Vol. xiv. c _Chicago and Cincinnati, Saturday, skptkmhkk 25, 1897._no. 39 five '(aniversalistl A RELIGIOUS AND FAMILY WEEKLY UmvERSAUST Publishing House, PUBLISHEH8. E. F. ENDICOTT, ‘General A (rent Issued Every Saturday by the Western Branch op the Publishing Housi t Dearborn SI. Room, 40 and 41 CHICAGO, IL.C. t $2.60 A YEAR IN ADVANCE I JIMS • • • | |.26 SIX MONTHS. POSTAGE PAID. SAMPLE COPIES ALWAYS FREE. REMITTANCES:—Make all cheeks, drafts, ®oiiev and express orders payable to A. M. JOHNSON, Cashier, or Uhiversalist Publtsniny rouse. Western Branch ^nter*^ at the i’n»itoW**«. »» s«vna.-jx?»«« **-*» *•“ ' CONTENTS. CHICAGO. SATURDAY, SEPT, 95. 1897. Pace one. Editorial Briefs. The Cradle of Hellas, The Nobility of Labor. The Lansing Chnreh. Universalist Thought. Pace Two. Do We Need a New Creed? Central Ohio Association. New Books. Page Three. The Sunday School Lesson. Page Four. Editorial: Europe’s New Invalid. The Profession of Faith. “Brimstone Corner,” Boston. The Lansing Dedication. Recommendations Based on F.xperience. Universalist Personal. Page Five, Church News and Correspondence. Page Six. The Family Page, Farm. Harden and Dairy. Page Seven. Our Boys and Girls. Page Eight. News of the Week. Church Notices and In Memoriam. EDITORIAL BRIEFS. BY PRESIDENT I. M. ATWOOD, D. D. It might not occur to everyone to thank Prof. C. H. Mead of the Hartford Theological Seminary for publishing hie paper on “The Fatherhood of God.” The opinion is general, even among sound and approved Congregationaliste, that Dr. Mead might have employed hie acute critical powers to better purpose than in an elaborate attempt to show that God is not really but only tigura tively the Father of men. But on our part we like to have the most important doctrine of Christianity searchingly ex amined. The foundation of the founda tions should be secure. The Father hood of God is rightly esteemed the chief doctrine of Christianity. If it is illusory, or if unhappily it is not a doc trine of Christianity at all, the fact should be known. We feel under obli gation to Prof. Mead, therefore, for sub jecting the doctrine to a rigid if rather late examination. —The position taken up by Prof. Mead is, that whenever God is said, in the Scriptures or elsewhere, to be the Father of men, the meaning is, that he is their creator, guardian and bountiful benefactor, merely. He could not be the father of anyone to whom he does not sustain the relation of "male parent,” says Dr. Mead. Unless we can establish such physical relationship of God to a man that man is not the "son” of God and God is not his father. The effect of this reasoning is not merely to prove that all men are not the children of God; it proves that not one is or can be liter ally and actually a son of God, God is called the Father of mankind by a figure of speech, as Washington is called the Father of his country. And men are said to be, figuratively, sons of God when they resemble him in character. —The position is fortified by an ex amination of nearly all the passages in both testaments which have been sup posed to teach that God is really the Father of men. Though the argument is visibly strained throughout and the exegesis of particular passages is re morselessly cut to pattern, Dr. Mead has no special difficulty in so applying his theorum as to squeeze the Father hood out of Old Testament and New. If it is impossible for God to be the actual Father of men, if he can be so only rhe torically, why of course the Scriptures cannot make him so. Prof. Mead finds that the teaching of Jsbub and his apos tles, notwithstanding a tew rather troublesome statements to the contrary, is uniform to the purport that God is the Father of men as a race only in a figurative sense. —But Dr. Mead fiods Jesus teaching and the apostles teaching and the church from the beginning teaching, that Christians, or "the redeemed” as he describes them, are in a peculiar sense children of God, and that God is in the same peculiar Bensetbe Father of f Christians. But if the major premise of his argument ie valid God can no more be the actual and literal Father of saints than of sinners. The physical relationship which he asserts is necee sary to constitute any one a father of another, no more pertains to "the re deemed” than to men generally. Yet Dr. Mead hold that God is the Father of Christians; and he contends that in the greater number of passages where the New Testament speaks of God as “our Father” or "the Father” what is meant is, that He sustains that relation to regenerate persons. We need not stop to point out that he cannot main tain this exegesis without violence. What we ask Dr. Mead’s attention to is » that by his own postulate the tbiDg is impossible. —As Joseph Cook used to say, "it is self-evident,” that since no human being can be a child of God in reality, but that mankind generally