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ed by a petty corporation, as insurance for instance. If insurance is a good thing, the lives, and the property of all citizens ought to be insured. Then the State ought to take hold of it. It was so of old, that if the cabin of the back-woodsman was burned, and his rude furniture and household goods destroyed, the neighbors came together and built him a new cabin-a better one, perhaps, than the first, and fitted it up again so that the settler's latter estate was, as a general rule, better thas his former. Here was practical insurance. So the people, as a body, should make good the loss of individuals. The State might insure every man's life, and every man's property, and it would be little heavier tax upon the public, than the insurance companies levy at present. See the millions (almost) of useless men supported by the public, as insurance agents and officers. The State should see to this magnificent charity, and not leave it to private companies for the "charity" of petty corporations is only to plunder the public, and enrich themselves. Let the office of every corporation (if it be a good office) be assumed by the great corporation-the State-which is responsible directly to the people; and let no man be permitted to become so rich as to be independent of the people-so rich that he can spend millions to corrupt legislation; for then he is a petty sovereign and a practical enemy to American freedom.

VII. Love and Brotherhood.

These reforms must come for man is destined to rise to a higher plane of civilization, and with true civilization comes the realization of the highest Christianity. The people are struggling toward emancipation from the thraldom of short-sighted selfishness. We read of attempts at co-operative farming, co-operative factories, etc. This means a willingness that others should be as well off as ourselfa willisgness to be equal with our neighbor, and not above him. And then the Trades Unions, and the Grange organizations are educating the people up to a higher and truer love and brotherhood that will become general. Societies and lodges will be merged into the great society the State.-of which all are members and brethren; a society of mutual helpfulness, of mutual benefits, of mutual love and good will, wherein my neighbor's child will be as dear to me as my own; asd every child will be blessed in my eyes; and every helpless creature shall have a lodgement in my heart of hearst; and my love shall be so intense as to shine brightly upon all the little ones of earth and upon all who reach up their hands for help--then will each man be indeed a very Christ of love, radiant with the spirit of the Divine Teacher.

PART THE SECOND.

Discourses of Religious Freedom.

(Things New and Old or Christianity and Liberty-Printed A. D., 1874)

Discourse The First.

THE AMERICAN CHURCH.

(A Plea for Non-Sectarianism.)

Christianity is democratic.*

*"A free commonwealth," says Milton, "was not only held by wisest men in all ages, the noblest, the manliest, the equalest, the justest government,

The most perfect example of a democrat was Christ himself. The common yeople were his especial favorites and friends. They heard him gladly. The New Testament is full of expressions like this: "The chief priests and elders would have laid hands on him to kill him; but they feared the people." No other leader ever put the hierarchy so much in dread of the people. The mission of Christianity in the world is to bring up the people to an assertion of their strength, that all kings may fear them, and finally yield all power into their hands. Thus, we find, in America, Christianity has asserted itself, and the people control. So, we may truly say, America is a great christian society because it is free. The church of America is America, with all its yearnings and strivings for the elevation of the people. The common school is Jesus casting out the demon Ignorance. The humane institutions all belong to Christ. It is Jesus working, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, healing the sick. The railroads and telegraphs, and steamoats, are themslves miracles of Christ. Jesus, we may truly affirm, made all these grand works; for the progress of the people in overcoming material creation, is in proportion to the progress of Christianity in subduing the spiritual. Christianity is subduing the wilderness making the rough places smooth. When the world shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea, the desert will blossom literally as the rose. The time will come when the great desert, Sahara itself, shall be a garden of flowers. Man will subdue it. Machinery will lift water from reservoirs deep down in earth. Artesian wells will be avenues of moisture from below. But Christ must first accomplish his great work of subduing all things unto himself, when men shall learn war no more, and democratic governments shall be universal, and to love his neighbor as himself shall be the universal law of life. The capital expended in the most agreeable to all due liberty and proportional equality, both human. civil and christian, most cherishing to virtue, and true religion, but (I may say with greater probability,) plainly commended, or rather enjoined by our Savior himself to all christians, not without remarkable disallowance, and the brand of Gentileism upon kingship. God in much displeasure gave a king to the Israelites, and imputed it a sin to them that they sought one; but Christ evidently forbids his diciples to admit of any such heathenish government. "The kings of the Gentiles," saith he, "exercise lordship over them, and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors; but ye shall not be so; but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he that is chief as he that serveth."

The occasion of these his words, was the ambitious desire of Zebedee's two sons to be exalted above their brethren, in his kingdom, which they thought was to be ere long established upon the earth.

That he speaks of civil government is manifest by the former part of the comparison, which implies the other part to be always in the same kind. And what gov ernment comes nearer to the precept of Christ, than a free commonwealth, wherein they who are greatest, are perpetual servants and drudges to the public; neglect their own affairs, yet are not elevated above their brethren. live soberly in their families, walk the streets as other men, may be spoken to freely, familiarly, friendly, without adoration."

