1892.]

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God has forever "some better thing" for his children, sure that

"They must upward still and onward,
Who would keep abreast of truth."

and know that "not failure, but low aim, is crime." EMILY SUPple.

Roseville, N. J.

QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE LIBERAL CHRISTIAN MINISTRY.

The question of qualification should not be overlooked by one who contemplates entering the liberal Christian ministry. Not every young man is adapted for this ministry. Indeed, there are undoubtedly young men of ability, religious consecration, and high aims, who would make a mistake if they entered it. Of course, the ministry with us has much in common with the min

istry in all Christian bodies. The deeper religious needs of men do not greatly differ. All men have hopes and fears, all men sin and suffer, all have need of sympathy and love and help, human and divine. So that many of the words spoken and many of the ministrations rendered by any true Christian pastor find almost equal recognition among persons of every religious name. And yet the very demands of our time which have called the liberal religious movement into existence have laid upon our ministry a somewhat peculiar work. It is not strange, therefore, if somewhat different qualifications are necessary for those who would do that work.

He who would find the liberal ministry his true place must have in him more of the prophet and less of the priest than the ministry of Christendom generally demands. While he will believe in churches and ecclesiastical institutions, he will believe that these were made for man, and not man for them; while he will honor the revelation that comes through books, he will also cherish the revelation that never was in books and never can be. While he will love the past, and sit reverently at its feet to learn its lessons and drink of its inspiration, he will love the present, and keep his face steadfastly toward the future, believing that

He must have in him some of the instincts of the pioneer, some of the elements of

the Soul the world waits to be led. The call is for men with faith and wisdom and courage for the leadership.

It is plain that the movement now fairly launched, bearing as yet many names, but with one clear end in view,- -to give the world a pure, rational, practical Christianity, adequate to the wants of the modern world, is one that asks for the service of the best young men of the age,-best in intellect and scholarship, but, more important still, best in courage, heart, and moral quality. And it will have them. Noble work, great demands, are a lodestone which draws noble workers to it, -as the German Reformation drew to it the choicest spirits of Europe; as the abolition movement woke slumbering heroes in every village and hamlet; as our country in peril, and demanding martyrs to die for her, found tens of thousands of her best sons offering themselves in a day.

Here is the noblest work religion has had to do since Luther, -I think, sirce Christ. The young men it asks for must be strong enough and noble enough to be leaders, not simply according to the common conception of leadership,-leadership in popular movements, when flags wave and crowds cheer,— anybody with a glib tongue and a few superficial gifts can be that: they must be leaders

"Who dare to be

In the right with two or three, "leaders as Jesus was, when in loneliness he said to his disciples, "Will ye also go away?" as Luther was when he did not know that there was a man in Germany that would stand by him; as Garrison was before the tide turned. For it needs to be clearly borne in mind that these radical views of God and man and revelation and Christ and duty and destiny which liberal Christianity stands for are under very general ecclesiastical ban in Christendom. Though the best intelligence and heart of the world are moving steadily toward them, they are still heresy, and must long continue to be.

It

Thus we may be able to see with some clearness, I think, what are the necessary qualifications for one who would enter upon the liberal Christian ministry. The calling wants no weak men, no cowardly men, no backward-looking men, no ease-seeking men, no selfish men, no ignorant men, no dilettante men, no undevout men. It wants no men who are mere adventurers, none who have not a gospel, no mere bookworms. wants men with clear heads, power to think, power to speak, educational furnishing as ample as may be. It wants men of sympathy, large hearts, "enthusiasm of humanity," genuine interest in doing good. Above all, it wants men in earnest, men of conviction, men of spiritual vision, men who know what they believe and why, because they have faced the deep problems of our time and wrestled with them until they have found their solution,-"beating their music out," conquering for themselves a faith intelligent, serene, immovable, full of joy and strength. For such men there is a work in store that is simply limitless in extent and measureless in importance. It will not be done with sound of trumpets. Indeed, most of it will be done, as best work generally is, so quietly that the noisy world, rushing after its sensations (religious sensations as eagerly as any), will hardly be aware that anything unusual is going on. But, meanwhile, the new and better thought about God and man and destiny, as it finds utterance by spoken word and printed page, does its work. Like grain sown in the earth, it springs up and bears harvests; like seeds borne on the wind, it finds lodgment in unthought of places; like sunshine and rain, it penetrates to the very roots of the thinking of our time, making the old religions themselves more reasonable and humane, and all life sweeter.

