same enjoyment of celestial realities...

Ezra Stiles Gannett was the great promoter and defender of "traditional Unitarianism" and, thus, was opposed to the general drift of transcendentalism. Regular readers of this blog know that I love the traditionalists AND the transcendentalists, and today's words from ESG are part of the reason why. This from his sermon, "The Soul's Salvation Through Faith in Christ"

"For us, my friends, it is sufficient to know Christ as the channel and manifestation of a Divine influence, by which the believer is so instructed, animated, enriched, and fortified, that he becomes conscious of a new experience working in him to disclose unknown capacities of life, and through this inward change spreading a new aspect over life as it lies around him...

Holiness, — it once was a more common word in Christian discourse and Christian conversation than now. Holy men and women, — why, we regard them with somewhat the same distant admiration with which we look back on the saints or martyrs of other times. Here and there we see one — a godly man, a saintly woman — standing in society like spiritual eminences that rise above the clouds of our familiar experience and enjoy the clear sunshine of God's presence. But why, tell me, I pray you, explain to yourselves, if you can, my friends, why every one of us should not aspire to the same enjoyment of celestial realities. " Be ye holy even as your Father in heaven is holy," said Jesus to the same persons to whom he delivered his instruction respecting the forgiveness of injuries and the distribution of alms. Away with the notion, which multitudes cherish, that only a few are called to be saints! Lend no countenance to this half-gospel. Every one, every one, should be a partaker of that life through which man has his fellowship with the Eternal Father and the sinless Son.

My friends, hear the words of Christ, " Whosoever — whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain springing up into everlasting life." Has your experience been a confirmation of those words ? Have you ever thought that the " whoso ever " includes you ? Have you still unsatisfied wants, a restless heart, an impatient will? Do you know what distress or discontent is of which you say nothing because you but half understand it, that thirst of the soul which can be slaked only in the water of Christian salvation, that longing after peace, that dim outline of satisfaction which mocks the feeling of which it is the shadow, — do you know this ? Then take into your innermost being the influences of which Christ is the symbol and the source, —drink, drink freely, abundantly, continually, of the water that He shall give you, and you will find the relief, the rest, the satisfaction which you want."

Emerson said much the same thing when he asked "Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe?" Somewhere else in Emerson is this wonderful line. "What can we excel in, if not in holiness? Many blessings

clicking along the sidewalks...

The first time I ever stepped foot in a Unitarian Church was about eight years ago. I was a full-time stay at home father for then two very young children and a retired couple with a granddaughter the same age as my oldest became good friends. In the course of one of our weekly talks, with children running about, they mentioned that they were Unitarians and I allowed as to how I (though an Episcopalian at the time) had, for some time studied Unitarian history and found many of the founding generation of American Unitarians to be my spiritual teachers.

The couple invited me to give three lay talks at their church. At one of those talks, I happened to see a small shelf of six or eight fairly nondescript books and one old book. I have written before of my love for old books, so I gave it a look. It was "Ezra Stiles Gannett: Unitarian Minister in Boston" I borrowed and read it and have since found my own copy. Written by his son, I was struck with the honesty of the book and the person that emerged from its pages.

Many things about ESG resonated with me but I think the most profound was his life-long, often near paralyzing struggle with self-distrust and feelings of inadequacy. And yet, he did the work...

In early middle age, ESG suffered a stroke that necessitated the use of two small hand crutches which became his constant companions from then on. His son puts it thus, "They (the canes) became a part of him, the signal to eye and ear, by which everyone knew 'Dr. Gannett' in Boston streets. When in a hurry for the cars, and he always was,-his quick-leaps between them, as he fled clicking along the sidewalks, used to make the boys turn and shout; a tribute that he never seemed to notice..." (the illustration above is a wood-cut illustration from the book)

And yet he did the work...

Blessings

the root and the branch...

