here in peace...

This from:

"SINGERS AND SONGS OF THE LIBERAL FAITH:  BEING SELECTIONS OF HYMNS AND OTHER SACRED POEMS OF THE LIBERAL CHURCH IN AMERICA,

BY ALFRED P. PUTNAM."

"DECORATION
"MID the flower-wreathed tombs I stand,
Bearing lilies in my hand.
Comrades ! in what soldier-grave
Sleeps the bravest of the brave ?

Is it he who sank to rest
With his colors round his breast?
Friendship makes his tomb a shrine;
Garlands veil it; ask not mine.

One low grave, yon trees beneath,
Bears no roses, wears no wreath ;
Yet no heart more high and warm
Ever dared the battle-storm.

Never gleamed a prouder eye
In the front of victory;
Never foot had firmer tread
On the field where hope lay dead,

Than are hid within this tomb,
Where the untended grasses bloom ;
And no stone, with feigned distress,
Mocks the sacred loneliness.

Youth and beauty, dauntless will,
Dreams that life could ne'er fulfil,
Here lie buried, — here in peace
Wrongs and woes have found release.

Turning from my comrades' eyes,
Kneeling where a woman lies,
I strew lilies on the grave
Of the bravest of the brave.

Newport, R.I., Decoration Day, 1873."

Blessings

bless my feeble endeavors...

Henry Miles gathered the prayers for the collection "Altar at Home: Prayers for the Family and the Closet" from Unitarian
"Clergymen in and near Boston."  First published in 1855 "Alter" went through many editions and one can readily imagine thousands of Unitarian individuals and families praying from its pages. 
   As a DRE I would love to meet with our wonderful teachers on Sunday mornings and pray this prayer from the collection:

"Prayer To Be Used By a Sunday School Teacher Before Engaging in Religious Instruction"

0 Thou who seest my whole heart, and knowest all my unfaithfulness, how can I hope, except by thy special blessing and surpassing mercy, to be an instrument of spiritual good, while I am myself so low in spiritual attainments, so worldly, so indifferent, so weak in faith, and so unworthy in thy sight. Yet, 0 my God. thou canst cause the earthen vessel, the broken vessel, the too often dishonored vessel, to receive and convey the balm and medicine of thy heavenly truth, to the praise and glory of thy own name. 0 deign to bless my feeble endeavors and ministrations this day. Let the prayers which shall be poured out be uttered in a believing, contrite, grateful, earnest spirit. Let the words of comment and enforcement which may be offered be words of truth and soberness, conducing to the edification of Christians, and the conviction and renovation of those who as yet believe not.

0 Thou that hast all hearts in thy almighty hand, be pleased so to move and guide my failing mind and heart, and those of others, that we may derive from these means of grace wisdom, and strength, and new devotedness. Fix in my soul, and in every soul present, more forcibly than ever, the practical and prevailing persuasion, that to depend on thy help is indispensable; that to be spiritually-minded is life and peace; that to serve thee in simplicity and godly sincerity, through Jesus Christ, is the way of true freedom and exaltation, of true content and joy ; that nothing in the tents or palaces of wickedness or earthly pleasure can compare with the happiness of walking in the light, as thou art in the light. 0 let the blood of Christ purify us from all iniquity; and do thou take away every evil thought and imagination of the heart, confirming each right and self-denying aim and resolve within us, that we may live and die unto the Lord, and be meet for his undefined home and rest.

Heavenly Father, make all the services of the day, and of the remaining Lord's days which thou mayest grant us upon earth, effectual for these great ends to us and ours, and to all in every place whom we love or ought to love; and bring us all together in the one temple of thy eternal grace and glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen."

(Maybe I better pray this one in the closet!)
 
Have a blessed Sabbath

sweeter fruits of daily living...

Do any of you use a daily devotional? I went to the Boston Athenaeum yesterday-a beautiful New England Morning-and found three specimens of AUA Daily Devotional, all from the latter half of the 19th century. "Day unto Day," "Daily Praise and Prayer." and "Alter at Home" (a collection of Prayers and Collects.) Today, the preface and the May 29th entry from "Daily Praise"  compiled by Rush Rhees Shippen.

"The spirit shrinks from too weighty an encumbrance of letter and form ; and the neglect of daily prayer in the home is doubtless partly due to the formalism with which it has been burdened. The trellis is not the vine; much less is it the fruit. Yet the trellis has its value if it serves to lift the vine from the earth into the fresh air and gracious sunlight that shall quicken it to bear more ample and luscious fruit. With its slight framework of ritual, may this book of "Praise and Prayer" help our souls to rise " Daily " into the celestial atmosphere, where the Holy Spirit shall inspire that life more abundantly, the best expression of which is found in richer, sweeter fruits of daily living."