Not only from the Bible did our ancestors gain their independent ideas, but from the example of the primitive churches also:

"Let none," remarks Moshiem, "confound the bishops of the primitive and golden period of the church, with those of whom we read in the following ages; for, though they were both designated by the same name, yet they differed extremely in many respects. A bishop during the first and second centuries, was a person who had the care of one christian assembly, which at that time, was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he acted not so much with the authority of a master, as with the zeal an diligence of a faithful servant. The churches also, in those early times...ere entirely independent, none of them subject to any foreign jurisdiction, but each one governed by its own

rulers and its own laws."

Jones, in his Church History, says:

"In fact, scarcely any two things could be more dissimilar than was the simplicity of the gospel dispensation, from the hierarchy established under Constantine, the Great. ***. Under him, the christian church was remod eled, the Government of which was as far as possible, arranged conformably to the government of the state."

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maintaining the armies and armaments of the world for one century, and the talent and energy thus worse than thrown away, were sufficient to transform the great desert into a fruitful garden.

The leaven of Christianity has made America. It peopled this continent. It planted the germs of freedom. The tree of liberty that overshadows us is Christianity. Christ hath indeed made us free. Christianity is the "love the Father hath bestowed hath awakened among us and in us. It is not sect.

upon us," and

Education of the masses is dispelling the alse ideas, and the people see now that all sects are essentially one. That the cry, "Lo! the christian religion is in danger," is a false alarm—that, in the direction of knowledge and virtue, and love, men cannot get outside of Christianity; for the religion of Christ is one with enlightened humanity. The kind hearted man is a Christian, though he may not be labeled such. The soldier that dies willingly for the good of others, has in him the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is Christianity. It is selfsacrificing benevolence.*

But what is the creed of the American church? It is the creed of Christ: THE FATHERHOOD OF GOD-THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN.

The time is not distant, when, in this country, sectarianism will be no more. Then the words "Baptist," "Methodist," "Presbyterian," "Universalist," "Unitarian," etc., will be like the shells of locusts upon the reeds in the lake. The names of the sects may survive; but the sects themselves will have taken thir flight. Freedom of conscience will be universal. Preachers will no longer wear ball and chain. They will be free. Of "no sect whose tenets they must respect," (as Beecher says of John the Baptist,) "they will listen to the voice of God in their own souls and speak right on." The minister will then go forward uncatechised by a council of bishops, as to theological tenets, recognizing only the call of God; for if God call one to preach the

"Robert Falconer was walking through the vilest part of London at midnight on his mission of mercy and helpfulness, and hearing a slam, rushed in the direction of the noise, and saw the form of a woman sprawled upon the sidewalk a lifeless body. She had been dashed from the door of a gin-shop by the brutal vendor of spirits, and the rumpus had already called to gether quite a crowd of the wretched, animalized population. Two little children of the poor, dead mother were clinging to the corpse, and their pitiful cries and frantic screams touched even these debauched hearts. Falconer took the corpse, with the assistance of his friend and co-laborer, George Gordon, and committed it to the charge of a near shop-keeper for the night, and next day personally attended to the matters and expenses of the funeral. But what of the little orphan children! That same night Falconer took one to his arms and handed the other to Gordon, and said: "Come, Gordon; let us go." "Go where?" said Gordon. "We must take care of these little angels," was the reply. On they went, until coming to a house in another quarter of the city, Falconer rang the bell which was answered by a servant, of whim Falconer inquired: "Is Miss St. John in?" "Yes, sir," the servant answered; "but, sir, you know, sir-why, sir, it is very late, sir, and Miss St. John has retired, sir." To all this Robert only replied: "Yes, I know all about it. Here are two of God's little ones which I wish Miss St. John to take care of. Good night." And off these Protestant Brothers of Divine Service started. George Gordon was just getting his endowment of grace and glory, and surprised at Falconer's way of doing such things, meditated and mused awhile, and finally broke the silence by saying: "Falconer, what sort of a place is this? Who is Miss St. John? Is this an orphan asylum?" "Oh, no. It is not an orphan asylum exactly. Miss St. John belongs to my church, and it is a tenet in our creed to do the thing that needs to be done," said Robert. "But what will she do with the children?" was the next question. "She will give them a bath right away, put nice clean night-gowns upon them, give them some porridge, then give each a sweet, dear kiss, and put them to bed, and then tomorrow when they wake up, she will kiss them again, and then do the thing that needs to be done as it is made plain to her," was the prompt answer.

"Well, now, Falconer, what is this church to which you and Miss St. John belong? what is your creed, and what your ritual?" "Well," said Robert, "we have no creed, we have no ritual, and no forms and rites, except we do the thing that lies next to us-the thing that needs to be done, and ours is the Church of Divine Service."-Rev. Laird Collier.

Gospel why must he ask the ordination of men? Nearly every minister in Christendom feels hampered by the fetters the fathers have forged for their sons, the "tenets of the sects." But these fetters are falling to the ground broken, never to be again welded. All Christian preachers begin to feel that the fundamental truths of religion are not in keeping, exclusively, of any one denomination; but belong to all. It is now discovered that there is really no opposition to the essestial doctrines of the Christian religion, among thinking men -that the pruning knife might be well applied to the non-essential, or "peculiar doctrines." They stand as "walls of division." All men might then step upon the one broad platform of Christian Theism.

