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Show iT- jr: hit A rTiP if ITl C d rV explained by his pastor, rev. u. g. ' ! I Ok I i lm 1 I J B P1ERCE 0F WASHINGTON 9y, l tfk I B Kj.l burf Copyright, 100S, by John Elfreth Catkins. tiifjij : 1 aa6? Df Mr. Taft's personal creed I know S thine, but his deeply rellpous nat-i nat-i s o mo a sufficient Ruaranteo of d Ptijti faith." ,er- -iS rheso words from Mr. Taft's pastor, ttinA' b Bov. Ulysses G. B. Pierce of All ntD. .chrh Washington, may be jd as a fjaufio to the man and his best (S rho minister sat-at a flat-topped desk XKftb a snowy white cat napping upon SsLl chair at his npht hand. He is -h , fen-cut. clean-shaven man with bind: t :'.ir turning to an iron Cray, broad' iwnsiro brow, large., brown eyes. CW kich flashed inquisitively when . a ration was asked him, but which i oked dreamily out of the- window bile ho answered. His erect, spare lore besooho the man of energy. Now Efli id then ho was called from the room Akl I would hear him whistling a- jyjy air as ho returned up the stairs. JT fA Unon tho desk lay open before me a If Sospcctus of the seventh season of ' Eshappv man's lectures, and one title Hf ft ' ' particular atractod my atention, t Tlio Gospel of Laughter." Beneath 14 is title was printed in small type: HIT ?'To shorten the face is to lengthen 'OtV Taft'B Creed. )SY t'T-" j resident in his reply to the " an MnrtJii, who wrote to tho White VinH buso inqwiriug of Mr. Taft's creed, r ? I sot rebuke the reference to Mr. 'tit as an infidel (Unitarian), as it y Ha put," said L t bota an : 1 - r ' "Tho president appreciated that mmm nch a designation should not be dig-mm dig-mm ifjed.by a rebuke. Its absurdity was . . ipon its faco. Did you ever hear of mm ofidels building a church? Mm ' "Scores of letters similar to Martin's nowed me under during tho campaign. I . have had little time for anything flse than answering them since Mr. raft was nominated. They came large-y large-y from ministers, and I took care to j 2 inswer each with a statement from the .V (institution of tho church containing i ho statement of our faith. :.4 j "In 1894. our national conference sub- :bed to this declaration of our prin- :; c " The churches accept tho religion S'; us, holding, in accordance with iu caching, that practical religion s lmed up in love to God and lovo :o nan. " 'The conference recognizes the fact .. it its, constituency is Congregational ; n tradition and polity. Therefore it - leclarcs that nothing in this constitu-! constitu-! ion is to be construed as an authori-l authori-l ative test; and we cordiallv invito to - !?r.wPrkinfr fellowship any "who. whilo liircring from us on boliei, aro in gen-.-4 iral sympathy with our spirit and our -1 ractcal aims.' I 'a'V 1B 0Tir creed, unanimously wonted, and I sent it in response to aen maairy concerning Mr, Taft's ; J.eUef. That is the only creed we have I j 'TO.r had, and the question of Jesus' j SYV11 or of tho inspiration of tho ; "Hole never has come up, and is not .iwly to do so." , Didn't your churches havo a creed , commencing: We believo in tho fath-1 fath-1 ?rliood of God.' otc7" ,' 'So; thai 5b our church motto. It " vVntteP b-y ono of our ministers, nu becoming popular, is inscribed in ?mny oi our churches. It does not com-1 com-1 IT? believe in,' but consists ' S y f th,B statement of 'tho five ; ! i PUnilarianism:' The father-., father-., mi ot Got tho brotherhood of man. j leadership of Josus, salvation of A inaractcr, the progress of mankind on-;1 on-;1 Jard and upward forever.' . rfr What Unitarians Believe. 4 h rV? iho.ld that ,n do 4110 will Sfl n(1 bo'onR,to tlio family of Christ rany cLur,ch dedicated to God can ! $ conferences. We arc not con- i h W n loot ruistl beliefs. The Bible flB;n?ly an or,CDtal classic, and wo 'j L -l "rpwt it as vrc would a prob- - -j 5;. in.sP'ration from .7csus5 life and ; 3 K5l,,n,lo:ii:HinC ll0w t0 cary our &Vnth th ?H'e?P.th 01 fidelity with -1 ffl . c ua?r.lcd lfis- Wo believe in Csjworthiness and essential good-i good-i i-1111.1""11 "at, and deny divino v3 ffi,t,natlon t0. 1,10 totul depravity '4 (liesf . i any man is true to tho 1 AHgat wlmt to him ia truth. If such a man makeB mistakes, as wo nli do, ho i will thtn correct them. We hold to I tho dignity of human nature; that to bo j a man is our greatest prerogative and that a man costs too much and is worth too much to havo his life ever thrown nwny. The greatest thing that God has done is to make a man. In so far aa tho Bible is a record of what man has imagined, hopod for, known, the Bible becomes a part of the never-ending , revelation or God. Art is what man i imagines, and, thcroforo, art is a revelation reve-lation of God. Literature is what man hopes for, and, therefore, literature is a revelation of God. Science is what man knows, and, therefore, science is a revelation of God. So revelation began be-gan when man came to self-conscious-ucss, nnd it will continue so long us there is in man that which aspires to what is God-like." "What sort of teachings from your pulpit might result in a heresy trial'?" ''No Unitarian minister can be tried for heresy for tho simple reason thai there is no tribunal before which ho could be tried. Wo believe