and in the West and in the East. His last settle- 
 ment was in Nashua, N. H. 
 
 Another town within our range, and formerly of 
 Cheshire county, is Lempster, the birthplace of A. A. 
 Miner, previously mentioned, and of the Spauldings, 
 Asa and Willard, S. A. Parker, Carlos Wilcox, George 
 Severence, Hiram Beckwith, Tracy Spencer, Lucius Spen- 
 cer, making nine Universalist ministers of rare talent ema- 
 nating from this retired town. Asa Spaulding quickly ran 
 his race, being called to higher service, but he lived here 
 long enough to prove himself a loyal man and a good 
 preacher. Willard held several important settlements. He 
 was a man of intensely earnest convictions, yet tender as 
 a child. Wlien at his best he was grand indeed. His 
 oratory was peculiar to himself, producing at times a pow- 
 erful effect upon his hearers. He was made a Doctor of 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 75 
 
 Divinity by Buchtel College during his residence in Cin- 
 cinnati, liev. S. A. Parker spent most of his useful life 
 in Vermont, being popular and fondly loved by throngs of 
 friends. He enriched by his ministry many souls on earth, 
 and thereby was able to bear a rich character to the re- 
 deemed on high. 
 
 Eev. Judson Fisher, of Walpole, was born in 1824. 
 He became a strong and scholarly preacher, laboring for 
 many years in this vicinity. The others named were marked 
 men in their way, especially Carlos Wilcox and Lucius 
 Spencer. 
 
 Eev. Edwin Davis honored Marlboro by being born in 
 it in 1821. He fitted for the ministry under William N. 
 Barber and Rev. Charles Woodhouse. I well knew him to 
 be of a saintly character, a good minister, and one that 
 enriched the world by being in it. He had several settle- 
 ments in this county, and afterward preached in West 
 Acton, Canton and Rockport, Mass. He was secretary for 
 many years of the State Convention of Massachusetts and 
 also secretary of the Fellowsliip Committee of that ])ody. 
 While he never made any display in whatever position he 
 was placed, he did live a great, good life. 
 
 Rev. L. J. Fletcher, D. D., was born in Langdon in 
 1818. He came into this world with a good ph3'^sique and 
 a strong mind. He became a fine scholar, an excellent 
 teacher and a great preacher. He was a cogent reasoner, 
 a ready debater and an elegant writer. His ideas at times 
 were so expressed as to remind us of pictures painted on 
 glass, which are to bo admired from both sides. He had 
 a classical face and forehead. In his happiest efforts in 
 the pulpit he would often take his listeners to the top of 
 
76 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Pisgah, whence they could view the promised land. He 
 was the author of several of our best Sunday School books. 
 He loved children and understood their wants and was 
 able to enthuse them with ambition to become scholars and 
 devout Christians. 
 
 Stoddard in 1819 gave our church a son by the name 
 of William Wallace Wilson, who became a worthy preacher. 
 His ministry was confined mostly to Massachusetts. 
 
 Peterboro comes within our circle, and she produced 
 for our church two ministers, Solomon Laws and John 
 Wallace. The first was born in 1806 and the latter in 
 1784. The first was a graduate of Dartmouth College, 
 ranking well as a general scholar and especially high in 
 mathematics. 
 
 JafErey early produced a good minister by the name 
 of Thomas Barnes, who, with Adam Streeter and Caleb 
 Eich, became earnest and talented preachers even before 
 they ever saw Father Murray. Mr. Barnes often footed it 
 from JafErey to Richmond to hear the Gospel dispensed by 
 Eev. Mr. Eich ; and after he himself was consecrated to 
 the ministry he preached for some time as an itinerant in 
 the Bay State, and at length went to Maine, spending the 
 remainder of his mortal life there, and came to be widely 
 known as Father Barnes. His name there now is the 
 synonym of the true Christian. Before he passed to the 
 higher life he was regarded as an attractive preacher and 
 a devout Christian. 
 
 Eev. Dr. William S. Balch hailed, by birth in 1806, 
 from Andover, Vt., but used to preach more or less in our 
 county, and married his wife in AVinchester. He was an 
 eminent preacher, traveler, lecturer, and book-maker. He 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 77 
 
 filled most acceptably for years some of the leading pulpits 
 of the land. In person he was tall and strong; his coun- 
 tenance was mild, benignant and thoughtful ; he was wont 
 to infuse his soul into his voice and gesture. At times in 
 his discoursing he would electrify his spellbound hearers 
 with a spontaneous burst of eloquence — now he fills their 
 eyes with tears and of a sudden makes them to glisten 
 with sunshine. He had no patience with that doctrine 
 that makes Christ pay the penalty for all the sins of a 
 guilty world. He declared that every sinner must suffer 
 his just punishment for every sin committed, either in 
 this world or the world to come. Mr. Balch raised the 
 funds to establish the theological school at Canton, N. Y. 
 
 Another stanch and cultured minister of our church 
 was Giles Bailey, born at Acworth in 1815. He meant 
 business from the beginning to the end of his mortal ca- 
 reer. He quarried deep and found much gold and many 
 precious stones, which he presented to our church. His 
 sermons and editorials were not still-born; they had open 
 eyes, wide-awake minds and beating hearts. He struck long 
 and valiantly for the redemption of man. As he went out 
 of this world he left a trail of radiant glory behind him. 
 
 In Orange, ]\Iass., some twenty miles to the south of 
 us, Jonathan E. Forrester, D. D., was born in 1826, and 
 Sumner Ellis, D. D., in 1828. Both were my schoolmates 
 under L. J. Fletcher and John S. Lee. The first hurried 
 into the ministry, perhaps from the fact that he was gifted 
 in speech. He held several important charges in his min- 
 istry. He became an able speaker, and was at one time 
 much sought after as a lyceum lecturer. Wliile he com- 
 manded good salaries, he never was disposed to lay aside 
 
78 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 any means for a season of want, so when his health failed 
 he had naught to support him; but as he was a high 
 Mason and had lectured much before the craft, he was 
 graciously remembered. He was a natural orator and an 
 imposing man. But Dr. Ellis was fine in form, mind and 
 heart, a charming soul all through life. He was a many- 
 sided man; he was acquainted with many books, yet really 
 read but few. The Bible was first with him. He found no 
 other poet to surpass David; no other logician to excel 
 Paul, and no other teacher to equal Christ. He loved Em- 
 erson; delighted in Goethe, Shakespeare, Tennyson and 
 Whittier. He revelled in church history and general liter- 
 ature. You read his carefully prepared sermons and you 
 find naught that you would have struck out. The volume 
 of discourses, "Faith and Eighteousness," published since 
 his departure, are crowded with meat and spiritual life. 
 His volume of essays entitled "At His Best" is a classic 
 long to live and be read. His little volume, "Hints to 
 Preachers," contains many gems from his own pen, lus- 
 trous and beautiful and helpful. His "Life of Dr. Chapin" 
 is a grand biography of a grand man. If his was not a 
 long life, it was a full one. Christian, scholarly and re- 
 fined. He was able to show himself to advantage among 
 scholars. While he was an evolutionist, he was as well 
 a revelationist. He loved everybody and lived for all souls, 
 and has taken all in affection home with him to heaven, 
 bidding his throngs of friends left behind, "Come up 
 higher." The name of Sumner Ellis is the synonym of 
 great goodness, of the Christian scholar and of a successful 
 believer and worker in the Universalist Church. 
 
 To the southwest across the Connecticut river in the 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 79 
 
 town of Vernon, Vt., was born in 1830, John S. Lee, D. D., 
 LL. D. He had an insatiable desire to obtain a thorough 
 education. To this end he worked and at length became 
 fitted for Amherst College, graduating from it in 1845, and 
 soon took charge of Mount Caesar Seminary as principal, 
 being the third denominational school started in our 
 church. He taught and preached here for four terms; 
 when not teaching, while settled in Swanzey, he was pur- 
 suing a course of theology under Dr. Hosea Ballon, 2d. 
 In the fall of 1847 he took charge of a new school 
 in West Brattleboro, which became Avidely known as Mel- 
 rose Seminary. Here he had a large and popular school. 
 At length he was induced to go to Lebanon, N. H., taking 
 the principalship of Lebanon Liberal Institute. From this 
 place he changed to South Woodstock, A^t., having super- 
 vision of the Green Mountain Liberal Institute for some 
 seven years, when he went to Canton, N. Y., to teach and 
 fit students for college, anticipating the founding of St. 
 Lawrence University. When the latter was established he 
 became a professor in it, serving for some years as presi- 
 dent, holding his professorship for thirty-four years, or so 
 long as he lived. During this period he made a tour 
 abroad, going as far as through the Holy Land. On 
 his return he wrote and published two volumes, entitled 
 "Nature and Art in the Old World," and "Sacred Cities." 
 He married a gifted and superior woman and they became 
 the parents of two daughters and three sons, all grad- 
 uating from college. One son is professor in Bowdoin Col- 
 lege ; another, John Clarence, D. D., is pastor of the 
 Church of the Eestoration in Philadelphia, and another 
 professor in Johns Hopkins University. One of the daugh- 
 
80 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ters has become very proficient in music and the other as 
 an artist. 
 
 Dr. Lee was a persistent worker and bound to make 
 his a useful life. In this he was eminently successful. 
 Probably he has had as much, if not more, to do in pre- 
 paring young men for the ministry of our church as any 
 other one man. He has been a devoted and Christian scholar 
 in our denominational ranks. His character has been 
 spotless and his life such as to be worthy of imitation. 
 At the ripe age of eighty-two, he was translated with 
 great mental and moral riches to heaven, bequeathing to 
 our church and the world a good name. 
 
 Russell A. Ballou, a native of Monroe, Mass., was 
 one of the students under Dr. Lee at Brattleboro, clear- 
 minded, long-sighted, with many talents, fitting him to 
 become successful in almost any calling he might accept. 
 After his academic studies were finished he pursued a 
 theological course with Hosea Ballou, 2d, and entered the 
 ministry, settling in Bridgewater, Mass., where he achieved 
 an excellent name. In the course of some years he pur- 
 chased the Gospel Banner, becoming editor and publisher 
 of that paper, keeping it a denominational weekly of a high 
 order, having a wide circulation. Here he labored for 
 many years, achieving for church and state grand results. 
 He loved our cause and did what he could for its welfare. 
 
 William W. Hayward was born in Hancock within our 
 realm and wrought for some time in Keene, having settle- 
 ments in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. 
 He was a man of quick sympathies, an earnest temperance 
 worker and an attractive speaker. He wrote a history of 
 his native town. Eri Garfield was a son of Langdon 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 81 
 
 county, starting on his mortal career in 1805. Preparing 
 for our ministry he was first settled in Bethel, Vt., and at 
 length went West, where he preached and labored as a 
 faithful follower of the divine Master and went to his 
 rest in advanced years at Jefferson, Wis., full of hope 
 and satisfying trust. 
 
 There may possibly be others of the translated, whom 
 we have not mentioned. But it has been our aim to recall 
 and recount all the sainted ministers of our faith, who 
 originated within the area examined. 
 
 We have a coterie of old and young ministers still 
 active in the Master's vineyard, doing grand ser\dce in the 
 spread of the Gospel, who had their origin within the 
 prescribed limits. Eev. Dr. James Shrigley, having al- 
 ready experienced ninet3^-one summers, and yet is enjoying 
 very good health and preaching in word and deed every 
 day of his life. He is the oldest Universalist minister 
 now remaining on earth. Verily, he is the Nestor of our 
 church today. He has always been known as a Christian 
 gentleman. He has had settlements in Baltimore, Eead- 
 ing, Pa., Eichmond, Va., and Philadelphia, where he still 
 resides. He was born in England and moved to Putney, 
 Vt., when quite young. There he was converted to Uni- 
 versalism and studied for the ministry in Brattleboro, close 
 by his home. He preached in this vicinity for some years 
 with popular acceptance until he was called to Baltimore 
 to take charge of one of our largest churches. With great 
 pleasure we can rightfully claim him as one of the gifted 
 ones of the region that has been so prolific in producing 
 builders in our church. Then we have Lee S. McCollester, 
 of Detroit, where he has been settled for fourteen years 
 
82 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 and lifted a debt of some $30,000, and made our church 
 there one of the most influential in the city. Frederic Clar- 
 ence Priest, now settled in Chicago, doing an excellent 
 work, originated in Winchester. Rev. Emma Bailey, who 
 has been one of our most successful women preachers, came 
 into this world in Wilmington, Vt. She has had several 
 truly successful settlements. Harry Enos Eouiliard and 
 B. D. Bowen were born in Hinsdale and are proving them- 
 selves faithful ministers in the Master's service. Rev. 
 Myron Lewis Cutler originated in Springfield, Vt., and 
 has been settled in East Jaffrey for sixteen years, doing 
 an excellent service for God and man. Claremont comes 
 witliin our prescribed limits, which has furnished our 
 church with Rev. Isabella S. Macduff, who has achieved, 
 and is accomplishing a noble work in Berlin, N. H., in re- 
 viving our church there, and in being instrumental in con- 
 verting a dilapidated place of worship into a convenient 
 and attractive church edifice. While she was missionary 
 in this state she won laurels for her ability, tact and 
 strenuous efforts in behalf of the young in our church. 
 Rev. H. A. Philbrook also hailed from this town, and has 
 made himself known throughout New England as a genial 
 man and an able preacher. Rev. Simon Goodenough, now 
 doing loyal service in California, is a worthy minister 
 of the Gospel. He originated in Brattleboro, Yt. Rev. 
 Merrill C. Ward, now pastor at Ashmount, Mass., was born 
 in Guilford, Vt. Rev. Dwight A. Ball, a native of Athens, 
 Vt., is proving himself a worthy and successful preacher. 
 His heart is in the right place and his head is bound 
 to seek and know the truth. 
 
 After this survey, and recalling the ministers pro- 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 83 
 
 duced in this region, can wo well refrain from feeling 
 that it is deserving to be honored as the Palestine of our 
 church; the Ashuelot river as our Jordan and Winchester 
 as our New Jerusalem, overtopped with Olivet, Tabor and 
 Pisgah? As we see these characters and realize somewhat 
 the work that they have done in helping to establish the 
 Father's kingdom on earth, however, much we may ad- 
 mire these vales, plains, hills, rivers, forests, birds and 
 stars, do they not pale into dimness when contrasted with 
 the throngs of valiant Christian soldiers that opened their 
 eyes, as they started in this world, upon these scenes and 
 then went forth opening their own spiritual sight by the 
 help of God and then those of others, to see the over-soul 
 of the Father and the all-brotherhood of man? 
 
 With Hosea Ballon as the pioneer and captain, can 
 we help believing that the circuit examined has sent forth 
 more ministers of the liberal faith than any other section 
 of the same area of our whole country, or even of the 
 whole world? Take the Ballous, the Streeters, Skinners, 
 Loveland, Williamson, Miner and others and where are 
 their equals to be found, in interpreting the Scriptures, 
 the works of nature and the powers of the human soul? 
 Have they not so thought and so taught as to have effected 
 a radical religious change for the better throughout Chris- 
 tendom? Though it was often said at the beginning of 
 their labors that they did not believe in any hell, and 
 so were opening wide the door of heaven to let in all 
 the wicked, we have come to understand that their doc- 
 trine teaches that it is impossible for the sinner to escape 
 his deserved punishment, or the righteous man to fail 
 of his just reward ; these will be inevitably experienced in 
 
84 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 this, or the world to come. They discovered that love 
 is the all-embracing attribute of God and the universal 
 attribute of humanity. This is really what rules in earth 
 and heaven. They discovered this to be the peculiarity of 
 Christianity. Love then being the central governing prin- 
 ciple in the natural and spiritual realms, its final achieve- 
 ment must be somewhere and some time the rescue of all 
 souls. They felt that just this is what Christianity, and no 
 other religion does, and, therefore deserves to be promul- 
 gated throughout the world. They looked to Christ as 
 their leader and the model by which to measure their soul- 
 endeavors. As the sculptor works with mallet and chisel 
 in hand, turning every now and then to the pattern to 
 correct his thought and guide his efforts, so did they turn 
 to Christ as more than man, yet less than God, to help 
 draw souls to the Father. He was in their mind and heart 
 an evergrowing ideal of moral beauty. As the painter's 
 ideal always advances with his mental attainment and is 
 certain to keep ahead of him, so this central figure of 
 Christianity was ever leading them forward. As one 
 height was gained another was brought to view, becoming 
 more and more fascinating, because of the newness and 
 mystery connected with it. So this inexplicable marvel 
 of Christ, this advanced and evergroMdng one, became the 
 Saviour of men on earth, and is to reign in heaven till 
 every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Christ to be 
 the Saviour of the world. This view makes life progressive 
 and immortality a fact, because there will be something 
 new to learn forever and ever; Christ all the while being 
 the unattainable leader, yet the nearest and dearest friend 
 of man. 
 
REVIEWING MINISTERIAL GROUND. 85 
 
 The noble characters to whom we have referred, and 
 multitudes of others of our Zion, have so interpreted the 
 atonement of Christ as to render him through his suffer- 
 ing and death, because these were greater, more than 
 martyr, or tenderest parent in saving the lost. No other 
 has been so great a leader by his power of personal love 
 in drawing souls away from the most fascinating passions 
 and enticing sins. Christ has opened up the secret of the 
 human heart and exhibited it as no other great religious 
 teacher has ever done. Confucius, with his conspicuous 
 morality and clinging to the good; Brahma, in his tena- 
 cious grasp of the spiritual; Buddha, in his unflinch- 
 ing search for virtue; Pantheism, with its recognition of 
 deity in everything ; these all have fallen infinitely short of 
 reaching the Christ-heights. None of these have struck 
 the key-note of humanity. Science asserts that every ma- 
 terial thing is pitched to some musical key, so that he who 
 can detect it, may sound its chord and control it. Our 
 sainted ministers whom we knew while on earth believed 
 that Christ had struck the key-note to humanity and by 
 his touch and sweet strains countless numbers are march- 
 ing to his divine music and are to keep step to it, not 
 only till they are saved from sinning, but through the 
 aeons of eternity. He has lighted up such a flame of love 
 as will consume all self-love, that the love of God may 
 be all and in all. 
 
 The lesson of this review, or reminiscence, is that 
 through the teachings of God, Christ, prophet, apostle, our 
 translated and the living, we may so love our faith as to 
 live it and do our best to advance it, and thus hasten 
 the kingdom of God on earth, thereby so developing souls 
 
86 - CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 as to have them well fitted upon leaving the mortal to enter 
 upon immortality. 
 
 Note by the Editor. — This important and valuable paper must not be 
 allowed to pass into history without a record of the distinguished author, 
 who is himself one of the products of the famous territory described, and 
 one of our most able, cultivated and successful clergymen. The Editor takes 
 the responsibility of inserting in this note an outline of Dr. McCollester's 
 useful career, mainly based on a sketch in an Encyclopedia of American 
 Biography: 
 
 Sullivan Holman McCollester, clergyman, educator, author, lecturer, 
 was born in Marlborough, N. H., in 1826. He received a liberal education 
 and the degrees of A. B. and A. M. from Norwich University, Vt., and 
 D. D. from St. Lawrence University, Canton, N. Y. He took a theo- 
 logical course in Harvard Divinity School and in 1853 he was ordained 
 a Universalist minister. About this time he entered upon the educational 
 work and was principal of different academies in New Hampshire and 
 was superintendent of public schools in that state for four years. After 
 this he was called to Maine where he was principal for nine years of 
 Westbrook Seminary. He was also settled for four years over the Uni- 
 versalist church in Nashua, N. H. After this charge he became the first 
 President of Buchtel College, Akron, Ohio, where he remained for six 
 years, doing splendid service in establishing that institution and making 
 it ready for a useful future. 
 
 Dr. McCollester has visited Europe five times, and has traveled ex- 
 tensively in different parts of this country, Mexico, the West Indies, and 
 South America. He has been an extensive writer in periodicals of the 
 church and in newspapers, and is the author of several interesting vol- 
 umes, "After Thoughts of Foreign Travel," " 'Round the Globe in Old 
 and New Paths," "Babylon and Nineveh through American Eyes," "Mex- 
 ico, Modern and Ancient," etc. 
 
 He has been instrumental in organizing four different churches and 
 in building four church edifices. In the Indian summer of his days he is 
 still active in preaching and superintending schools and looking after his 
 home, the beautiful "Mapleside," at Marlborough, in the native soil of his 
 fathers. 
 
SPEAKERS AT THE CENTENNIAL— III. 
 
 ELMER H. CAPEN. — AT WASHINGTON. 
 JOHN VANNEVEK. HENRY B. METCALF. RICHARD EDDY, 
 
Universalism in the Layman's Life.' 
 
 HON. HOSEA W. PARKER. 
 
 This is historic ground where we are now assembled. 
 While one hundred years is only a "speck on the dial of 
 time" when apjjlied to the history of a church or a re- 
 ligious denomination, it is a long period. The mind nat- 
 urally runs back over this period, and we note the won- 
 derful change that has taken place in every department 
 of life. It is true that the same hills and valleys are here 
 that met the eye of our fathers wlio assembled on that 
 memorable occasion when the Profession of Faith was 
 adopted by the New England Convention of Universalists. 
 But the convention did more than to adopt a Profession of 
 Faith, although this act was perhaps the most important 
 and far-reaching of anything that transpired. The mem- 
 bers of that Convention met under circumstances that 
 required the greatest wisdom, the greatest forbearance, 
 and the wisest action. They and their brethren had been 
 persecuted for opinion's sake throughout Kew England 
 for years, and in no place more than in New Hampshire, 
 but they not only had faith, but they had courage. That 
 wonderful address which that Convention sent out to their 
 brethren in New Hampshire has rarely been equaled. In 
 its force it reminds one of the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, and it has a good deal of the Spirit of 1776. The 
 immediate occasion for this address was the case of Chris- 
 
 * Address at Winchester, Thursday, October i, 
 (87) 
 
88 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 topher Erskine, of Claremont. Erskine was an avowed 
 Universalist, and in 1799 had been taxed to support the 
 Congregational church of that town. He declined to pay 
 the tax, and was consequently arrested. The case was car- 
 ried from court to court, and although finally defeated 
 on technical grounds, the case was taken up all over the 
 state by Universalists, and some of the adjoining states 
 and made common cause, and became one of the most im- 
 portant subjects considered at the Winchester Convention. 
 The case was decided against Erskine on the ground that 
 the Universalists were not a distinct religious sect, differ- 
 ing in their church government from the Congregation- 
 alists; hence they were liable to be taxed as Congrega- 
 tionalists. The question of religious belief was not con- 
 sidered by the courts. 
 
 Dr. Eddy tells us that it is often claimed that this 
 case of Erskine's was the moving cause that brought forth 
 the Profession of Faith which was adopted, but this he 
 thinks is erroneous, because a committee was appointed at 
 the session of the New England Convention of Univer- 
 salists held the year previous to the Winchester Conven- 
 tion to present articles of belief. Whatever may be the 
 fact, it is true that there were delegates present at this 
 Convention representing Mr. Erskine, and this case was 
 then fully discussed and very largely influenced its action. 
 
 This address was the moving cause of the action of 
 the New Hampshire legislature, in the year 1805, when 
 the Universalists were recognized as an independent and 
 distinct sect of Christians, and no longer subject to be 
 taxed for the support of a religion which was not in har- 
 mony with their religious opinion. 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 89 
 
 The Declaration of Independence gave the people 
 freedom and independence, and the action of the Win- 
 chester Convention gave religious liberty to the people 
 of our state. 
 
 Chief Justice Doe in later years in reviewing this 
 opinion of the court in the Erskine case does not endorse 
 that opinion. If this question could be considered to-day 
 under the same legal conditions, there is no doubt but that 
 Judge Doe's views would be endorsed. Erskine was only 
 one of many laymen in New England who stood up in 
 those days and entered their protest against this perse- 
 cution and against the doctrine of taxation without repre- 
 sentation. 
 
 With the clergy of that day there were a large number 
 of active, influential laymen ready to make almost any 
 sacrifice for the cause they held so sacred. Hosea Ballou, 
 Walter Ferriss, and others of that day to my mind were 
 as much inspired as some of the prophets of old. Hosea 
 Ballou was indeed a prophet, not only this, but he 
 was a philosopher. Some one has said that "Father 
 Ballou broke the backbone of Calvinism in New En- 
 gland." I look back upon those early days of our 
 church, and to my mind these fathers were to the religious 
 world what Washington, Jefferson and Adams were to the 
 republic. It required as much courage and faith on the 
 part of the founders of the Universalist church as it did 
 for the fathers of the republic to take their stand for 
 freedom and independence. 
 
 I have great respect — almost veneration — for the fa- 
 thers and mothers of our church. They have left to U3 
 and to the world a glorious heritage. While we all realize 
 
90 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 that great changes have been wrought in the religious 
 thought of men, and that many of the doctrines of the 
 early times have been discarded, still these men laid the 
 foundation strong and deep, and the superstructure justly 
 commands the admiration of the religious world. 
 
 Do we fully appreciate this priceless heritage? Do 
 we fully rise to the granduer of these blessings? Can we 
 say or do too much in honor of the great work they so 
 nobly commenced and committed to our care and keeping ? 
 
 It is said that the Universalism of today differs very 
 much from the Universalism of Murray and Ballou, but 
 this difference, if it exists, applies more fully to the 
 practical side of life than to the theological side of our 
 faith. We are more and more giving up theological con- 
 troversies and dogma, and emphasizing the importance 
 of character building. People today care very little as 
 to the school in which a man is trained. They are 
 more and more looking to the life and character of the 
 individual and the fruit he bears. Ours is intensely 
 a practical age. Profession counts for but little when 
 a man is weighed in the balance. 
 
 What, then, is Universalism as applied to the lay- 
 man's life and to the business affairs of life? Is it not 
 dealing justly, and "doing unto others as you would that 
 they should do unto you?" Is it any less than in all our 
 work to recognize the brotherhood of the entire human 
 family? Can business be conducted in any other way? 
 Ask any truly successful business man and he will tell 
 you that the key-note to his success is faith and confidence 
 in his business associates. The secular calling of the 
 business man when properly adjusted to the affairs of 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 91 
 
 life and to the highest and best service of his fellow men 
 is as much a sacred calling as any. The test is for what 
 purpose and to what end are we working? If an}' man, 
 minister or layman, is in his work for what he alone can 
 get out of it, with no just idea of serving his fellow men, 
 then both alike are failures. The Christian spirit is the 
 spirit that serves others, and it is just as sacred in one 
 place as in another. 
 
 Here is where laymen make a great mistake. The 
 prevailing opinion among men in business is that the 
 store, the shop, and the offices are no places for the exer- 
 cise of the Christian spirit; that the only place to find 
 that is in the church. No class of men can have a monop- 
 oly of the Christian spirit. The layman when engaged in 
 the secular affairs of life can and should keep this prin- 
 ciple constantly in mind. Then his is truly a divine mis- 
 sion. If he has the fundamental principle of our faith 
 is his heart, to-wit: "The fatherhood of God and the 
 brotherhood of man," so that his life and conduct are in 
 harmony with this broad thought, then indeed has he 
 reached that high place of Christian life and character 
 which was taught by the Master, This is religion in busi- 
 ness, and it is the kind of religion that must control the 
 affairs of men, of states, and nations. When any nation 
 departs from this principle, it is going in the wrong 
 direction. The golden rule is the only guide for na- 
 tions, as well as individuals. Are we as a people and as a 
 nation adhering to this rule in all of our relations Avith 
 all foreign powers, and with the people in the distant 
 islands of the sea? 
 
 Go into the great marts of trade, among the whole- 
 
92 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 sale merchants of Boston and New York, there you will 
 find this principle operating, and, to a greater extent than 
 ever before; faith and confidence in the honor and in- 
 tegrity of the business man. Business would be paralyzed 
 in a day were any other principle dominant in the affairs 
 of man. There are many exceptions to this rule, but 
 they do not change the principle. 
 