A powerful post from Peacebang yesterday. As a longtime teacher and a onetime worker in politics, I long looked to education and government as the cure for our ills and, of course compassionate government and enlightened education can and have done much. But, ultimately, for me it comes down to acceptance of our limitations and, most importantly, faith. To quote Peacebang, "Reverence, mystery, humility, service and love are the antidote."

One more from Ezra Stiles Gannett-this from sermons delineating what Unitarians believe (its not a new exercise...)

"THE VALUE OF FAITH.

We are told that we care very little about faith. " Unitarians," it is said, " talk about goodness; hope to be saved by their own good works, their own good temper;" or, when the charge is more mildly brought, it is said we exaggerate the importance of righteousness, and therefore underrate the necessity of faith. With all modesty, and yet with all firmness, such as belongs to the subject, would I deny this allegation. I say we do not undervalue faith, but we hold it to be essential to a religious experience and to a happy life. Now there are two kinds of faith, and we believe in the necessity of both kinds.

There is a faith of the mind, an intellectual faith; which receives certain truths, and endeavors to extract from them their meaning, lays up that meaning among the stores of mental learning, and there leaves it. Now, that kind of faith, though it be called barren, is yet needful, for there can be no other faith without it. That is the root. If you plant a root in the ground, and cover it up, and prevent its springing up and spreading out and bringing forth fruit, you may say it is of no use; but the root must be in the ground, or there will be no tree, no foliage, and no fruit. So ideas must be lodged in the mind, — religious ideas, — and they are the roots of character. But we are sometimes reminded that religious sentiment lies at the basis of religious life. It does sometimes; but it is not a safe reliance, friends. In the common course of events, religious sentiment may carry one forward toward perfection; but in the strain and stress of life, and when doubts come up and questions arise on this side and on that, we must have thought, and thought must grasp ideas, and those ideas must be religious ideas, and religious ideas make up one kind of faith.

But there is another kind of faith. To return again to our comparison: the root must appear before the branch, and must bring forth whatever is its characteristic product; and so faith must bring forth its own kind of excellence. Christian faith must produce Christian graces. The faith of the Gospel being planted in the soul must then quicken all the energies of the soul and cause them to expand; that is, to ripen, and to yield the fruits of salvation and life. If the faith of the mind does not thus become the faith of the heart, the intelligence, the will, it may be called, as it was by the Apostle, a " dead " faith. Sensible men will say it is an absurdity. We must invest our religious ideas in character, in life, and then they will not only be safe, but they will be profitable.
We believe, then, in the importance of faith, and we show you its twofold nature. We stand where Paul stood, when he said that " a man is justified by faith," — that is, made acceptable before God, and led by the Divine goodness toward righteousness, in consequence of his belief in, and use of, the great Christian ideas; and we stand where James stood, when he said that the mere mental reception of such ideas was insufficient, and that we must show their reality and their power in good works."

Blessings

the spiritual nature unfolded and excercised...

I want to put in a good word for Religion today. Religion has a bad reputation in the liberal neighborhood-have you ever heard (or said) "I am spiritual but not religious?" Ezra Stiles Gannett tells us why its difficult to have one without the other in these opening words of a sermon from 1828:

"RELIGION THE CONSCIOUSNESS AND CULTURE OF A SPIRITUAL LIFE AND OF SPIRITUAL RELATIONS.

Rom. viii. 6: "To be spiritually minded is life."

Man is connected with two states of existence, is an inhabitant of two worlds, one material and visible, the other spiritual and eternal. Bv his senses he communicates with that which is seen and present, with the objects and circumstances of earth, in affected by them, lives in them. By his mind he holds intercourse with that which is unseen yet present, with the beings and hopes of heaven, is influenced by them, lives among them, Man, therefore, is a partaker of a double life,—the one the life, of sense, the other the life of faith, — the one outward, the other interior. For this twofold existence he was designed by his Creator. It is his natural being. The foundation of religion, I repeat because it is often denied, the foundation of religion is laid in man's nature by the hand of his Creator in his religious capacities and affections, which as truly belong to his nature as do his intellectual faculties and social affections; and, if the consciousness of these latter indicates that man is designed for an intellectual or social life, the consciousness of the former indicates that he is designed for a religious or spiritual life. The poverty of language, however, obliges us when speaking of the soul to employ terms originally appropriated to the body. Thus we discourse on the spiritual vision, the inward ear, the moral taste.