For young men fitted for this great work I can think of no calling that can be nobler. Nor can I see how a calling can be more attractive to one who longs to identify himself with humanity's loftiest ideals, purest heroisms, holiest ministries, strongest and most enduring work, or to devote himself to those things that tell most for the world's highest life. J. T. SUNDERLAND.

"The worst kind of religion is no religion at all."

DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST.

The years-swift waves of an eternal sea-
Successive break on Time's receding shore:
Here the insurging rise of years to be,
There the subsiding sob of years no more.
Here the gay argosies of proud Success,
Rich freighted, ride to the rejoicing land;
There, with unanswered signals of distress,
Dash Failure's wretched wrecks upon the
strand;

While o'er the Future's blue and billowy years,
Borne under varying skies of gleam and gloom,
Press toward the Present fleets of hopes and
fears,

Armadas laden with our human doom.

O angry-voiced! O treasure-bringing Sea!
O happy Land, that draws its wealth from thee!
O wiser Souls, that wait upon the shore,
And take whate'er thou bring'st, nor ask for
more!

CHARLES G. AMES.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF UNITARI

ANISM.

The Church of the Unity, Winchendon, Mass., publishes the following "Articles of Union and Basis of Fellowship," first adopted by the church in the year 1869: —

-

"We whose names are here recorded associate ourselves in a Christian union and fellowship for mutual help and counsel in spiritual things, and as a means of usefulness to others.

"We believe in 'one God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, and in all'; and we recognize man as his spiritual, immortal child.

"We declare our faith in the pure and simple religion taught and lived by Jesus Christ, receiving him as a divinely given Teacher and Guide, and earnestly desiring to have in us a measure of the same spirit that was in him.

"Of those who seek fellowship with us, we neither ask nor expect uniformity of opinion; but we recognize the right and duty of every one to keep the mind and heart open at all times to receive the truth and follow its guidance as it may be revealed to each by the Divine Spirit. We thus build our fellowship, not upon oneness of belief or of outward observance, but upon oneness of spirit.

"We will co-operate by contributing of our time, interest, and means in promoting

1892.]

A SCHOOL FOR INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH.

The Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute was established by legislative enactment, and was opened on July 4, 1881, in an old church, with one teacher and thirty students.

From the beginning the growth of the school has been rapid and of a substantial character. The enrolment now is 511, being about equally divided between the sexes. The average age of the students is eighteen and one-half years. They come from nearly every county in the State of Alabama, and from thirteen other States and the Indian Territory.

There are 31 teachers and officers, 14 of whom are graduates of the Hampton Institute in Virginia, presided over by Gen. Armstrong.

The Tuskegee institution is in the "black belt," where slavery did its perfect work, and where there is a dense, ignorant, and fast increasing population that has had very little done for it. It is conducted on the manual labor plan, combining study and work. All of the instruction is directed toward teaching the dignity of labor and developing true manhood and womanhood in its students.

The property, consisting of 1,410 acres of land, on a part of which are erected seven large and nine small buildings for the accommodation of the recitation-rooms, work shops, dormitories, etc.,-the other being used for agricultural purposes,-is deeded to a board of trustees consisting of the follow

27

ing persons: Mr. George W. Campbell, Tuskegee, Ala.; Miss Abby W. May (deceased), Boston, Mass.; Mr. Lewis Adams, Tuskegee, Ala.; Gen. O. O. Howard, Governor's Island, N.Y.; Hon. Henry D. Smith, Plantsville, Conn.; Mr. M. B. Swanson, Birmingham, Ala.; Mr. B. T. Washington, Tuskegee, Ala.; Rev. George Leonard Chaney,

Atlanta, Ga.; Rev. R. C. Bedford, Rockton, Ill.; Mr. Warren Logan, Tuskegee, Ala.; Dr. C. N. Dorsette, Montgomery, Ala.