 As we contemplate the evolutionary processes which 
 have brought the physical universe up to its present con- 
 dition, and realize that these processes are still going on, 
 we wonder at the mighty works of the Infinite Creator. 
 Not only this, but when we behold man, a child of God, 
 starting low down in the order of creation, and coming 
 up through the ages to a higher and still higher plane of 
 existence, through this principle of evolution, and we 
 swing the telescope of our vision on and still on into the 
 great future which lies outstretched before us, well may 
 we exclaim with the poet that there is 
 
 "One God, one law, one element. 
 And one far-off divine event, 
 To which the whole creation moves." 
 
 This inspiring thought, this universal thought, moves 
 us to grander living and grander achievement here on 
 earth, so that when we pass on to that "undiscovered 
 country from whose bourne no traveller returns" we shall 
 be the better prepared to take up the work there which 
 the Father would have us do. 
 
 The laity of the TJniversalist church have been loyal 
 in the past and will be in the future. They have paid 
 their money freely to support the church, to endow our 
 colleges, and to advance the cause of truth, and this 
 they will continue to do in the future. The clergy must 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 93 
 
 remember that ours is a progressive religion, that the 
 times demand the best culture and the best thought. 
 The Gospel must be preached in a manner so as to come 
 home to the heart. It must be preached in the simplest 
 way possible, stripped of all ecclesiastical forms, and by 
 personal appeal interest and instruct the people. All 
 admit the necessity, and as we look about us and see how 
 little interest is given to religious instruction and how 
 meager are the results, is it not pretty evident that our 
 methods are in some degree at fault? Must there not 
 be more personal contact with the people, more interest 
 shown directly in the welfare of this class ? The laity are 
 not theologians, but they recognize the importance of an 
 educated ministry. Still, what they want is the spirit of 
 theology infused into the practical affairs of life. Some 
 of us like to hear the old doctrines preached in all their 
 vigor, but the masses today demand something else. 
 
 What, then, is the demand of the times ? We can see 
 at a glance that the masses are not reached in any direct 
 way by the church. If they don't go to the church, must not 
 the church go to them ? The important question is, how ? 
 Go into our churches and you find practically the same 
 conditions that have existed for half a century. Is it not 
 possible to improve this condition of things? 
 
 I have recently seen it stated that there are in the 
 United States at least one hundred and fifty different reli- 
 gious sects. Go into almost any of our smaller towns in 
 New England and you there find from two to six different 
 churches or denominations. You will find, as a rule, that 
 they are all struggling to keep themselves alive, and very 
 many find it difficult to even exist. Their numbers are 
 
94 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 comparatively small, and the clergyman who ministers to 
 the spiritual wants of his people is very poorly paid and 
 often finds it difficult to obtain the necessaries of life. 
 These clergymen, as a rule, are cultivated gentlemen, and 
 are faithful in their work. 
 
 I can assert what I believe to be strictly true, and I 
 am not a stranger to these facts : that, as a class, there are 
 no more earnest, hard-working and conscientious citizens 
 than our clergy. You will also find in these communities 
 that about one-fourth of the Protestant people here in edu- 
 cated New England attend church. 
 
 Now, the question arises : Is this state of things what 
 is demanded? Can't the conditions be improved? We 
 have seen this condition of things for many years, and do 
 we find much, if any, improvement? In all of these 
 churches almost every conceivable device that a vivid imag- 
 ination can bring into use is resorted to to replenish the 
 church treasury and keep the church alive. 
 
 Occasionally some delinquent clerical brother breaks 
 away from the old fold and says he can not fully subscribe 
 to all of the ordinances and doctrines as taught by the 
 fathers of that church, and, if he is of consequence enough, 
 he is tried for heresy, and, if found guilty, he usually goes 
 across the street or moves to some other place and opens 
 up business at the new stand, oftentimes with greater suc- 
 cess" than before. Oftentimes if this kind of a clergyman 
 is regarded as a very bright star in the religious horizon, 
 he can break away when he pleases, and his church, for 
 prudential reasons, will permit him to preach and teach as 
 seemeth to him good, regardless of creeds and doctrines. 
 
 Again, when we take a more comprehensive view of 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 95 
 
 almost all of our churches and consider the toil and sacri- 
 fice that they have been making, and ask ourselves what 
 the harvest has been, and what it is to be in the future if 
 the same conditions are to obtain instead of the rich fruit- 
 age of a true Christian life, can we expect anything more 
 than a barren waste? The old revival meeting which 
 used to be the means of gathering in the new converts is 
 out of date, and the reapers from this source seem to be few. 
 It may be considered very presumptuous for a layman to 
 undertake the task of marking out a different line of 
 action, but it seems to me we need a religion that will do 
 something for men and women here and now. Such a re- 
 ligion was taught by the Great Teacher. Is there any 
 sound reason why all of these many sects should not co- 
 operate and take the necessary steps with a union of hearts 
 to make men better and consequently happier? 
 
 Whether or not "the whale swallowed Jonah," or 
 "Joshua commanded the sun to stand still" are questions 
 that do not give laymen the least concern. They are 
 wholly unable to get any help by dwelling upon these and 
 kindred topics, and life is too short and too earnest for 
 anyone to dwell upon them. 
 
 The old notion that you must make haste to save your 
 soul for the hereafter, and the supreme selfishness accom- 
 panying this theory, is fast giving way to that other and 
 better doctrine of trying to do something for somebody 
 else here and now. It may be true that we need more 
 revivals, but they are revivals that come from right living, 
 right thinking and right doing. Henry Ward Beecher 
 once said that the only orthodoxy that God cares anything 
 about is the orthodoxy that makes men better. Can't we 
 
96 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 do something for a revival that will breathe into men the 
 thought of doing something for humanity without always 
 thinking of our church and ourselves? Can we not open 
 up our churches on a broader platform than ever before so 
 as to reach the masses? The meetings held on Boston 
 common by the Unitarians some time since is, in my judg- 
 ment, a step in the right direction. Such movements ac- 
 complish a purpose that the church thus far has failed to 
 accomplish. 
 
 Yes, keep up the churches, but at the same time in 
 some way bring them within the reach and means of every- 
 body and not keep them for the select feWj and that select 
 few growing more and more select every year. Is it not 
 our duty in truth and in fact to carry the Gospel to the 
 people in their homes and in the shop; not only this, but 
 such a gospel as will give them joy and peace? Open the 
 churches, not one day in a week, but every day, so that 
 "the poor and weary pilgrim travelling from afar" may 
 for a few moments walk in and offer up his adorations to 
 the true and living God. Make our churches homes where 
 the weary may find rest to his soul. Let the liberal Chris- 
 tian take the initiative, if necessary, in this work of Chris- 
 tian love. If our efforts are met with the combined oppo- 
 sition of other denominations, this is no reason why the 
 work should stop; but if tve press on, those who do not 
 attend church anywhere will be attracted to our standard. 
 They will see that the spirit that animates us is the right 
 spirit; that true Christian fellowship is behind the move- 
 ment, and it will eventually succeed, as all great move- 
 ments succeed when founded upon truth and justice. 
 
 If the Master should come among us today, do you think 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 97 
 
 he would commence his work by counting up the number 
 of new converts in some particular church, or would he 
 countenance the cold, selfish indifference often seen in our 
 churches? Would he not more likely say, "Go out into 
 the highways and byways and relieve the distressed, min- 
 ister to the poor, and comfort the needy?" One thing is 
 certain, we are moving on in about the same, line that our 
 fathers did, but do we not find more of selfishness, more 
 of greed, and more of indifference? Some of us attend 
 church once in seven days, and there our religious work 
 begins and ends, and it seems to me that the time has 
 come when all denominations of religious worshipers must 
 see that the church does not accomplish its full mission. It 
 is too often a kind of clubhouse with a steple on it where 
 our particular friends or set meet and make themselves 
 comfortable. It is true, others can come in if they desire, 
 but do they meet with that cordiality and sympathy and 
 helpfulness which gives them strength and induces them 
 to come again ? Do they find much to help them or to 
 make life brighter and better? They used to be told by 
 other churches to flee from the wrath to come, and they 
 fled. Standing here today and realizing the fact that for 
 two centuries and more here in New England the church 
 has been open, the clergy have been earnest and eloquent 
 in preaching the gospel, and religious institutions have been 
 established everywhere, missionaries of every name and 
 kind have been doing their work, and still the world goes 
 rushing on and a large majority of our people give little 
 or no thought to the higher and better things of life, and 
 the question often comes to us, how can we make religion 
 an active, living, working force, not in the church, but in 
 daily life? 
 
98 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 The people want the true bread of life, and until they 
 can get something better than can be found in many 
 churches they will continue to be skeptical and stay away. 
 There is already a widespread skepticism among business 
 men, and this condition has been intensified by the selfish- 
 ness and exclusiveness of the church and church members. 
 These men, as a rule, are open to any and all influences 
 that elevate the race. They are always ready to assist a 
 brother in a material way, and often come nearer to the 
 spirit of the "golden rule" and the teachings of Jesus than 
 many who make loud professions and long prayers. They 
 despise cant and hypocrisy. Such men will not be trifled 
 with. They do not attend church because they feel that 
 they are turned away without being helped. 
 
 It was in harmony with the thought I am trying to 
 express that the great Parliament of Eeligions met at Chi- 
 cago during the Columbian Exposition. Here, upon the 
 same platform, met every shade of religious thought, and 
 there were the representatives of every doctrine on the 
 face of the civilized globe, and the representatives of some 
 sections that we are apt to denominate uncivilized were in 
 truth nearer the spirit of true religion than some of us 
 who think we are entirely fit to walk the golden streets of 
 the New Jerusalem. Sectarianism found no place here, but 
 religious co-operation was the watchword and brotherly 
 love the spirit of that great congress. 
 
 If the best and most influential representatives of all 
 religions could thus unite, why can not the same spirit 
 manifest itself here in proud and cultivated New England ? 
 Why not tear down these sectarian walls and let in God's 
 sunlight so that religion shall have a higher and truer 
 meaning ? 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 99 
 
 "Through the harsh voices of our day 
 A low, sweet prelude finds its way; 
 Through clouds of doubt and creeds of fear, 
 A light is breaking, calm and clear. 
 
 "From land to land the greeting flows, 
 From eye to eye the signals run. 
 From heart to heart the bright hope glows; 
 The seekers of the Light are one. 
 
 "One in the freedom of the truth. 
 One in the joys of paths untrod, 
 One in the soul's perennial youth. 
 One in the larger thought of God." 
 
 I am a firm believer in the Christian church and 
 what it should stand for, but when church members 
 place themselves above the people and, in the spirit of the 
 Pharisee, draw themselves away from the world and say, 
 "I am more holy than thou," and any contact with you 
 will soil my sacred robes — then I can only say that the 
 true spirit of Christianity is not there, and such church 
 members need to be converted before they become true fol- 
 lowers of the Master. 
 
 Kant defines religion to be "a recognition of all our 
 duties as divine commands." In other words, we should 
 recognize the existence of God in all our avocations in life. 
 No religion is worthy of the name that does not rest upon 
 this as a fundamental truth, but anchored to this truth we 
 can safely go forth to meet life's duties and responsibilities. 
 Doubtless religion in some form existed ages before history 
 records the fact. If we today can bring ourselves up to a 
 realizing sense of the existence of an all-wise God whose 
 nature is love, and have a consciousness of this truth in 
 all of our relations with our follow men, we shall have 
 made a long advance in carrying religion to the people and 
 into business life. 
 
100 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Are we fully alive to this truth ? Do we not too often 
 falter and give way to our doubts and fears? Is it not 
 true that we need more faith in a few fundamental 
 truths ? 
 
 I am aware that we are often told that the mission of 
 the liberal churches has been accomplished. I agree that 
 in part it has been accomplished, but only in part. The 
 sharp theological controversies of the past wherein the 
 harsh doctrines of the evangelical churches were contro- 
 verted have so far harmonized these conflicting elements 
 that today in point of doctrine in many instances they are 
 all united; but a still greater work is before us in bring- 
 ing all these elements into some organized form so that 
 all can work together, as well as believe together. 
 
 All of the best literature of our time is inspired by 
 this principle. "Who can read such a book as James Lane 
 Allen's "Eeign of Law" and not feel that real progress is 
 being made? 
 
 It is well for churches and for individuals to pause 
 in the rush and turmoil of life and not only review the 
 past, but look forward and see if they are moving in the 
 right direction and planning wisely for the future. There 
 may be those who think and believe that, inasmuch as a 
 great change has taken place in the religious thought of 
 our time there is no longer any necessity for the work of 
 the Universalist Church to continue. Some have said that 
 other churches have taken up our banner and are carr3dng 
 it forward to greater triumphs than we ourselves can hope 
 to accomplish. 
 
 If the question were simply one of religious belief 
 and the teaching of dogmatic theology, then there might 
 
UNIVERSALISM IN THE LAYMAN'S LIFE. 101 
 
 be some force and reason in this statement. But when 
 we realize that our religious system is much more than 
 all this, and one to be carried into the practical, everyday 
 affairs of life ; that it should enter into the vital questions 
 of state and nation, and should permeate the innermost 
 recesses of the heart, and fill the life of its possessor with 
 its divine influence ; then we begin to see that such a reli- 
 gious system should never cease its operations until man 
 is brought up to that high standard of life and character 
 which was set by the Maker. 
 
 The Universalist Church has had a proud history, not 
 only as an organized religious body, but it has set in motion 
 great truths that are destined to revolutionize the religious 
 thought of the world and elevate and purify the life and 
 character of mankind. 
 
 The Universalist Church has a right to claim this and 
 kindred doctrines in a peculiar sense as its own, and, while 
 we hail with joy the widespread influence that they are 
 exerting in other churches, we should in no sense lower the 
 standard of our order or permit it to trail in the dust. 
 Our fathers have left us too precious a legacy to be thrown 
 away or entrusted to other hands. 
 
 Somebody is going to preach and teach these great 
 truths the coming years. This progressive age demands 
 it, and future generations will demand it, and who is bet- 
 ter qualified to stand as sentinels on the outposts than our 
 own preachers and teachers; and what church is better 
 fitted to stand as the representative of this higher and bet- 
 ter thought than our own ? Unless the denominations that 
 are now trying to modify their creeds make more progress 
 than they have done, the work certainly can not be passed 
 over to them. 
 
102 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 With charity toward all branches of the Christian 
 church, we should not only maintain our own organiza- 
 tions, but we should continue to proclaim the distinctive 
 doctrines of the Universalist Church. Our pathway lies 
 open to view, and without wavering, let us walk therein. 
 Notwithstanding all I have said, the world is growing bet- 
 ter, and the time is at hand when we should make an on- 
 ward movement. 
 
 What, then, is the "outlook"? Never better, if we 
 are true as a church to the great work committed to our 
 care, and it is well to meet again and renew our allegiance 
 and our faith to a church whose great work is just begun. 
 
i:)ECKASED WINCHESTER PIONEERS. 
 
 DANIEL T. SARIN. 
 
 WILLIAM RIXFORD. 
 ALVIN W. BALL. 
 
 OSMER WILLIS. 
 EDWARD ALEXANDER. 
 
History of the Winchester Church/ 
 
 MISS J. GRACE ALEXANDER. 
 
 The subject assigned to me, "The Winchester Church 
 for One Hundred Years," 1 find to be somewhat difficult, 
 as the ancient records are very imperfect and as my own 
 memory hardly goes back a hundred years. I can only 
 refer to the few records I have been able to find for the 
 truthfulness and accuracy of this paper. 
 
 History says preparatory to the settlement of the town 
 in 1733, one of the conditions in the grant given by the 
 General Court of Massachusetts was, that within three 
 years after the confirmation of the grant the grantees 
 should build a convenient house for the public worship of 
 God and settle a learned and orthodox minister. In 1764 
 Caleb Alexander and John Alexander each deeded to the 
 town certain tracts of land to be used as "commonage." 
 The provision in each of the deeds was that no building 
 of any description except a meeting-house should be built 
 upon this land, and in case of any violation of the terms 
 of these deeds, this land should revert to the Alexander 
 heirs. 
 
 The house wherein we now worship was built in 1794, 
 and is the third building erected in the town for public 
 worship, and was known for many years as the "New Town 
 Meeting-House." It stands upon a part of the land deeded 
 by said Calel) and John Alexander. From the early set- 
 tlement until the year 1816 the Orthodox Congregational 
 
 'Reprinted from the Universalist Leader, Boston, September s. 1903. 
 (103) 
 
104 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 or "Standing Order/" as it was sometimes called, was the 
 established church. Its ministers were called by the town 
 and dismissed by the town in open town-meeting. The 
 salary was paid from the public funds, as all other demands 
 against the town were paid. But the leaven of a broader 
 faith was working and a difference of opinion upon reli- 
 gious subjects was developed. It was felt by many a 
 grievous wrong to suffer taxation to support opinions re- 
 pugnant to their own, and in 180-i a protest, signed by 128 
 voters of the town, was spread upon the records. The 
 town conceded the injustice of the custom, and in 1810 it 
 was voted to divide the use of the meeting-house accord- 
 ing to valuation, and give each denomination represented 
 its proportion. This gave the use of the building to the 
 Universalists one Sunday, in four. This arrangement con- 
 tinued until 1815, when the town refused to settle a new 
 pastor and also voted that the Congregational Society be 
 incorporated ; and by this act town and church affairs were 
 separated. 
 
 In 1805 the Methodists commenced to build a church 
 for themselves, which was never completed; but in 1826 
 they finished a building which was in use for sixteen years, 
 or until they erected the church now in use. The Congre- 
 gationalists, being placed in the same position in regard to 
 the use of the "town meeting-house" as the Methodists and 
 Universalists, vacated the building and held meetings in 
 the hall of the schoolhouse, near by, until 1834, when they 
 built the church now occupied by them. Thus, in the 
 words of another, the Universalists saved the body, retain- 
 ing the meeting-house ; the Congregationalists took charge 
 of the spirit, retaining the church organization and rec- 
 
HISTORY OF THE WINCHESTER CHURCH. 105 
 
 ords, while the Methodists were left to provide both the 
 body and the spirit in building their own house and making 
 their own records. The course of true religion did not run 
 - altogether smooth in those days, for we read of one pastor 
 who was dismissed for his Tory principles, and another 
 who, having outgrown the bigotry of the past, a past that 
 had placed an armed officer of the law at the meeting- 
 house door, whose duty it was to arrest every person pass- 
 ing, except when on an errand of extreme mercy, and com- 
 pel them to listen to the prescribed theology; this pastor, 
 believing in a better way to reach the hearts of his hearers, 
 too, was dismissed, charged, in the words of one of his 
 successors, with having pursued such a course that the 
 spirituality of the church had nearly departed; but the 
 good pastor's works lived and his memory is today honored 
 by the beautiful window in the rear of our own pulpit. 
 
 That the Universalist faith was alive in the hearts of 
 our fathers we can not question, even before the year 1803, 
 when our General Convention held its memorable session 
 within these walls. Father Ballou preached occasionally 
 in this place in his early ministry. The General Conven- 
 tion has met four times in this town: first, the third 
 Wednesday in September, 1796; second, September 20, 21 
 and 22, 1803 ; third, September 14, 1813 ; fourth, Wednes- 
 day and Thursday, September 16 and 17, 1829, at which 
 session the late Dr. Thomas J. Saw^^er was ordained on 
 the afternoon of Thursday, at the last service of the con- 
 vention. The record says Father Ballou of course preached 
 the sermon. He always preached the last sermon on these 
 occasions. Eev, Joshua Flagg offered the ordaining prayer. 
 Rev. Russell Streeter delivered the Scriptures, and Dr. Bal- 
 
106 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 lou gave the right hand of fellowship. Eev. Timothy Bige- 
 low resided and preached here for four years from 1810. 
 He also preached at Keene, Swanzey and Warwick, Mass. 
 Eobert Bartlett preached, about 1825, eighteen Sundays, 
 receiving in those moneyless times his board and $13 in 
 cash, and is reported to have said it was all the preaching 
 was worth. 
 
 Under date of March 16, 1839, we find this entry: 
 "No record of any Universalist Society can be found till 
 the adoption of a constitution by the Universalists of Win- 
 chester and vicinity, at West Winchester, Oct. 11, 1828." 
 Eev. W. S. Balch was minister at the time of this organiza- 
 tion. We do find a record that in 1831 the First Universal 
 Eestitution Church of Christ was organized, with preamble, 
 confession and covenant, and numbering twenty-three re- 
 corded members. Its deacons were Benedict Saben and 
 Elisha Eich. These records continued until 1833. After- 
 ward, under Eev. Thompson Barron, a new confession was 
 adopted in 1843 ; these records also are missing. In 1839, 
 dissatisfaction having arisen on the part of some members, 
 the constitution of 1828 was disannulled, and March 16, 
 1839, a business meeting was called at the Inn of William 
 Follett for the purpose of forming a new society, at which 
 time a committee consisting of Samuel Graves, Abram 
 Paige and Eobert Turner was appointed to draft a new 
 constitution. The record of this meeting is signed "Mar- 
 shall Kingman, secretary." From this time on the annual 
 business meetings seem to have been held regularly, and 
 for a number of years they were held at Follett's Inn, and 
 the names of Eobert Turner, Luke Bennett, John G. Ca- 
 pron, William Alexander, Darius Peterson, Osmer Willis 
 
HISTORY OF THE WINCHESTER CHURCH. 107 
 
 and Edward Alexander, with others, are prominent ; while 
 Marshall Kingman, S. P. Fairbanks, J, S. Hunt, Abijah 
 Eddy, John Cook, Jr., and Luther Cheney were the faithful 
 clerks, all of whom have passed on into the future life. 
 
 That some attention was paid to uprightness and mor- 
 ality in those days we do not question, as, under date of 
 March 23, 1839, we read the following: 
 
 "On motion of John G. Capron, the following resolu- 
 tion was read and adopted: 'Whereas, profanity and in- 
 temperance, two great yet not uncommon evils in our 
 community, being in direct contravention to the pure prin- 
 ciple of Universalism, and detrimental to its advancement 
 among men, 
 
 " 'Eesolved, That we, the members of the First TJni- 
 versalist Society of Winchester, N. H., will use our best 
 endeavors, by precept and example, to persuade all those 
 with whom we associate to abstain from these vices.' " 
 
 Also that there was discipline in the rules, for under 
 date of February 1, 1840, we find an entry, "voted that 
 Amos Chase be expelled from this society." What grievous 
 wrong Brother Chase had committed we know not, but 
 have faith to believe long ere this he has been convinced 
 of the folly of wrong-doing and, like the prodigal of old, 
 returned to the fold. 
 
 In 1834 Rev. Freeman Loving is given as representing 
 the society. In 1837 the society "voted to hire Bro. Still- 
 man Clark to preach with us for the sum of $375, and 
 give him four Sundays to himself." In 1839 Eev. Abram 
 Paige preached; in 1840 "voted to employ Rev. Charles 
 Woodhouse to supply the preached gospel." Most of these 
 services must have been held at West Winchester, now 
 
108 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Ashuelot, in the hall given by one Stephen Hawkins for 
 the use of the Universalists. Mr. Hawkins also gave a 
 wood-lot to be used in the support of preaching, and land 
 for the cemetery at Ashuelot. It seemed that preaching 
 was held these years from one-fourth to one-half of the 
 time. In March, 1839, a bill of $3.00 was paid for the 
 use of district No. 3 schoolhouse hall, showing the partial 
 change of meeting to Winchester Center. In 1841-42 a 
 successful movement was made to contract with the town 
 for the finishing of the upper part of the "New Town 
 Meeting House" for a place of worship. It was finished 
 and dedicated June 8, 1842. 
 
 In February, 1842, Eev. Thompson Barron was en- 
 gaged for three years, and he was here ordained in that 
 year, closing his labors in August, 1845. There are some 
 still living who remember the prosperity enjoyed by the 
 society under Mr. Barron's pastorate. Eev. J. W. Ford be- 
 came pastor the closing month of 1845 and continued 
 nearly four years, and it was said of him "that his every- 
 day walk was so good that in his opponent's judgment he 
 did more hurt out of the pulpit than in." In 1851 Rev. 
 B. Y. Stevenson was employed; Eev. A. Abbott was se- 
 cured in 1853 and continued two years. Brother Abbott 
 was the first pastor of whom we have any personal recol- 
 lections. After Mr. Abbott came Eev. Orren Perkins, from 
 1856 to 1860. Then came the dark days of the society, 
 for until 1868 we had no settled pastor and the church 
 was closed, with only occasional supplies. In 1868 the town 
 raised the building and repaired the town hall ; the cor- 
 ners beside the tower were filled out and, after much con- 
 troversy and many meetings, the society accepted of the 
 
HISTORY OF THE WINCHESTER CHURCH. 109 
 
 repairs. In 18G8-9 Eev. Increase S. Lincoln, Unitarian, 
 was pastor; in 1871-3 Rev. Tbeo. L. Dean; in 1874, Rev. 
 E.. S. Foster; in 1877, Revs. Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Tabor. 
 In July and August of the years 1879 and 1880 Rev. 
 Willard C. Selleck, then a student at Canton Theological 
 School, supplied. In 1881-2 Rev. A. A. Rice was settled 
 at Hinsdale and Winchester, followed by Rev. E. A. Read 
 in 1884. In 1888 Rev. D. L. Fisher supplied the two 
 parishes ; after Mr. Fisher Rev. Walter A. Tuttle was with 
 us until January, 1892 ; then Rev. I. P. Quimby for a few 
 months; after Mr. Quimby, Rev. James H. Little for five 
 years. Then Rev. Judson P. ]\Iarvin from November 1, 
 1899, until April, 1903, which brings us to our present 
 pastorate with Rev. Clarence J. Harris, commencing June 
 1, 1902. 
 
 Thus it seems as a flock we have had many shepherds, 
 but it must be remembered the years have also been many. 
 Our material gain on the whole has been important ; the 
 improvement in our house of worship has been marked. 
 We well remember the high pulpit with stairs at eacli side ; 
 the crimson curtain in the rear and the inscription above, 
 "All nations whom thou liast made shall come and worship 
 before thee, Lord," (Psalms Ixxxvi, 9), selected by Mr. 
 Barron, w^hich our childhood eyes read and reread so 
 many times during the long hours of morning and after- 
 noon service, when a minister could not earn his wages 
 unless he delivered two sermons. The pulpit and side 
 scrolls I have been told came from the old School street 
 church, of Boston, having been in use there. At the time 
 of Rev. E. S. Foster's ministrations the audience-room was 
 repaired, the pulpit cut down and other improvements 
 
110 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 made. Also through Mr. Foster's endeavors, the state leg- 
 islature passed an act changing the name of the organiza- 
 tion from the First Universalist Society to the First Uni- 
 versalist Parish of Winchester. During the pastorate of 
 Eev. D. L. Fisher extensive repairs were made at an ex- 
 pense of some $3,200, besides the memorial windows, which 
 were all given by generous friends. These expenses were 
 promptley met without any burden of debt. The commit- 
 tee in charge were C. W. Scott, George H. Allen, Jasper 
 A. Gale and Charles St. Clair, and the work was well and 
 faithfully done. 
 
 This was a vital time in the history of the parish, as 
 more or less difference of opinion existed, and at times it 
 seemed as if harmony could never prevail. I can not re- 
 frain from a tribute to the worth and memory of the late 
 Daniel T. Saben, whose steady hand, level head and gen- 
 erous heart did so much at this time of need. All was 
 complete at last, and Thursday and Friday, June 13 and 
 14, 1889, a service of rededication was held. 
 
 In all the financial problems of our church life the 
 Ladies' Society has been an active member. Oh ! the sup- 
 pers that have been given, the entertainments planned and 
 executed, the fairs that have been held, giving hours and 
 days of weariness, sleepless nights of planning, and tired 
 bodies in executing, all for the sake of keeping the doors 
 of our church open and our bills promptly met. All honor 
 to the noble women who have been so faithful to the trust. 
 All hail to the day when some other, better, way may be 
 devised whereby the good work may go on with fewer sup- 
 pers to meet financial obligations, and a better, quicker 
 way to reach the pocketbooks of all who are receiving un- 
 
HISTORY OF THE WINCHESTER CHURCH. Ill 
 
 told benefits from our churches, but who fail to acknowl- 
 edge it in a businesslike way. 
 