(and the sweet fruit for May 29th...)

HEAR the right, O Lord ; attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of false lips.
Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes see what is right.
Prove my heart; visit me in the night; try me, my thoughts shall not vary from my speech.
Show thy loving-kindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings.
As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

True Sun ! upon our souls arise,
Shining in beauty evermore ;
And through each sense the quickening beam
Of the eternal Spirit pour.

Rule thou our inmost thoughts ; let no
Impurity our hearts defile;
Grant us a true and fervent faith ;
Grant us a spirit free from guile.

O GOD, our everlasting hope, who holdest us in life, and orderest our lot: we ask not for any prosperity that would tempt us to forget thee. As disciples of one who had not where to lay his head, may we freely welcome the toils and sufferings of our humanity, and seek only strength to glorify the cross thou layest on us. Every work of our hand may we do as unto thee; in every trouble " trace some lights of thine ; and let no blessing fall on dry and thankless hearts. Redeeming the time, may we fill every waking hour with faithful duty and well-ordered affections, as the sacrifice which thou hast provided. Strip us, O Lord, of every proud thought; fill us with patient tenderness for others, seeing that we also are in the same case before thee ; and make us ready to help, and quick to forgive. And then, fix every grace, compose every fear, by a steady trust in thine eternal realities, behind the changes of time and the delusions of men. Thou art our Rock: we rest on thee. Amen."

Blessings

pure and lofty action...

The Boston Unitarians were accused of many things-not the least of which was making the religion of Jesus seem a little...bloodless or dispassionate. While I think that assessment inaccurate and unfair, I can sometimes see where it comes from. It was, however, a criticism rarely applied to William Ellery Channing.  This from the sermon:

"THE GREAT PURPOSE OF CHRISTIANITY  (Discourse at the Installation of the Rev. M. I. Motte, Boston, 1828.)

Timothy 1. 7: " For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

"Why was Christianity given? Why did Christ seal it with his blood ? Why is it to be preached ? What is the great happiness it confers ? What is the chief blessing for which it is to be prized ? What is its pre-eminent glory, its first claim on the gratitude of mankind ? These are great questions. I wish to answer them plainly, according to the light and ability which God has given me. I read the answer to them in the text. There I learn the great good which God confers through Jesus Christ. " He hath given us, not the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." The glory of Christianity is the pure and lofty action which it communicates to the human mind. It does not breathe a timid, abject spirit. If it did, it would deserve no praise. It gives power, energy, courage, constancy to the will ; love, disinterestedness, enlarged affection to
the heart ; soundness, clearness, and vigor to the understanding. It rescues him who receives it from sin, from the sway of the passions ; gives him the full and free use of his best powers ; brings out and brightens the divine image in which he was created ; and in this way not only bestows the promise but the beginning of heaven. This is the excellence of Christianity."

Blessings

Why I love James Freeman Clarke...

Today's reading from JFC's "Messages of Faith, Hope and Love" (also posted at Wonderful Epoch)

"WE may throw ourselves away; but God will not throw us away. We belong to him still; and he "gathereth up the fragments which remain, that nothing be lost." In order to become pure, we may need sharp suffering; and then God will not hesitate to inflict it. In the other life, as in this, he will chasten us, not for his pleasure, but for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. It is thus that God's love for the soul, and its worth, appear eminently, in that he will not let us destroy ourselves. When we pass into the other world, those who are ready, and have on the wedding-garment, will go in to the supper. They will find themselves in a state of being where the faculties of the body are exalted and spiritualized, and the powers of the soul are heightened; where a higher truth, a nobler beauty, a larger love, feed the immortal faculties with a divine nourishment; where our imperfect knowledge will be swallowed up in larger insight; and communion with great souls, in an atmosphere of love, shall quicken us for endless progress. Then faith, hope, and love will abide,— faith leading to sight, hope urging to progress, and love enabling us to work with Christ for the redemption of the race."


Blessings

Liberal or Christian..

This from the Memoir of Rufus Ellis looking back at the development of Unitarianism in his century...