The annual expense of conducting the school is $40,000. The State of Alabama annually gives $3,000, $1,200 is obtained

from the John F. Slater Fund, and $500 from the Peabody Education Fund. The remainder ($35,000) has, so far, come from friends in "nites" or in larger sums.

The students are wholly unable to pay anything for tuition, being barely able to meet their personal expenses of $8 per month,-fully half of this sum being paid in labor that is often furnished at an expense to the institution. Fifty dollars pays an annual scholarship, being the cost of tuition of one student for a year. One thousand dollars establishes a permanent scholarship,

The friends of negro education are earnestly solicited to give scholarships for the 355 students unprovided for. Without these scholarships, the institution will be forced to turn away a number of worthy young persons who are too poor to pay for an education.

Attention is invited to the following resolution of the National Unitarian Conference, lately in session at Saratoga, N.Y., in regard to the school: "Resolved, That the National Conference recognize the broad, unsectarian, educational work of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial School, under the presidency of Booker T. Washington, and cordially commend it to the support and confidence of our churches."

It is not often that $50 can be made to do more good for the colored race than in educating a young man or woman at the Tuskegee Institute. These young people pay their own board by working out half and paying the remainder in cash; but the $50 a year for tuition they are wholly unable to pay, and, if individuals, Sunday-schools, or churches do not pay it, the students have to be turned away.

There are scores of young men and women to-day who have been educated here in this way who are leading lives of the greatest usefulness,-teaching school often where none was ever taught before, building new school-houses, working at trades, preaching and making their lives a lever in uplifting those about them in a thousand ways, who, without having been given the chance to go through this institution, would be leading blank lives. The whole or any part of the sum mentioned will help greatly. Next to money nothing helps so much as clothing, new or old, for wear or bed use.

Aid may be sent at any time to the treasurer, Warren Logan, or to the principal, Booker T. Washington, Tuskegee, Ala.

UNITARIANISM AMONG THE SCANDINAVIANS OF THE FAR WEST.

The following note from Rev. J. L. Erick sen, who has recently organized a Unitarian church among the Scandinavians of Portland, Ore., will interest our readers. It shows how the good work is moving on in almost numberless ways and places :—

Editor of the "Unitarian,"-The Scardinavian Unitarian church of Portland, Ore., was organized by me on the thirteenth day of October, 1891, with twenty members. I received two weeks later a call to become its pastor, which was accepted. The membership to-day is thirty-two. Our hall is get ting too small for our meetings, although we thought, when we rented it, that it would be quite large enough. A promising young people's literary society has been organized, with more than thirty members. A ladies' aid society is also in operation. The outlook for the future is very hopeful. By the beginning of the New Year we expect to have our membership doubled.

I have also commenced to publish a monthly paper in connection with my work, called Fremad ("Forward"), with a good circulation. I send you a copy.

You may perhaps already know that I came into Unitarianism recently from the Methodist church, having served three years as pastor for the Norwegian-Danish Methodist Episcopal church in this city My convictions became so strong in favor of a liberal Christianity that I could not stay and sanction longer the orthodox church ideas. It was, of course, a hard thing to make the change, and it has brought on me a great deal of persecution; but the peace I

The Western Conference, together with its allied organizations, has recently been sending urgent appeals for financial and other support, not only to its own churches,* but to all the Unitarian churches of the West.

We are sorry for this, since it necessarily stirs up the old trouble. It would be better if the conference would be willing to confine itself to those who agree with its position. The difference between the two positions is so clear and fundamental that there need be no confusion or misunderstanding. Let the adherents of each go their different ways in peace. For the Western Conference to keep pushing itself upon the churches that are out of sympathy with it is without justification: many feel grieved and hurt by it.