 Our parish never received any bequests until 1899, 
 after the death of the Hon. Edward C. Thayer, of Keene, 
 when Mrs. Thayer and Miss Margaret C. Chapin (now 
 Mrs. Bazley) carried out an expressed wish of Mr. Thayer 
 and gave the parish $5,000 to be known as the Julia B. 
 Thayer fund, the interest of this fund to be used for cur- 
 rent expenses. 
 
 In April, 1900, the young people of the parish organ- 
 ized an aid society for the express purpose of raising funds 
 to purchase a pipe organ, to be given as a memorial com- 
 memorating the centennial of the adoption of the Profes- 
 sion of Faith, in our church at the General Convention, 
 September 22, 1803. Mrs. J. P. Marvin was the first pres-^ 
 ident of this society; and in December, 1902, the organ 
 was purchased of the Estey Organ Company, of Brattle- 
 boro, Vt. For many years in the early days of the parish 
 a pipe organ, purchased of the town and built in 1798 by 
 Henry Pratt, a native of Winchester, was in use. This 
 organ is still owned by the society, and has been removed 
 to the public library building for safe keeping. 
 
 January 1, 1903, the parish took a deed of the prop- 
 erty on the hill in the rear of the church, known as the 
 John Cook, Jr., place, for a parsonage, the Ladies' So- 
 ciety assuming a debt of $1,900 upon the same. So much 
 for the material progress of our church life. Can we 
 measure the spiritual in like ratio? The Young People's 
 Christian Fnion came to fill a great need in our church 
 life throughout the land. This church, too, fell into line, 
 and under the careful guidance of Eev. W, A. Tuttle. our 
 
112 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Y. P. C. U. came into existence. We have earnest, devoted 
 members, true to the motto of the Union, "For Christ and 
 his church." 
 
 The place whereon we stand is sacred, hallowed with 
 the memories of our own kith and kin who did all in their 
 power to support the faith we represent. It is also sacred 
 with the associations and memories of the many good men 
 and true who have proclaimed the gospel from this pulpit. 
 Doubtless the oldest living minister who ever conducted 
 religious service in this church is Rev. James Shrigley, 
 D. D., now residing in Philadelphia, who still keeps a live 
 interest in our prosperity, and who held a service here in 
 1836. Under the care of most of our pastors our church 
 roll has increased ; many have passed on ; some, alas, have 
 fallen out by the way. We are banded together as followers 
 of the Man of Kazareth, whose name we take. May we 
 be faithful. We honor the record of our fathers, who 
 faced the problem when it needed genuine courage to be 
 called a Universalist. Then discipline was rigid, and ex- 
 change of Christian courtesy between liberals and so-called 
 evangelicals was unknown. Now better things prevail, and 
 Christian fellowship and good will are the rule. May we 
 do our part to continue this. May we prove by our works 
 and faith we are in earnest, and fill our place in this com- 
 munity, of which there is great need. 
 
REV. W. S. UALCII, 
 
 WINCHESTER PASTOR, 1S2S. 
 
Before and After Winchester.' 
 
 REV. J. A. STONER. 
 
 The introduction of Universalism into that part of 
 our land once knowTi as the "Far West" was never 
 planned. No accredited missionary of the New England 
 Convention accompanied the hardy settlers who fought 
 their way into the western country at the close of the 
 Revolutionary War. That our faith was carried there no 
 one need doubt. Ours has been a pioneer church and our 
 people have been pioneers in every great reform. It was 
 but natural, therefore, that they should share in the toil 
 of opening up a new country, founding new cities and 
 establishing new institutions. 
 
 The Treaty of Paris left the youthful, republic in 
 possession of a vast unsettled region lying between the 
 Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River. By right 
 of charter, granted in colonial times, several of the states 
 extended their boundaries over the larger part of this ter- 
 ritory. The feeling was prevalent that these lands should 
 be disposed of for the common welfare. Virginia set the 
 example, and in 1784, ceded to the United States all the 
 land which she claimed northwest of the Ohio River. 
 Connecticut and New York soon followed the lead of Vir- 
 ginia, making possible that career of expansion that prom- 
 ises to Americanize the world. 
 
 As early as 1785 General James M. Varnum formed 
 the project of settling the Northwest, and proposed the 
 
 'Address at the Rome City (Ind.) Commemorative Service September 2, 
 1903, with the original title, "Penetrating the Wilderness." 
 
 (113) 
 
114 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 founding of a city at the month of the Muskingum Eiver. 
 The following year eleven men met at the "Bunch of 
 Grapes Tavern/' in Boston, and organized the Ohio Com- 
 pany. General Varnum was elected President, and Major 
 Sargent, Secretary, Rev. Manasseh Cutler was elected 
 agent, and instructed to proceed to New York and petition 
 Congress for the sale of 1,500,000 acres of land to the 
 Ohio Company, and the enactment of such laws as would 
 secure adequate home government for the Northwest 
 Territory. Dr. Cutler was entirely successful and the 
 result was the sale of land to the Ohio Company, and the 
 passage of the now famous Ordinance of 1787. Of this 
 Daniel Webster once said: "I doubt whether any one 
 single law, ancient or modern, has produced effects of a 
 more marked, and lasting distinct character." 
 
 Two articles of this ordinance only demand our at- 
 tention in this paper. Article 3 reads: "Eeligion, mor- 
 ality, and knowledge, being necessary to good govern- 
 ment and the happiness of mankind, schools and the 
 means of education shall forever be encouraged." Article 
 5 forbids human slavery. In the light of these articles is 
 to be read the wonderful history of the great Northwest. 
 The first company of settlers, numbering forty-seven, un- 
 der the command of General Eufus Putnam, reached Ohio, 
 April 7th, 1788. The flood of emigration that almost im- 
 mediately followed exceeded all expectation. Not less than 
 20,000 persons sought homes in the wilderness the first 
 year. These pioneers were subjected to almost incredible 
 hardships. Eoads were bridle-paths through the dense 
 forests. There were no bridges or ferries, and because of 
 the great hazard in transportation, the new settlers could 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 115 
 
 take with them to their new homes only such articles as 
 were absolutely necessary to a life in the wilderness. Not- 
 withstanding this limitation, every pack contained, in 
 addition to the customary outfit, a Bible, an almanac and 
 a few volumes most valued to the owner. What these 
 latter were can only be inferred from knowing the charac- 
 ter and the religious attitude of the several emigrants. 
 
 General James Mitchell Varnum had been a resident 
 of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. He was one of the 
 most eminent lawyers and distinguished orators in the 
 colonies. He commanded the Rhode Island Brigade dur- 
 ing the early period of the War for Independence. He 
 was a friend of Rev. John Murray, and doubtless it was 
 due to his influence that jMurray received the appoint- 
 ment of chaplain in the Revolutionary Army. General 
 Varnum was by appointment one of the judges of the new 
 territory, but was able to serve but a short time when he 
 was taken sick and was advised to seek a warmer climate. 
 On his way down the Ohio he grew rapidly worse and died 
 at the Falls. A letter written to his wife a short time 
 before his departure is filled with tender affection, and 
 breathes a most devout Christian spirit. 
 
 Capt. Winthrop Sargent, the efficient and energetic 
 Secretary of the Ohio Company and the Adjutant to the 
 first Governor of the Northwest Territory, General St. 
 Clair, was a native of Gloucester, Mass., and was a mem- 
 ber of that numerous Sargent family, "almost all of 
 whom," Mrs. Murray informs us, 'Tiad embraced the truth 
 as it is in Jesus; and their attachment to John ]\Iurray 
 was proportioned to their zeal." Winthrop Sargent was 
 a prominent factor in the government of the Northwest 
 
116 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Territory. He took part in the unfortunate campaign of 
 1791, and was wounded in St, Clair's defeat. He served 
 also as Adjutant to General Wayne in 1794. Sargent 
 was delegated to establish a civil government at Vincennes 
 in 1790. In this delicate task he acquitted himself to the 
 entire satisfaction of the people, and received a testi- 
 monial drawn up by a committee of officers. In 1788 he 
 removed to Natchez, having been appointed Governor of 
 the Mississippi Territory. Other early settlers at Marietta, 
 known to be of the Universalist faith, were Col. Joseph 
 Barker, father of Frances Dana Barker, famous in her day 
 as an active worker in the temperance, anti-slavery and 
 woman's rights movements; and Aaron Waldo Putman, 
 ancestor of the Universalist families of that name now 
 residents in Washington County, Ohio. There were 
 doubtless other Universalists among the members of the 
 Ohio Company than those whose names we have given. 
 That such men could entertain so precious a faith as 
 Universalism and not make it known is inconceiveable. 
 We may rightfully infer that they were evangelical Uni- 
 versalists, and that in their slender stock of books were to 
 be found a few advocating the great doctrine of the world's 
 salvation ; and that these were loaned and re-loaned until 
 worn to shreds. 
 
 The settlement of the lands between the Miami rivers 
 began in 1788. Among the pioneers of this region were 
 many men whose descendants have been prominent in 
 later times in the affairs of the Universalist Church. 
 Among the number we may note the names of Ludlow, 
 Armstrong, Perin, Durham, Buckingham, Snider, Bald- 
 win, Cary and Laboyteau. 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 117 
 
 The pioneers of every age are men of marked inde- 
 pendence of character and are seldom slaves to either old 
 customs or old opinions. Books, therefore, became our 
 early missionaries to the Northwest. What were they? 
 Let us look into their faces. There was printed at Ger- 
 mantown. Pa., in the year 1753, a work entitled "The 
 Everlasting Gospel, commanded to be preached by Jesus 
 Christ unto all Creatures." The author of this work, 
 according to the title page, was Paul Seigvolck. This, 
 however, was but a pen-name. The author's real name 
 was George Klein Nicolai, a learned Lutheran minister, 
 who wrote in German. A translation was made into 
 English by John Sower, and the work was issued by Chris- 
 topher Sower, who was a well-known printer of Pennsyl- 
 vania as far back as the early part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. Sower was the friend of Dr. George De Benneville, 
 the first known preacher of universal restitution in this 
 country. De Benneville had spent eighteen years in Ger- 
 man}', where he preached extensively, meanwhile pursuing 
 his studies; and it was at his request, no doubt, that the 
 translation of the "Everlasting Gospel" was made. An- 
 other work published in the same year at Germantown is 
 entitled: "The Fatal Consequences of the Unscriptural 
 Doctrine of Predestination and Reprobation, written in 
 High Dutch by j\L K." 
 
 "The Everlasting Gospel" was a book widely read in 
 the colonies. Elhanan Winchester mentions having met 
 with a copy of it in 1778 at the house of a friend in Soutli 
 Carolina. The following year a physician from Virginia 
 came to live in Winchester's Carolina parish, bringing 
 with him a copy of the book. Through its agency Mr. 
 
118 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Winchester became a convert to Universalism, a preacher 
 of its doctrines, and popular writer in its defense. Win- 
 chesters first publication was "The Outcasts Comforted," 
 a sermon preached in the University of Philadelphia in 
 1783 and directed to the members of the Baptist church 
 who had rejected him for holding the "Doctrine of the 
 Final Eestoration of All Things." The famous "Dia- 
 logues between a Minister and his Friend" were first pub- 
 lished in London, in 1792. This was a successful book 
 and passed through many editions, both in England and in 
 America. Mr. Winchester in "Sketches of his Life" 
 speaks of Stonehouse's "Eestitutipn of All Things" as a 
 learned work, which he read with care, and whose argu- 
 ments, reasoning, and scripture proof seemed to him to be 
 entirely satisfactory. An edition of "The Everlasting 
 Gospel" was reprinted for the editor, Elhanan Winchester, 
 at London in 1793. Another edition of the same book 
 was gotten out in Cincinnati, in 1815, by John Jenkinson, 
 who professes to have received "consolation and informa- 
 tion (from the comments) and explanations contained 
 therein," and who claims that he was induced to republish 
 it with "the hope that it might have the same effect on the 
 minds of all serious enquirers after the knowledge of the 
 Truth contained in the Sacred Scriptures." The editor 
 informs us that the author's preface had, through "time 
 and abuse," been lost, which he suggests need not in the 
 least derogate from the merits of the work. It is apparent 
 that the publisher did not have the title at hand, for he 
 does not reprint verbatim and besides he mis-spells 
 Siegvolck. The little volume is now before us. The 
 leather binding is much worn, and the pages time stained ; 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 119 
 
 but the print is still clear and easily read. If this little 
 book could reveal to us the story of its eventful career it 
 could no doubt tell of long journeys up and down the 
 land, passing from hand to hand, proclaiming in its mute 
 way, to all who would read, as the editor truly says, "the 
 love, mercy and justice of God in sending his beloved Son 
 to suffer for the universal restoration of a lost world." 
 
 The early history of Universalism in this country is a 
 record of a warfare which taxed to the utmost its devoted 
 adherents. Universal salvation was the most constant 
 theme presented in our pulpits, and the subject of most 
 frequent controversy. It does not follow, however, that 
 all literary efforts of our people, in this early period, was 
 confined to controversial subjects. Mrs. Judith Sargent 
 Murray, wife of the Eev. John Murray, contributed to 
 the Massachusetts Magazine during the years 1793-1796 a 
 series of articles over the assumed name of "Constantia." 
 These productions, with large additions, were printed in 
 book form in 1798. They fill three modest sized volumes 
 and are attractively bound in mottled leather. The title 
 given them is "The Gleaner, a Miscellaneous Production." 
 They number an even hundred, and are written after the 
 style of Addison's Spectator, which was a very popular 
 book in that day. Religious questions were studiously 
 avoided by the author, and political themes mildly 
 handled. Four consecutive numbers of the third volume 
 constitute a defense of the "Eights of Women." The 
 author tells us that these were intended to be supple- 
 mentary to one which she had contributed to a periodical 
 some 3^ears before, under the title, "The Equality of the 
 Sexes." Mr. Lockwood tells us in his recent book, "The 
 
120 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 New Harmony Communities/' that Miss Frances Wright 
 was the first woman in America to advocate "equal rights" 
 for her sex. The honor, if aught be due, belongs to the 
 wife of our John Murray, who had pioneered the way for 
 this reform thirty-five years before the appearance in 
 America of the "adorable Fanny." Mrs. Murray's popu- 
 larity is attested by the fact that 800 or more subscribers 
 had been obtained for her "Gleaner" before the date of 
 publication. The list which is appended to the last 
 volume includes the names of many persons distinguished 
 in American history. It is a significant fact that a num- 
 ber of the subscribers were residents of the then far away 
 territory of the Northwest. The list of these is as follows : 
 Capt. W. H. Harrison; Mrs. Harrison; Maj. I. S. Gano; 
 T. Goudy, Esq., Atty. at Law ; Mrs. Sara Goudy, 2 copies ; 
 Mr. George Gerdin; T. Gibson, Esq.; Mrs. Charlotte C. 
 Ludlow, 2 copies; Maj. J. M. Lovell, U. S. Army; C. 
 Smith, Judge Advocate U. S. Army; Capt. B. Sham- 
 burgh, Mrs. Eliza Sellman, and Mrs. Eliza Symms. The 
 latter was undoubtedly the wife of Judge Cleves Symms, 
 and hence the great grandmother of the late Benjamin 
 Harrison. 
 
 By the year 1821 there had been formed in Northern 
 Ohio two associations and a number of societies. Kev. 
 Timothy Bigelow reports to the "Christian Intelligencer" 
 of Portland, Maine (1822), the "addition of ten preachers 
 within one year; viz., three from the Baptists, two from 
 the Methodists, two from the Christians, and three from 
 the Universalist societies." That unique character in our 
 Zion, Father Stacy, attended the meeting of the Western 
 Keserve Association, held at Olmstead, in 1834. He in- 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 121 
 
 forms us that "Eev. A. Beals was the only prcaclier of 
 Universalism in that regioD, whose fidelity and stability 
 had enabled him to outride the tempest which, a few years 
 before, had engulfed every other preacher within the 
 limits of the Association in the dark whirlpool of Par- 
 tialism." 
 
 The Timothy Bigelow named above was a Winchester 
 preacher in 1810 and the first Universalist preacher to be- 
 come a resident of Ohio, but not the first minister to pro- 
 claim the doctrine of universal salvation within the state. 
 Kev. Abel Morgan Sargent preached in Eome Township, 
 xA.thens Count}^ as early as 1807. A contemporary says 
 that Sargent in early life was a Baptist preacher, that 
 about the year 1802 he became a believer in the annihila- 
 tion of the wicked ; and that finally he accepted a modified 
 form of Universalism. In the year 1812 he resided on a 
 farm, in Gallia County, taught school and preached as he 
 had an opportunity. Mr. Sargent is described as a well 
 educated man, a gentleman in deportment and conversa- 
 tion, and a very attractive speaker. He organized a num- 
 ber of societies in southern Ohio under the name of 
 "Halc3'0ns." He framed for their guidance a creed, and 
 printed a "Halcyon" hymn book at Marietta about the 
 year 1826. Two of his converts became preachers of the 
 "Halycon" doctrine; viz., William Campbell and Daniel 
 Parker. 
 
 In the month of July, 1827, there appeared in the 
 Cincinnati Saturday Evening Chronicle a quarter column 
 advertisement of a somewhat enigmatical character. It 
 began as follows : "Prospectus by the Catholic Liberating 
 Community, for publishing a periodical work, entitled the 
 
122 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 'Lamp of Liberty/ in vindication of the Trimitive 
 Christian Faith and Free Church.' " It was to be pub- 
 lished monthly and be 34 duodecimo pages in size. 
 Neither the name of the publisher or editor was given in 
 the advertisement mentioned. In the Chronicle for the 
 date of September 29th is found this notice: "LAMP 
 OF LIBEETY. The third number of this work is just 
 published. Those subscribers who have not received this 
 number can obtain it by calling at the ofhce of the Even- 
 ing Chronicle." The A. M. Sargent whose name is ap- 
 pended to the notice is without doubt the Eev. Abel Mor- 
 gan Sargent, whose announcement of preaching appears 
 in the Chronicle several times that year. The appoint- 
 ment of Mr. Daniel Parker also appears at frequent inter- 
 vals at about the same time. An old resident of Cin- 
 cinnati mentions that Sebastian Streeter delivered a dis- 
 course in Cincinnati about the year 1825, and that 
 Thomas Whittemore preached in the old Court House, 
 probably during the year 1826. In the little work en- 
 titled "Cincinnati in 1826," reference is made to a com- 
 pany calling themselves "Universalians," and it is stated 
 that they were expecting to erect for themselves a house of 
 worship. We infer from the following local that ap- 
 peared in the Chronicle in 1827 that they succeeded in 
 their enterprise: "Miss Harriet Livermore, a celebrated 
 female preacher, has excited much attention here during 
 the past week. On Wednesday she preached at the 
 TJniversalist meeting-house to an overflowing audience.'* 
 The reporter informs us that the woman gave a "sprink- 
 ling of the dead languages and concluded with an exhorta- 
 tion to her hearers in torrent of eloquence and shower of 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 123 
 
 tears." The Miss Livermore here spoken of was the 
 "Stranger Guest" of Whittier's Snow Bound, and was re- 
 garded as somewhat eccentric. That she obtained the use 
 of the Universaiist church for her meeting is to my mind 
 a testimonial to the spirit of broad charity and toleration 
 which pervaded the little company, which on the 25th day 
 of May, 1827, organized itself into a Universaiist society. 
 
 Who directed the movement that resulted in the 
 formation of the Cincinnati church is not now known. It 
 is probable that the credit belongs to Jonathan Ki dwell, 
 who on the date named was traveling a circuit embracing 
 nine of the western counties of Ohio and seven of the 
 eastern counties of Indiana. Kidwell was the most widely 
 known of all our Western pioneer preachers, and his 
 career demands from us more than passing notice. From 
 the grandsons now residing at Ellwood, Ind., we learn that 
 Jonathan Kidwell was born near Mt. Sterling, Ky., May 
 1, 1779, of poor but pious parents, who had been brought 
 up in the high Church of England, but had joined the 
 Methodist church on emigrating to Kentucky. They 
 were not able to give their children even a common school 
 education, mainly for the reason that the country was an 
 almost unbroken wilderness, and settlers were few in 
 numbers and widely separated, and dwelt in constant fear 
 of wild beasts and their still deadlier foes, the wily In- 
 dian. 
 
 Jonathan Kidwell, however, was carefuly instructed 
 in the religious belief of his parents, and accepted without 
 question the "awful doctrine of a God of wrath, who would 
 consign all unrepentant sinners to a place of endless tor- 
 ment." At the age of eighteen young Kidwell, as he himself 
 
124 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 informs us, "experienced what the world calls religion, and 
 from that an earnest desire to save souls from that awful 
 place called hell, joined the Methodist church and com- 
 menced preaching with no more than three months' school- 
 ing and an almost entire ignorance of the world." He 
 continued to preach in the Methodist church for seven 
 years, when he was led to abandon the church of his youth 
 and to become a member of the Christian denomination, 
 where more freedom of thought was permissible. For 
 Jonathan Kidwell there was no half way halting place. 
 At the end of two years he discarded orthodoxy entirely 
 and for a time was wholly indifEerent to the claims of 
 religion. About the year 1815 he re-read his Bible in the 
 light of his greater knowledge and wider experience. The 
 result was that he became a Universalist, and from that 
 time till the day of his death, in 1855, was a consistent 
 and unwavering advocate of Universal Salvation. He 
 settled with his family at Sulphur Spring, near Abington, 
 in Wayne County, Ind., from which retreat he went forth 
 to do battle in an unpopular cause. The calumny, perse- 
 cution and even personal violence, that he met with at the 
 hands of his opposers is unparalleled in the history of 
 even the Universalist ministry. When he formed the 
 circuit in 1826 it was estimated that fewer than 200 Uni- 
 versalists were found in all Southern Ohio and Indiana. 
 In 1829 the avowed believers in the same region were 
 thought to number more than 2,000. Mr. Kidwell's con- 
 verts were not made up of "negative Universalists," but 
 were plastic material ready for the builder's hand. The 
 leader was not slow to recognize the fact. In 1826 a meet- 
 ing was held in Jacksonburg, Ohio, which resulted in the 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 125 
 
 formation of an association under the title: "The Con- 
 vention of Universalists of the AYestern States." The 
 second meeting was held near Franklin, in Warren 
 county, in October, 1827, and was styled a "convention of 
 brethren professing the Abrahamic and Universalist 
 faith." Samuel Tizzard was the first President and P. J. 
 Laboyteau, first Secretary. This was the beginning of 
 the Ohio convention, although the founders did not intend 
 it to be exclusively such. This year, 1827, marks another 
 step in the progress of Universalism in the Northwest. 
 In August the first number of the "Star in the West" was 
 printed at Eaton, Ohio. It was a small eight-page 
 monthly and had for its editors, Jonathan Kidwell and 
 D. D. Hall. Mr. Kidwell traveled and procured sub- 
 scribers. The work of publication devolved upon Samuel 
 Tizzard, a practical printer, who seems to have assumed 
 the sole financial responsibility. At the close of the second 
 volume the office was moved to Cincinnati and the paper 
 greatly enlarged and changed to a weekly. The new paper 
 was called "The Sentinel and the Star in the W^est," the 
 first number of which was dated October 3, 1829. Mr. 
 Hall's name appears no longer as one of the editors, but 
 instead, that of J. C. Waldo, who seems to have been the 
 chief contributor. Mr. Waldo was also minister of the 
 Cincinnati church, but found time, in addition to the 
 faithful performance of all these duties, to travel exten- 
 sively and preach in the neighboring towns and villages, 
 in all of which places, he writes, "I have had crowded 
 assemblies." 
 
 On one of his journeys he preached at Augusta, Ken- 
 tucky. Before entering the pulpit for the evening service, 
 
126 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 he was handed a note containing the request that he 
 preach on the parable of the "sheep and the goats." He 
 accepted the invitation and delivered a powerful doctrinal 
 sermon. The anonymous request had come from Dr. L. 
 F. W. Andrews, and was made in the spirit of banter. The 
 Doctor confessed afterward to have been converted by that 
 sermon, and became a well-known preacher of our faith, 
 mainly in the Southern States. He was once settled in 
 Philadelphia. Mr. Waldo was blessed with one of the 
 saints for a wife, a daughter of Father Hosea Ballou. She 
 was a poetess of no mean talent, and an honor to the 
 church of which she was a most devoted adherent. 
 
 For a number of years Jonathan Kidwell continued 
 to serve as the field agent of the "Sentinel," as it was 
 called. He visited the remotest parts of the country, and 
 frequently preached where Universalism was but little 
 known. While on a business trip to Indianapolis, in the 
 winter of 1829, Mr. Kidwell, by request, preached a num- 
 ber of times in the old State House. At the close of his 
 last lecture, Eev. Edwin Eay, a young Methodist minister 
 of the capitol city, arose and announced that he would 
 reply to the arguments that Mr. Kidwell had advanced. 
 He was promptly invited to do so then and there, but 
 firmly refused. A challenge for a joint public debate 
 quickly followed. The discussion took place in the Metho- 
 dist meeting-house, January 21, 1830, and drew an im- 
 mense crowd of interested people. The legislature voted 
 to adjourn in order that the members might attend the 
 debate. The clergy of the city were solidly arrayed against 
 the champion of Universalism, and the local papers mani- 
 fested a bias in favor of Mr. Eay. As usual orthodoxy 
 
BEFORE AND AFTER WINCHESTER. 127 
 
 claimed tlio victory, but it was evident that they were sur- 
 prised at the capable defense made by Mr. Kidwell, for 
 Mr. Kay's friends would not consent to the publication of 
 an official report. Mr. Kidwell on his own account pre- 
 pared "A Series of Strictures/' or notes, on the debate, 
 filling about one hundred pages; and these, with some 
 additional matter, were printed in book form and widely 
 circulated. 
 
 In the year 1833 the "Sentinel" again became a wan- 
 derer. This time the press was removed to Indiana and 
 set up in the backwoods where Mr. Kidwell and a few 
 friends were proposing to establish a Universalist town 
 and found an unsectarian academy. The enterprise not 
 meeting with any measure of success, Mr. Tizzard re- 
 turned to Cincinnati and continued to publish "The Star 
 in the West," with George Eogers as editor. In 1837 the 
 "Star" was published by John A. Gurley, an energetic, 
 capable Universalist preacher from Methuen in the old 
 Bay State. Mr. Tizzard being relieved of the Cincinnati 
 paper, took up his residence in Eaton and became the pub- 
 lisher of the "Eaton Register," which he continued to edit 
 until his death in 18-1-1. Mr. Tizzard was highly esteemed 
 by his neighbors, who honored him with a seat in the Ohio 
 Legislature and elected him to preside over the court of 
 Preble County. No Universalist layman of that day sac- 
 rificed so much for the cause as he. Soon after the re- 
 moval of the "Star" from Philomath, the name by which 
 the town was known, Mr. Kidwell purchased a press and 
 commenced the publication of a monthly journal which he 
 named "The Encyclopedia, or Circle of Sciences," seven 
 volumes of which were issued. 
 
128 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 At this date the first census of Universalists in 
 America was made. The attempt was far from being sat- 
 isfactory, and the statistics very unreliable ; but they fur- 
 nish some data by which to judge of the progress of 
 Universalism. At this period there were in Ohio between 
 thirty and forty societies and fourteen preachers. The 
 leading societies were located in Cincinnati, Watertown, 
 Marietta, Perrysburg, Oxford, Conneaut, Lexington, 
 Geneva, Saybrook, Nelson and Belpre. The preachers were 
 A. A. Davis, E. Beals, A. Bond, J. Bradley, D. E. Biddle- 
 come, T. De Wolf, F. H. Johnson, W. H. Jolley, J. J. Hol- 
 lister, Freeman Strong, D. Tenney, G. Eogers, N. Wads- 
 worth and C, Eichardson. At that date Universalism had 
 made some progress in Indiana, and there were societies in 
 Leavenworth, Greenville, High Banks, Laconia and Lib- 
 erty. E. B. Mann and Jonathan Kidwell are the only 
 ministers accredited to Indiana by the first Eegister. 
 
