the counterpart of Jesus Christ, raised up and empowered like him to bring the truth and grace of God to a needy world. I am, moreover, altogether sure that the resurrection taught in the New Testament is primarily the transition of man's personal entity from the present world of flesh and sense to a world of unseen spiritual verities, and that the use of the word to represent the rising out of a life of selfishness and sin into one of holiness and love, making it the equivalent of regeneration, is figurative and typical rather than literal.

There is in my judgment a holy chastity of celibacy, the practice of which is allowable and even commendable for persons inclined thereto under circumstances of given peculiarity. And there is also, I believe, an equally holy chastity of connubiality, which makes orderly marriage, resulting in home life and the procreation and rearing of offspring, a component part of the divine order and a sacrament unto God. Neither celibacy nor marriage, however, can in itself be regarded as a fruit or test of that renewed life which is the end and aim of the Gospel of Christ. So of the matter of holding and using property. It is to my mind proper, right and desirable for some people of advanced Christlikeness, if so disposed, to make of their material possessions a common stock, collection, or repository, as the Shakers do, drawing therefrom for the common supply of the needs of life, and to dwell together in close communal relations during mutual convenience and satisfaction. But I do not deem it wise, best, or desirable for

all Christians to follow that course or attempt to follow it. There is, I am confident, a natural, just, innocent right of private ownership of property, which never should be ignored, denied, taken away, or voluntarily relinquished, even by those who from conscientious motives enter the closest fraternal or

communal relationships. This right should be maintained and held inviolate, not alone for justifiable personal reasons but as a safeguard against the usurpations and tyrannous exactions of irresponsible and unscrupulous power, when exercised towards the weak, dependent, less resolute, and self-assertive classes of mankind. When properly appreciated and cherished this right conduces to personal independence, self-respect, freedom from corroding care, and many of the higher attributes of human character and nobler purposes of human life. The same may be said of personal rights in other respects in a general sense. They are never, under any pretext whatsoever, to be put out of sight, to be disregarded, to be trampled under foot, to be ignominiously abandoned or sacrificed. I am a Christian Socialist of a pronounced type, but never to the annihilation of the God-derived personality of any man, women, or child; never to the absorption of the individual in the common mass; nor to the obliteration of that sense of responsibility in the human breast which holds each soul and the whole universe of souls in unshaken loyalty to the eternal law of righteousness and to Him whose right it is to rule, God over all, blessed forevermore. The conclusion of this

whole matter concerning the Shaker brotherhood is that with all the truth and good, in faith and practice, individually and socially, it embodies and exemplifies, it is not the model Church of Christ, the universal extension and actualization of which upon the earth would be the promised coming of the divine kingdom and the redemption of the race. Its excellences are to be recognized, honored, and garnered as the foretokens of the final grand consummation; while its weaknesses, imperfections, and defects are to be disowned, rejected, overcome, transcended; as I have no doubt that, in the overruling providence of the good God, they some day will be.

DISCOURSE XXVII.

UNIVERSALIST AND UNITARIAN DENOMINATIONS: CONCLUSION.

"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away." And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."-Rev. xxi. I, 5.

THE UNIVERSALISTS.

The distinguishing characteristic of this denomination of professing Christians is a belief in the doctrine of the final holiness and happiness of the whole family of mankind. Some of its members (though few in these later days) hold that all punishment for sin is limited to the present state of existence, while others, the large majority, maintain that it extends into the future life, and is of indefinite and varying duration there; but all agree that it is administered whether here or there in the spirit of kindness, is intended and calculated to promote the ultimate good of those who experience it, and will sooner or later terminate in and be succeeded by a condition of perfect and endless purity, harmony, and bliss. Their theological position in the religious world was definitely formulated at a General Convention of delegates from the churches of the body

in the United States, held at Winchester, N. H., in 1803, and published under the name and in the form following, to wit:

PROFESSION OF BELIEF.

"ART. 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 mankind. 66 "ART. 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 mankind to holiness and happiness.

"ART. 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.”

[In justice to those particularly concerned it should be stated that while the above-given "Winchester Confession," as it is sometimes called, may be considered as representing the consensus of theological opinion in the Universalist Church, it is not regarded as a creed in the strict sense of the term, nor as of absolute binding obligation upon each and every individual member; nor is the acceptance of it made a test of Christian character or the condition of denominational fellowship. The basis of fellowship, as established by the General Convention which met. in Boston, A. D. 1899, is: "I. The acceptance of the essential principles of the Universalist Faith, to wit: (1) The Universal Fatherhood of God; (2) The spiritual authority and leadership of his Son, Jesus Christ; (3) The trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God; (4) The certainty of