in tho right, duty and responsibility of free speech, but that, as in civil law. if one of our ministers abuses this freedom of speech ho is responsible to his congregation. con-gregation. Each of our churches is absolutely ab-solutely independent, choosing and dismissing dis-missing its own ministers as it pays its own bills. Our conferences are simply advisory bodies, discussing outside missions mis-sions and other co-operative work." Selected for Ministry .When a Tot. "How did 3'ou come to enter the ministry?" min-istry?" "I was chosen for the ministry, when a small tot, by my grand father, the 3ov, Waterman Pierce of Barncyville. Mass., who was one of tbo founders of the 'Froe Baptists.' The Baptists proper then followed Calvin's teaching teach-ing of predestination, and they hold, only close - communion, allowing onlv members of their church to partake o"f communion therein. My grandfather took the ground that communion was not hia table, but tho Lord's, as he expressed it. and ho invited all who would to lake it. And it may be an instance of heredity that I, when giving giv-ing communion, always invite 'members of this church, of sister chnrches and of no church,' My grandfather also formulated for-mulated a predestination theory of his own. holding that wo were ''predestined ''predes-tined to good and never to evil' that wo were 'doomed to be happy.' as I often heard him express it. ITo was a, follower of Armiuius instead of Calvin. Cal-vin. Calvin maintained that man cannot can-not act freely for himself, but was strictly under the sovereignty of the Divine will. Armiuius. a Dutch theologian the-ologian born in 15(50, held that roligion should always be obedient to tho rational ration-al spirit, that nature should bo the test in regard to all which affects human conduct and that the critical snirit ought to be applied to dogma and the Bible. 1 mention this in connection with my grandfather because after tho reformation Arniinianism was tho first I notable stop toward Unitarianism. j "I used to sit in tho pulpit alongside E ( ' iii , j. ,., ,1't, .wnti,irtwrmwnnTW-nlt a,WwWMKCWA 1 my grandfather when a Pmall child. He put me thero that he might keep -his eve on mo. Although born in Provi-dnc Provi-dnc and making my home there with my fathor, who was a merchant, I spent much time up iu Barueyvil'o. Often I was awakened by my grandfather laying his hands on me and praying, while I was in bed. lie lived to the age of uoarly ninety and preached for forty-five years in that ono church, where I also preached my first sermon. And as I grew older bo saw to it that I studied theology at the Free Baptist college, nillsdalc, Mich. Country Editor While at College, "To help pay my expenses at Hills-dao Hills-dao I was for somo time associato editor ed-itor of tho Leader, a progressive country coun-try weekly. I had charge of the sports and general news, had to drum up subscriptions sub-scriptions at the county fairs and write editorials. Thus I was engaged from 19 to 21. "I also wrote syndicate articles for tho daily papers under tho pseudonym 'Frank Arnot. ' There was no typewriter type-writer in Hillsdalo in those days and I wrote out a dozen copies of each syndicate syn-dicate article in long hand. Those articles ar-ticles I later used as lectures, and on describing a tramp which I mado' through Kentucky and the Mammoth cave is still a part of my regular lecture lec-ture course. I used it on I3 last week." "It has been said that you went to Harvard and that after reading Huxley and Darwin there you allured your religious re-ligious views to conform to tho teachings teach-ings of science." Know He Could Never Preach It. "That is not exactly true. When I left Hillsdalo with my sheepskin I know pretty well that" could never 1 again preach from n Baptist pulpit, ' Newspaper work is broadening and Hillsdale was a live little town. Wo had an excellent lecluro course there and, after reporting all of tho lectures for the Leader, L used to interview tho ! lecturers, who iucludod such men as 1 Bociihor, Talmage, Russell Conwell, Dr. P. S. lleuson and Georgo Jvcnnun. All sorts of geniuses mot at the Loader office of-fice and threshed out tho problems of lifo and the tonics of the times. It was here at Hillsdalo and not at Harvard Har-vard that I read Huxley and Darwin, as well as Spencer. One of my classmates class-mates thero also read thorn and wo discussed them together. He is now a Unitarian minister in Chicago. After returning east I took a post-graduate course at ITurvard divinity school, which 3'ou know is undenominational. And finishing there I decided to go west. "Tho danger was of inertia, I knew, and I made up my mind that I would not settle east of tho Mississippi. So I got married and went to Docorah, la., up in tho Norwegian region, a fearfully cold place. Hero I took my first Unitarian Uni-tarian church, with a congregation composed com-posed of people of all shades of belief. be-lief. "Next I went to Pomona, Cal., whore I had threo churches six miles apart in a triangle. Each Sunday I had a drive of eighteen miles, proach- ing first at 11 a. in., then at 3 p. m., and finally at S p. m., returning homo at 11 p. m. Work among my peoplo took mo over the same routo week days, and I had plenty to do those years. Summers I camped in Arizona, in tho Grand canyon of the Colorado, and made a stud' of that paradise, with its wealth of uaturo and prehistoric ruins. I had my camera with nic havo always t been a camera fiend. I described this region in moro syndicato articles and later in lectures. Elected "Bishop" of tho Cowboys. "Tho cowboys of tho canyon elected mo 'bishop,' and after they were through with the danco hall they oloarod it early, that I might preach to them there. In tho beginning one of them came up and told me tho boys had dolcgated him to ask me not to preach about just ono thing. I looked at him inquiring!