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. MR. SAVAGE'S BOOKS. SERMONS AND ESSAYS. Christianity the Science of Manhood. 187 pages. 1873 $1.00 Life Questions. 159 pages. 1879 191 pages. 1881 • 1882 1880 Talks about Jesus. 161 pages. 1 50 1 00 1 00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 200 pages. 1884 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 .25 My Creed. 204 pages. 1887. 1888 Religious Reconstruction. 246 pages. Four Great Questions concerning God. 86 pp. The Evolution of Christianity. 178 pages. 1892 1.00 .25 1.00 1.25 1.50 1.50 .50 -75 1.00 1.50 Per 1.50 Price, Cloth, per copy, jo cents. Per dozen . 2.50 pam Mr. Savage's weekly sermons are regularly printed in phlet form in "Unity Pulpit." Subscription price, for the season, $1.50; single copy, 5 cents. GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. HOW GOD COMES INTO HIS WORLD. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.' e."- REV. iii. 20. THE afterglow of the Christmas season is still in the sky; and Christmas thoughts and Christmas feelings are still in the air. And this is, in one sense, a Christmas theme which I bring you; for the essential idea of Christmas has always been the coming of God into the world. Its central thought revolves round this idea of some special, some peculiar coming of God to man. It seems to me well, then, for us to consider how it is that God comes to his world. In order that we may make comprehensible certain still popular ideas on this subject, I shall need to trace for a few moments some of the thoughts of the past concerning the matter. If you open your Bible and read the first chapters of Genesis, you will find that the people then thought God came down out of his heavens, and created the earth. After the work of creation was finished, he looked it over, pronounced it good, and retired to his heavens once more. In other words, and this is the special thing I wish to show,- God was not thought of as living on the earth, as being present always among his children. One of the Old Testament writers says, "God is in heaven, and thou upon the earth: therefore, let thy words be few." God, then, so far as the earth is concerned, was ordinarily, as Carlyle said, "an absentee God." Sometimes he visited the earth. You will remember the story in Genesis says that, after the fall of man, God came down, and walked about in the garden in the cool of the day, looking for Adam and calling after him, as one man might call after another. But Adam tried to hide from him. At last Adam was discovered and brought to account. Later in this same book, when the wickedness of man had increased upon the earth, and he even thought in his ambition that he might scale the heavens, he conceived the plan of building a high tower to do so; and the story goes on to tell in that naïve, childish way that God heard a rumor in heaven of what was going on, and said, it does not tell to whom he said it,- Let us go down, and see whether this thing is true; and so he goes down, and visits the earth. The point for you to notice is that people then conceived of God as located somewhere in space, as being away from the earth. When God would visit the earth, he must make a journey through space from the place of his abode to come here, as a man must make a journey if he wishes to visit a foreign country. So in most of the Old Testament you will find that kindred ideas prevail. God is not represented as having come down to the earth himself after this. After we leave the Book of Genesis, he now and then sends messengers, angels, down on certain missions. . He gets news from the earth, and finds out how things are going on, as a kaiser may get news from the distant parts of his empire by sending special messengers to execute his will. These messengers at last deliver such long messages that they are written down and become parts of a book. But the ordinary idea is that God is away from man, and only comes to him in certain special ways and at special times. At the beginning of the New Testament story he is represented as having come to the earth again for the first time after the appearances that are recorded in the opening of Genesis. He comes, and lives here as a man for something over thirty years. But he does not stay. He goes away again; for the story closes with the ascension into the heavens. He is seen to go up from the top of a mountain; and the clouds receive him out of the sight of those who are looking on. He promised that his spirit in some way should remain and abide among men ; but he himself is not here. |