are use of the words "moral" and "immoral" should be broadened to include the things that are really so. I do not think that the only immoral acts men and women guilty of are those things that are usually covered by that term. I feel quite sure that there are other things in society that are equally immoral. Take a man who is hard and cruel in his home, who makes life practically unbearable for his wife and for his children; a man who treats his wife and children as if they were simply his chattels, that he had a right to order as he will or to humiliate with a blow if he please. Such a man as that is an immoral man, because morality is that which conduces to the life, the welfare, the happiness, of the persons concerned; and the immoral act is that which threatens or which takes this away. Take the man who, in his business, allows himself to be governed by the lower standards, is not careful to be just, is not careful as to whether the dollar that he has come into possession of has been paid for or not; the man who is hard in his dealing with his employees, the man who will take advantage of any one in a trade if he gets a chance inside the limits of the law, that man is immoral. Take the man who yields to impulses of anger and hate, who allows himself to become bitter towards his fellow-men. Jesus says, and says truly, that the essence of murder is hate. The man you hate you would have out of the way if you could. This man again is immoral. Any man, I do not care how respectable he is, or how many churches he belongs to, or what society he moves in,— any man who willingly and persistently lives a life that is injurious to other people is an immoral man. The man, however pure in the ordinary sense of that word, who goes away by himself and leads a selfish life,- it may be a literary life, I do not care what it is, if he takes himself out of the world that needs him, and refuses to do what he can to lift the burden under which the world groans,— that man is an immoral man. The man who thinks he has a perfect right to use his power, his influence, his money, just as he pleases, is an immoral man. Broaden this conception of moral and immoral until the distinctions between the two words are real distinctions cutting down into the realities of well-being and happiness, of ill-being and misery, the possibilities of progress and hindrance. Here is the principle. And now I have only time to suggest an extension of this principle. It has been true of all types of society that they have supposed that what they condemned was wrong and what they allowed was right. In other words it is almost impossible for a people, shaped by the social pressure of its environment, to get up high enough to gain a glimpse of a nobler type of society. But, unless the world is through its growth, nobler types of society are to appear in the future. I believe that our children's children will look back upon this nineteenth century, and will condemn in the light of higher truth a hundred customs, practices, methods, which we think to-day are perfectly allowable. There are things in our business, there are things in our social life, there are things in our family life, in our ideas of the rights and duties of husband and wife, of parent and child; there are ideas in our political life, ideas in every direction, which a higher standard of morals will by and by condemn as standing in the way of a diviner development of humanity, for which we work, for which we pray, and which some day is to come. Father, let us consecrate ourselves to this higher vision of what is to be, while we try to be charitable towards what is. But let us remember that, if our prayer "Thy kingdom come" is ever to be answered, it must be through change, through outgrowing and leaving behind much that we permit to-day. So let us seek to find the real distinctions between right and wrong, and work for that which is higher and better, and which by and by must be. Amen. 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 can. not 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 $1.00 191 pages. 1876 1880 Talks about Jesus. 161 pages. 1881 1.50 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 200 pages. 1884 1.00 The Religious Life. 212 pages. Social Problems. 189 pages. 1886. 1.00 Mr. Savage's weekly sermons are regularly printed in pamphlet form in "Unity Pulpit." Subscription price, for the season, $1.50; single copy, 5 cents. GEO. H. ELLIS, Publisher, 141 Franklin St., Boston, Mass. |