can be "called” the children of God on the ground of his love and care for them, a Christian de rives no advantage whatever from being also "called" a son of God. It msy mean different things in the different cases; but in no case can it mean that God is really the Father of a human being. Such is the unescapable conclu sion to which Prof. Mead's reasoning conducts. And if it be so. the doctrine of the Divine Fatherhood, whether supposed to include all mankind or only "the redeemed,” is a pretentious delusion which should cut no further figure in the theology of Christians. And in its fall it takes down with it the whole fabric of gorgeous dreams to which poets and preachers in their weak extrava gance have fondly affixed the glittering and misleading label, "Gcod Tidings,” —The true view, and as we believe the one taught by Jesus, is that the relation of every human being to Godis the same generic, constitutional relation. Men, as spirits, are directly "the offspring of God,” deriving their spiritual constitu tion and their moral personality from him, precisely as they derive their physi cal being and family traits from their earthly parents. The relation of God to men is not remoter but clearer than that of a human father to his child. It is a natural and indestructible relation, dependent on no act of the child nor on any incident or accident of its career. It may be a good and worthy child or a bad and unworthy child, but it is a child always. On this hypothesis there is reason in religion and the best reason in the best religion, Christianity. We understand why JesuBis the "first-born among many brethren;” why in "bring ing many sons into glory the Captain of their salvation was perfected through si-ffe'irg;” why God-predestined ub to be conformed to the image of his son;” why, "the nations are fellow-heirs and and fellow-members of the body and fellow-partakers of the promise in Jesus Christ:” Why "God so loved the world” —the human world; why Jesus exhorted men to be perfect; and why those who had been with Jesus and knew hiB mind said, we have seen and do bear witness that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.” —So far as we have observed, do one of the many who have taken part in the recent discussion as to the decline of family devotions, has noted the incident al relation of the custom to the family life. There are devotions that are not devout, in the house as well as in the school and in the church. It may be that merely formal prayer in the family does little for the family life. But there can be no question, we take it, that a moment’s pause each day, in which the whole family unitedly recognize their dependence on God and joyfully raise their thankfulness for his daily care and blessings, exerts a refining, elevating and sweetening influence on the life of the home. Divisions, strifes of tongues' loss of interest in the home and of re spect for it, and the danger of reaching the low water mark of selfish secularism are less likely to invade a home sancti fied by family worship. —Prof. T. D. Witherspoon of the Louisville Seminary, is the proprietor and promulgator of the novel view, that the sociability of Protestant churches is a hindrance to their growth. His thought is, that people do not go to church for society, but for worship. If they knew they could go and worship without increasing any obligation to “recognize’’ the people they meet there' he thinks more people would be found in the churches and they would be more popular. He refers to the Catholic church in verification of his curious hypothesis. Prof. Witherspoon seems to thiDk that religion is wholly a matter between God and man. Christianity certainly is Dot that sort of religion. It concerns the relation of man with man as much as the relatione of man with God. To "worship,’’ as Whittier has well said, is to love each other. If any are repelled from our churches because they are too social, we suspect many more are chilled by their unsocial atmosphere. Canton thbological School. This World. I do Dot hesitate to say that the Hrst and paramount aim of religion is not to prepare tor another world, but to make the best of this world;or, more correctly stated, to make this world better, wiser, and happier. It is to be good, and do the most good we can, dow and here, and to help others to be and do the same. It is to seek, with all our might, the h ighest welfare of the world we live iu, and the realization of its ideal great ness, nobleness and blessedness.