It is the office of Religion to excite and cultivate these interior senses. Religion opens and purges the eye of the soul, enables it to hear spiritual truths, and causes them to be felt. Its chosen province is the soul. Its kingdom is within us, its rule is spiritual, its subject is what the apostle Peter styles the hidden man of the heart. Wonder not that man often seems to be, and is, unconscious of the elements that lie in his soul as the life of the plant in the seed, which, apparently destitute of a vital principle, needs only heat and moisture to stimulate it into action. The vital principle of religion must be excited by causes that are without it, that yet combine themselves with it. The spiritual nature must be unfolded and exercised upon suitable objects of thought, affection, desire, hope. These it does not find in human society, nor among sensible things. They are revealed and embraced through faith. By this, man is introduced to a new society, and to the knowledge of higher relations than those of time. As he becomes more conversant with the beings and hopes of a spiritual world, their relative importance grows in his estimation. His affections fasten themselves with strength on worthy objects. He perceives that he stands in the midst of infinite relations. There is a light within him brighter than the rays of the sun, and in this light he beholds spiritual and everlasting things."

Blessings

heart opened in its confidence...

Some years ago, while serving on the vestry of a small Episcopal Church, a man whom I had seen often but rarely heard speak (he was a retired doctor and I had always seen him as somewhat aloof) mentioned in a meeting about worship that he went for the mystery. It was all he said but it had a big impact on me. Now, years later and a Unitarian, I must confess that I sometimes miss the focus on the mystery in the larger denomination. In our exalting of reason and rationality, it is too easy to forget the wonder of what we do not know. Ezra Stiles Gannett speaks of this in his sermon (from 1857) appropriately called, "The Mysteries." Some excerpts:

"1 Tim. iii: 9: " Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience."

Our life is embosomed in mystery, the universe is wrapped in a garment of mystery. The unknown infinitely exceeds the known; the incomprehensible outweighs beyond all comparison the intelligible. To some persons this is an unpleasant fact. Yet, properly regarded, it would give them great comfort. Religion conducts us to the borders of mystery. Whatever direction we pursue in our religious inquiries, we are soon brought to a pause by limits which we cannot pass. With some persons this is a special occasion of surprise, disappointment, and complaint, while it should, on the contrary, strengthen their faith and enliven their gratitude...

...there are profound and solemn mysteries to which we are guided by faith ; and our persuasion of the existence of these hidden realities is one of the most comforting and strengthening elements in the soul's experience. Everywhere, as we have said, we encounter mystery. Why? Because everywhere we meet the thoughts of an Infinite Mind expressing themselves in the forms which He has seen fit to adopt. Now the thoughts of an Infinite Mind are not such thoughts as our minds can entertain. As no mirror which man could make would reflect an image of the sun that should correspond in its dimensions to the sun's magnitude, so no conception of ours can represent the Divine Intelligence...

Religion, then, has its revealed truths and its hidden truths. In the former we are interested as rules of life ; how, it may be asked, can the latter become sources of benefit? By the assurance they give us of God. By the assurance they give us of God. The unknown belongs to Him whom no eye hath seen...

This difference between known truths and truths unknown, or between faith and mystery, is one of great practical importance. If properly considered, it would prevent a large amount of presumption, bigotry, and unbelief,—the bigotry and presumption of some persons driving others into the opposite extreme of unbelief. Truths which God has brought to light through the gospel, we may press upon the reception of men, by all the arguments which reverence and gratitude towards God, or love and hope for man, can prompt us to use ; but our solution of the mysteries which He has kept within His own knowledge, or has disclosed only to beings in a higher condition than ours, should be proposed with a modest distrust, as possibly or, at most, probably true, and only, therefore, worthy of attention. Let this rule be observed, and three-fourths of the controversies which have tormented the Christian Church would disappear...