-. " 'What all of the other parsons that have been among us have harped on year in aud year out and what always al-ways puts a cowboj' down in the dumps. ' " 'And what is it?' I asked. " 'Tho story of tho prodigal sou.' "Well, I avoided tho prodigal son, proached them a creed they had never heard before, and each showed his interest in-terest by dropping a 'chunk' in the collection col-lection every Sunday. Every one of those dollars I spent upon the" nucleus of a library for their camp. They wouldn't take a cent from me for my food nor T a cent from them for my preaching. I dedicated the first hotel there a big log house, which thoy called tho 'Log Inn.' Tho only music wo could get for those ceromonies was I one guitar. I dedicated the hotol 'to I tho infinite spirit of beauty and of I power, who is immeasurably above all of his works. To tho enlargement of vision of all who shall visit here. To tho refreshment and inspiration of all who. weary with the world's dullness and tired of life's monotony, shal' seek a shelter here," While I was nU Pomona Po-mona my father died and I came east, taking a church at Ithaca, that I might be near 1113' mother. I came from Ithaca here eight years ago. "We have had a church hero since 1S21, and the old bell, cast by tho revo- lutionarv hero, Paul Rovero, in 1822, . now tolls in tho nowi church. The old church, later the police court, was Indeed In-deed a test of the Unitarian faith in the early times. It was neither popular popu-lar nor of fine appointments, yet presidents, presi-dents, legislators and jurists were among its congregations from tho first." Other Unitarian Presidents. "Which of our presidents wero Unitarians'" Uni-tarians'" "John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Qnincy Adams and Millard Fillmore Fill-more wero all avowedly of our faith. ' John Adams' homo minister in Massachusetts, Massa-chusetts, the Rev. Lemuel Briant of Quincv, became a Unitarian about 1750, aud John Adams attended the church here after entering the Whito House. Jefferson wrote in 1822: 'I trust there is not a young; man now in the United 1 States who will not dio a Unitarian.' John Quincy AdamB also attended the j church herei as did Millard Fillmore. 1 Abraham t Lincoln, though not an ' avowod Unitarian, once defined his religious re-ligious llicf in these words, which describe de-scribe perfectly the scopo of the Unitarian Uni-tarian faith of today: ' ' ' When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, the Savior's condensed statmont of tho substance of both law and gospel, "Thou shalt lovo tho Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself," that church will I ,ioin with an my heart and .11 my soul.' "Wo have had in onr denomination also. 0110 vice-prcsidont, several cabinet officers, including Mr. Taft's father; three justices of the United States Supreme Su-preme court, and besides these moro than a score of governors and nearly a score of chief justices of the state supreme su-preme courts. Among notable Unitarians Uni-tarians in the United States senato have been Webster, Archer, Anthony, nowc. J. P. Hale. Allison, Edward Everett, Morrill. W. E. Chanler. Hoar and Sumner. Rev. Edward Everett Hale, chaplain of tho United States senate, sen-ate, is a Unitarian minister. Other Unitariaus havo been tho poets Br3ant, Longfellow, Lowell and Holmes, and such writters as Emerson, Thoreau, Dickens, Hawthorne, Baj'ard Taylor and Bret Harte. Joseph Priestly, discoverer of oxvgen, Peter Cooper, Agassiz, Sir Isaac "Newton and Mazzini wero also of our faith, as have been such women as Dorothea Dix, Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, Susan B. Anthony, Mary A. Livermorc, Lucretiu Mott, Elizabeth Cndy Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Ful-ler, Helen Hunt Jackson, Julia Ward Howe and Florence Nightingale. The 'Battle Hymn of the m Republic,' our most popular national air, and 'Nearer, My God, to Thee' were both written by Unitarians. These names are given in no spirit of boasting, but, simply as tho assurance that it is no criminal offense to be a Unitarian." "How camo it that you wero named after Grant?" "My father was a warm partisan of GrantTs, and I, having bcon born in h 'Go. was 'up in arms when the gen-oral gen-oral was at the zenith of his glory. My name was originally Ulysses Baker, but during the first Grant campaign my father declared that he would add 'Grant' to my name wero the general elected. I havo downstairs now a largo photograph of Grant which he presented to my father in honor of that event." |