—Caird OUR CONTRIBUTORS. THE CRADLE OF HELLAS. BY RICHARD BRATHWAIT. Thessaly, the cradle of Hellas, the earliest seat of civilization in Europe, and the prize for which the Sultan of Turkey has been contending in dip lomacy with the powers of Europe all summer, is a country whose earlier history is lost in the mists of tradition and mythology. The name Thessaly seems to have been un known to Homer, who merely men tions several of its principalities and divisions as Bending leaders and troops to the siege of Troy. The national hero of Greece, Achilles came from Phthiotis and Hellas over which, according to Homer, he ruled. Phthiotis was the seat of Hellen, founder of the Hellenic race, and to this district, embracing the southeastern portion of Thessaly, the term Hellas was first applied. From Thessaly, or more particularly from Hellas, the Hellenes spread over all Greece, the Achaeans, iEtolians, Dorians and Lacedemonians and other Btates of Greece deriving thence their origin. Here, also, according to tradition, men first applied themselves to agriculture, first guided horses by the bit and used them in war, and here may be said to have been the dawnings of Greek, and consequently of European civilization. Of the five divisions of ancient Thessaly, Phthiotis, Hestiaeotis, Pelasgiotis in the northern part, Thessaliotis, and Magnesia, Pelas giotis was the earliest settled, the Pelasgi, a wandering Asiatic tribe, thus being the earliest inhabitants of Greece. The migration of the Thes salians proper from Thesprotia in Epirus on the western side of the Pindus mountains, and their drivii g out or conquering the Pelasgiats may be considered the beginning of Greek history. Of the two earliest events recorded in the history of Thessaly, the deluge of Deucalion and the expedition of the Argonauts, the former ie said to have occurred about 1548 B. O., and the latter 1263 B. C., but neither of these events, with which so much of the legendary history of Greece is connected, can be assigned definitely as to time, while the facts in the case haye been so obscured with fable and poetry that it is impossible to hazard more than a conjecture as to their real significance. The stories of Deucalion and Jason and the Argonauts, together with the Iliad and the Odyssey have made Thessaly and its mountains and rivers the chosen seat of the gods, a land of “lost gods and godlike men.'’ Olympus, the seat of the gods; Ossa and Pelion, recalling the wars of the Titans against Jupiter; Oeta with its legends of Hercules and the pyre from which he ascended to the heav ens; Achilles and the heroes of the Trojan war, are only a few in stances to show that Thessaly, more than any other part of Greece, was the home of fable and poetry in early Europe. Adjoining Thessaly on the north east also, was the plain of Pieria with its noble back ground of mountains, and in front the blue waters of the Thermaic Gulf. Here was the birth place of the Muses and of Orpheus, the greatest musician of the ancient world. Of Pieria also, were the nine daughters of Pierus, a Thessalian who challenged the Muses to a trial of skill. In Thessaly, also, at Iolcos, was the home of Jason, and from the port at the modern town of Volo on the Pegasean Gulf, the Argonautic expedition sailed in quest of the golden fleece. The fables of the Lapithu: and the centaurs show that Thessaly was noted for its horses, a distinction it retained in the days of Alexander the Great, whose famous war steed, Bucephalus, came from the green plains of Thessaly. Physically, Thessaly is a vast plain or basin enclosed by mountain chains, the "snowy Pindus” separat ing it on the West from Epirus, the Cambuuian mountains on the north from Macedonia, and the Othrys range and Oeta bounding it on the south. The eastern frontier is formed partly by the Gulf of Salonica and Volo and partly by mountain ranges through an opening in which, be tween Olympus, of classic fame and Mount Oeta. the Peneus or modern Salainbria river finds its outlet to the sea through the vale of Tempe, cele brated by the poets as the most beautiful region of Greece. These natural rampaits are broken only on the north east by the famous pass of Thermopylae. Ou the northern fron tier Thessaly can also be entered by CHURCH OP OUR FATHER, PANSING, MICH., DEDICATED SUNDAY, SEPT. 12, 1807. Milouna Pass and the defile through which the Turkish army of invasion poured a few months ago. On the west it is also accessible by a single pass, except during the heavy snows of winter. The view from the central ridge of Mount Pindus, looking across the great Thessalian plain, with Olympus, Ossa and Pelion standing out distinct cn the eastern horizon is one of singular beauty and grandeur, though that from Thau maci, the modern Domokos, where the Greeks made their last stand against the Turks is, perhaps,grand er. Levy describes the scene from this point as that of a vast sea which stretches below as far as the eye can reach. Chicago, Sept. 10. THE NOBILITY OF LABOR. BY REV. 1. M. ANDREWS. The nobility of labor has long been a theme delightful to poets, in spiring to sages and prophets, and charming to all the noble and good; but when I have beheld about me the oppression toil