"What has come in these days to represent here the Liberal Christianity of the beginning of the century would largely depend for its distinctive definition upon which of those two words, " Liberal" or "Christian," we should lay the stress of emphasis. Shall the term " Christian " be held in any way to limit the scope of liberality in sentiment or opinion ; or is the utmost freedom of speculation and belief concerning the historic elements of Christianity consistent with a loyal discipleship of Christ ? There is one very strongly distinguishing feature by which we may identify even the most advanced and radical style of Unitarianism of our days with the denominational tenets of the ministers and laymen who were first known as Liberal Christians. The late Dr. Hedge gave, in a public address, a fit expression to this identifying element when he said that" Humanitarianism " should have had preference to " Unitarianism" as a denominational title. If one should look through the early controversial literature, and especially the series of tracts issued by the American Unitarian Association, he would find that creeds, dogmatic beliefs, and systems of defined doctrines are always subordinated in their relative importance to Christian rules and principles for character and life. " Righteousness the central truth of Christianity ;" " Character, not Creeds;" " Practical Christianity;" "A good Life the true discipleship," are the themes on which the changes are rung in sermons and pamphlets. So the ethical and humane, the reformatory and benevolent elements which draw their quickening inspiration from the great Teacher have come to displace all dogmatic teachings concerning him. Those who ask the cynical question, " Has not Christianity proved a failure?" are readily confounded with the answer that " the world has never yet put true and essential Christianity to the trial."

Blessings

the only practical question...

Rufus Ellis was a Unitarian of the Old School who felt himself  part of a tiny minority as his years went on.  In this longish post, Ellis, in a letter, describes his view of Jesus which he calls "the only practical question."

Bar Harbor, Me., 11 Sept., 1878.
My Dear C., —. . . One of the questions which you put to lately as to the beliefs of the Unitarians, I am moved to answer myself in a few words. The lines which once divided Unitarians from Trinitarians are becoming very faint, because Christians have really moved forward, and are not much interested any more in the old issues. I find that those who profess to believe in the Trinity, and say that there are three persons in the Godhead, really mean only that God is manifested in three ways, and do not use the word " person" as it is commonly used. The only practical question any more is this: Was Jesus really and truly human; and are we to understand his divinity in any such way as to overshadow his humanity and make it unreal, or, as the phrase is, phenomenal ? Trinitarianism says Jesus had two natures, divine and human, and one person, and that one person was divine. He knew that he was God, though he seemed to be a man; he knew that he was God, though he was truly tempted, as the Bible says " God cannot be;" he knew that he was God, though there were things of which he was ignorant,— as, for example, of " the day and hour " of the world's end. His divinity was personal; his humanity was impersonal. Now, to me such a humanity is wholly unreal; I can make nothing of it. It would be no example to me. Such a being would be only God playing a part, — seeming to pray, to exercise faith, etc. Now, I believe, on the contrary, that the humanity of Jesus was a perfect humanity, and that a part of his perfection consisted in this, — that he was perfectly at one with God, conscious of being absolutely guided, controlled by Him, filled with all His blessed fulness, so that he was indeed for us the true light. It was a difference between him and others, not indeed of quality, but of quantity of being ; and yet there may be a difference of quantity which practically amounts to a difference of quality. Jesus was so pervaded and possessed by the holy love which said He is Our Father, and to whom he bids us pray (not to himself), that the distance between himself and God wholly disappeared, and he said, " I and my Father are One," — recognizing his own personality, which was human, by saying " I;" confessing God, not as another self, but as his Father when he rejoiced to be at one with Him. So he manifests the Holy Love and Divine Wisdom. God, so far forth as He is the perfect Holiness, dwells in him. When we see him we see the Father. God is no longer unknown. We worship God in Christ God in Christ reconciles us unto Himself. God in Christ forgives us. And we also see what man was meant to be; that it is the perfection of our nature not to yield to temptation, to be holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners; that sin is not a necessity (would it be sin if it were ? Is a sour peach to blame for being sour ? Is it not of the very essence of sin that we are not doing as well as we might ?). I think that all Christian Unitarians will gradually come together in magnifying " the Man Christ Jesus" as the one of all who have lived on earth in human form in whom the Word (that is, the God who manifests or "utters" Himself) becomes flesh; that is truly human, lives our life, shares our limitations, encounters our temptations, bears our sorrows, finds the way of Nature sometimes hard to bear, dies our death, and goes up again into the life of God. Jesus was all this, and yet was not God. I have seen and known two men who claimed to be so possessed by God; but they soon lost their mental balance and became insane. They lost their human personality; Jesus retained his,—was the best balanced human personality that the world has ever known, and because God was in him and with him, gathered and inspired and now masters a society which is destined to gather into its beneficent fellowship all the earth. I am a Unitarian because I affirm, for this world and for the world to come, the proper personality of Jesus, and through him and with him, when I pray, say " Our Father.."

Blessings