There are mysteries in religion, and I am glad that there are ; for by them is my heart opened in its confidence towards God. In him is mystery that no created mind can comprehend; and therefore may the universe of created minds trust while they adore. There are mysteries of which the gospel is an intimation, and for them I am thankful; for by them I am established in my conviction that it came from the Being whose ways are past my finding out. There is that in Christ which I cannot understand. I dare not attempt to explain all I read in the New Testament, as if it were a child's elementary reading-book... what is above and beyond my reason, I expect to find there, and I will gratefully receive it. There are mysteries in my. life, — God be thanked that they are many; for so does He multiply the proofs of my dependence on Him, and the testimonies of His interest in me. There are mysteries in my spiritual experience. If there were not, how poor would that experience be,—poorer than my social or my bodily condition ! He who is impatient whenever he encounters the unintelligible must be continually offended with himself. He who would live without mystery must live without faith, without religion, without God."

Amen and blessings

most common details of life...

One of my favorite books is "Ezra Stiles Gannett: A Unitarian Minister in Boston" written by his son, the Unitarian minister William C. Gannett. I discovered it in the very early days of my exposure to Unitarianism and was struck by the character and qualities of this man (see the Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography for more...) This from his sermon:

"GREAT PRINCIPLES IN SMALL MATTERS." (1849)

Luke xvi. 10: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much."

One of the most remarkable peculiarities of our religion is its connection of the sublimest truths with the most common details of life. The revelation of the Christian faith, how grand ! the duties of the Christian life, how simple...

In the life of Jesus, that best commentary upon his religion, we find the same union of great principles with the incidents of daily life. It is the character of Jesus that gives grandeur to the situations in which he is placed, not the situations that make the character appear extraordinary. He never sought to draw attention to himself by an unusual manner of life; he affected no dignity, studied no arts of impression, and in his outward relations exhibited no desire to be unlike the men among whom he lived...

These domestic affairs, this worldly business, must not be neglected, but they must be Christianized, spiritualized, beatified. Christianity is a religion for the earth and the world, for home and society, a religion which the statesman, the merchant, and the day-laborer, the rich man, the poor man, the sick man, the mother, the girl, the child, must all feel in its continually restraining, moulding, and quickening influence, as they fulfil the engagements of their several positions...How? By bringing great principles into connection with little matters...

The idea of duty our religion binds in with all our mental and physical experience. For, in revealing the moral character of our present life, the responsibleness under which we are placed in the midst of the circumstances that surround us, the obligation to make every thing subservient to the growth and perfection of character, it compels the true disciple, the man who believes with a steady faith, to recognize a law that touches on every relation and act of his being. He can do nothing so small that it has not a moral value...

We may now perceive both the justice and the extent of the law of which our text is the expression, " He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much ; " a law inseparable from the rectitude of the Divine Providence, and conducive to the welfare of man. I will but add two brief remarks, which are suggested as of most practical value. First, in regard to ourselves. Let it be our object to establish Christian habits. Our habits constitute our character. Let them be pervaded and moulded by the religion of Christ. Let our faith become habitual, our piety habitual, our benevolence habitual. Let duty become a habit. Then shall we be safe; then will life be pleasant and holy.

Secondly, in regard to our children. Let us implant in them right principles. They must form their own habits, but we can fix their principles. Out of the latter will arise the former. Let us establish in their hearts the great principles of piety and duty, and they will be prepared to meet the temptations and bear the responsibilities of life.

With good habits growing out of right principles in ourselves, and right principles growing up into good habits in our children, why should we not be as happy as in this life of vicissitude man can ever be ? We shall have nothing to fear on this side the grave, since we shall be prepared for all change in outward condition by the inward stability we shall maintain. Nor shall we have reason to dread what we may encounter hereafter; since, having been faithful in that which is least, as it arose under the various relations of life, we shall receive the approbation of Him whose welcome voice shall pronounce the sentence: " Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord."

Have a wonderful Sabbath. Blessings