Our Unitarian GospelSavage, Minot J. (Minot Judson)
Religion
Our Unitarian Gospel
Savage, Minot J. (Minot Judson)
Sermons; Unitarianism
When you come to France, which you know is dominantly Catholic, you
still find a large body of Protestants; but one wing of their great
organization is virtually if not out and out Unitarian. And a few of
the most noted preachers of the modern time in France have been
Unitarians. I have had correspondence with men there which showed that
they were perfectly in sympathy with our aims, our purposes, our work.
In Transylvania and Poland there were large numbers of Unitarian
churches which were afterwards crushed out.
You find, then, all over Europe, all over civilization, just as much
Unitarianism as you would expect to find, when you consider the
questions as to whether the law permits it and as to whether the people
are educated and free.
I should like, not for the sake of boasting, but simply that you may
see that you are in good company, to mention the names of some of those
who are foremost in our thought. Take Mazzini, the great leader of
Italy; take Castelar, one of the greatest men in modern Spain; take
Kossuth, the flaming patriot of Hungary, all Unitarian men.
Now let us come a step nearer home: let us consider England, and note
that just the moment free thought was allowed, you find Unitarianism
springing into existence. Milton was a Unitarian; Locke, one of the
greatest of English philosophers, a Unitarian; Dr. Lardner, one of its
most famous theological scholars, a Unitarian; Sir Isaac Newton, one of
the few names that belong to the highest order of those which have made
the earth glorious, a Unitarian.
And, then, when we come to later England, we find another great
scientist, comparatively modern, Dr. Priestley, who, coming to this
country after he had made the discovery of oxygen which made him famous
for all time, established the first Unitarian church in our neighbor
city of Philadelphia.
The first Unitarian church which took that name in the modern world was
organized in London by Dr. Theophilus Lindsey in 1774; and its
establishment coincides with the great outburst of freedom that
distinguished the close of the eighteenth century.
You must not look for Unitarians where there is no liberty; for it is a
cardinal principle of their thought and their life.
Soon after the London movement, the first Unitarian church in this
country was organized, or rather the first Unitarian church came into
existence. It was the old King's Chapel of Boston, an Anglican church,
which came out and took the name Unitarian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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