Miner Raymond, D. D., of the Methodist Episcopal church, (Professor of Systematic Theology in Garret Biblical Institute,) makes the following statements, in as article printed in the Northwestern Christian Adfocate, Vol. 20, No. 28. He says:

"It is conceded that the New Testament contains a system of pure Theism. What it affirms or implies respecting the being and attributes of God; the distinction between right and wrong; the freedom, responsibility and immortality of man, and the rewardableness of Divine worship, is generally regarded as eminently rational. The truthfulness of New Testament affirmations on these subjects, is seldom, almost never, questioned. Moreover, it is conceded that Christianity surpasses all other systems of religion, in the purity of its teachings on these topics, and most thinkers are willing to admit that there is nothing in the system necessarily antagonizing, or corrupting its pure and rationalistic theism.

"New Testament ethics meet with no opposition worthy of notice. All seem to admit that the Christian code excels all others in every characteristic which should belong to a system of moral precepts; that it is easily and clearly apprehended, universally applicable and obligatory; is sustaised by Divine authority, and sanctioned by a rational anticipation of future retributions. There are in the Holy Scriptures, in the form of doctrial teachings, many statements of well known facts—facts which cannot be successfully denied, and are not, therefore, often controvtred.

"That man is created under law-is consciously subject to authority -has transgressed law, and is therefore exposed to penalty; that he is in character inclined to evil that most men seem ignorant of their greatest good; or, if not ignorant of it, indifferent to it; or, what is worse, wholly occupied with, and interested in, what are evidently in comparison mere trifles-that man needs such instruction as the Bible gives, and such a Savior as it declares Christ to be, and many other affirmations are statements of facts too manifest for controversy.

"What then, are the points of attack? Chiefly these: The essential deity of Christ; a vicarious and propitiary atonement for sin; the personality of the Holy Spirit; a supernatural agency in the conviction, conversion, and salvation of the human soul; justification by faith alone; and the eternity of the punishment of the wicked. These doctrines are evidently above and beyond the range of rational thought; no man can receive them who admits no other than rational evidence as the basis of his faith; unless there be indubitable proofs that God has declared these doctrines to be true, no man can reasonably be expected to believe them. But the Bible most evidently appears to teach them." **

"No rational being can be required or expected to believe or act, in reference to any matter, unless he have some reason for his faith and conduct."

"Though the peculiar doctrines of Christianity be left out of account

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as doubtful, yet religion does not die, and the Bible remains, claiming an unchallenged supremacy in the purity, perspicuity, and practicability of its theistic teachings."

Thus that very learned divine, Dr. Raymond, of the great Methodist Episcopal church, gives up the whole ground, so far as sectarianism is concerned, when he avows, that "though the peculiar doctrines of Christianity, (i, e., the deity of Christ, vicarious atonement, eternal punisment, etc.,) be left out of account as doubtful, yet religion does not die, and the Bible remains, claiming an unchallenged supremacy in the purity, perspicuity and practicability of its theistic teachings." The doctrines, (he admits,) that reach out beyond pure theism are not sustained by reason and "unless there be indubitable proofs that God has declared those doctrines to be true, no man can reasonably be expected to believe them."

I turn to Webster's dictionary and find the word "indubitable," to mean "not to be doubled," "unquestionable," too plain to admit of doubt."

Now that the doctrines of Christ's "essential deity," "a vicarious and propitiary atonement," "the eternity of the punishment of the wicked,” are too plainly taught in the Bible, to "admit of doubt," no one can truthfully affirm, because those doctrines are combatted as unscriptual by learned and able men.

There are heaps of documents, sermons, tracts, and books, in which are denied, on scriptural grounds, all these "peculiar" doctrines of Evangelical Christianity. They have been opposed by learned men in all ages of the church. Who that has read history, can deny that these doctrines were not general, but exceptional, during the first four centuries of the Christian era, and were not then considered "orthodox?" The professed Christians in the United States and in Europe, who do not believe that the Bible teaches the "exceptional and the peculiar" doctrines are numbered by the millions. So, there are not “indubitable proofs," that the “Bible has declared these doctrines to be true."

Thus, we behold sectarianism undermined and falling to the ground. And thus it is, by the clearest inference admitted, that the Theism of the New Testament is to become the prevailing religion. For the benefit of those of my younger hearers, who may not clearly understand what Christian Theism is, I will endeavor to define it. It is the religion that Jesus of Nazareth professed. He defines it on one occasions as follows, quoting from Moses:

"Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Thou shalt love thy neigh

bor as thyself."

Again he says:

"God is a spirit; and they that worship Him, must worship Him in spirit and is truth."

And again:

"Resist not evil; love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that hate you; pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you."

"Overcome evil with good." "Be ye perfect even as your Father in Heaven is perfect."

These words of Christ define Christian Theism.

(1.) OF GOD:

That He is One.

That He is a Spirit.