lect and who writes a more beautiful hand; but will I make the exchange? No. Why? You know why, friends; and the why touches the deepest foundations of sentiment and feeling in us, touches them even to tears. You have laid away somewhere letters, reminiscences of the deepest love you have ever felt, reminiscences covering a period of many years, stored away as treasures. Do they mean to you anything that money could replace? Could you duplicate all of those things? Could you buy them in the market, and be as rich as you were before? You know that during these many years each one of these things has entered into your life, has been food for the soul, uplift for the spirit, culture of the brain, has made you tender in heart, transformed your life, so that it will be a part of you forever, and you may not help it. Do you see? Why come to this church or any particular place of worship? What did the old Hebrews mean when they said: "Let us go up to the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem"? What did they mean in after years, when in that far-off country their captors taunted them, and said, "Sing to us some of the songs of your own country," and they, hanging their harps on the willows by the river bank, sitting dejected and mourning, said, "How can we sing our songs in a strange land?" Do you see? Take this old church, not architecturally fine, not artistically beautiful. I should have less respect for any one who has sat in one of these pews for many years if there were any church building in all the world that could mean quite so much to him as this does. I have been heard speaking from this platform now for sixteen years. It means something to me. I look up and down these aisles, and there are more faces here than could be photographed. And I can see people listening from Sunday to Sunday to my thought who are invisible. The place is haunted,- grandly, sweetly, tenderly haunted, not haunted by anything that we should not all be glad to see, glad to hear. In this place, strains of marriage music have been heard, and glad feet have started from this spot on their life journey together,to what destiny I do not know. White faces have lain here, and those that loved them have shed hot tears that told of breaking hearts, as they looked for the last time on lips that never spoke again. Many here have for the first time been intellectually started on a pathway of thought which since that time they have been following. Many here have been kindled to fresh resolve. Many here have felt an upward impulse that made them feel for a little while, at any rate, that life was more beautiful, more hopeful, than it had been. Many here have found comfort and cheer. Does the place mean nothing to them? Is it not easier here in this atmosphere to think, tò feel, to be lifted, to be moved, than it is in some other place in the world? There is a poor old country farm-house down in Maine that in the market would be sold for a very small sum of money. It is not picturesque, it is not beautiful; but there, and in the immediate region of that house, I can think, I can feel, certain things that I can think and feel nowhere else on the round world. And so it seems to me, friends, that one grand reason for going to church, and for going to a particular church, is found just here, in the memories, the associations, the enriched thought, the uplifted heart, in those things that cannot be transferred, that make this, indeed, a house of God and a gateway to heaven. Why go to church, then? If you have a true conception of what a church means, and you are worthy of your manhood and your womanhood, you can help in some way, seeking that for which the church stands; and, if you are wise and practical, you will know that these things can be sought best by association, that we can help each other; and if there be any sentiment, sympathy, tenderness, poetry, in your hearts, you will find it easier to find God, to think about him, to care for your fellow-men, to be uplifted, comforted, moved, in those places that are already consecrated to you by the fact that you have passed through these experiences there before. The preface by Mr. Savage gives the reasons, clearly and concisely, why a book like this is needed. It answers a great demand, and it will supply a serious deficiency. Having had the privilege of reading the contents very thoroughly, I gladly record my satisfaction in the character of the work, my hope of its wide acceptance and use, my appreciation of the author's motives in preparing it. The questions and answers allow of supplementing, of individual handling, of personal direction. It is not a hard-andfast production There is a large liberty of detail, explanation, and unfolding. The doctrinal positions are in accord with rational religion and liberal Christianity, the critical judgments are based on modern scholarship, and the great aim throughout is to assist an inquirer or pupil to a positive, permanent faith. If any one finds comments and criticisms which at first sight seem needless, let it be remembered that a Unitarian catechism must give reasons, point out errors, and trace causes: it cannot simply dogmatize. I am sure that in the true use of this book great gains will come to our Sundayschools, to searchers after truth, to our cause. EDWARD A. HORTON. AUTHOR'S PREFACE. This little Catechism has grown out of the needs of my own work. Fathers and mothers have said to me, "Our children are constantly asking us questions that we cannot answer." Perfectly natural! Their reading and study have not been such as to make them familiar with the results of critical scholarship. The great modern revolution of thought is bewildering. This is an attempt to make the path of ascertained truth a little plainer. This is the call for help in the home. Besides this, a similar call has come from the Sunday-school. Multitudes of teachers have little time to ransack libraries and study large works. This is an attempt, then, to help them, by putting in their hands, in brief compass, the principal things believed by Unitarians concerning the greatest subject. The list of reference books that follows the questions and answers will enable those who wish to do so to go more deeply into the topics suggested. It is believed that this Catechism will be found adapted to any grade of scholars above the infant class, provided the teacher has some skill in the matter of interpretation GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. |