 The foregoing notes are but the framework of what 
 might become, with proper arrangement, several interest- 
 ing addresses. We have no time to work up this material, 
 even if we possessed the required skill ; so we ofEer them 
 for what they are worth as a contribution to this centen- 
 nial commemoration by the Universalist Convention of 
 Indiana of the adoption in 1803 of the Winchester Pro- 
 fession of Belief. 
 
PASTOR AND PARISH OFFICIALS— Winchester. 
 
 MISS J. GRACE ALEXANDER. E. L. ALEXANDER. MRS. F. B. CARPENTER. 
 
 W. A. ALEXANDER. REV. C. J. HARRIS. J. A. GALE. 
 
 HON. H. \V. BRIGHAM. 
 
The Winchester of To-day.' 
 
 REV. CLARENCE J. HARRIS. 
 
 Mr. President, and visiting friends: We would not 
 have you understand that we under-estimate in any degree 
 the value of the Winchester of the past. It is certain that 
 the best blood, the best brain, and the best character of to- 
 day are but the products of yesterday. 
 
 Our church has had a noble history, and we have had 
 great men in the past ; but it is equally true we are writing 
 today as glorious a history and are producing men of the 
 highest tyiDe of Christian manhood. 
 
 We have had our Murrays, Potters, Ballous, IMiners, 
 Chapins and their kind, and we have their quality here 
 today in this old Winchester church, the scene of one of the 
 greatest acts of our denomination. The names of Hawkins, 
 Alexander, Ball, Willis, Saben, Eixford and others are 
 ploughed deep in the history of this church, and they are 
 names which well represent some strong pioneers of Uni- 
 versalism in the state of New Hampshire. Sons and 
 daughters of these noble leaders are still here, who, with 
 many additional names, are doing their best for this mother 
 church of the faith. 
 
 Had it not been for these brave persons, the doors of 
 this church would not now be open. This society has seen 
 dark and trying days. For years at a time the doors have 
 been closed, and the dust covered the altar where there 
 
 'Abstract of remarks at the Winchester Centennial service, Thursday 
 afternoon, October i. 
 
 (129) 
 
180 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ought to have been fire ; but conditions were not long to re- 
 main such, for brave women, whom I could point out to you 
 now in the congregation if I choose, came to this neglected 
 structure, opened her doors, and these brave women of the 
 cross have kept them open ever since. 
 
 Once the people here felt that the great denomination 
 which had built so grandly with this church as a corner- 
 stone, had forgotten the Winchester church, and I feel 
 now, fellow laborers, that the denomination does not yet 
 show the interest in this church that her place in our his- 
 tory demands. 
 
 Look about you! Is not this a beautiful building? 
 Thousands of dollars have been spent to make it beautiful. 
 To my left is the organ, a most inspiring monument, with 
 its voice of divine sweetness, to the memory of our brave 
 fathers of 1803. You noted the determination and en- 
 thusiasm with which our most zealous worker screwed on 
 the gold plate last evening, and her push and purpose 
 caused a smile of pleasure for you all. Let me say that 
 every part of that instrument was put in with the same 
 zealous spirit, and in like spirit does the Winchester of 
 today do her work. 
 
 It is not my purpose to ask for your help and co-op- 
 eration, but to tell you what is being done today. On yon- 
 der elevation, like a city on a hill that can not be hid, is our 
 new "Centennial Parsonage." We began the new year by 
 purchasing it, and trust to finish its payment this year 
 as a further memorial of the event of the past century. 
 We have asked no one outside for help, for we believed 
 we must do our best first. Aside from putting our little 
 church into perfect repair, internally and externally, and 
 
SUNDAY SCHOOL. CHOIR. LADIES' AID— WINCHESTER. 
 
 MRS. F. E. LEON.XRl). J. L. HOLL.VND, K. E. LEONARD, 
 
 Organist. Sunday School Superintendent. Chorister. 
 
 MISS SARAH RIXFORD, MISS MARY PLATT, MRS. W. A. ALEXANDER, 
 
 Church Treasurer. Junior Superintendent. Pre.s. Ladies' Society. 
 
THE WINCHESTER OF TODAY. 131 
 
 placing herein the organ, we have also raised and paid 
 about $1,500 on the parsonage, which makes, since the 
 beginning of the present pastorate, a sum of about $4,000. 
 Should any here be desirous of having part in our Centen- 
 nial Parsonage, an opportunity will be given in the vestry. 
 
 P'riends : The fires are burning on the altar in the 
 temple of this Universalist Mecca. Brave men and wo- 
 men have laid their lives on its altar as willing sacrifices. 
 They are doing their best, but one day those heads now be- 
 ing crowned in gray must rest ; these bodies of our fathers 
 and mothers must slumber in peace; where, then, will be 
 your Winchester? 
 
 Let this church be a central point of the denomina- 
 tion's affections, and may you see to it that her doors shall 
 never close again, but that she will stand as a living monu- 
 ment to the memory of our holy, sainted fathers, who here 
 sounded a note that has been heard the world around, call- 
 ing men to worship a God whose love and affection know 
 no limitations, but are for all of the children of men. 
 
"The Old and the New.'" 
 
 FREDERICK A. BISBEE, D. D. 
 
 "The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, 
 saith the Lord of Hosts; and in this place I will give peace, saith the 
 Lord of Hosts." Haggai, 11:9. 
 
 To THOSE who are familiar with the architecture of our 
 churches of a century ago and that of today; to those who 
 can compare our denominational resources then and now; 
 to those who have given thought to the changes in the 
 religious conditions during the last one hundred years, the 
 words of this text will at once appeal and become lumi- 
 nous with significance. And with their help it is my pur- 
 pose to take you on the heights of vision to which we have 
 been lifted by this inspiring occasion and lead you through 
 simple paths gently down into the valley of practical 
 service. 
 
 The end of everything is the beginning of something 
 else. The end of the day the beginning of the night, and 
 not less is the end of the night the beginning of the day. 
 The end of life the beginning of death, and even so the 
 end of death the beginning of life. The end of one cen- 
 tury not the finish of time, but the beginning of another. 
 And standing as we do upon the great divide between the 
 centuries, we can look backward and forward and, from our 
 point of vantage, make a study of the Old and the New. 
 
 I have stood in the old building which has replaced 
 the oldest church in America dedicated to the universal 
 
 'Closing sermon at the Winchester Centennial, Thursday evening, Octo- 
 ber I, by the Editor of The Universalist Leader. 
 
 (132) 
 
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 133 
 
 love of God — originally the house which Thomas Potter 
 builded in faith in the pine forests of New Jersey. Though 
 changed by time and the hand of man, it yet retains a 
 suggestion of the original accommodations for worship 
 and service and is a type of the buildings in which our 
 fathers worshiped. But a few yards from it stands the 
 ^Icmorial Church, which, a hundred years later, a grateful 
 denomination erected in commemoration of the devoted 
 Columbus of the new religious world which he gave to 
 humanity. The new building stands, beautiful in design, 
 firm of foundation, enduring in material, and adapted to 
 the needs of modern religious service, in such marked 
 contrast with the old as to well fulfill the prophetic words 
 of Scripture, "The glory of this latter house shall be 
 greater than of the former." 
 
 And we have but to call to mind the crude structures 
 of a century ago in which the people gathered to praise 
 the Lord and contrast them with the beautiful temples 
 adorned with luxury and endowed with every encourage- 
 ment to worship and suggestion of the beauty of holiness, 
 to appreciate how these two historic buildings in the soli- 
 tude of the forest typify the changes and improvements 
 the centurv'^ has wrought. 
 
 Yet none shall claim there was no glory in the old, 
 for like a beacon in the darkness did that primitive 'Tiouse 
 in the woods," a foregleam of that later "House of the 
 Woods" at The Hague, which became the world's temple 
 of peace, send forth its love-light to dispel the gloom of 
 cruelty, ignorance and sin. It was glorious, and yet is 
 this latter house of greater glory. 
 
 The lone man in the forest dreaming of the time 
 
IM CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 when one should come through to whom the thought of 
 his heart should be revealed, was glorious in his solitude; 
 but greater the glory when, after many years, there gath- 
 ered among the hills of New Hampshire a little group of 
 devoted men to organize the thought of Potter into specific 
 statement, its followers into an efficient church. 
 
 We are here to glorify them and their work. Theirs 
 was an achievement to command the respect and gratitude 
 of the ages. Sublime the audacity of two dozen ministers 
 and three dozen churches, the latter but little more than 
 congregations without organic life, to attempt to face the 
 combined ecclesiastical, social and political forces of the 
 time and assert their right to be. Splendid the heroism, 
 not unlike that other group of disciples, eighteen centuries 
 before, to attempt the victory of the world ! Yet must 
 they felt themselves well equipped for service when com- 
 pared with those still earlier in the service. It must have 
 seemed to them that already great victories had been won 
 to have given them so many churches and such a band of 
 leaders. And glory shone around them. 
 
 But consider the achievements of the century. The 
 hundreds of people have multiplied into tens of thou- 
 sands; where twenty-five clergymen ministered to thirty- 
 eight churches, now over seven hundred ministers serve a 
 thousand parishes; where there was poverty in financial 
 equipment, now we count wealth by millions; where 
 education was drawn from reluctant sources, we now 
 find occasion for pride in schools, colleges and uni- 
 versities serving the church which gave them being; in 
 place of social and political ostracism there is general rec- 
 ognition of liberty and equality; where each church strug- 
 
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 135 
 
 gled for bare existence in lonely isolation, and each min- 
 ister fought his battles as an individual, in compact organ- 
 ization there is co-operation in aggressive missionary ef- 
 fort; where each church was but a congregation of indi- 
 viduals, held together often only as a means of self-defence, 
 there are Cliristian churches serving God in unity of spirit 
 and in the bonds of peace; where differences of belief were 
 as many as the individuals who believed, there has grown 
 a systematic theology the foundation of which was laid 
 here among the granite hills, a temple of truth, in which 
 liberty of opinion prevails, but ever facing the altar of 
 God. Behold, the glory of this latter house is greater than 
 of the former. 
 
 The achievements of our denomination in the century 
 must give joy to every loyal heart; but they are not to be 
 reckoned alone in local conditions, for the larger victory 
 is that whose results can not be tabulated in figures, but 
 which manifests itself in the new spirit prevailing through- 
 out those churches once arrayed in deadly opposition to 
 the cause we represent. Then was each church a fortress 
 for battle, and royal were the conflicts when it seemed 
 there were giants in those da5's who strove for victory. 
 Now in this place there is peace, saith the Lord of Hosts. 
 Day by day and year by year the spirit of Love has won 
 into the hearts of men, and their hearts and faces and pur- 
 poses and methods have been transformed, wdth resultant 
 new conditions which it will be profitable for us to con- 
 sider in comparison with the old. 
 
 In spite of the facts, with which we are all familiar, 
 of the decadence of churches, the lack of attendance and 
 of support and the general feeling of indifference, I am 
 
136 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 moved to proclaim, as a seeming contradiction, that this 
 is a day of great religious interest and the dawning of a 
 great religious revival. It is an. interest manifesting itself 
 by new methods and in new quarters. The leaders of the 
 intellectual life are beginning to recognize that there can 
 be no complete life from which religion is left out. The 
 students of economics are recognizing that there can be 
 no solution of its great problems without religion, and the 
 social reformers make their appeal with the principles of 
 religion. Literature is flavored with the religious spirit, 
 and science adjusts itself to the facts of the spiritual life. 
 The only discouraging feature being the abandonment of 
 the real, vital worth of religion by the churches them- 
 selves, which have cheapened and sacrificed their sublime 
 and divine office, as Professor Harnack says, "by crying 
 up religion as though it were a job lot at a sale or a uni- 
 versal remedy for all social ills; snatching at all sorts of 
 baubles so as to deck out religion in fine clothes, depriving 
 it of its earnest character.'' Too many have been selling 
 their divine birthright for a soup kitchen; turning the 
 heaven of a Christ-like humanity into the Mahomedan 
 heaven of material luxuries ; substituting clothes and food 
 for spiritual vision and moral ideals ; abandoning the 
 culture of trees to distribute the fruits thereof; shutting 
 up the fountains of eternal life to serve the nectar of a 
 day; depreciating the supreme value of the church as the 
 temple of Almighty God to make it the playhouse of a 
 pleasure-loving age ; appealing to the greed and selfishness 
 and passion instead of to the nobility and divinity of the 
 race ; putting the divine on the defensive against the human 
 and bartering the royal possessions of the Kingdom of God 
 for the pitiable trifles of earth. 
 
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 137 
 
 But there are still commanders and leaders in the 
 church who are awake to the dangers and wide awake to 
 welcome the dawn of a new time; yea, who lift the cur- 
 tains of the East to let in the glorious rays of promise. 
 That keen ohserver of conditions and wise director of both 
 ideals and actions, Dr. Josiah Strong, sends forth his mes- 
 sage of "The Next Great Awakening." And out of the 
 East comes a wise man in the person of Eev. R. J. Camp- 
 bell, who, with spiritual vision which ranks him among 
 the prophets of earth, announces the coming of a great 
 revival of that which is truest and best in religion ; the 
 same great evangel which through all the ages has stirred 
 the hearts of men, intensified with an assurance of uni- 
 versal victory in the ultimate salvation of all souls from 
 sin. 
 
 But the new revival is not to be the reproduction of 
 any that have gone before. Those have been marked first 
 by fervor and enthusiasm, later by deadening controversies 
 over Biblical texts and scholastic methods ; then there were 
 philosophical arguments and ethical appeals. All these 
 were the legitimate steps leading to the consummation of 
 them all, a great spiritual awakening, the fruits of which 
 shall be love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, good- 
 ness, faith, meekness and temperance, the desideratum of 
 all who look for human betterment. 
 
 The new time brings a new object. Once the pur- 
 pose of religion and all its ministrations was to produce a 
 change in the disposition of God, make him good-natured 
 so that he would admit the souls of men into heaven which 
 they did not deserve and for which they were not fitted. 
 Those were times of battle between the advocates of differ- 
 
138 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ent schools of method of pleasing God. There was crying 
 on every side, "Here is the only way ; come with us, or you 
 can not be saved ; all other ways are ways of peril and lead 
 but to destruction." Scripture and philosophy were called 
 upon to establish a right of way ; resort was made to things 
 extraordinary, thinking to win the favor of an angry or 
 indifEerent God. All that has changed. Men have come 
 to recognize that a God to be God can not need any mod- 
 ifications of his character or purpose ; that he is perfect or 
 he is nothing. But behold, the need of change and im- 
 provement is here in this world among men; we are the 
 ones who need, not God; and so a new direction was given 
 to religion. It swung from heaven to earth and began a new 
 ministry like that of its Founder here among men, to up- 
 lift, to purify, to illumine, to inspire, to glorify. At once 
 it faced appalling difficulties, and must needs readjust 
 itself to its new service. 
 
 Whatever was the glory of the old, and that glory is 
 not to be denied, for the blundering steps of childhood 
 must ever anticipate the vigorous pace of man, the glory 
 of the new is far greater, and as the new object is sys- 
 temized and centered in practice it is to reap results the 
 glory of which shall be the fulfilling of Prophet's 
 dreams in the salvation of a world from sin and helping 
 men to live. 
 
 In this new time, what is the office of religion? 
 Wherein shall it manifest its glory ? What are the peculiar 
 needs of the present, and how are they to be met? 
 
 A marked characteristic of this age is its acquisitive- 
 ness. We want wealth, we want education, we want social 
 standing, we want physical strength and physical pleasure, 
 
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 139 
 
 we want personal beauty and adornment. But what for? 
 The evils in the world which we decry grow out of the 
 possession of these things rather than their absence, and 
 yet they are all good. You remember that dirt is defined 
 as misplaced matter. In just the same way I would define 
 sin as misdirected energy. There is no doubt but that 
 we are raising a generation of trained minds and healthy 
 bodies; we are certainly, as a people, getting rich and en- 
 joying more of the so-called good things of life than ever 
 in the history of man. But what are we going to do with 
 these things? What are we doing with them? What 
 has our civilization achieved? Look about 3'ou and note 
 the evils in the world, so many that the most optimistic 
 must have periods of pessimism. Cruelty of man to man, 
 criminal passion casting its blight upon the fairest in life, 
 persecutions and lynchings, divorce smiting the very foun- 
 dations of civilization in its destruction of the home, drun- 
 kenness, impurity, dishonesty in private and public life, 
 greed of gain sweeping men and nations into wrong. What 
 are these things? In the final analysis they are but mis- 
 directed forces in the individual, and there is no hope of 
 change and reform and improvement until the individual 
 is made over new. Just as fast as that is done will the 
 evils cease, and no faster. You can never build a dam 
 high enough to confine a living spring; as long as the 
 individual man is bad he will find a way to defeat the law 
 which restrains him ; as long as enough individuals are 
 bad the best law can not be enforced — ^the law even can not 
 be enacted. 
 
 What is to be done? We want all these things 
 changed, we want the world made new, we want to bring 
 
140 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 in the kingdom of heaven and have a world wherein love 
 and purity and honor shall reign, where justice shall be 
 dealt to every man and righteousness be the rule of con- 
 duct. We all want these things; every scheme of human 
 betterment has this as its motive, and the world is full of 
 schemes, and they all fail because they all begin at the 
 wrong end of things ; they want the fruit without the tree ; 
 they want things done without the doing of them; they 
 would reform society as a means to the reformation of the 
 individual, overlooking the fact there can be no perfect 
 whole in which the units are imperfect; that every gi-eat 
 social enterprize has been wrecked by the imperfect indi- 
 vidual. All schemes have failed because they left religion 
 out. And religion failed, too, at first because it was di- 
 rected away from man, and next because it sought to change 
 him from without, and only now is it hopeful when it 
 seeks to change him from within. Make the man himself 
 over and he will shape the conditions so that it will be 
 easier for others to be true. 
 
 Here is a man with vast talent of thought; he uses 
 it to entice men into difficulty, to seduce them from virtue, 
 to trick them out of their possessions. We say that man 
 is a sinner because he is doing these things ; that is, he is 
 directing the force of a trained mind to evil instead of 
 good. What is needed is not to eliminate thought, but to 
 make the man over until he will direct his thought toward 
 good. Here is a man who has the divine talent — I use the 
 term advisedly — the divine talent for making money. He 
 uses that talent to satisfy his greed: money makes him a 
 master, cruel, selfish. Do not abolish the money nor the 
 
THE OLD AND THE NEW. 141 
 
 talent, but make the man new, then will he administer his 
 trust in righteous service. 
 
 That is, to the situation today, with all its complexity, 
 religion alone holds the key. Wealtli, with all its power, 
 is helpless; education alone is incompetent, and improved 
 conditions are themselves an effect and not a cause. Just 
 as in the past, in every age, the salvation of the world is 
 in the hand of religion alone today, and with the new rec- 
 ognition of this in every department of life lies the prom- 
 ise of the coming revival which shall be more glorious than 
 any which have gone before. 
 
 What part are we to have in it ? If the thought which 
 our fathers here inscribed upon our Profession is the heart 
 of the new religious movement, then certainly that thought 
 phall find its greatest efficiency through the organism which 
 is its own outgrowi:h, and it rests with us of this generation 
 whether the glory of achievement shall be ours or be taken 
 from us and given to others. The glory was upon the 
 fathers when they laid down the great principles of the 
 Christian religion which must save the world from sin. 
 Our glory is that we apply them to the life of today. 
 
 Magnificent our opportunity, sublime our responsibil- 
 ity. Wlierever there is established and sustained a church 
 dedicated to the propagation and application of these prin- 
 ciples there is set a power-house from which is to go forth 
 the motive of personal righteousness, which is the world's 
 great need in every department of its life. 
 
 We look back across the century and see in memory 
 that gathering of heroes and saints who, in the face of bit- 
 ter opposition, of cruel persecution, in the loneliness of 
 isolation, amid the discouragements of small resources. 
 
142 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 wrought righteousness into words which have come down 
 to us, leading an ever growing multitude of faithful fol- 
 lowers, and we see the glory that sat upon them like the 
 tongues of flame with which the early disciples were bap- 
 tised, and it remains for us, with equal devotion, with 
 equal heroism, with equal sacrifice, to follow in their foot- 
 steps that it may be said of us by future generations, that 
 we wrought righteousness into works and won a glory 
 greater than that of the fathers to whom we today pay 
 tribute at this sacred altar. 
 
Exposition of Universalism/ 
 
 JAMES M. PULLMAN, D. D. 
 "For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or 
 the world, or life, or death, or things present or things to come: all are 
 yours, and ye are Christ's and Christ is God's." — I Cor. iii, 22, 23. 
 
 I AM asked to make an exposition of Universalism ; 
 to tell you what that Universalism is which found its 
 definite expression within the precincts of this venerable 
 church a hundred years ago. 
 
 Take, then, the name first. ("Universalism, from 
 the Latin universalis, of or belonging to, all or the whole ; 
 derivative of universus, all together, whole, entire; liter- 
 ally, turned into one; unm, one + vertere, versus, turn.") 
 
 In theology, Universalism is the doctrine that all 
 mankind will finally attain salvation. Stated more fully, 
 the beliefs which constitute the doctrine are: That God 
 is; that his infinite power, wisdom and justice are modes 
 of his essential nature, which is love; that he holds to 
 mankind the relations of creator and father; that he is 
 manifested through his works and providence; that he 
 has disclosed through his highest creatures and especially 
 through Jesus Christ, his character, will and purpose as 
 to the duty and destiny of man; that he is continually 
 working upon mankind through his cosmic and ethical 
 forces, and by the operation of his Holy Spirit of truth, 
 faith, hope and love; and that thus guided, disciplined, 
 and inspired, all his children will eventually clear them- 
 
 'At the Winchester Centennial, Thursday afternoon. 
 (U3) 
 
144 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 selves from evil and achieve perfected character, with its 
 resulting power, peace and joy, so that a complete moral 
 harmony of the universe will be attained, and God will be 
 all in all. 
 
 Man. — Man is not under the wrath and curse of Grod 
 for the sins of his ancestors ; but he is under the difficul- 
 ties and dangers of inherited and acquired defect and 
 weakness; that his chief peril, the real, demonstrable 
 hell into which he may fall is degeneration — the failure to 
 live up to his organic capacity; that the evils which en- 
 mesh him are, however, challenges of his strength; that 
 pain is the great stimulator of his energy — the prolonged 
 birth-pang of his higher powers; and that his agonizing 
 conflict with evil is only the fair price of perfected char- 
 acter and eternal life. 
 
 Universalism emphasizes the importance of faith in 
 man as the highest organism of the visible creation and 
 the chief visible work of God, and it contributes to the 
 body of Christian doctrine this new article of faith : "We 
 believe that man is created in the image of God, and is 
 able to know and to do God's will." It is affirmed that 
 man is not a fallen being, a worm, a slave, a wreck, but a 
 developing being who began low down and is on his way 
 up — not a ruin, but a mine, full of latent riches. His 
 capacities are great, some of his actions are sublime; he 
 is God's fellow-worker, cooperator and agent. Through 
 him chiefly the divine purposes are wrought out on this 
 earth. God furnishes the arena, the organism, the ever- 
 renewed inspirations, but man does the work, and in doing 
 it he develops the one vital thing that God does not create, 
 namely — character. Universalism affirms the spiritual 
 
EXPOSITION OF UNIJ'ERSALISM. 146 
 
 unity of the race, and the universality and ethical identity 
 of all God's revelations to man. 
 
 Salvation.— Vnixeraalists hold that moral develop- 
 ment is not confined to this state of being, but is con- 
 tinuous with the whole duration of man: that salvation 
 consists in the formation of a character conformed to 
 God's will ; that such character can not be instantaneously 
 acquired, nor produced in any other way than by the 
 voluntary action of the individual ; that rewards and pun- 
 ishments are not ends nor finalities, but aids to the de- 
 velopment of character; that God's love is as clearly 
 shown in penalty as in reward, since by the return of his 
 deeds upon his own head, man is made aware that there is 
 Somebody in the universe who cares which way he goes; 
 that punishment is medicinal and corrective; that the 
 remission of the natural penalties of voluntary transgres- 
 sion would be unmerciful; that forgiveness does not in- 
 volve such remission, but works a change in the attitude 
 of the soul which enables the transgressor to endure the 
 consequences of his sin in such a way that they will en- 
 noble instead of degrade him. 
 
 Universalism holds to the conversion of all bad be- 
 ings into good beings. It discards the theory of endless 
 punishments in favor of the doctrine of just punishments, 
 which manifest a divine justice instead of an undivine 
 vengeance. The TJniversalist protest is not against pun- 
 ishment, but against the endless continuance of sin and 
 disobedience — against everlasting anarchy in God's uni- 
 verse. The moral welfare of the universe requires that 
 every moral being shall be brought into moral allegiance. 
 Endless hell can no longer be held essential to the idea of 
 
146 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 God's justice; in fact, it would be a confession of God's 
 failure, as though the Almighty should say, "I can not 
 cure your sin, but I can torment you forever." Univer- 
 salism holds that really divine action must be manifested 
 by the conquering of wicked, not by the futile torture of 
 the wicked. 
 
 Universalism affirms that the revelation of the divine 
 character and purpose through Jesus Christ is the most 
 potent generator of spiritual and ethical energy in the 
 world; that the chief function of the church of Christ 
 is to hold his ideal of life and character before men 
 and help them to attain it; and that man can not find 
 salvation by withdrawing from the sphere of life's ap- 
 pointed duties and activities, but that the great school 
 of moral discipline and spiritual culture is to be found 
 in the common personal relationships and ordinary pur- 
 suits of life. 
 
 The Bible. — The Universalist Profession of Faith, 
 adopted a century ago in this house, says: "We believe 
 that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments 
 contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the 
 duty, interest and final destination of mankind," 
 
 It is held that the moral and spiritual content of 
 the Bible constitute a progressive revelation adapted to 
 the successive changes of man's development; that since 
 a revelation must necessarily be intelligible to those to 
 whom it is addressed, the Bible must be interpreted ac- 
 cording to the present canons of historical criticism, 
 and in the terms of man's present understanding and 
 conscience; that it contains a record of man's spiritual 
 experience and moral growth through many ages under 
 
EXPOSITION OF UNIVERSALISM. 147 
 
 the tuition of God's spirit, and that it stands pre-eminent 
 in its power of communicating moral energy to the strug- 
 gling souls of men. 
 
 Methods. — It is held that all moral transformation 
 and growth is from within outward; that the incarnation 
 of God in Jesus Christ is representative of the method 
 of the coming in of God's spirit in all men; that every 
 soul is capable of receiving that spirit; that the entrance 
 of the divine life into humanity is not an exceptional, 
 official or magical act, but a process whose laws can be 
 discovered and obeyed; that repentance of sin, the wor- 
 ship of God, obedience to the Christ, the service of men, 
 the diligent discharge of duty, and the honoring of the 
 common relationships of life, are all channels through 
 Avhich the soul may receive, in ever increasing measure, 
 that divine energy which lifts it out of the power of 
 sin and sorrow and forwards it on the way to per- 
 fection. 
 
 The Resurrection and the Future Life. — It is held 
 that the resurrection is experienced by each soul when, at 
 the dissolution of the body, it enters upon a new order 
 of existence. It is not conceived that death works any 
 moral transformation, but that the soul enters the next 
 state with the spiritual character which it has achieved 
 on earth. It is believed that in the future life all the 
 opportunities for the further growth which the powers 
 of the soul open to it will be accorded; that it vrill be 
 there under the ministry of truth and love until truth 
 and love have wrought within and upon it their perfect 
 work. 
 
 Now, this is theolog}^ — an attempt to set forth the 
 
148 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 vital relations between God and man in the terms of our 
 present human understanding. 
 
 But it is not the whole of Universalism. Universal- 
 ism is much more than a theology. It is a faith, founded, 
 as every vital faith must be, upon both understanding 
 and feeling. The heart is greater than the understand- 
 ing, and man can wholly feel what he can not clearly 
 see. 
 
 Universalism as a faith is Just universalized Chris- 
 tianity, a strict development of Christianity out of its 
 special into its universal form — the central teaching of 
 Jesus taken out from under provincial and encumbering 
 accretions and tuned to a universal faith. 
 