suffers, and the injustice done those living in the sweat of their faces. I have wondered if the “nobility of toil” may not have more flatterers than friends? And then, I have feared that the greatest foes to toil may be the toilers them selves. Many now opulent, who have risen from the ranks of toil, are its worst oppressors; and many who hope so to rise, already despise labor. But the great and good of all ages ever honor toil. God worked. Jesus was a carpenter and worked when he became a minister, because His “Fa ther worked.” So, too labor is di vine. But what good cause or good person has not been persecuted? Even Christ, the life of the world— the savior of men, was betrayed and crucified; and it would seem that operators are willing to starve and degrade the toil that gives them their dividends. Toil in our country is today put up to the lowest bidders, and all the worst, the low and vicious, the de graded of every race, are invited to compete with educated citizens. It is a shame! Did this nation set up an American standard of citizenship, as it should, and bar out all below it, the shackles of labor in America would fall. It has been suggested to colonize on reservations, like In dians, all adults whocaDnot read and write and speak our language, and prohibit their employment off their reservations. If we confine the toil of the nation to honorable men, labor will be honored; but so long as we offer a premium for the ignoble we shall find labor despised, de graded and starved. Slavery was really abolished be cause it degraded labor and reduced educated toilers on the farms and in households to the level of slaves. So now, we bring our educated free men to the level of the alien paupers and ignorant serfs imported to com pete with our children in the struggle for life. It has ever been the policy of this country to jealouely guard the honor and promote the intelligence of toilers; and when the nation slackened its vigilance in this, the war of the rebellion resulted. We ought to be warned by that experi ence to relax no efforts to ennoble labor. It was our judiciary then, led by Chief Justice Taney in the “Dred Scott” decision, that precipi tated that crisis. Let us pray God that this history—degrading labor by our judiciary—may never be re peated. Let our judges rather fol low the precedents of Bunker Hill, of the Wilderness and Appomattox —yea, of the proclamation of eman cipation—and declare the law to te on the side of liberty and the nobil ity of toil, as the sword decided. WTe have heard much of Into of government by injunction. But God gave a decision making labor honor able; even he himself toiled and built the worlds and enjoined all to rat bread by the sweat of their faces and to honor industry and the hand of toil—and woe be to him found in contempt of this divine injunction! Our toil should be educated and given conscience through the beauti ful ministrations of the Christian religion, supplemented by adequate remuneration. The nation is based on the free holder of the soil, and the genius of this nation demands ownership of homes by its citizens. The policy of the nation was, from the colonies, to encourage small holdings of land; after the revolution it was to make freeholders of all farmers, and land was sold to Bettlers in fee-simple Advancing still further, the political issue of 1856 was made: “No exten sion of slavery; free labor; free soil; free speech, and free men.” In 1857 8 a petition weighing six tons was presented to congress praying for the free homestead law—which became a law in 1861. The campaign of 1860 was largely a revolt against the Dred Scott de cision, dishonoring toil and threaten ing to invade free Btates with sla very. The issue of freelom won; and then followed the rebellion and the great war that destroyed slavery During that war—and as one of its victories—the bill passed congress to establish agricultural colleges in each slate. So was the policy of the nation shaped to make toil honorable and educated and respected. Then we could proudly read the text, “My Father worked hitherto, and I work,” and realize that is is a God-like at tribute to toil. In 1860 our poets sang: By all the blood our fathers shed, By all the victories they have won, Stand up for freedom as they did At Yorktown and at Lexington I And again: Leave the plow7 and draw the sword Till shackles fall, and tyrants see That freemen rise and speak the word That makes all labor honored—free 1 With such a magnificent history behind us, what shall be our record in the future that opens its arms to welcome us to greater Christian works, and thoughts and plans more generous and noble? ♦ * * The toiling masses, under God, are supreme in America; and no power can long dishonor or oppress the toiler unless he himself is traitor. When God worked building worlds, labor was honored. When Christ toiled, healing the sick and feeding the thousands, labor was not less en nobling. And the men who feed the millions of earth today, from all these fields must not be degraded. God will forever bless and crown with honor the world’s busy workers who give food, and homes, and comforts, and free institutions to us all. The vagabonds, the army of dissipated idlers—whether penniless or control ling millions—these are the world’s ignoble that must never bear rule! “The meek inherit the earth.” “The dilligent stand before kings.” All can proudly say,“My Father worked, and I work.” Santa Paui.a, Cal. THE LANSING OHUROH. Herewith we give an illustration of the new Church of our Father, Lansing, Mich., dedicated Sunday, September 12tb, and print following a description of the building from the State Republican of that city. The capital city has tor several years been able to boast of some of the hand somest churches in the Btate and the completion of the new Church of Our Father adds still another to the list Although the latter, which is erected upon a fine piece of property at tbe cor ner of Capitol avenue and Ottawa streets, willed to the society by the lBte Mrs. Sarah E. V. Emery, does not rep resent as large an expenditure of money as several others in tbe city, it is a beau tiful structure and is second to none in tine workmanship. It is constructed according to the Gothic style of archi tecture and was designed by Earl H. Mead of Lansing. The building is 66 by 72 feet in dimensions and the entire cost, including carpeting, etc., has been $16,500. Stock brick was used in the construction of the church, and the in terior is finished with a handsomely grained oak. At the southwest corner is a vestibule which opens into a large hall, from which a beautiful broad stairway leads to the auditorium on the second floor. This room measures 40 by 60 feet and the acoustic properties have had es pecial attention and are excellent. Across the rear of the auditorium is a good sized balcony. On the north of the large organ loft is tbe pastor's study and upon the other side, the choir room. A wide wainscoting of oak ex tends around the auditorium and the walls and ceiling are handsomely deco rated in ecru with dainty colorings of brown, light blue and terra cotta. The windows of the church are among tbe most attractive in the city, and tbe Masonic window dedicated by the fra ternities of the city to the memory of the late Dr. Hulbert B. Shank is said to be the handsomest one of its kind in the state. It is placed on the south side, and opposite it is one of similar size, and round in shape, dedicated by the church society to the memory of their benefactor, the late Mrs. Emery. There are also memorial windows to the following persons: A. C. Darling, who was largely instrumental in the erection of the old Universalist church on Grand Street, Mrs. Anne Darling, Alfred and Jane. E. Dart, Elijah T. and Carolina Smith, Harris D. and Charlotte E. Rogers, Polly Lovejoy, Albert F. and Tena Rouse, Caroline M. Osborne, Dr. Daniel and Daniel B. Johnson, Eliza beth North, Bettie A. Dayton Loranger, E. Mae Clark, and W. F. Dickerman, the latter presented by the Lansing high school clasBof 95 and the Lansing Science club. The seating capacity of the audito rium and the balcony is 554. The seats are an innovation in that line of church furniture. They are handsome oak chairs, concert build, and decidedly more comfortable than the old time pews. In accord with them, a divan, upholstered with brown pluBb, to cor respond with the pulpit, has been pro vided for the minister. The room is carpeted with a carpet of conventional design and light green in tone. Above the pulpit is the inscription “And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all Men unto Me.’’ On tbe south side is inscribed “ Our Father, God is Love,” and “ All Souls are Mine.” On the tiret floor are located the Sun day-school rooms, ladies’ parlors and very commodious kitchens, cloeets and toilet rooms. There are hve class rooms, and the seating capacity of the entire Sunday school department ie 150. These rooms have been prettily carpeted with a brown and white carpet. The church will be lighted with the Welsbach burners and the fixtures are brass. Three Alexander furnaces will be used for heating the church. The contract for building the ediflce was awarded to John Blaaiua & Co., who have put up an exceptionally tine specimen of work manship. A dispatch to the London Times from St. Petersburg saye: “The reports that Professor Andree’e balloon bae been sighted in the interior of Siberia are not believed here. Captain Kovouko, the leading aeronautic expert in Russia, tirmly discredits them. He asserts that if Andree ever returns it will certainly not be in mid-air, as the balloon could not have kept up beyond twelve days.” : Uni versalist Thought ^ • ODR OWN WRITER8, i