Of course, the desire for a real reunion on any honest or true basis is to be encouraged. If the Western Conference were taking steps looking to that end, everybody would be glad and would hasten to co-operate.

But

we are sorry to say there is no such sign. The churches must come to the Western Conference position. This, of course, they cannot do. Their separation from the conference was no hasty action, but something deliberately done, and for the gravest reaWhy, then, continue to push for an impossibility?

sons.

When the strongest Unitarian churches of

*Only twenty nine out of the ninety-four Western churches contributed last year to the Western Conference; and of the sixty-four not contributing and not identifying themselves in any way with the Conference are a majority of our largest, most influential, and most active societies.

the West asked the conference to commit itself in its missionary activities to the promotion of "love to God and love to man," it refused. When the American Unitarian Association asked if it was not willing to do its church extension work on the basis of theism, its directors replied, "No." With such a condition of things,

of course a division was inevitable; nor can the breach be healed so long as this condition lasts.

Whenever the Western Conference will make its "Freedom, Fellowship, and Character in Religion” into “Freedom, Fellowship, Character, and Worship in Religion," or its "Truth, Righteousness, and Love" into "Truth, Righteousness, Love, and Worship," there can be union, but not before. Until then those who believe in standing honestly and unequivocally for the larger thing—faith in God as well as ethics and free thought-must go their own way. Fortunately, they do not have to go alone. The two national organizations stand unequivocally with them. There is yet to appear a single sign on the part of the A. U. A. or the National Conference of willingness to lay aside their distinct and declared character of Christian, theistic, and worshipping bodies. All Western churches that believe in this position have only to turn to the A. U. A. (which is carrying on most of the missionary work in the West anyway) there to find a missionary agency needing all the money that can be raised for it, and one to which they can give conscientiously and honestly, since it is distinctly Christian in its aims.

We cannot understand, and never have been able to understand, why the Western Conference does not hasten, gladly, joyfully, eagerly, to add the worship side to its ethical side, the Godward side to its manward side, and thus strengthen and ennoble its own position and work, as well as draw together all who would so gladly be one. But, if it has resolved irrevocably and finally to maintain its present narrower position, let it at least permit others to go on their own way, without having to be followed up every year by appeals in so many forms as to be a constant irritation and almost a persecution. Let us at least respect each other's convictions, and thus, as far as possible, have peace, waiting as patiently as

we may for the coming of a generation which shall be wise enough to plant itself, with the Unitarianism of the world generally, upon that broader and more adequate religion which includes, as equally central and equally important, the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man.

J. T. S.

HENRY DOTY MAXSON.

"He who hath caused no fear to the least creature need have no fear when he dies." This saying from the Brahmin Scripture was the last sentence written by Mr. Maxson. It was placed upon the blackboard for the young people's talk which preceded his last sermon delivered in Eau Claire, Wis., the evening of November 22. The next morning his body was found lifeless, the end having come in painless unconsciousness during the night.

In the same talk to the children he had shown them a card given him by a devotee of the old theology, on which was a diagram showing the broad and narrow way diverging from each other, -one leading to hell, the other to heaven. In the broad way was marked off "the clean footpath," but leading with equal directness to hell. Mr. Maxson, with that gentle humor so characteristic of him, had urged the children to keep surely in the clean footpath wherever it led, and to be wary of any other narrow path.

Few men have left a track in so clean a path as he. His is another of the lives which put to scorn the shallow notion that strong natures need leave behind them some blackened years. Nowhere do people speak his name with more reverence than in the home of his childhood and youth, in and near De Ruyter, N. Y.

He was blest in his inheritance and training. His middle name speaks the "Mayflower" descent, and many lines of plain but noble ancestors helped to give us this rare nature. His parents are persons of peculiar integrity and strength of character, and by their simplicity, strong sense of justice, and respect for their children's individuality gave their two sons just the help needed to bring out the best that was in them. These qualities in his parents Henry put to a severe test early in life.

It