 The Universalist faith is absolute belief in an ade- 
 quate God who is able to conduct his universe to the 
 goal of his desires without inflicting an eternal catas- 
 trophe upon any of his creatures. 
 
 The Universalist faith is belief in man as an im- 
 proving and improvable creature who is capable under 
 God of reaching the highest goal. He was set naked 
 on this earth, but he adapts himself, thinks and grows; 
 he learns to subdue nature to his uses, he founds the 
 family, builds the home and the school, the factory and 
 the temple; he organizes the commonwealth and tries 
 to make it a kingdom of God, founded in justice and love 
 and crowned with power and glory. In all this man is 
 God's fellow-worker, inspired by his spirit. 
 
 Universalists believe in this earth as God's work- 
 shop, where God and man work together for the produc- 
 tion and adornment of human character, which is the 
 chief end of man. Universalists believe in other and 
 
EXPOSITION OF UNIVERSALISM. 149 
 
 higher worlds than this, where the process of making 
 the perfect man is carried forward to completion. Uni- 
 versalism is faith in the success of God, the sure triumph 
 of his righteousness and tlie eternal reign of his love. 
 
 Our fathers, one hundred years ago, saw the great 
 truth clearly, and wrought toward it. But they saw 
 not all of its implications. We, after the lapse of a hun- 
 dred years, see the same great truth, but are helped to 
 a larger view of its relations and meanings. And as 
 we stand on the high tower of which the fathers laid 
 the foundations, and look forward and outward from this 
 little planet where we temporarily dwell, the largest 
 thought that meets us on the threshold of the twentieth 
 Christian century is that the constitution of the whole 
 living universe is a pure theism under the adequate God 
 whom we love and serve, and that its form of activity 
 is cooperative. Other worlds than ours are alive with 
 intelligences; new worlds are in process of formation. 
 ]\Ian is an active worker and sharer in a vastly more ex- 
 tended system of cosmic action than he can at present 
 comprehend. Our multitudinously populated planet is, 
 after all, only a suburb of the great city of God. 
 
 And our chief product is mind. The order of nature 
 in which we live is, first of all, a mind factory — a ma- 
 chine for transmuting matter into mind by means both 
 of the brute and human organisms. And we export 
 every year, through what we call death, about thirty-five 
 millions of minds, in germ and in all stages of develop- 
 ment, to the other worlds of the universe. Our works 
 and ways thus run out into the cosmos and we are coop- 
 erating; with the whole. 
 
150 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 The moral product of our globe is character. Wliat 
 we call evolution is the upward thrust of nature for 
 higher and finer organisms. When nature has achieved 
 an organism fine enough to support a self-conscious mind, 
 the thrust from beneath ceases and an induction from 
 above begins for the purpose of molding mind into char- 
 acter. 
 
 There is no doubt that, as Tennyson said: 
 
 "Through the ages one increasing purpose runs," 
 
 — and that purpose is the making of man. 
 
 The whole austere and splendid order of the uni- 
 verse waits upon this mighty purpose. For this the 
 foundations of the earth were laid and the ages were 
 framed. For tliis the fleeting generations come and go; 
 and the stream of human life and the storm of human 
 action have their chief significance in the fact that in 
 this roaring loom of time human character is being 
 woven. 
 
 Nor does this vast purpose of God show any signs 
 of weakness or decadency, nor is human nature in its 
 senility, but rather in its juvenility. The animal man 
 and the semi-animal man have been here a good while, 
 but man the conscious son of God, with the power and 
 disposition to enter into his heritage is young yet upon 
 the earth. 
 
The Spiritual Side of Universalism/ 
 
 ISAAC. M. ATWOOD, D. D. 
 
 There are two sides to every question. To some 
 there are more. Few subjects or objects are equally at- 
 tractive on all sides. It is, however, one of the acquire- 
 ments of growing knowledge and wisdom to discern the 
 utility and beauty — for utility is beauty — of those aspects 
 of nature and life that appear, at first sight, "less hon- 
 orable." 
 
 Universalism is polygonal. It stands not only four- 
 square to all the world, but, more firmly and symmetrically 
 still, it presents the grace of a hexagon. One God, the 
 Father ; one humanity, the brotherhood ; one Mediator or 
 way between, the one God and the one humanity; one 
 law of life, righteousness; one motive force, love; one 
 destiny, immortality. 
 
 Or, viewing it practically and institutionally, Uni- 
 versalism is still six-sided. It presents its historic side, 
 its organic side, its social side, its financial side, its educa- 
 tional side, its missionary side. 
 
 The framer of my topic seems to have regarded it as 
 having a theological or doctrinal and a spiritual ?ide. I am 
 to speak of the latter. But it may be worth while to 
 notice in passing that the theology of Universalism has 
 a spiritual side. The distinctive affirmation of Univer- 
 salist theology is the final salvation of all souls. And 
 
 ^Address by the General Superintendent on Wednesday evening at the 
 opening service of the Winchester Centennial. 
 
 (151) 
 
162 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 this affirmation is due to the discovery of a spiritual fact. 
 Without that discovery there could be no such conclusion 
 as the final salvation of all souls. The spiritual fact on 
 which the conclusion of Universalism rests is the natural 
 supremacy of truth, right and goodness. Eev. E. J. Camp- 
 bell, of London, says he finds Universalism to be a neces- 
 sary corollary of the Gospel. And he is right. For the 
 Gospel is the discovery and announcement of that spir- 
 itual fact I have just stated — the supremacy of truth, 
 right, goodness, or, in other words, of God. That is the 
 Gospel. He who accepts the Gospel accepts many other 
 things besides Universalism; but he necessarily and log- 
 ically takes Universalism if he takes the Gospel. The 
 whole includes the parts. 
 
 Let me add that no greater discovery than this 
 which I have named has been made in our time or in 
 any time. No greater discovery can be made. It is either 
 the fact or it is not the fact. If it is not the fact that 
 these forces — right, truth, goodness, God — are, in the con- 
 stitution of things and in the plan of the ages, supreme, 
 then they are subordinate, and some other forces are 
 greater. And if this be so, we do not any of us know 
 where we are or whither we tend. Not a single soul on 
 the planet tonight can make any trustworthy conclusions 
 for the future if these forces are subordinate to some 
 other and greater forces. But they are not subordinate; 
 they are supreme. My friends, the greatest discoveries of 
 the ages have consisted in the identification of the powers 
 that really rule the world. To write these in the place 
 where they belong in the book of mankind as they are 
 already written in the book of God, is to make progress. 
 
SPIRITUAL SIDE OF UNIVERSALISM. 153 
 
 All other movements are delusive. This only is civiliza- 
 tion and salvation. And so I affirm that the discovery 
 of the great spiritual fact of the supreme potency of 
 righteousness and love in the mind of God and in his 
 universe puts underneath all other facts and forces the 
 power that works in and through all to bring all to their 
 final spiritual consummation. 
 
 Now, Universalism, I think it is not extravagant to 
 say, has the great merit of being a spiritual religion. If 
 you have ever stopped to think of it, it must have struck 
 you as strange that all the great religions of mankind 
 have been much encumbered with material and secular 
 interests. If we go to the places where these religions 
 have their sources and shrines — to ancient or to modern 
 Eome, to Jerusalem, to Constantinople, to Mecca, to Cal- 
 cutta, to Salt Lake, to Zion, to Boston or Concord, we 
 are impressed first and most with their worldly acquisi- 
 tions and splendors. They appear to be emulating and 
 repeating the pomps of this vain world. What the world- 
 empires have amassed, what the cities have achieved, these 
 are what you see represented in the creations and symbols 
 and visible ambitions of these great religions. These ma- 
 terial and secular features have been so emphasized in 
 the history of religion that the heaven which is looked 
 forward to by a majority of mankind is only a slightly 
 improved Jerusalem or Constantinople, a city teeming 
 with the very delights all go to the capitals of the world 
 to enjoy. A spiritual meaning may be found and a spir- 
 itual purpose discerned. But to the eye and ear, to which 
 they are mainly addressed, they are as secular and profane 
 as the market-place and the casino. 
 
154 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 When we look into the theologies of these religions 
 the case is not much improved. Analyze the principles 
 proclaimed and the motives appealed to, and what have 
 we? To escape from physical pains and infirmities, 'to be 
 lapped in physical comfort and peace — this has been the 
 prevailing lure, the dominant aim. Talk about the mate- 
 rialism of this age! Have we not had crass materialism 
 in every age ? And scarcely more in the camp, the forum, 
 the exchange, or the laboratory, than in the sanctuaries 
 of religion itself? 
 
 Now Universalism sweeps awa}^, one might almost 
 say at one fell swoop, this whole sensuous and material- 
 istic fabric that has been superimposed on the spirit of 
 man. In the first place nearly all the superstitions have 
 gone at one blow. The devil troops to the infernal Jail. 
 The fires of hell are extinguished. A substitutional and 
 physical sacrifice disappears. God is not to be propitiated, 
 but served and loved and enjoyed. Religion is not a 
 scheme of rescue, but daily manna from heaven. All 
 worlds are God's worlds, and "life and death His mercy 
 imderlies." 
 
 I am not claiming that this has occurred alone in 
 the TJniversalist communion. Nor that we have done it 
 without help from many sources. I am told that the 
 Devil has gone out of commission and hell has become an 
 obsolete institution in nearly all the churches. I know 
 well that the old religious prepossessions can not survive 
 in the light that shines around us in this day. Science 
 has opened a Northwest passage and let the Northeast 
 gales blow through, sweeping the track of human thought 
 and belief clean of the dust of ages. Thank God for the 
 
SPIRITUAL SIDE OF UNIVERSALISM. 155 
 
 winds, the New England winds ! They are purifying and 
 regenerating, and they have blown through the four quar- 
 ters of the world. But what I do claim is that we began 
 it. This is our reformation. We said it before anyone 
 else, in church or state or press or lyceum, had found a 
 tongue. Here on this historic spot I ask you to remem- 
 ber that Universalists a hundred years ago formulated a 
 Profession and announced doctrines that nothing which 
 science has since disclosed, in any department, or that 
 human thought has evolved and sustained by solid proofs, 
 has shaken or undermined or even antagonized. And I 
 can think of nothing that is likely to disturb our declara- 
 tion in the next hundred years. 
 
 For what do we mean by Universalism ? It is not 
 like a tent spread out here on the green in Summer that 
 must be folded when Winter appears. We mean a prin- 
 ciple good for all seasons, in all weathers. Tried by this 
 test I find: 
 
 1. The ethical basis of Universalism sound and 
 immovable, because it is spiritual. What is the ethical 
 basis of Universalism? It is a spiritual basis. That is, 
 we are not to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly 
 with our God, because it pays, or because it has become 
 the fashion, or because we want to stand in with the 
 administration and have our share when the plums are 
 distributed; nor because we think we are under a curse 
 which only that course of conduct will lift from us. If 
 we are doing justly and loving mercy or walking humbly 
 with God, for any such reasons, or are imagining that we 
 do, we shall cease just as soon as we discover that being 
 religious does not bring these rewards. What we were 
 
156 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 really after was the main cliance. We were using religion 
 as a means of attaining our personal ends. And the bot- 
 tom drops out when it is discovered that such ends are 
 not thus reached. For this unsound ethical basis Univer- 
 salism substitutes the sound and durable one, viz., that 
 we are to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with 
 our God because that is the plan of our nature, the way 
 we were made to go, and the only way of life and peace 
 for a human soul at any time or in. any world. The law 
 is one, the way is one. There can be no exceptions. Here 
 as everywhere the spiritual is the eternal. 
 
 Tried by the same test I find : 
 
 2. The theological or religious basis of Universal- 
 ism to be equally solid and equally spiritual. Solid be- 
 cause it is spiritual. 
 
 Our religious basis is the harmony of all souls with 
 God. We say the harmonization of one soul with God is 
 important; of two more important; of twenty still more 
 important, and ever in ascending ratio. There is no place 
 to stop the process. For we say, again, it has been dem- 
 onstrated by observation and experience and proved by the 
 science of harmony, that if you halted the process any- 
 where you could never procure the harmonization of the 
 first soul with God. To get the harmony of one you must 
 seek the symphony of all. In the plan of God all souls 
 are bound in one sheaf. And if any one would be saved 
 he must bring another soul with him. There is no private 
 salvation. We may even wax bold and declare as the 
 inevitable and invincible logic of the spiritual situation, 
 we are all to be saved or all to be damned. 
 
 Now I affirm that this is a spiritual basis because the 
 
SPIRITUAL SIDE OF UNIVERSALISM. 157 
 
 harmonization of the soul with God is a spiritual attain- 
 ment. How are we harmonized with God? Some illu- 
 sions are indulged on this point. I speak here for myself 
 and probably for most of my brethren. There is a notion 
 that Universalism teaches that we may be in harmony 
 with God without being in harmony with him ! Nay ; 
 not so. A soul is in harmony with God when it comes to 
 think as God thinks, will as God wills, love as God loves, 
 and as a sequel act as God acts. And this is the very 
 essence of spiritual religion. It will be the same a hun- 
 dred, or a thousand, or ten thousand years hence. 
 
 We say in our revised creed — you will notice there is 
 the same refrain in the new as in the old Profession — 
 We believe in the final harmony of all souls with God. I 
 have been moved sometimes to strike out the word "final" 
 and say, We believe in the harmony of all souls with God. 
 I am impressed that a fallacy lurks in that word "final" 
 for many of us. It is a soporific. People may swallow a 
 great dose of that "final" and say to themselves, "Well 
 it is coming out all right; let us buy and sell and get 
 gain, and not worry about the issue." What I wish to 
 have squarely faced here is the fact that we believe in the 
 harmony of all souls with God, irrespective of that word 
 final. What we are after is the harmony, not the final 
 harmony. Suppose a man should say, "I believe in final 
 prohibition." Every man who believes in prohibition at 
 all believes in present prohibition. Where is the man who 
 believes in final education? or final health? or final jus- 
 tice? We believe in education, in health, in justice, and 
 all their associated verities and blessings, not in fin^l 
 health and truth and right and good. Let us beware of 
 being tricked by a word. 
 
158 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 I have interpreted Universalism here as a program 
 of ethical and spiritual harmony. Suffer me to say that 
 this universe is, at bottom, a spiritual universe. And the 
 true account of man is that he is a spiritual man. The 
 office of religion is to bring this spiritual man into har- 
 mony with his spiritual environment and so make him 
 conscious of being at home anywhere in the universe of 
 God. 
 
 The advantage of a spiritual religion is that in its 
 foundations and essential principles it is unchanging. 
 The principles of true religion, like true geometry, do not 
 change. They are grounded in the eternal nature of God 
 and the spiritual world. This is not to say that it does 
 not change its methods, or that its followers do not 
 change. You have set up and dedicated here tonight a 
 new organ. Everything in it and about it is new; but 
 the principles of harmony, conformity to which make this 
 instrument an organ, are as old as creation. There are 
 discoveries going on all the time in the realm of nature, 
 but there is no new nature. It is worth while to remem- 
 ber this. We Universalists must not think we have made 
 a religion. We have simply discovered the religion God 
 made before the foundation of the world. We have done 
 much to drive darkness and superstition from the reli- 
 gious world and set free the souls of our fellows. Some- 
 times I feel that we rather overdo this pursuit, chasing 
 the shadows and forgetting the souls that want not only 
 a cleared atmosphere but bread from heaven. In this we 
 are not unlike the fastidious housekeeper, so intent on 
 banishing that last fly that she forgets she has friends, a 
 husband and sweet children, whose love and companion- 
 
SPIRITUAL SIDE OF UNIVERSALISM. 159 
 
 ship are worth more to her than spotless linen and dust- 
 less furniture; and that friends and husband and chil- 
 dren live more on hope and joy and freedom than on the 
 daintiest dish her artistic fingers ever dressed. It is well 
 to put superstition to rout: it is better to put harmony 
 into life and gladness into the world. So I am a little 
 tried in these days when I hear a man laboring with much 
 energy to prove that all will be finally saved, and stopping 
 just there, without so much as a hint how to save men. 
 I would rather he took the final for granted and went 
 about the business of saving. 
 
 It is plain to me, my brethren and friends, that our 
 religion exhibits all the marks of a religion that has 
 come to stay. It will be here tomorrow, and the day 
 after. It may pass through changes of method, adminis- 
 tration, purpose and spirit, but its spiritual bases are 
 eternal. In the light that shines around us so beneficiently 
 on these hills and in these valleys, where the great Artist 
 is making daily changes in his decorations, each more 
 glorious than the last, but is introducing no new forces 
 or principles, we may learn how, by fidelity to what our 
 fathers held, those Divine transformations in which they 
 and we alike believe, shall go on "till we all attain to full- 
 grown men, to the measure of the stature of the fullness 
 of Christ." 
 
The Story of God's Love.' 
 
 WILLARD C. SELLECK, D. D. 
 
 We are gathered here this morning for a simple 
 service of reverent, joyous worship. The place is more 
 sacred to me than it can be to some others, because it 
 was here that I began to work out my own salvation 
 with fear and trembling. The temptation is strong for 
 me to indulge in reminiscences, but these would be some- 
 what personal, and I may not properly thrust my personal 
 experiences upon your attention. Let me rather try to 
 express in a few words my conception of the spiritual 
 significance of this occasion. 
 
 When Ealph Waldo Emerson purchased his farm in 
 Concord he said he obtained more than those who sold 
 it supposed they were conveying to him, for he acquired 
 possession not only of the land and buildings, but also 
 of the landscape, the beauty of the flowers, the glory of 
 the sky, the songs of the birds, and the enchanting inter- 
 est of the manifold forms of life around him. All these 
 were there before, but they waited for someone to recog- 
 nize and appreciate them. So it has been with the love of 
 God and with his children in this world. God has always 
 been the Father of the children of men, and has loved 
 them with an infinite love, but they have not always 
 known or appreciated this blessed truth. It is compara- 
 tively easy for you and me, looking out upon the mar- 
 
 lAddress at the Conference-meeting of the Winchester Centennial, 
 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 (160) 
 
STORY OF GOD'S LOVE. 161 
 
 vellous beauty of the world this morning, seeing these 
 Burroimding hills hung with their many-colored and rich 
 tapestries, and the sunshine of heaven flooding the earth 
 with matchless glory, to believe that "God is love"; it 
 seems to us that the story of his love is written all over 
 the face of nature; and we can sympathize with Whit- 
 tier's verse: 
 
 *"We lack but open eye and ear 
 
 To find the Orient's marvels here — 
 The still, small voice in evening's hush, 
 Yon maple wood the burning bush." 
 
 But God waited through long ages for his children 
 to come to read this story. He had loved the world from 
 the beginning of creation, and had begotten the human 
 family in love; but it was not until Jesus Christ came 
 that his love was recognized and fully appreciated. And 
 the greatness of Jesus Christ lies somehow just in this, 
 that he had insight to see this glorious truth and was 
 able to show men the infallible love of God. 
 
 But then it came to pass that his interpretation of 
 nature and of God's providence was lost in a large degree, 
 and other weary centuries had to elapse before the divine 
 lang-uage could be read anew and understood aright. 
 Then came John Murray and Hosea Ballou, and their 
 Universalist compeers, who saw the^truth in the Bible 
 and in nature, and declared it afresh — who recognized the 
 truth as it was in Jesus, i. e., who understood the teaching 
 of Jesus Christ. Dr. Coyle said a few years ago that the 
 great discovery of the present age is Jesus Christ — not 
 electricity, not evolution, but Jesus Christ; by which is 
 meant the discovery that God is Christ-like, "the Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ." Well, this is precisely the 
 
162 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 discovery which our Universalist fathers made — that God 
 is like Jesus Christ, and not inferior to him in moral 
 character; and wrapped up within that discovery lies the 
 whole new theology of our time. 
 
 It makes me think of an illustration. In the early 
 part of the nineteenth century there was discovered, in 
 lower Egypt, the now famous Eossetta stone, upon which 
 there was an inscription in Coptic, in Greek and in Egyp- 
 tian hieroglyphic. For a long time nobody knew the 
 meaning thereof, but at length Champollion and other 
 scholars succeeded in deciphering the tri-lingual inscrip- 
 tion, when, lo ! the key was found which unlocked the 
 vast treasure-houses of Egyptian history and literature! 
 The stone, with its language, the history and the litera- 
 ture lying behind it, had waited for centuries for some- 
 one to read the strange characters and their wonderful 
 story. So God had written the language of his love 
 over all the world, and in the Bible, and in the face of 
 Jesus Christ, but had been obliged to wait until the 
 nineteenth century for men to decipher and understand 
 it. Now, behold! we all can read and know the love 
 which God hath to us; for God is love. Now we know 
 that we are the children of God, and are living in our 
 Father's house; for tliis world is part of our Father's 
 house — and it is not '^a haunted house," but it is our 
 own dear home, with the loving care of God over it and 
 within it. 
 
 Surely, then, we have occasion abundantly to rejoice 
 today in the faith that inspires our hearts and in the 
 beauty of the world which is our temporary home. "This 
 is the victory that overcometh the world, even our 
 faith." 
 
STORY OF GOD'S LOVE. 163 
 
 But we need to remember that it is one thing to get 
 our faith stated, and another thing to get it lived. The 
 faith that shall really overcome the world for ourselves 
 is the faith that lives in the heart — not merely the state- 
 ment which we put upon parchment, or print in books, or 
 inscribe over the doors of our churches, but rather the 
 faith whose spirit lives as a divine power in the soul. 
 And the great task before us now is to make our faith 
 such an inward, vital, spiritual power, and then to live 
 it out amid all the practical relations of life. It will 
 make us see how bad a thing is sin, and will win us away 
 from all evil, and will prompt us to spend and be spent 
 in the service of our fellow-men in order to help bring 
 them into "the glorious liberty of the children of God." 
 
The Genius of Universalism/ 
 
 PRESIDENT C. ELLWOOD NASH, S. T. D. 
 Text: "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us." John xiv: 8. 
 
 This appeal of Philip, approved by the Master's ac- 
 quiescence, may be taken for the voice of aspiring human- 
 ity. My proposition is that the Universalist Church has 
 been called into being to make this disclosure, and that 
 the full accomplishment of this mission will suffice for the 
 religious needs of mankind. 
 
 Universalism is not a discovery, but a revelation; not 
 a logically elaborated conclusion, but an insight. Its 
 founders were seers, not scholars. They were familiar 
 with their Bibles, but read them with the expectant eye 
 of spiritual aspiration rather than the critical view of 
 the exegete. Accordingly the genius of Universalism is 
 intuitive rather than critical, philosophical or scholastic. 
 It is spiritual rather than intellectual. It is founded upon 
 certain elemental instincts of human nature rather than 
 upon research and erudition. 
 
 This does not mean that there is anything in it 
 opposed to sound reason or unfriendly to learning. On 
 the contrary, these are recognized and utilized as inter- 
 pretative and corroborative aids. 
 
 So radical a thesis needs some justification. I find 
 it first in the nature of the faith itself. It seems' to me 
 that Universalism is a trust rather than tenet; a mood 
 
 ^Occasional Sermon, at the General Convention, Washington, D. C, 
 Sunday morning, October 25, 1903. 
 
 (164) 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 165 
 
 more than a formula; and as to its form it is a simple 
 affirmation, not a complex dogma. 
 
 Primarily Universalism is a doctrine of salvation — 
 originally of eschatology alone. Perceiving that nothing 
 but a happy outlook for mankind would satisfy the re- 
 flective mind or the generous heart, the fathers leaped 
 at once to the great conclusion of a united and holy des- 
 tiny. Later they read back to the premises upon which 
 that conclusion can properly be based, and found them, 
 first, in the purpose of a Divine Sovereign, next in love 
 as the essential quality of the Divine nature, then in the 
 universal Fatherhood, then in the universal brotherhood, 
 and finally in the universality of moral law and the 
 omnipotence of right and truth. 
 
 That all these were rather perceived than argued, 
 and rested upon something temperamental in the mind 
 itself rather than upon formal proofs, may be inferred 
 from the fact (which can hardly be doubted) that no 
 scripture or science or philosophy which could now be 
 affirmed, short of unsettling faith in God Himself, could 
 destroy the optimism we feel. 
 
 The framers of tlie Winchester Profession of Belief 
 were careful to avoid the complexities of a merely meta- 
 physical theology. It may not have been generally re- 
 marked that the word "character" in the first article and 
 the word "love" in the second are terms applicable, not 
 to the fundamental essence of Divine being, so much as 
 to its disposition. That is, the articles speak of the Di- 
 vine nature solely as to its bearing upon the well-being 
 of humanity, and as guaranteeing that well-being. 
 
 And what is even more to our present purpose, it must 
 
166 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 be conceded that to this day we have in the proper sense 
 no systematic theology. It may be that individuals among 
 US have wrought out a system satisfactory to themselves; 
 if so they have been careful to conceal their labors from 
 the church. Certain it is that the church itself has adopted 
 no standards and reached no verdict concerning very 
 many of the items which must be treated in a complete 
 view of the content of systematic theology. We have 
 rather plumed ourselves upon the simplicity of our faith 
 and have pointed with pride to the brevity of our three 
 articles as compared with the elaborate distinctions and 
 definitions, say, of the Thirty-nine Articles. This implies 
 a subconscious recognition of the fact which may here be 
 stated openly, that Universalism has no need for a sys- 
 tematic theology. As a doctrine of salvation it is indif- 
 ferent to its argument whether Deity is conceived as 
 Unity or as Trinity, as creationist or evolutionist, as an 
 inspirer of minds or a dictator of books. I do not mean 
 that these questions have no interest for us as thinking 
 men, but only that we may arrive at opposite conclusions 
 concerning them without in the least impairing our hold 
 upon what is really primary and paramount in essential 
 Universalism. So long as we affirm without hesitation 
 that God is our Father, that He is good, holy, almighty, 
 we may deduce all necessary corollaries, no matter what 
 form our views on other subjects may take. And, indeed, 
 far the greater number of Universalists — for the Univer- 
 sal ist Church contains but a few of them — have been 
 strictly "evangelical" save on this one point of destiny. 
 
 It may be added that we seem to have lost whatever 
 disposition we ever had to frame an adequate systematic 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 167 
 
 theology. The articles which must enter into the com- 
 position of such a system are no longer discussed among 
 us and the publications suitable for their presentation 
 have gone out of existence. 
 
 The word thus given us to speak was quite special, 
 unique and limited. We are "a peculiar people" ; but our 
 message is not therefore meagre. Its limitations are those 
 of the Gospel itself. Jesus was neither scholar nor phil- 
 osopher. He was clearly an intuitionist, of balanced and 
 orderly mind, but drawing from the deep wells of vision 
 rather than of logic. He illustrated the principle of his 
 own teaching, "The pure in heart shall see God." Accept- 
 ing the limitations thus imposed he occupied a position ab- 
 solutely incomparable and his influence upon the world 
 has been correspondingly vast. 
 
 Had we developed our thought movement along the 
 lines of original intention we should have realized two 
 supreme results. First, we should have experienced a 
 constant increase and clarification of religious faith. To 
 one thoroughly centered in the great fact of the Divine 
 Fatherhood, with all which it carries in its bosom, the 
 various issues, problems, schools, developments of the ages 
 must pass by as little more than a curious spectacle. Their 
 kaleidoscopic change, fascinating to the curious intellect, 
 must be interpreted as only the fleeting and ever-shifting 
 manifestations of forces and purposes whose ultimate out- 
 come is already foreseen. All that happens will be held 
 to be in accordance with the Divine plan, incapable of 
 opposing any real obstacle to the perfect development of 
 those plans, and woven into the final texture as a part 
 of its beauty and significance. The more this is perceived 
 the calmer and more triumphant faith becomes. 
 