Europe and America. The great powers of Europe furnish a lurid object leeBon of tbe despotism of the military epirit. There the only eon of his mother and she a widow, is dragged from her side leaving her in lonely beggary in her old age. There the husband and father snatched from wife and children leaves the weak ob jects of hiB love to till the soil, wield tbe hammer while the natural and God-ap pointed bread winner is taken to form thoee living military machines which in their blind, insensate force crush out the liberty and prosperity of the na tions. We have a different ideal of thefuture of this great nation, a fairer vision of what is possible to her. On this land no shadow of a throne has ever fallen on her tree soil: the tyrant has as yet pressed no foot print. America is free to work out her deBtiny unexampled by any existing pattern unimpeded by any earthly force. The loftiest aspirations of the prophets may be realized in America’s institutions, the gentlest ideals of the poets may be incarnate in her people. America might become the Messiah nation of the earth, rich in the things of peace, tbe arts and sciences that ennoble life, the religion that would sanctify all.—Rev. Margaret Brennan - The Struggle and Final Success. There shall be no truce in this world. There shall be no suspension of hostili ties. l There will be some cowards, some desertions, and many temporary defeats. But what shall be the final issue? Shall temporary defeat crystalize into ever lasting defeat? Some have said yes, and have looked hopelessly into the chaotic abyss of everlasting despair. But the Universalist Church, in the na me of Christian faith, says no. God reigns. Goodness is the law of the uni verse, and virtue shall triumph. Over all defeats the angel of virtue Bhail rise and bear aloft the banner of human tri umph. The life of the only begotten Mon of God is pledged to the redemption of the world.* All the mighty power of the Infinite is on the side of virtue. This struggle of the human soul for virtue must succeed income world, because it is working with the strong arm of God. The Almighty does not hurry. He does not make or unmake a world in a single day. We may grow impatient some times because his method’s seem slow, but he is working in all and through all, and will at last rule the world in right eousness.—Geo. L. Perin, D.D. Low Estimate of the Minister. It is[a low estimate of a minister to regard him as a hired servant, who works during the hours and performs the services for which he is paid and has ; no interest in the welfare of hia people.) No clergyman who believes in the dignity that should attach to hia office ^ will allow such a conception to arise from his conduct. The relations w hich ought to exist between pastor and people should be of a personal rather than of;a formal and official char acter. All service rendered by minister to people should proceed from a desire to help them, and not merely from a sense of obligation in earning a compen sation given. Whatever a minister re ceives should not be regarded bb a sal ary. or the equivalent of services ren dered, but as his support while he is d oing a work which from its nature produces no material wealth. Receiv ing such support he should freely give his life and be glad of any service he can render.—Rev.R. F. Johonnot. Dr. Farkhurst's Complaint. Dr. Farkhurst comes to the front ag ain, this time not as a public censor but as a complainant against Univeraal ism, and his criticism is that "modem U niversalism is the result of lackadaieic aliem.” Now Dr. Parkhurst ought to know better than that. It is reported that he employed a dark lantern and a dis guise to ferret out violations of law, but I have not a doubt that even in a little town like New York it is possible for our critic to obtain more accurate in formation concerning our faith than he evidently possesses, and that, too, in broad daylight and while wearing his own clothes. UniversuliBm is quite the opposite of “lackadaieicalism ” It is not sentimentality; it is not listleesnese. It is a doctrine of God and life and des tiny that is logically deducible from the premise of existent omnipotent Love and Fatherhood and confirmed by human longing, affection, and experi ence. Dr. Parkhurst's church insists that the premise is true, but it fears and denounces the conclusions that logically and of necessity follow. Uni versalism is not an idle sentiment, but it is a satisfying and honoring faith in omnipotent Love and Righteousness, a faith that is justified by the teaohings of Jesus Christ. And when Dr. Park hurst and our other Presbyterian breth ren pray for the triumph of love and virtue in human hearts, they pray for the success of Univerealism. The dif ference between them and us is that we believe that their prayers will be i n Bwered, while they do not.—Rev. Carl F. Henry.