168 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 In the second place we should have discovered ever 
 new deeps in this seemingly simple doctrine. It would 
 have adjusted itself to all the changes and achievements 
 of these marvelous decades, and we holding its secret would 
 have been masters of the growing fortunes of the world. 
 We should have stood at the threshold to welcome liberty 
 and democracy with all their troop of related forces. 
 Instead of looking aghast at their vigor and dominance, 
 we should have seen that in natural poAver they illustrate 
 the profound affinities of our human nature with the Di- 
 vine archetype. We should also have foreseen and dared 
 to prophesy the inevitable oncoming of the new political, 
 industrial and social life, and have held in our hands 
 the one steadying, masterful interpretation of it. In a 
 somewhat hazy and uncertain way we do assert that the 
 solution of the problems of the day and of all problems 
 which can arise in the process of setting men free and 
 bringing them to their thrones is to be found in this 
 fact of the relation between God and man. But had we 
 kept our minds absorbed with this truth we should have 
 held a position of ministry and leadership not only un- 
 questioned but everywhere joyfully recognized. 
 
 It was our fate to be diverted from this trunk line of 
 natural development and switched off into fields of specu- 
 lation wherein we have continued to wander ever since. 
 I pay my tribute with others to the imperial mind of 
 HosEA Ballou, and I recognize the immense service 
 he rendered to the cause of speculative Christianity; but in 
 attempting to clarify the methods of the soul's reconcil- 
 iation to God he unwittingly weakened the grasp of those 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 169 
 
 who follow him upon the fact itself. In other words, 
 he gave such an interest to the purely intellectual aspects 
 of Christian faith that its spiritual phases have become 
 more and more obscured. I need not say that we entered 
 into these discussions with zest. We have been deeply 
 interested students of the critical, philosophical, scientific 
 literatures, and among the busiest of those who have at- 
 tempted to harmonize each new announcement with the 
 fundamental faiths of Christianity. But in seeking to 
 work ourselves clear from superstitions we have ceased to 
 maintain our unique and God-ordained function as simple 
 heralds of the Fatherhood of God — and certain results have 
 followed. 
 
 First, the change of emphasis has produced a critical 
 in place of a religious temper. It has tended to make us 
 suspicious of all truth which can not verify itself openly 
 in the court of our personal experience. We have learned 
 to cross question every great affirmation, and our minds 
 have become so intent upon the scrutiny of credentials that 
 the immense import of the truth revealed passes us by with 
 diminished effect. It is as though a messenger having been 
 sent to us with great good news we paused to cross-ex- 
 amine him, to raise doubts as to the authority he carried, 
 to divide upon the question of his personal relations to 
 his principal, as son or minor relative or mere hireling, 
 and became so engrossed in these investigations and per- 
 suaded of their consequence that we forgot to read the 
 letter or to accept the gift. Am I going too far in say- 
 ing that not a few of us under the influence of this process 
 are without a living faith in prayer, in the reality of 
 Divine forgiveness, in the possibility of a visitation of the 
 
170 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Holy Ghost? — faiths which are closely involved with our 
 fundamental teaching and without which it becomes mere 
 abstraction, but which we have largely lost the capacity 
 of appreciating and utilizing. Nay, worse yet, have we 
 not lost faith in the salvability of men here and now? 
 In repentance, conversion, regeneration as actual experi- 
 ences which can be induced by a genuine ministry in hard- 
 ened hearts? Or even in our own ability to make Uni- 
 versalists out of partialists or out of the irreligious? Are 
 we not paralyzed in speech and behavior by the fear that 
 any effort we may put forth actually to reclaim the sin- 
 ner will be futile ? Oh, the pity of it, that a church which 
 has dared to proclaim the final universal victory should 
 now flinch and surrender before the problem of reaching 
 and saving the actual world of today ! 
 
 Another result of this process of rationalizing our 
 TJniversalism has been to produce a confused and diffi- 
 dent message. Has the Universalist Church a message 
 for the world today? Now, a message may be any one of 
 three things. First, a truth conceived as having come 
 directly from God and uttered as upon His authority. 
 Second, a general, well studied philosophy firmly held and 
 applied in its bearing upon truth and life; or third, any 
 truth strongly espoused and persistently presented with 
 the courage and unction of unfaltering conviction. 
 
 Are we preaching today as though God speaks through 
 us, or are we rather delivering our own opinions upon 
 various matters of supposed timely concern? Have we a 
 well rounded philosophy, commonly agreed upon, or is 
 each man giving voice to his own speculations so that 
 the total effect is something of a babel? Has our indi- 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 171 
 
 vidua I ism produced a polyglot speech which, however in- 
 telligible when uttered in its parts, becomes a confused 
 jargon when we attempt to take it up as a whole ? Finally, 
 do we preach with a sense of urgency horn of a "woe is 
 me if I preach not," utterly careless of the commenting, 
 cool and critical hearers who might wonder at our warmth 
 and brand us for our fanaticism? 
 
 Is it not the fact that we have grov^n weary or timid 
 in the preaching of what is styled distinctive Universalism ; 
 that we even entertain a doubt as to the wisdom of so- 
 called doctrinal preaching? 
 
 I undertake to say that it is so far from true that 
 Universalism in any adequate use of that word is preached 
 in other churches, that it is not even preached in our 
 own. We have largely lost interest in the subject, imag- 
 ining perhaps that we have exhausted it, seeing in it 
 nothing but a trite and impotent repetition of common- 
 places. But if we would only take one long, deep, clear 
 look into the heart of this faith which gives us our name, 
 we should see how fresh, timely, necessary it is for the 
 present age, and, inspired by a new passion of assurance 
 and devotion, should find our message and our mission 
 at once in its tireless, tender, triumphant proclamation 
 as with a mighty archangelic voice. 
 
 A third effect of the peculiar intellectual drift to 
 which we have been subject appears in the way we are 
 inclined to represent ourselves as the exponents of ad- 
 vanced and liberal thought. For my part I question this 
 characterization on two decisive grounds. First, it is not 
 true. We are in no sense leaders in the world of thought. 
 We are pretty good followers. It is not out of our 
 
172 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 ranks that the great scientists, famous philosophers, illus- 
 trious litterateurs, mighty savants are coming. The tem- 
 per of our people as a whole is not distinctively erudite 
 nor even what is called cultured. We are an intelligent 
 and open-eyed folk, but it is a misnomer to call us edu- 
 cated in a signal degree; and in seeking to wear a glory 
 which we can not claim we obscure the glory which prop- 
 erly belongs to us. We are indeed the heralds of a liberal 
 and beautiful religion^ and are a thinking people in so 
 far as the work we attempt to do calls upon us for re- 
 flection and study. So much but no more. 
 
 Then it seems to me there is another defect in the 
 claim alluded to. It implies that the Avorld is especially 
 desirous of hearing the utterances of advanced and liberal 
 thought. That a select and very important fraction of 
 the world is interested in the dissemination of thought 
 is true enough; but humanity as a whole, the masses of 
 men whom we meet as neighbors and friends, are not pri- 
 marily concerned in what is called clear thinking. They 
 are still following leaders as of old. Their faith is rather 
 reflected than original. They do not arrogate to them- 
 selves the right or the capacity to solve the perplexed ques- 
 tions of theology, but they like to hear what men of con- 
 viction have to say, and are profoundly interested in the 
 practical application of the truths which lie at the center 
 of all real religion. And we should resist with all our 
 might any attempt to identify us with the mere thought 
 forces of the age, since it is rather our business to co- 
 operate with and even to lead the spiritual and evangel- 
 ical work of applying a reasonable gospel to the lives of 
 men. 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 173 
 
 As another obvious and most serious Result we have 
 experienced a distinct loss of power. The power, first, 
 of the specialist, of those who surrender the ambition to 
 know and to do everything in order that the}^ may do a 
 particular thing in the best possible way. In this age 
 I need hardly pause to emphasize the value of the prin- 
 ciple here invoked. It has often been remarked that the 
 day of universal scholarship is past. Life is not long 
 enough for one to master all the contents of science, phil- 
 osophy, literature, art and learning in general. Even the 
 scholar must be content to choose his specialty. And it 
 is equally true that the economy of the militant kingdom 
 of Christ will assign to different departments each its 
 own great function. To attempt to do our neighbor's 
 work is to neglect our own — is to be lost in the mere strug- 
 gling mass. We were given a mission so clear and un- 
 mistakable that it put us without a rival on our own 
 throne. To regain that unique and regal place should 
 be one of the highest aspirations both of denominational 
 pride and of loyal discipleship. 
 
 Second, we have lost somewhat the power of sympa- 
 thy. I do not mean so much the sympathy of others whom 
 we antagonized by our alliance with Unitarian principles 
 — though it is an interesting question whether our distinc- 
 tive work might not have been furthered had we kept 
 clear from the entanglements of this fellowship. I am 
 told that our brother, Thomas Allin, who has written and 
 spoken so effectively in behalf of the great faith, specially 
 deplores the estrangement and suspicion we have suffered 
 through breaking ranks with the great evangelical body. 
 But I am thinking rather of the capacity of sympathy 
 
174 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 with men. Let me say with critical, but not unkind dis- 
 crimination, that Unitarianism is essentially and inevitably 
 a cold and speculative theory. However true it may be, 
 and I for one believe it is true, it can never become "pop- 
 ular," although it may be universally accepted. It yields 
 no touch of enthusiasm except the enthusiasm of the clear 
 thinker. And yet, my own sympathies are so much en- 
 gaged with its teaching and my judgment is so entirely 
 convinced by its argument, that I pay here sincere homage 
 to a church which, albeit doomed to remain feeble in 
 numbers, has undoubtedly a great and distinctive work 
 assigned to it in the achievement of a complete emanci- 
 pation. 
 
 But Universalism, as I here define it, is eminently a 
 warm, cordial religion. I repudiate with all the earnest- 
 ness of which I am capable, the suggestion that ours is 
 an esoteric faith which can never be appreciated save by 
 a high order of elite minds. All Christendom past and 
 present may be searched in vain for a faith so simple, clear 
 and acceptable as our own; and every vital feature of it 
 is warm with the life blood of a relation which a child can 
 understand, which the sage can not exhaust, and upon 
 which the saint and the philanthropist alike may draw 
 without ceasing for comfort, courage and strength. I be- 
 lieve that Universalism is essentially a "popular" religion, 
 in the sense of appealing directly to the popular heart, 
 and satisfying the popular needs, and meeting the popular 
 questions which arise; and that it is only necessary for 
 us to rid our minds of the suspicions, skepticisms and fears 
 which have induced a cold and critical temper to restore 
 again the dominance over us, and through us over all to 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 175 
 
 whom we preach, of the faith which, uttered by the lips 
 and expressed in the life of the Master, the common people 
 heard gladly. 
 
 Again, in so far as we have yielded to the merely 
 intellectual temperament, we have lost practical power. 
 I mean that Universalism is a strenuous and not a pale 
 and colorless religion. It sets us in relations with 
 God, with the universe, and with one another calculated 
 to exercise every noble function and to stir every di- 
 vine aspiration. It permits no man to sit at ease in 
 Zion. It brings us into dynamic comradeship with our 
 fellow man, whatever his lot or caste; it forbids selfish- 
 ness, treachery, envy, greed, hate, and inspires to trust 
 and service and joyful fellowship continually. It has only 
 to be translated into life, it has only to be read out in 
 the streets, in the homes, in the shops, in the schools, 
 in order to appear not only as glad tidings but as the 
 voice of the purest and finest obligation, the obligation 
 of ever-present and infinitely varied opportunity. 
 
 I protest that no man can saturate his soul with the 
 conception of the relation that he sustains to God as a 
 son and to man as a brother, without being moved to all 
 holy emotion and all high endeavor. For it is a vital 
 faith, and not chiefly ethical in any formal way. Its 
 clutch is upon the heart more than upon the conscience. 
 Sometimes we have lamented the fact that we do not 
 secure in our people the sense of duty which a different 
 type of faith more successfully induces. But if we can 
 set the heart aglow and bring men into conscious com- 
 munion with the Father, we shall have introduced a more 
 effectual motive. For love is the fulfilling of the law. 
 
176 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 and it is a higher strain of Christian character which does 
 the Father's will, not under compulsion of a command, 
 but under inspiration of a reverent, trusting affection. 
 Filled with such a faith we should be known as the Loving 
 Church and should manifest ourselves to all the world 
 as those who seek continually to become great by being 
 the servants of all. Servants of all, not by mere good 
 will, but by actual helpfulness. The w^orld will flock to 
 the church, not which merely talks prettily, but which 
 confers actual, tangible benefits. And there is no benefit 
 so tangible and precious as a new impulse communicated 
 to a jaded heart, a new hope displacing despair, a real 
 fellowship embracing the lonely and outcast. If we were 
 to ask ourselves. What definite boon are we conferring 
 upon those who gather to our public services? would the 
 answer be satisfactory ? In the early days every Universal- 
 ist was a slave set free ; hence his enthusiasm and devotion. 
 We can expect like enthusiasm only when we are confer- 
 ring like benefits. 
 
 What, then, are we to do? Is the loss we have suf- 
 fered irremediable? Should we attempt to cast away the 
 thought results we have been so carefully accumulating? 
 Surely it does not lie in my mouth to ask any man to 
 stultify his own intellect. All that is necessary is that 
 we should replace the etnphasis where it originally was, 
 and gradually weaning ourselves, not of the ideas we 
 have won, but of the false temper we have acquired, come 
 back to the simplicity that is in Jesus, come back to a 
 clear grasp of the great first principles we are set to 
 espouse and to proclaim, come back to the Father; im- 
 merse ourselves once more in the fulness of his loving 
 
THE GENIUS OF UNIVERSALISM. 177 
 
 paternity; read out from that divine center the message 
 He wishes through us to deliver to His children; com- 
 mit ourselves fearlessly to His keeping; accept the in- 
 spirations which follow from an unquestioning faith in 
 our mission and in Him as its founder; work not in our 
 human strength alone but as guided and helped in every 
 activity by an indwelling of the Holy Ghost. 
 
 I believe that the signs of the hour with us show 
 unmistakably that the change for which I plead is actually 
 in progress. The Universalist Church is sweeping rapidly 
 around the circle to the point of its departure. And it 
 may even turn out that the course of history which I 
 have deplored has in fact been profitable, and that we 
 shall come to our original and real mission with a strength 
 of mind and a fortitude of purpose, with a capacity for 
 seeing and for serving, which might not have been pos- 
 sible without this experience. It only remains that we 
 should surrender to the leading of the hour, that we should 
 feel ourselves already in the grasp of the Holy Spirit, 
 that we should recognize the thoughts which fuse us here 
 together, and the high emotions which burn in all hearts 
 alike, as evidence that we are not alone, that the Father 
 who called us is with us, and intends now to send us 
 forth upon a mission such as we have not dared to dream 
 of. The world waits for a revelation. It cries out in 
 a thousand eager tongues, "shew us the Father and it 
 sufficeth us," And to whom in this day can it look, if not 
 to ourselves, for a clear, affirmative, comprehensive, cour- 
 ageous, adequate presentation of that high and all-em- 
 bracing relationship which solves every vexed question 
 of life and brings men, when understood, into their divine 
 estate ? 
 
The Washington Commemoration. 
 
 At the Biennial Session of the General Convention, 
 held in the Church of Our Father, in the city of Wash- 
 ington, D. C, October 33-28, 1903, Tuesday evening, 
 October 37, was set apart for a commemorative service in 
 observance of the centennial of the adoption of the Pro- 
 fession of Belief. Though assigned to the last evening of 
 the Convention, after a week of most exhausting labor, the 
 people assembled in great numbers, filling the large audi- 
 torium and overflowing into the galleries and side rooms. 
 Principal Arthur W. Pierce^ of Dean Academy, Frank- 
 lin, Mass., presided and the Kev. A. Eugene Bartlett of 
 Manchester, N. H., who led the devotional exercises at the 
 opening of the Centennial at Winchester, again conducted 
 the preliminary exercises. The service here follows : 
 
 THE HYMN. 
 
 "Strong son of God, immortal love, 
 
 Whom we, that have not seen thy face, 
 By faith, and faith alone embrace, 
 Believing where we can not prove! 
 
 "Thou seemest human and divine, 
 
 The highest, holiest manhood, thou: 
 Our wills are ours, we know not how, 
 
 Our will are ours, to make them thine. 
 
 "Our little systems have their day; 
 
 They have their day and cease to be; 
 
 They are but broken lights of thee, 
 And thou, O Lord, art more than they." 
 
 THE SELECTION". 
 
 "Let US now praise famous men, and our fathers that 
 begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them 
 
 (178) 
 
WASHINGTON COMMEMORATION. 179 
 
 through his great power from the beginning. Such as did 
 bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their 
 power, giving counsel by their understanding, and de- 
 claring prophecies : leaders of the people by their counsels, 
 and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, 
 wise and eloquent in their instructions : such as found 
 out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing : rich men 
 furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habita- 
 tions : all these were honored in their generations, and 
 were the glory of their times. There be of them, that 
 have left a name behind them, that their praises might 
 be reported. And some there be, which have no memo- 
 rial; who are perished, as though they had never been; 
 and are become as though they had never been born ; and 
 their children after them. But these were merciful men, 
 whose righteousness hath not been forgotten. With their 
 seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and 
 their children are within the covenant. Their seed stand- 
 eth fast, and their children for their sakes. Their seed 
 shall remain forever, and their glory shall not be blotted 
 out. Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name 
 liveth forever more. The people will tell of their wisdom, 
 and the congregation will shew forth their praise." 
 
 MR. BARTLETT's opening WORDS. 
 
 Precious this quarter-hour that is given us to pre- 
 pare ourselves for the messages that are to be delivered 
 this night ! Fifteen golden minutes in which to free our 
 minds from prejudice; to banish all preconceived notions 
 and make ourselves ready to receive the words of life from 
 the fathers of the church. This opportunity is vouch- 
 safed us that we may quicken our minds and open our 
 souls to great truths. 
 
180 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 The helpfulness of the words to be spoken shall de- 
 pend largely upon ourselves. To him who hath the listen- 
 ing ear shall be given the words of Life. To him who is 
 conscious of his need shall be poured out the Infinite 
 strength. 
 
 These men come to tell us that we have an illustrious 
 past; that we are born into a great spiritual heritage. 
 They will bid us take our places in line with that stalwart 
 heroism that was able to lay the great foundation stones 
 of a universe religion. We are to join hands with men 
 who could be heroes when everywhere were obstacles and 
 hindrances, when it was only the hour of daybreak for 
 religious freedom. Looking and listening can we be aught 
 but heroes when so many hindrances have become helps ; 
 when the glory of the approaching noon-tide proclaims the 
 world swinging toward the faith in the All-Father and 
 his completed kingdom? They found remedies and left 
 others to find complaints. They did not stop to debate 
 failure, for they were sure of victory. 
 
 Let us question ourselves, asking what our faith, 
 come down from the fathers, is worth to us today. What 
 is this broadest interpretation of Christ's religion worth 
 to us? When we behold the injustices of life, we can 
 yet go forward with a brave heart, because we know that 
 there is an outcome; that every crooked path shall be 
 straightened, that every injustice will be righted, that 
 though the paths lead far they will reach at last a Father's 
 throne. What is it worth in the dark hour to hear this 
 message of the Father's tenderness calling gently to us, 
 his children, saying to us all, — I have time enough, 
 strength enough, love enough to bring all together in the 
 great home. 
 
WASHINGTON COMMEMORATION. 181 
 
 It is our opportunity tonight to so listen and so re- 
 ceive the messages from two of the leaders of our present 
 church that we shall feel the mantle of Hosea Ballou and 
 his associates descending upon our shoulders, and find 
 ourselves girded with courage and resolutely determined 
 to make this meeting on the banks of the Potomac almost 
 as momentous in the history of Universalism as that old 
 time conference in the white church upon the banks of the 
 Ashuelot. That it may be so let us now pray. 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 Infinite and Ever-loving Spirit, earnestly do we seek thy blessing. 
 We thank thee for all the way thou hast led us as a people; for the priceless 
 faith that is ours. We rejoice in the faith that has inspired us with courage 
 to go on, knowing that victory is certain. We devoutly thank thee for the 
 faith that has comforted our sorrows and given us ever the vision of the 
 life that is to come. 
 
 We would test our every doctrine by practice and be discontent until 
 our life has spoken more eloquently than our words. We pray that some- 
 thing of thy power may be given those who are to speak to us tonight, that 
 thou wilt draw near unto them and enable them to bring us the message, 
 which we need to hear. 
 
 May it be the Pentecostal hour for us! Baptize us with the fire of a 
 holy and unquenchable zeal to bring in thy kingdom. May the spirit of the 
 fathers descend upon us, aye more, may the spirit of the Christ they loved 
 and served be as a spiritual presence with us this night. 
 
 In His name we ask it. Amen. 
 
 The presiding officer then spoke as follows : 
 "From the consideration of the present conditions and 
 the future policies of our beloved church, the meeting of 
 tonight calls us to look backward and to bring closer to 
 our minds the men and the deeds of a hundred years ago. 
 We honor by this gathering the framing of the Win- 
 chester Profession of Belief and the fathers of our faith, 
 the giants of those earlier days. With all the triumphs 
 of our faith and of our church, it is well for us to hark 
 
182 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 back to those clays of beginnings, to consider the battles 
 these pioneers of a holier and better Christian thought 
 fought for us and for the cause of Christ's gospel the 
 world over. We honor their labors, their sacrifices, and 
 their consecration. They little realized the far-reaching 
 results of their building on that eventful day. The world 
 has moved and is moving today toward their platform and 
 its principles still live and are moulding the thinking and 
 the living of men. Its work is not done and yet more 
 triumphs shall belong to it in the future day, when men 
 shall the more realize the significance of that little gath- 
 ering of men in the old meeting-house at Winchester. Our 
 church today has its roots back in that historic past. We 
 honor the men ; we hallow the old "Profession," endeared 
 by a century of use. We pray that our church may hold 
 fast to the truth and to the spirit of that older day. Let 
 us honor the past by rising and repeating together the 
 Profession of Belief." 
 
 \^All standing repeated the Winchester Profession.'] 
 Hon. Henry B. Metcalf, of Ehode Island, ascended 
 the platform and spoke as follows: 
 
 "By the courtesy of the Committee of Arrangements, 
 a few minutes have been assigned me that I may present 
 a matter which I believe will be of interest. This meet- 
 ing is in recognition of the centennial anniversary of the 
 adoption of the Winchester Profession of Belief. The 
 services at Winchester a few weeks since were matter of 
 wide interest all over our land, but no one was more en- 
 thusiastic than was the venerable treasurer of Tufts Col- 
 lege, Hon. Newton Talbot, a parishioner and personal 
 friend of Hosea Ballou. 
 
WASHINGTON COMMEMORATION. 183 
 
 "The infirmities of advanced years forbade Mr. Talbot 
 to make the journey to Winchester, as he had intended, 
 but he could not repress the desire in some form to par- 
 ticipate in the exercises of the occasion, and he conceived 
 the idea to perpetuate the memory of the anniversary by 
 procuring wood from the old Winchester church to be 
 made into gavels. One of the gavels so prepared was pre- 
 sented to the New Hampshire Universalist Convention. 
 
 "Having called to his association Eev. Dr. Henry W. 
 Rugg and myself, both former presidents of this Con- 
 vention, he suggested that a gavel be presented by us to 
 this body, duly inscribed as indicated by him. Mrs. Ger- 
 trude Rugg Field, daughter of Rev. Dr. Rugg, being pres- 
 ent at the services at Winchester, was inspired to express 
 her enthusiasm in a few lines which I will request her 
 father to read." 
 
 POEM BY GEETKUDE RUGG FIELD. 
 
 The cross was common wood till He 
 Was crucified upon the tree; 
 The Holy Grail was earthen cup 
 Till from it our dear Lord did sup. 
 All symbols, by the world enshrined, 
 Must be transmuted through the mind — 
 Divinity must stamp the sign 
 To make its meaning truly fine. 
 The seeing eye swift speeds the soul 
 Towards the spirit's highest goal; 
 The senses may be wings whereby 
 Man soars from earth to starry sky; 
 To touch the hem ofttime reveals 
 The presence of the thought that heals. 
 So we, today, this gavel give — 
 Fit symbol of the truths that live — 
 Fashioned from wood the fathers found 
 In Winchester made holy ground 
 By service, sacrifice and prayer — 
 The Mecca of our church is there. 
 
184 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 The timbers of their temple stood 
 The tests of time, and from its wood 
 . Was made this gavel, sign of power, 
 To join the past and present hour. 
 O, may its use be sanctified 
 And wisdom all its rulings guide! 
 All honor to the fathers' strength — 
 They fought the fight, to win at length; 
 They never faltered, though they trod 
 Hard paths for truth and for their God. 
 The favor of the world denied. 
 They walked the closer by His side; 
 Tbeir living faith sustained and blessed 
 When over-burdened and distressed. 
 May we today, more richly dowered, 
 Be for a greater work empowered. 
 A noble heritage is ours. 
 Life's gracious largess freely showers; 
 Quit ye like men! Let not the past 
 Hold you with fetters strong and fast, 
 But spur you for the race of life, 
 A present help in stress and strife. 
 Be thankful for the past, but pray 
 And work to make each glad today 
 Better, because the seeds once sown 
 Have into flower and fruitage grown; 
 And we, the gardeners, here and now 
 Must sheave the harvest, to endow 
 Our church, if we would follow where 
 The fathers led, their mantles wear. 
 On thee, O church and faith we love. 
 May power descend from God above 
 Till Then and Now shall be made one— 
 His will and work and way be done! 
 
 Mr. Metcalf continued: "Without any suspicion of 
 intent of Df. Rugg and myself, the brave men and women 
 of the church in Winchester, who desired to express their 
 regard for this Convention, have deputed their pastor, 
 Eev. C. J. Harris, to represent them, and I ask the privi- 
 lege of presenting Bro. Harris." 
 
 ADDRESS OP REV. C. J. HARRIS, OF WINCHESTER. 
 
 Mr. President and Fellow Workers: It is with much 
 pleasure that I bring to this Convention the most cordial 
 
WASHINGTON COMMEMORATION. 185 
 
 greetings from the old Winchester parish. We wish to 
 express our most hearty appreciation to those of our faith 
 who helped to make successful our recent celebration of 
 the adoption of the Profession of Belief. 
 
 My presence here is due to the most generous gift I 
 received from the visiting delegates. 
 
 In order to express my personal appreciation to those 
 who so generously contributed toward the gift presented 
 to me, and also to place in the keeping of this Conven- 
 tion a token of much historic significance, I take the lib- 
 erty to present to you these articles. 
 
 The box contains a plate with a picture of the old 
 church, and on its interior may be found a number of 
 pictures of historic value. 
 
 The stone of this gavel was taken from the inside 
 of the old well in the yard of Hosea Ballou's home in 
 Richmond, N". H. It has been worn, as you see, by the 
 water during the century and a half it has lain in its 
 place. 
 
 The head of this gavel is made from a piece of the 
 pulpit taken from the Winchester church, and was a part 
 of the furniture of 1803. The handle of the gavel is an 
 original pin, in the rough, and just as it was left when 
 cut out with an axe 150 years ago. It came from the 
 roof of the old Ballou home, and this pin helped to keep 
 a roof over the head of Hosea Ballou as long as he resided 
 in New Hampshire. 
 
 On the plate may be found these words: "A gift to 
 the General Convention. Ecv. C. J. Harris." With three 
 dates: "1771," referring to the birth of America's most 
 spiritual thinker, Hosea Ballou, and "1803," the date of 
 
186 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 the Winchester Convention, when there was adopted one 
 of the greatest and strongest declarations of religious 
 principles the world has ever produced; "1903," the cen- 
 tennial year and also the year of this gift. 
 
 Mr. President, will you permit me at this time, to 
 express the great joy I experience in being one of your 
 faith? When this convention last convened I was not a 
 member of this denomination, and was in doubt and dark- 
 ness. I sought a man of God, who is stationed in the 
 South, and by the help and inspiration of his most exalted 
 type of Christian character, I was led into the light of 
 this faith. This servant. Dr. W. H. McGlauflin, is daily 
 adding dignity and influence to our church in that section. 
 
 Next I came in touch with the spiritual dynamo that 
 is sending the light and power of our church through 
 the South, and by contact with this force, Eev. Dr. Q. H. 
 Shinn, I became enthusiastic in this faith. 
 
 Then came cordial, kind and encouraging messages 
 from our beloved National Superintendent, Dr. I. M. 
 Atwood, that made me feel I had chosen wisely. After 
 this the new-born child was sent to Winchester to the 
 grandmother church, where she is doing her best to "train 
 up the child in the way he should go." 
 
 I am grateful to those whose endeavors on my behalf 
 have been so generously bestowed, and I assure you I feel 
 myself established on an immovable basis of religious prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 Again permit me to express the good will of my 
 Winchester people and assure you that the fire is still alive 
 on the altar at your Mecca and that the church there still 
 lives and ever will live for the faith that was therein 
 
WASHINGTON COMMEMORATION. 187 
 
 adopted for the good of humanity, and the glory of the 
 Universal Father. 
 
 RESPONSE TO THE GIFT OF RELICS. 
 
 Principal Pierce said : "In behalf of the Universalist 
 General Convention, I receive these tokens of your gen- 
 erous thought. They shall be preserved as precious relics 
 of our historic past and shall be memorials to future con- 
 ventions of the old Winchester church and of Hosea 
 Ballou and his brethren of the days of the beginnings. 
 We one and all thank the generous donors of these unique 
 gifts. 
 
 "From the many students of our church history, your 
 program committee has called the first speaker of the 
 evening as one well qualified by wide experience in our 
 church, by a lively interest in the subject, and by extensive 
 research and scholarly tastes, to tell us the story of 'The 
 Winchester Profession and Its Framers.' I take pleasure 
 in introducing Eev. Dr. J. S. Cantwell, of Chicago." 
 
 [Z)r. CantweU's Historical Address followed.] 
 
 INTRODUCING PRESIDENT CAPEN. 
 
 "You have heard the eloquent story of one hundred 
 years ago, 'The oak has from the acorn grown.' No one 
 is better fitted to tell 3'ou the story of the century of pro- 
 gress than President E. H. Capen, of Tufts College, 
 Mass., whom I now introduce." 
 
 [Dr. Capen's address followed.'] 
 
 It was nearly 11 o'clock when the congregation was 
 dismissed, after uniting in Abel C. Thomas' hymn (663, 
 Church Harmonies), sung to old "Bannockburn." It was 
 a happy thought that selected this glorious Universalist 
 
188 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 hymn, by one of the great preachers of our past, to close 
 the exercises of the memorable evening. 
 
 Thou, whose wide-extended sway- 
 Suns and systems e'er obey! 
 Thou, our Guardian and our stay. 
 
 Evermore adored, 
 In prospective. Lord, we see 
 Jew and Gentile, bond and free, 
 Reconciled in Christ to thee, 
 
 Holy, Holy Lord. 
 
 Thou by all shalt be confessed. 
 Ever blessing, ever blest, 
 When to thy eternal rest, 
 
 In the courts above, 
 Thou shalt bring the sore-oppressed, 
 Fill each joy-desiring breast. 
 Make of each a welcome guest, 
 
 At the feast of Love. 
 
 When destroying death shall die. 
 Hushed be every rising sigh. 
 Tears be wiped from every eye, 
 
 Nevermore to fall — 
 Then shall praises fill the sky. 
 And angelic hosts shall cry. 
 Holy, Holy Lord, Most High, 
 
 Thou art All in All! 
 
WILLARD C. SELLECK. 
 GERTRUDE RUGG FIELD. JAMES SHRIGLEY. 
 
 J. A. STONER. 
 
 MRS. C. A. SOULE. 
 
Letters and Recollections/ 
 
 I. — REV. JAMES SHRIGLEY, D. D. 
 
 The very pleasant acquaintance I had with your 
 father and mother long years ago intensifies the wish that 
 I have often expressed, that I had been born a half of a 
 century earlier, as I feel sure that I should have been 
 one of those who formed that grand old Profession which 
 has been the admiration of several generations. Even our 
 own people, with all their schools and colleges, after years 
 of debate, have been unable to add either strength or beauty 
 of expression to the noble utterance of our fathers given 
 in Winchester one hundred years ago. I speak thus 
 plainly because of my great age and of the interest I have 
 had in our great hope. Ever since I was old enough to 
 understand the meaning of words I have never been either 
 a skeptic or a fanatic, but have always believed in God 
 as a Father and Friend and that all men are brethren who 
 must ultimately find a common home. My earliest thoughts 
 were that all men believed as I did, and when I found 
 that a minister preached that many would suffer to all 
 eternity for the mistakes of a short life time on earth, my 
 heart was sick; it was full of sorrow and I pleaded with 
 my good mother never to take me to hear that bad man 
 
 ^Letters addressed to Miss J. Grace Alexander, Winchester, and read 
 at the meeting of the Woman's Centenary Association, Tuesday, Sep- 
 tember 30. 
 
 f189 
 
190 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 again. My earliest years were full of faith, hope and 
 love, not only in the home circle but also in the old Wes- 
 leyan chapel. After I had heard the preacher spoken of, 
 I heard the doctrine of endless sin and sorrow so often 
 that I concluded that I was entirely alone in my great 
 hope that God would triumph over all evil. But I still 
 held fast my faith alone and never heard that there was 
 another believer in all the world who shared my blessed 
 hope — a hope which came to me spontaneously and un- 
 bidden. 
 
 When I was about sixteen years old one of my play- 
 mates who had heard me speak of my belief came to me 
 with the news that there was a notice posted in the post- 
 office that a minister was to preach in the Town Hall 
 in Putney, Vt., that Christ taught that all men would 
 be saved. I immediately ran home, a distance of half a 
 mile, and asked my good mother that I might hear him 
 and promised to be the best boy in all the town if she 
 would let me go. Like the true and loving mother that 
 she was, she replied, "Yes, my child, you shall go, and I 
 shall go with you." When the day arrived we were in 
 our seats early. Soon the preacher made his appearance. 
 He was a man of commanding presence, his voice was.clear 
 and he was readily understood. 
 
 After the usual opening services, he began his prayer, 
 not in the ordinary hurried manner, but by uttering the 
 question slowly and deliberately, "Shall we pray?" After 
 a few minutes spent in silent prayer, he said, "Our Father 
 and our Friend, hallowed be thy name." As he uttered 
 these words, the tears began to flow down my cheeks and 
 I wept for joy. The prayer ended, the tenderest chord in 
 
LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 191 
 
 my heart had been touched and I was completely swal- 
 lowed up in the ocean of God's infinite and unchanging 
 love. The sermon was full of faith, hope and love; in 
 sentences short and emphatic and so clear in utterance 
 that a child could understand them. When he had spoken 
 about ten minutes I burned so much with sympathy with 
 the spoken thoughts and emotions that, forgetting where 
 I was, I rose from my seat and said to my mother, 
 "Mother, that is just what I told you !" 
 
 Never in all my life had I been under such magnetic 
 influence. It was just what I believed and what I knew 
 not that any one else believed. The climax was reached 
 when he said, "God is impartial. His sun shines on all. 
 His rain falls on all. His harvests ripen for all. His 
 birds sing for all. His flowers bloom for all. His Son 
 died for all and God himself shall be all in all. Then his 
 will be all the glory and ever the boundless bliss." 
 
 That preacher was Eev. W. S. Balch, and it was not 
 long after that I heard of him as preaching in Winchester. 
 He was a noble man and his memory is very precious to 
 me. 
 
 The years passed by and I pursued my studies as 
 opportunity offered, and last, but not least, with Eev. John 
 H. WilHs, of Stafford, Conn., and Eev. E. 0. Williams, of 
 Hartford. Mr. Williams was a profound scholar and had 
 no superior as a logician. Mr. Willis had had experience 
 as a tutor in New Hampshire and taught some ten or 
 more of our most successful ministers how to preach. His 
 first words to every student were : "I am to teach you how 
 to talk so as to be understood and to behave as Christian 
 gentlemen." And I never saw a man better qualified for 
 the work. 
 
192 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 An incident will illustrate the tone of public senti- 
 ment in Connecticut seventy years ago. 
 
 Mr. Williams and I were self-appointed missionaries, 
 preaching wherever opportunity offered. I was once called 
 to attend a funeral in Durham and, as there were several 
 roads, I selected the old turnpike on which were several 
 toll-gates. The rule of the turnpike company was to allow 
 ministers to pass free, but those of our faith were often 
 not allowed this privilege. At the first gate I drove up to 
 it in the middle of the road so that no one could pass me, 
 and asked the old lady who collected the toll to pass me as 
 I was a minister. She asked me for my credentials, and 
 I showed her my Bible. She asked where I graduated. I 
 replied, "In the School of the Apostles. Paul is the 
 President, Timothy the Vice-President, John and James 
 are professors of theology, Peter of elocution and Luke 
 our physician." "Well, what church do you belong to?" 
 she asked. "I believe that the good Lord will have mercy 
 on all of us." "Then," said she, "let me tell you that you 
 can not pass this gate free!" A crowd gathered, among 
 which was a director of the company, who ordered the 
 woman to allow me to pass. She reluctantly yielded, mur- 
 muring, "If this business goes on, it will not be long before 
 we shall have to let Unitarians and Quakers pass just the 
 same as Christians !" 
 
 My first visit to Winchester was in 1836, when I en- 
 joyed the privilege of preaching in your dear old church 
 and I call to mind a few of those good old men and women 
 who were among your earlier members. There were two 
 or three Alexanders, Deacon Rich and others who were 
 true Christian gentlemen of the old school. If the young 
 
LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 193 
 
 men and young women now leaders in your church work 
 are half as good as their fathers and mothers they are 
 about good enough. The fathers and mothers of this 
 church were people of refinement and culture. 
 
 Of the ninety years I have lived on the earth, three 
 score and ten have been given to the work of the ministry 
 and I hope my name may be enrolled among the defend- 
 ers of the Winchester Profession of Faith and that in 
 after years it may be said of me: "James Shrigley was 
 born a Universalist — he lived a Universalist and he died 
 a Universalist, believing that in the dispensation of the 
 fullness of time God will gather together in one all things 
 in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on 
 earth, even in him." 
 
 Appreciating your complimentary letter, I am, with 
 assurances of regard. Truly yours, 
 
 James Shkigley. 
 
 Philadelphia, August, 1903. 
 
 II. — REV. CAROLINE A. SOULE. 
 
 Yours of July 23d came duly to hand. I thank you 
 very much for so kindly writing me. It is very pleasant 
 for us old people to know that we have not passed out of 
 the memory of our church members, though the infirmi- 
 ties of life's decline obUge us to stand outside the busy 
 ranks, — to be only observers and listeners when once we 
 were enthusiastic toilers. For myself, I can truly say I 
 watch the procession of events with the keenest interest, — 
 sometimes a little depressed, but oftener hopeful. I know 
 that God's truth must eventually prevail, and so keep up 
 
194 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 my courage, even when the cloud does not at once show 
 its silver lining. 
 
 With regard to the grand centennial of which you so 
 kindly notify me, I am free to say that were I residing in 
 the U. S. A. at this time, I would do my very best to be 
 present^ for I should feel that my feet were treading 
 hallowed ground. Winchester is indeed a — perhaps I 
 should say, the Mecca of Universalism. But I remember 
 Good Luck, with its sacred memories, and so I leave out 
 the and say one of our Meccas ! 
 
 Of nothing am I prouder than that this Profession 
 of Faith has been ours for a hundred years. We had 
 giants in those early days (thank God, the race is not 
 extinct ! ) , giants with brains that could see and foresee, 
 with hearts that could love far away into the future, with 
 hands that could lay foundations indestructible. And to 
 stand where those men stood ! Ah ! the very thought is an 
 inspiration ! 
 
 But I can not cross the wide space of water that inter- 
 venes between my present home and that spot so fragrant 
 with sacred memories. In spirit though I shall be with 
 you and all that are privileged to be there and the day will 
 be to me a day of thanksgiving, — thanks for the beautiful 
 Past, — thanks for the hopeful Present. 
 
 It may interest you to know that one of my first read- 
 ing lessons was this same "Profession of Faith," spelled 
 out and pronounced at my mother's knee, and afterward 
 repeated to my father every Sunday morning. Ah ! the 
 mothers and fathers of those early days were faithful to 
 their children, and though we had no Sunday-schools at 
 that date, our religious education was made a solemn duty 
 
LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 195 
 
 by those who had come out of the darkness into the light. 
 So you will readily guess that those three Articles are a 
 precious possession to me, and will be so long as this old 
 heart beats. 
 
 It may interest you to know that I am one of the 
 oldest survivors of our early women writers of the church : 
 born in 1824, married in 1843, widowed in 1852. For 
 about forty years I earned nearly all my living by my pen. 
 
 In my mission work in this "Auld Northe Countrie" 
 I have had much to do with creeds. I studied them care- 
 fully many and many a day. Letter by letter I had to 
 fight them, and each time when I had closed my argu- 
 ments against their tyranny and blasphemy, I have 
 thrilled my audience to the heart by reciting our own brief 
 but comprehensive Articles of Faith. What more needed 
 those dear old fathers to say? What more could they 
 say? For one old Universalist I can speak honestly, and 
 say it satisfies me. I am content. 
 
 Hoping that everything may be auspicious, — blue 
 skies, soft winds, enthusiastic crowds, and confident that 
 whatever be the wind or weather, you will have a glorious, 
 a memorable meeting, one that will have historic sig- 
 nificance, and thanking you again for your kind letter, I 
 remain, my dear Miss Alexander, your sincere sister in 
 the Faith once delivered to the saints, by the saints. 
 Affectionately, with kind regards to all who know me over 
 there, Caroline A. Soule. 
 
 Glasgow, Scotland, August 30, 1903. 
 
 III. — REV. RICHARD EDDY, D. D.* 
 
 I REJOICE in the privilege of standing within these 
 walls. I have never seen them before today, but they have 
 
 1 Remarks at the Winchester Centennial, Thursday morning. 
 
196 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 been for many years very precious in my thought. I re- 
 member that within these walls not only was this Pro- 
 fession adopted one hundred years ago, but within these 
 walls — and under circumstances of peculiar solemnity and 
 circumstances of peculiar oddity before the service closed 
 — my dear teacher in theology and the ministry, Eev. Dr. 
 Sawyer, was ordained in 1829. Father Ballou, who had 
 preached the sermon, sat down in the front pew (I don't 
 know but these are the same pews), and I think that it 
 was Joshua Flagg, whom they didn't dare trust any other 
 part of the service to because he was so intense a Jackson 
 man, who was to offer the ordaining prayer. He was 
 mindful of his opportunity, and before he got through 
 he informed the Lord that Andrew Jackson had been 
 elected president by a majority of more than two-thirds; 
 and he prayed, with his hand upon Dr. Sawyer's head, 
 that he might be as valiant in defending the gospel as 
 Andrew Jackson had been in defending the honor of 
 the United States when he defeated the British at Xew 
 Orleans ! 
 
 I gave a great many years of my life, some of you 
 think, to an attempt to gather the facts with regard to our 
 history; and among the most interesting and most sat- 
 isfactory to myself were the facts I gathered with regard 
 to the event which we are celebrating today. You know 
 singular and erroneous traditions had prevailed, and in 
 some quarters still prevail, with regard to the occasion 
 for the adoption of the Winchester Profession, and also 
 the contents of the Profession itself. Chief Justice Doe, 
 to whom reference has been made, was my right-hand man 
 in settling the legal aspects of the case, and he indulged 
 
LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 197 
 
 me in a correspondence with him which covered some 
 hundred and more pages in his own writing in explain- 
 ing to me what were the conditions legally that had to be 
 met; and he introduced me to Judge Smith, of ]\Iinne- 
 sota, whose father had rendered the decision against which 
 the Universalists of New Hampshire were protesting. And 
 Judge Smith, in sending me a copy of his father's min- 
 utes of the trial and explaining what was the real sig- 
 nificance of his decision, said, "There could not be any 
 bigotry in my father's decision, for he was a Universalist 
 himself !" 
 
 I repeat what I said — I am exceedingly grateful for 
 the privilege of standing here on this memorable occasion 
 in response to the invitation of the president of the New 
 Hampshire Convention. 
 
 IV. — HON. HENRY B. METCALF.* 
 
 It is very pleasant to me to be accredited as on the 
 right side. When the announcement was made that there 
 were two brethren present, one at the right and one at 
 the left, there was a little appearance tliat I was the 
 man whom the speaker referred to as on the left. I made 
 my way through the vestibule to tell him to give my time 
 to Dr. Eddy. I could waive this opportunity because 
 you listened to me so kindly last night at the Sunday- 
 school meeting. It is not everybody who is entitled to 
 two hearings on such an occasion as this. 
 
 Eeading over the program, I knew what a treat 
 awaited all who should come. If a notice had been given 
 that the good people of Winchester were going to cele- 
 brate the one hundredth anniversary of the adoption of 
 
 ^At the Winchester Centennial, Thursday morning. 
 
198 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 the Winchester Profession of Belief and that the men and 
 women of this parish were going to do all the speaking, I 
 should have come just the same. I did not come to 
 hear the speeches; we can hear speeches almost any time, 
 but we can come to Winchester on the one hundredth an- 
 niversary only once. 
 
 I don't know the formula whereby the Sons and 
 Daughters of the Eevolution declare their intent or pur- 
 pose in organization — I don't know that it is of any im- 
 portance — but I do believe that the men and women of 
 today who care enough about the history of their country 
 to look up their lineage and feel proud of their ancestry 
 are better men and w^omen and patriots for that effort. 
 I seldom visit Philadelphia without finding a little time 
 to go into Independence Hall; a very few minutes, per- 
 haps, but I believe that I am a better citizen because of 
 that little visit. I believe that the men and women of 
 the Universalist Church who have not been privileged to 
 be here today, but who can think about it in the future 
 days, will be stronger Universalists because they have 
 recognized in their own hearts their debt of gratitude to 
 the men and women of a hundred years ago who dared 
 to be unpopular in behalf of righteousness. 
 
 It was my privilege to be intimately acquainted with 
 Hosea Ballou. Perhaps there are those here who knew 
 some of the others who participated in the great event 
 which we celebrate. I don't think I ever saw any others 
 of the participants of that occasion, but I was born into 
 Hosea Ballou's church — my father and he were bosom 
 friends. He came to my father to recite his joys and re- 
 ceive comfort in his sorrows. As a boy I looked on him 
 
LETTERS AND RECOLLECTIONS. 199 
 
 with admiration and recognized his brightness and quick- 
 ness and how he always had a reason for his faith. He 
 and my father didn't agree politically, but it didn't make 
 any difference. 
 
 I met him in the Sunday-school when I was a boy 
 and I followed up the matter of his relations to it. I 
 think he had great doubts about the wisdom of organizing 
 a Sunday-school, believing that the great power of the 
 word is in the preaching service, and he feared that any 
 new interests brought in would divert thought from the 
 one service which he considered most important. I don't 
 know whether he was right or not, but at all events we 
 started the Sunday-school, we are committed to it, and we 
 have got to make it do better service than it does. I look 
 on sadly while many of those who go to Sunday-school 
 do not listen to the preaching — and then I think of Father 
 Ballou. 
 
 Dear friends, probably I shall not visit Winchester 
 again, but I have been looking forward with pleasure to 
 this gathering. I am a little disappointed that some 
 friends that I expected have not come. We expected to 
 bring a big delegation from Boston, but it looked like 
 too much of an enterprise after vacation time; but there 
 is quite a little party of us from "Little Rhody," appointed 
 by our state convention. In behalf of Ehode Island I bid 
 you greeting, and I thank you for all I have enjoyed 
 today. 
 
Appendix. 
 
 VARIOUS COMMEMORATIVE SERVICES. 
 
 It is deemed that this memorial volume would not be com- 
 plete without some record of the local celebration in Winchester 
 and of the several meetings in that place held during the week 
 of the anniversary. It is also thought proper to include some 
 account of the action at the several State Conventions with 
 reference to the Centennial. The Washington commemoration 
 finds its place in the body of the book with the occasional ser- 
 mon of President Nash. The address of President Capen, Tues- 
 day evening, on the "Progress of the Century," was given ex- 
 tempore. It was not reported at the time and has not been re- 
 produced in season to appear in the book. 
 
 THE RHODE ISLAND CONVENTION. 
 
 The first convention to make formal recognition of the Cen- 
 tennial year was that of Rhode Island, held June 4, in the Church 
 of the Messiah, Providence. The coming anniversary was noted 
 in the address of the President, Rev. Henry Irving Cushman, 
 D. D., and its observance recommended. The committee on 
 official reports subsequently commended the observance and rec- 
 ommended that the convention be represented at the Winchester 
 Centennial in September ; also that the executive committee be 
 empowered to appoint ten delegates to be clothed with all the 
 power the convention itself could confer. These recommenda- 
 tions were adopted and Rhode Island was well represented at 
 Winchester. 
 
 THE INDIANA OBSERVANCE. 
 
 The Indiana Convention held its Winchester celebration at 
 Rome City in connection with the Inter-State Assembly of Uni- 
 versalists held at that place. The officers of the convention, in 
 
 (200) 
 
APPENDIX. 201 
 
 arranging the program, set apart Wednesday, September 2, for 
 the anniversary services under the charge of Dr. J. S. Cantwell, 
 of Chicago. These were held in the large auditorium of the 
 assembly grounds on Island Park, Sylvan Lake, and attracted 
 one of the largest congregations of the series of meetings held 
 that year. The choir of the Muncie church, assisted by selected 
 vocalists, and the orchestra from New Madison, Ohio, were 
 present and rendered valuable assistance. 
 
 - The exercises began at six thirty in the morning with a devo- 
 tional service conducted by Rev. O. G. Colegrove, of Ohio. The 
 Winchester Profession and its religious significance was the theme 
 of many of the speakers. At half past ten o'clock, after orchestral 
 music and appropriate hymns, the historical address was deliv- 
 ered. Rev. Dr. F. A. Bisbee, of Boston, offering the prayer. A 
 deep interest prevailed, excellent attention being accorded the 
 speaker during the extended address. 
 
 In the afternoon another large audience convened. Dr. Cant- 
 well again presiding. The paper on Universalism in the West 
 after 1803 was read by Rev. J. A. Stoner, of New Madison, Ohio. 
 Five-minute addresses followed from Rev. A. H. Laing, D. D., 
 and Rev. J. S. Cook, D. D., of Illinois; Rev. S. G. Ayers and 
 Rev. O. G. Colgrove, of Ohio ; Rev. G. I. Keirn and Rev. Marion 
 Crosley, of Indiana ; Rev. W. L. Gibbs, of Michigan ; Hon. Milton 
 Trusler, Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby and Miss Flora B. Brown. 
 The closing service was a consecration meeting of thirty min- 
 utes' duration. Mrs. L. W. Brown (Aunty Brown), of Akron, 
 Ohio, offered the first prayer and Dr. Atwood closed with a brief 
 address and the benediction. It was a devout and fitting close for 
 the exercises of the important occasion. 
 
 THE ILLINOIS COMMEMORATION. 
 
 The Illinois Universalist Convention assembled in sixty-sixth 
 annual session in the city of Peoria, Wednesday, September 22, 
 1903. The occasional sermon, on the previous Tuesday evening, 
 was delivered by Rev. Frederic Clarence Priest, D. D., of the 
 Church of the Redeemer, Chicago, who was born in the old New 
 Hampshire town where the Profession of Belief was adopted. 
 
202 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 The afternoon of the 22d, the exact anniversary of the adoption 
 of the Profession in 1803, was marked by a service of commemo- 
 ration. Rev. Leonard W. Brigham was in charge. After intro- 
 ductory remarks and prayer, Rev. Messrs. Edson Reifsnider, 
 John Hughes and Drs. Laing, Priest, Cook and Nash spoke of 
 the historic declaration, its importance and its unique character 
 and influence. Other remarks followed from Rev. J. B. Fosher, 
 Mr. F. A. Winkelman, Rev. C. E. Varney and Mrs. O. W. Nash. 
 
 Reference having been made to the celebration at Winchester 
 to be held the following week, it was voted to appoint "Mes- 
 sengers" — as the delegates were named in 1803. Mrs. Orphia E. 
 Cantwell and Mrs. Augusta A. Cooke were appointed as such 
 "messengers." 
 
 THE LOCAL CELEBRATION AT WINCHESTER. 
 
 Tuesday, September 22, 1903, marked the hundredth year 
 since the adoption of the Profession. It was not permitted to 
 pass unnoticed by the Winchester parish, even amid the prepara- 
 tions for the state and national observance soon to follow. It was 
 recognized by the Winchester Universalists by impressive services 
 throughout the day and evening under the direction of the pastor, 
 Rev. Clarence J. Harris. At five forty-five the sunrise bell was rung 
 by Mr. Willard Holton and continued for nearly an hour. The 
 people assembled in large numbers, and each one, from the 
 youngest child to the oldest man or woman, made the bell ring 
 by a pull at the rope. This will be a pleasant remembrance for 
 many in future years. 
 
 At nine thirty the exercises were in charge of the Young 
 People's Christian Union, and Miss J. Grace Alexander and Mrs. 
 J. A. Gale read special papers prepared for the occasion. Ad- 
 dresses were also given by Messrs. Henry Kent, Park Weeks and 
 Kirk Alexander. Following, Mr. Harris gave a sermon from 
 Matt. VII, 20, "By their fruits ye shall know them," a review of 
 the history of Universalism, with a glance at the religious prog- 
 ress of the hundred years. Holy Communion followed the ser- 
 mon. In the evening a concert was given, the children from 
 Ashuelot joining the Winchester children in this exercise. 
 "From five forty-five in the morning until nine thirty p. m.," says 
 
APPENDIX. 203 
 
 Mr. Harris, "the church was fairly alive with enthusiasm. Aged 
 people said it was the greatest day they remembered in the history 
 of the church and few anticipated a greater degree of the Divine 
 Presence during the Centennial." 
 
 THE NEW HAMPSHIRE CONVENTION. 
 
 The state and national observance at Winchester was held 
 under the auspices of the New Hampshire Universalist Conven- 
 tion. The officers are as follows: 
 
 President— Rev. John Vannever, Concord. 
 
 Vice-President— Rev. W. H. Trickey, Claremont. 
 
 Secretary— Mrs. Mary D. Randall, Woodsville. 
 
 Treasurer— Mr. A. W. Prescott, Manchester. 
 
 The above, together with the following, constitute the exec- 
 utive board : Rev. S. H. M'Collester, D. D., Marlborough ; Mr. 
 Isaac M. Savage, Concord; Rev. G. L. Demarest, D. D., Man- 
 chester. This executive board, with Rev. Clarence J. Harris and 
 Miss J. Grace Alexander, of Winchester, had charge of the 
 Centennial exercises, held on Wednesday evening September 30, 
 and Thursday, October 1. 
 
 Under the leadership of President Vannever, the board 
 planned wisely and wrought steadily to make the jubilee a suc- 
 cess. They were ably assisted by Miss Alexander and the Win- 
 chester pastor. Rev. Mr. Harris, whose activity and enthusiasm 
 for Winchester, old and new, was one of the pleasing features 
 of the occasion. All concerned have the satisfaction of knowing 
 that their efforts are well appreciated, not alone in Wmchester 
 and in New Hampshire, but also throughout the Universalist 
 Church, among all who were expecting that this jubilee occasion 
 would be made worthy of the great event commemorated. 
 
 AUXILIARY CONVENTIONS. 
 
 The auxiliary bodies of the New Hampshire Convention, 
 consisting of the Sunday School Convention and the Young Peo- 
 ple's Christian Union of the state, held their annual meeting at 
 Winchester on Tuesday, September 29. Hon. Hosea W. Parker, 
 of Claremont, was the President of the Sunday School Conven- 
 tion, and Rev. Fenwick L. Leavitt, of Woodsville, the President 
 
204 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 of the Y. P. C. U. The officers elected at this session are the 
 officials of the Centennial year: 
 
 Sunday School Convention: President, Hon. H. W. 
 Parker, Claremont; Vice-President, Miss Clara Woodman, Kings- 
 ton; Secretary, Mrs. N. C. Jewitt, Marlborough; Treasurer, Miss 
 J. Grace Alexander, Winchester. 
 
 Y. P. C. U. : President, Rev. M. L. Cutler, East Jaffrey; 
 Vice-President, Miss Edith Vaughn, Manchester; Secretary, Miss 
 Abbie P. Luce, Claremont; Treasurer, Mr. Will D. Hutchinson, 
 Concord. Members at Large: Rev. F. L. Leavitt, Miss Hattie 
 G. Hills, Nashua, and Miss Mary E. Fogg, Gorham. 
 
 Tuesday evening. Rev. Vincent E. Tomlinson, D. D., of 
 Worcester, Mass., present by invitation for this service, delivered 
 the occasional discourse before the Y. P. C. U. His subject was 
 "Enrichment of Life," and text, "I am come that ye might have life 
 and have it more abundantly." (1 John X, 10.) The discourse 
 made appropriate reference to the centennial occasion and the 
 great work of the Fathers, urging the young people to remember 
 the devotion and heroism of the old days. 
 
 THE CONVENTION. 
 Wednesday, September 30, the annual session of the New 
 Hampshire Convention was held, Rev. John Vannever, the Presi- 
 dent, in the chair at all sessions and Mrs. Mary D. Randall, sec- 
 retary. The regular business of the convention was transacted 
 as already reported in the denominational press. 
 
 THE woman's centenary ASSOCIATION. 
 
 The morning session was devoted to the W. C. A. Rev. 
 Nancy W. P. Smith, president of the state organization, presided, 
 and, after devotional exercises, addressed the meeting on the 
 work of the women of the church in New Hampshire. The 
 executive board of the National W. C. A. had called a meet- 
 ing for Winchester and several of the members were present 
 and made addresses. They were given pre-eminence in what fol- 
 lowed. Mrs. Cordelia A. Quinby, honorary president, gave par- 
 ticulars of the work of the Mission Circles and other interesting 
 features of the W. C. A. Mrs. Z. E. Harris, of Watertown, 
 
APPENDIX. 205 
 
 N. Y., brought greetings from her state and spoke on "The Mis- 
 sionary Spirit as Essential in the Christian Church." One of 
 the Connecticut delegates discussed briefly "Some Things 
 Done." Rev. Augusta J. Chapin, D. D., gave a resume of the 
 history of the National W. C. A. and explained the proposed 
 Church Building Fund. Rev. Isabella McDuff, of Berlin, N. H, 
 followed with a fine address on the "Present Need," which she 
 mterpreted as the development of a greater spirituality in the 
 church, and Mrs. Gertrude Rugg Field, of Providence, R. I., 
 read an original poem on the Japan Mission. 
 
 At this session the letters were read from Rev. James Shrig- 
 ley, D. D., and Rev. Caroline A. Soule, which appear under the 
 caption, "Letters and Recollections." 
 
 In the afternoon the occasional sermon before the State 
 Convention was given by Rev. W. H. Trickey, and was listened 
 to by a large and attentive congregation as the able speaker 
 enforced the duties and responsibilities of the Universalists of 
 the state in the second century of the Winchester Profession. 
 The Holy Communion was administered after the sermon, Rev. 
 Mr. Harris and Rev. A. Eugene Bartlett, of Manchester, officiating 
 at the table. 
 
 THE CENTENNIAL OPENS. 
 
 The services of the Centennial anniversary opened Wednes- 
 day evening, the Vice-President of the State Convention, Rev. 
 W. H. Trickey, presiding. 
 
 An interesting feature of the evening's service was the dedi- 
 cation of the memorial pipe organ. After the rendering of several 
 selections on the new instrument by Prof. W. J. Short, of Keene, 
 Mrs. Frank E. Leonard, in behalf of the Young People's Aid 
 Society, formally presented the organ to the church in com- 
 memoration of the one hundredth anniversary of the adoption of 
 the Profession. Mrs. Leonard then attached to the organ a gold 
 plate, itself a gift, recording the purpose of the memorial. The 
 pastor, Rev. Clarence J. Harris, offered the dedicatory prayer, 
 consecrating the instrument to the spiritual interests of the 
 church. Mrs. Persis Hutchins and Mr. Frank E. Leonard fol- 
 lowed with an impressive duet, "Rock of Ages." Following 
 
206 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 the dedication of the organ, and prayer by Rev. H. Gertrude 
 Roscoe, the General Superintendent, Rev. I. M. Atwood, D. D., 
 was introduced and gave his address on the "Spiritual Side of 
 Universalism." 
 
 THE CENTENNIAL DAY. 
 
 Thursday, October 1, was the day of the more formal anni- 
 versary exercises and no more beautiful day ever dawned on the 
 New Hampshire hills. The portals of the old meeting-house 
 were draped in the colors of the Y. P. C. U., and its beautiful 
 situation, facing the village green, with the mountain rising be- 
 hind it, and the upper terraces with their noble trees, clothed in 
 the crimson and golden hues of the early autumn, presented a 
 picture worthy of any artist. 
 
 The auditorium, with its finely colored memorial windows, in- 
 scribed with the names of Ballou, Whittemore and Chapin, the 
 autumn drapery of the young maples on each side of the plat- 
 form with the floral decorations of the communion table, on which 
 rested the original draft of the Winchester Profession, framed 
 in flowers by the young ladies, presented a scene that will not 
 soon fade from remembrance. The memorial window in the 
 rear of the pulpit, with the figure of the Good Shepherd, radiant 
 in glowing colors, was in full view of the congregation and for 
 the thoughtful had a special lesson. In the decoration of this 
 window the dates "1803" — "1903" were placed in evergreen on 
 the frame over the figure. As thus arranged, the years were 
 suggestive. The Christ looked in the direction of the past — 1803 
 — but the upraised hand pointed at the same time to 1903. It was 
 as if the present and the future were to be remembered along 
 with the honorable past. The conjunction of the dates revealed 
 at a glance the purpose of the entire memorial observance. Honor 
 1803, but remember also 1903, with its new duties and responsi- 
 bilities to the church and faith of the fathers. 
 
 The conference meeting on Thursday morning was con- 
 ducted by Rev. Willard C. Selleck, D. D., of Providence, R. I., 
 who acted as student pastor at Winchester during the summer 
 vacations of 1879 and 1880. The devotional exercises consisted 
 of the singing of hymn No. 209, "God is love ; His mercy bright- 
 
APPENDIX. 207 
 
 ens," the reading of a part of the first chapter of II Peter, 
 prayer, the recitation of the Winchester Profession by the entire 
 congregation, standing, and the singing of Father Ballou's hymn, 
 "Jesus his empire shall extend." Dr. Selleck's address forms 
 part of this volume. 
 
 The Convention President, Rev. John Vannever, presided 
 throughout the day and evening. The address of Hon. Hosea 
 W. Parker came first on the program after the solo by Miss Julia 
 Fay, of Keene. The President then introduced Rev. Richard 
 Eddy, D. D., the historian of the church, and Hon. Henry B. 
 Metcalf, of Rhode Island, as two men whose presence was highly 
 appreciated and who should be heard on the Centennial platform. 
 Their remarks, slenographically reported, appear in this book. 
 The address of Rev. John Coleman Adams, D. D., on "The 
 New Test of Faith," closed the morning hour. 
 
 Previous to the regular service of the afternoon, a baptismal 
 service was conducted by Rev. A. J. Patterson, D. D., of Boston, 
 when the two infant children of Rev. and Mrs. Clarence J. Harris 
 were dedicated: Malcom Mason Harris, born June 18, 1900; 
 Ida Caroline Harris, born January 16, 1902. The service then 
 proceeded according to the program, Rev. J. M. Pullman, D. D.,* 
 giving the "Exposition of Universalism" and Rev. Mr. Harris 
 speaking on "The Winchester of Today." This was followed by 
 a financial interlude, started by Mr. Metcalf and administered 
 from the platform by Dr. Cantwell, resulting in a popular sub- 
 scription of $550 for the memorial parsonage of the Winchester 
 church. The historical address was the last on the afternoon 
 program. 
 
 The closing service of the Centennial was held in the even- 
 ing at eight o'clock and embraced Dr. M'Collester's review of 
 "Ministerial Ground" and the sermon of Dr. Bisbee on "The 
 Old and the New," given then only in outline on account of the 
 lateness of the hour, but presented complete in this volume. Rev. 
 R. Perry Bush, of Chelsea, Mass., ofifered the prayer preceding 
 the sermon. 
 
 •.^s these pages are made ready for the press Dr. Pullman's sudden 
 death is announced. He passed away at his home in Lynn, Mass., Sunday 
 
 Nov. 22. ' 
 
208 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 It was a happy day for old Winchester and its numerous 
 guests. The new organ sounded forth its joyful notes as Father 
 Ballou's hymn "In God's Eternity" was sung and also in the 
 Centennial hymn. Everything conspired to render the occasion 
 memorable, not alone as the first centennial of the Profession, 
 but also for the admirable manner in which the program was car- 
 ried out and the spirit which prevailed during the entire ob- 
 servance. 
 
 All the surroundings, the crowded church, the fine music, 
 the sweet tones of the memorial organ, the jubilant words of the 
 centennial hymn, written by the pastor, sung to the old Portu- 
 gese air, with the devout words of praise and prayer, amid the 
 memories of the hundred years, these must be left to the imagina- 
 tion ; they can not be presented in any review of the occasion. It 
 may be noted also that it was a Winchester celebration as well as 
 a Universalist observance. The ancient town welcomed the oc- 
 casion and its visitors with cordial hospitality. Everywhere 
 "Winchester, 1803" was in evidence. The business houses 
 adorned their windows with pictures of the old church and hung 
 out flags inscribed "Welcome — 1803 — 1903," and many of the 
 homes of the people were draped in honor of the occasion. The 
 historic significance of the celebration was everywhere manifest. 
 Winchester honored itself in the way in which it honored the 
 notable anniversary and the event with which its name has been 
 associated for one hundred years. 
 
 The following 33 ministers were present : I. M. Atwood, 
 J. C. Adams, V. E. Tomlinson, W. C. Selleck, F. A. Bisbee, 
 Richard Eddy, A. J. Patterson, S. H. M'Collester, J. S. Cantwell, 
 John Vannevar, A. W. Blackford, Geo. L. Thompson, A. F. 
 Walch, W. W. Hooper, J. M. Pullman, R. Perry Bush, G. A. 
 Kratzer, C. M. Andrews, E. A. Hoyt, F. W. Whippen, A. E. 
 Bartlett, Nancy W. P. Smith, Isabella S. McDufif, Tom Roscoe, 
 H. Gertrude Roscoe, W. H. Trickey, C. F. Mclntire, M. L. Cut- 
 ler, F. L. Leavitt, B. C. Ruggles, Augusta J. Chapin, C. F. An- 
 drews and W. S. Turner. 
 
 AT BALLOU'S BIRTHPLACE. 
 Notwithstanding the rain of the previous night and the 
 clouds of the early morning, Friday, October 2, fifty or sixty 
 
APPENDIX. 209 
 
 people ventured to take the ten-mile drive over the hills from 
 Winchester, and many others came from near-by towns. The 
 attendance was good, and the spirit manifested was in keeping 
 with that throughout the exercises at Winchester, and worthy 
 of the occasion. There were eight speakers. 
 
 After a brief introduction, the Rev. William H. Trickey, 
 vice-president of the New Hampshire Convention, recalled 
 Father Ballou's unique services. Rev. Clarence J. Harris, of 
 Winchester, offered prayer, and with a goblet of water from the 
 Ballou well conducted an impressive service of dedication of 
 the memorial stone, erected in September, marking Father Bal- 
 lou's birthplace. Mrs. Gertrude Rugg Field, of Providence, 
 R. I., gave an admirable rendering of Father Ballou's verses : 
 
 BALLOU'S DELL. 
 
 There are no hills in Hampshire new. 
 
 No valleys half so fair, 
 As those which spread before the view 
 
 In merry Richmond, where 
 I first my mortal race began, 
 
 And passed my youthful days; 
 Where first I saw the golden sun 
 
 And felt his warming rays. 
 
 There is no spot in Richmond where 
 
 Fond memory loves to dwell, 
 As on the globe outspreading there 
 
 In Ballou's blithesome Dell; 
 There are no birds that sing so sweet 
 
 As those upon the spray, 
 Where, from the brow of Grassy Hill, 
 
 Comes forth the morning ray. 
 
 Unnumbered flowers, the pride of spring, 
 
 Are born to flourish there. 
 And round them mellow odors fling 
 
 Through all the ambient air. 
 There purling springs have charms for me 
 
 That vulgar brooks ne'er give, 
 And winds breathe sweeter down the lea 
 
 Than where magnolias live! 
 
210 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Rev. Mr. Seward (Unitarian), of Keene ; Rev. George L. 
 Thompson, of Springfield; Rev. A. N. Blackford, of North 
 Orange, Mass.; Rev. Glenn A. Kratzer, of Fitchburg, all gave 
 brief addresses highly appreciative of Father Ballou's character 
 and the preparation he must have made there for the great 
 work which he accomplished in early life. The venerable 
 Wallace Ball, of Winchester, brought out a melodeon and led 
 in the singing of "Home, Sweet Home." "In God's Eternity," 
 and the Doxology. 
 
 The place of meeting was on the lawn, a few rods to the 
 left of the house, under the ancient maples, on the spot where 
 Hosea Ballou was born, April 30, 1771, and directly back of 
 the memorial stone above referred to. 
 
 This stone is of fine granite, five feet two inches by twenty 
 inches wide and five inches thick, and somewhat larger at 
 the base, and bears this inscription : 
 
 Birthplace of 
 Hosea Ballou, 
 
 1771. 
 Erected 1903. 
 
 Here was the homestead of the Rev. Maturin Ballou, the 
 first settled minister of Richmond. The farm comprises 180 
 acres, now for the most part heavily wooded, and extending 
 from the valley southeastward to the summit of Grassy Hill. 
 Rev. Maturin Ballou was of rugged French Huguenot stock, a 
 great-grandson of the immigrant ancestor of the same name, 
 and a Baptist in faith. 
 
 After preaching fifteen years in Rhode Island, he bought 
 this farm in 1767. Beside his purchase, he received title, as 
 the first settled minister of Richmond, to two other tracts of 
 land, one adjoining Winchester, the other near the border line 
 of Warwick, Mass. It is a curious fact that while as a Baptist 
 minister he would not have been entitled to these lands under 
 the usual charter making the grant — as in the charter of Win- 
 chester — ^to "a learned orthodox minister," that is ofl the 
 "standing order," both the Massachusetts charter of the town, 
 granted to Major James Warren and associates in 1735 and 
 
APPENDIX. 211 
 
 the New Hampshire charter of 1752 use simply the words 
 "the first settled minister." Here Hosea, youngest of eleven 
 children, was born four years later. Here, in 1773, the mother, 
 Lydia Harris Ballou, died, and here, in 1804, the father, Rev. 
 Maturin Ballou, passed away. 
 
 Six years ago some of their descendants had their graves 
 marked by a modest stone in the near-by graveyard — a spot 
 which their youngest son often revisited. 
 
 It is nearly a century since Rev. Maturin Ballou's home- 
 stead — now the summer home of Mr. Holbrook, of Fitchburg — 
 passed out of the hands of the Ballou family. Still, as his 
 great-great-grandson, and the only lineal descendant present, it 
 became the duty of Hosea Starr Ballou, of Boston, to extend 
 a welcome to the pilgrims and to conduct the formal exer- 
 cises. 
 
 To enter into the spirit of the occasion, they all wished to 
 turn back the wheels of time and picture jn imagination the 
 place as it was a century or more ago. Then the town of 
 Richmond was, with one exception, the most populous town 
 in Cheshire county — larger than Winchester, and larger even 
 than Keene. It was a new town; the brooks were full of 
 fish and the forest full of large game to invite the attention 
 of the bright, active boy. Most of the fish and game now 
 are gone. Only the hills and distant Monadnock remain the 
 same. Most of the farms in the town are deserted, and the 
 nearest school-house has been sold for lack of children. 
 
 To take a closer view, the huge timbers of the original 
 house are in the house still standing on the farm, and the 
 marks of the broadaxe on the timbers in the barn fix it as 
 a relic of early days. The corn-house and the cider mill have 
 long since disappeared, but the large orchards on both sides 
 of the highway the pilgrims could still trace by the gnarled 
 trunks of scores of apple trees fully a century old. The clear, 
 cold water from the deep well is the same as it was when 
 Hosea Ballou passed his boyhood on the farm. He made 
 frequent visits here to his aged father, especially the eight 
 years, ending in 1803, after he married and settled in the 
 near-by town of Dana, Mass. 
 
212 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 After a collation, other points of interest in Richmond 
 were visited. Among these are the birthplace and early home 
 of Elizabeth Ballou Garfield, mother of the late President Gar- 
 field, and the home of Silas Ballou, the first hymnologist of 
 our denomination. 
 
 Standing by the memorial stone, Eva J. Stickney, of Ches- 
 ter, Vt., penned the following lines : 
 
 Pilgrims shall come with loyal pride 
 To stand this humble stone beside, 
 
 As years pass swiftly by; 
 And as they read this honored name, 
 A nobler purpose, loftier aim, 
 
 'iheir lives shall vivify. 
 
 It was an inspiring occasion, and a fitting end of the cen- 
 tennial celebration at Winchester. 
 
 FINAL SERVICES IN ASHUELOT. 
 
 After the services in Richmond, Friday, the visitors and 
 friends held a final service in the hall in Ashuelot, which was the 
 gift of Daniel Hawkins and erected in 1828. It was in this hall 
 that the first Universalist church was formed in that section of 
 the state. Through the generous beneficence of Mrs. Julia B. 
 Thayer, of Keene, the hall has been renovated and is now used 
 regularly. 
 
 Rev. W. H. Trickey opened the services and gave a most 
 inspiring address. This was followed by a most pleasing talk 
 by W. J. Litchfield, of Southbridge, Mass., and a brief address by 
 the pastor, Rev. C. J. Harris. Rev. Mr. Trickey closed the 
 service with a benediction. 
 
 THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF 1803. • 
 
 NOTE FROM HOSEA STARR BALLOU. 
 
 Hosea Starr Ballou, the biographer of Hosea Ballou 2d, 
 who has given the Universalist Church in this biography one 
 of the most valuable compends of our early Universalist history 
 and who was instrumental in the erection of the Ballou memorial 
 
APPENDIX. 213 
 
 at Richmond, and presided on the occasion, in a note to the com- 
 piler of this volume, gives the following interesting facts, 
 which will be of interest to all readers : 
 
 "I regret it was not feasible to make a pilgrimage, also, 
 to the adjoining hill-town of Warwick, Mass. I'here Caleb 
 Rich, with his brother, Nathaniel Rich, and Joseph Goodell (my 
 grandfather two removes) established one hundred and thirty 
 years ago, a regularly organized religious society, which was, 
 I believe, the first in this country to firmly protest against the 
 doctrine of everlasting punishment. If at the outset they seized 
 upon the theory of annihilation, it was only a temporary step 
 to the firmly established platform of Universal Salvation, and one 
 of the members of the Warwick society, you will note, was 
 Ebenezer Cheney (also my grandfather two removes), whose 
 name stands first in the list of laymen in attendance on the 
 convention at Winchester in 1803. 
 
 "Indeed the laymen in that convention appears, so far as 
 I can learn, to have represented a high type of citizenship. 
 Ebenezer Cheney, of Orange, Mass., his older brother, Wales 
 Cheney, of Milford, Mass., Samuel Williams, of Hartland, 
 Vt., George Simmons, of Woodstock, and several others in the 
 list were leading men in civil affairs in their respective towns. 
 
 "I listened to your historical address with deep interest 
 and feel sure that the 'Winchester Book' will prove a valued 
 souvenir of the Centennial celebration." 
 
 THE FIVE PRINCIPLES OF UNIVERSALISM. 
 
 Alternate Declaration of the Convention of 1899. 
 
 At the biennial session of the Universalist General Conven- 
 tion, held in Boston, Mass., October 20-25, 1899, the law govern- 
 ing fellowship in the Church was amended and Five Principles 
 of Faith adopted as an alternate or supplementary declaration 
 to the Winchester Profession. (See page 36, Historical address.) 
 The conditions of fellowship as amended are as follows: 
 
 1. The acceptance of the essential principles of the Uni- 
 versalist Faith, to-wit: (1) The Universal Fatherhood of God; 
 
214 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 (2) The Spiritual authority and leadership of His Son, Jesus 
 Christ; (3) The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a reve- 
 lation from God; (4) The certainty of just retribution for sin; 
 (5) The final harmony of all souls with God. 
 
 The Winchester Profession is commended as containing these 
 principles, but neither this nor any other precise form of words 
 is required as a condition of fellowship, provided always that 
 the principles above stated be professed. 
 
 2. The acknowledgment of the authority of the General 
 Convention and assent to its laws. 
 
 PRESS NOTICES OF THE CENTENNIAL. 
 Christian Register, Boston: 
 
 One hundred years ago — namely, September 22, 1803 — the 
 Winchester Profession of Belief was adopted in the town in 
 New Hampshire from which it takes its name. During all the 
 years since, this statement has been the principal standard of 
 Universalism. At the beginning there were many differences of 
 opinion among the leaders ; but gradually a dominant type of 
 thought was accepted, and old phases of thought passed away 
 and were forgotten. In later times Universalists have shared in 
 the general loosening of bands and the movement of thought 
 which is bringing together what, from the liberal point of view, 
 seems to be the better elements in all the churches. The visit of 
 Rev. R. J. Campbell to this country, and his open avowal that, 
 while he calls himself an evangelical Christian, he is a Univer- 
 salist in belief, is a sign of the times which may well encourage 
 those who call themselves by that name to go forward for another 
 hundred years, in the hope and belief that, when the second cen- 
 tennial celebration comes, there will no longer be need of 
 denying creeds of fear. 
 
 The Outlook (New York), Oct. 17: 
 
 In the old church in the little town of Winchester, in the 
 southwestern corner of New Hampshire, the Bethlehem of the 
 Universalist denomination, the centennial of the "Winchester 
 
APPENDIX. 215 
 
 Profession" was celebrated October 1. Here in 1803 the dele- 
 gates of thirty-eight societies, all New Englanders but two, or- 
 ganized a new religious body upon the doctrinal basis known 
 as "the Winchester Profession," undeservedly omitted from Dr. 
 Schaff's standard work, "The Creeds of Christendom." Win- 
 chester was long the favorite rendezvous of the new organization ; 
 five times in thirty years it assembled here. The proximate 
 cause of the "Profession," it should be said, was not theological 
 but economical. In the union of State and Church which then 
 still prevailed, the support of "the standing order" of religion 
 was undertaken by each town. Dissenters belonging to unrecog- 
 nized denominations were taxed for the support of the estab- 
 lished church. Universalists were thus constrained to organiza- 
 tion, and two years later were exempted from the town-church 
 tax as "a distinct denomination with privileges as such." * * * 
 It should be added that the Winchester Profession has never been 
 changed. It still stands, with a supplement in the Chicago Decla- 
 ration of 1899, which commends it as containing the essential prin- 
 ciples of the Universalist faith, and conditions fellowship upon 
 profession of these principles, but "neither (upon) this nor any 
 other precise form of words " 
 
 Boston Herald, Sept. 20. 
 
 Just a century ago — September, 1803 — there was a call for a 
 general convention of Universalists, to be held in Winchester, N. 
 H., a lovely little town nestling down in the lap of the beautiful 
 Ashuelot valley, in which there was a large and flourishing parish 
 with a good meeting-house, capable of accommodating the conven- 
 tion. Among the many who came was the young Hosea Ballou, 
 who had already been ordained as a Universalist clergyman, and 
 at that time had a parish in Vermont covering the townships of 
 Woodstock, Hartland, Bethel and Barnard, with a residence in 
 Barnard. 
 
 Although he was only just past thirty, and there were men 
 present who were older in years and service than he, yet he was 
 the leading spirit of the convention, and his enthusiasm and good 
 will carried it along to a successful ending. A "Confession of 
 Faith" was adopted, which has been the acknowledged declaration 
 
216 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 of principles of the denomination ever since, and has been known 
 as "the Winchester Profession." 
 
 The town was always a stronghold of Universalism, and no- 
 where would those professing its faith and seeking to widen its 
 influence have found a more cordial welcome than they found 
 here. And today the little town is once more the center of inter- 
 est to the members of the denomination, because the centenary of 
 the Profession is being celebrated, and all the followers of Murray 
 and Ballou have their eyes turned thither. 
 
 Nestled among the foothills of the Monadnock, set in the very 
 heart of the beautiful Cheshire county, on the banks of the Ashue- 
 lot river, Winchester remains what it always has been — one of the 
 prettiest, most typical of all the New England inland towns. Then, 
 as now, September was the banner month of the year for beauty. 
 Lovely as the place is in the first freshness of spring, when the 
 faint tints of green show on the hills, or in the luxuriance of sum- 
 mer when gardens are rioting in bloom and the waysides are lined 
 with wild flowers, it is still more lovely in the early autumn days, 
 when the hills begin to put on the brilliant coloring that marks the 
 waning year. 
 
 Even in August the maples flung out an occasional flag of 
 defiance and a branch here and there burned crimson under the 
 summer sun, but it is in September when everything is a blaze of 
 glory, the pines and firs, the hemlocks and greens, making a most 
 eflfective background for the crimson of the maple, the scarlet of 
 the sumach, the yellow and gold of the birch, beech and elm, and 
 the bronze and russet of the oaks. This year the foliage is espe- 
 cially brilliant, as if nature herself were assisting in making the 
 centennial celebration as bright as possible. 
 
 The Universalist Leader, Oct. 17. 
 
 It was a great achievement for the little town of Winchester 
 to arrange and carry through so great an enterprise to so complete 
 and gratifying a success. Something of the spirit of the Fathers 
 who a century ago wrought righteousness into word in that same 
 place, must abide in the hearts of the people. To these people 
 must first be given credit for making a new contribution to our 
 denominational life in reviving an interest in the more weighty 
 
APPENDIX. 217 
 
 things of the faith once delivered unto the saints and by them de- 
 livered unto us. 
 
 The only regret associated in any way with this Centennial 
 celebration comes of the absence of many of our people and espe- 
 cially of our ministers. It was not only their loss ; it was a loss 
 to our whole church for them to miss such an opportunity to en- 
 rich their hearts and minds with the wealth of blessed memory and 
 the chance to study some of the important steps by which our 
 Fathers brought to us an inheritance of religious liberty and prog- 
 ress. A minister high in the service of our church, who had no 
 part in the program, but who came as a devout pilgrim to this 
 sacred altar, said : "This occasion has been more to me than any 
 other I recall in my connection with the church ; I would not 
 have missed it for ten times the cost." 
 
 The program was excellent and every speaker appreciated the 
 honor and importance of the occasion and made careful prepara- 
 tion. The real worth of these addresses can not be estimated by 
 the brief abstracts published, but we are assured that they are to 
 be put in permanent form at once, together with other matters 
 connected with the Centennial, and that out of this Centennial 
 observance will come a book which will be a valuable contribution 
 to our literature. 
 
 Springfield (Mass.) Republican, Oct. 4. 
 
 The centennial of the Winchester Profession of Faith is a 
 thing of the past and the quiet little town of Winchester, on the 
 banks of the picturesque little Ashuelot river, has gone back to 
 the monotony of its daily routine with a feeling of satisfaction, 
 for the people of the village received the visiting Universalists in 
 a true spirit of hospitality, and they know that their efforts were 
 fully appreciated. The Centennial observance came yesterday as 
 a fitting climax to a successful state convention. Many delegates 
 attended this and a majority remained for the exercises which fol- 
 lowed, and their number was greatly augmented by visitors from 
 Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Some of 
 the best known Universalist speakers in the country have been 
 here and have made interesting addresses on topics near to the 
 Universalist belief, and the men who drew up the now famous 
 
218 CENTENNIAL ADDRESSES. 
 
 Profession came in for their share of eulogy and veneration. The 
 ideal little New England village, the beautiful hills, a mass of yel- 
 low and crimson, the true October days, and the grim old white 
 church keeping guard over the village common, made a perfect 
 setting for the recollections of the scenes which transpired here 
 100 years ago and for the earnest, capable remarks which were 
 made about the Universalist church of today and the prospects of 
 the Universalist church of tomorrow. 
 
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