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A PIONEER CHURCH—A Sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7, 1869, by REV. H.
W. BROWN, Minister of the First Unitarian Church of Sacramento.
Let us congratulate one another, friends, upon a new year of
our church. Let us be thankful that the “ lines are fallen unto ”
us in such “pleasant places?’ We may feel at home in Pioneer
Hall, for we are a Pioneer Church.
We are organized upon a principle which is in advance of the
practice of churches in general; the principle of union in the
spirit of religion without any formal expression of belief. We
are a church without a creed. The principle itself is not a new
one. We are not the first church to organize upon this basis,
but we are among the first; we are of those who have caught
the sound of the evangel before the main body, and who go
forward to prepare the way. It is pioneer work to remove ob
structions, to prepare the way for others. We remove the creed
from the threshold of the temple of worship, where we feel that
it has too long been an obstruction to fellowship in the spirit.
This will be called negative work. Is it negative work when
the pioneer cuts down and digs away, that there may be free
entrance to fair fields and broad rivers, so that willing multi
tudes may settle in the rich domain? Here are the “green
pastures” and “still waters” of Beligion—of reverent adora
tion and trust and communion, of kindly sympathy and humane
activity—-and many are kept from entering in and dwelling
joyously in company with their brethren and friends, by the re
quirement of assent to doctrinal statements of belief. Por our
selves, and for others so far as they choose to avail themselves
of our efforts, we do away with the obstacle. We found our
church on the basis of the religious purpose. We say to all : Do
you wish to unite with men and women to worship God and to
serve men ? we welcome you to our fellowship; to full fellow
ship, with all the privileges which any of us enjoy. We do not
ask what your beliefs are. We shall try to have the truth
preached among us from week to week, and we think you will
�believe that when you hear it; will very likely find it just what
you already believe, though you may not have admitted it to
yourself, or acted upon it.
Be it understood, however, that in doing away with creed we
are not doing away with belief. We are not saying that we
have no belief as individuals or as a church; we are not saying
that we think belief of no consequence. We think the belief of
the individual of so much consequence that we will not ask him
to surrender it, to limit it, to trim it in any manner, in order to
avail himself of the benefit of our fellowship or to give us the
advantage of his company. We thus recognize, we thus help
men to feel, the importance and the responsibility of individual
conviction. And as a church we have beliefs, beliefs implied in
the very purpose on which we are founded. We are united for
the Worship of God and the Service of Men. The worship of
God implies belief in God. And although it is impossible for
any one to express his whole thought about God, and none can
give satisfactory expression to the thought of others, it would
not be difficult, probably, to make some general statement about
the Divine Being and Character in which we should all agree.
That God is One, with various manifestations in nature and in
humanity; that His Spirit is in our minds and consciences and
hearts, and may be communed with there so as to be the strength
and joy of our lives; that He is good, too good to create any
being that shall by any possibility come to suffer eternal tor
ment; that the best names we can give him are Light, and Life,
and Truth, and Righteousness, and Love, and Father—I sup
pose all of us believe this about God. Why should we not say
so in a formal statement, and make it a platform on which all
who join us shall stand ? Because the platform is already under
us and does not require to be laid down; and because the laying
it down would give to belief a prominence which we wish, in a
religious organization, to give to religious purpose. We want
to emphasize the religious purpose as the main thing in a church.'
A belief may be a dead thing, but a purpose is a live thing. And
so we ask not Do you believe in God ? but Do you want to
worship Him ? If you do, we know you believe in him.
And the purpose to serve Men implies belief in men; belief
that men are worth serving. We believe in men as spiritual
beings; and we want to serve them as such by ministering to
�[3]
their spiritual nature. To that end we have prayer, and sing
ing, and preaching, and try to have it of a spiritual sort, such
as will do spiritual service to those who join in it. We believe
in men as moral beings; and we try to serve them as such by
moral education, by appealing to the sense of Eight in them, by
urging them to cultivate the conscience, by applying the laws
of Justice to practical affairs, and by pointing out the way of
Duty. We believe in men as social beings, and we try to serve
them as such by cherishing the social sentiment, in its deeper
and its lighter forms; by proclaiming Brotherhood and acting it
out as far as we can, by sympathy and help for one another and
for all within our range, and even by providing amusement and
entertainment of an innocent kind. And wTe believe in men as
rational beings, and we try to serve them as such by addressing
their reason, not endeavoring to exercise religious dominion
over them or authority upon them, which would be like the
princes of the Gentiles, though done by those who would be
great among the Christians. We believe in men after this fash
ion j that they are not so good but they need to be better, and
not so bad but they'may become good by the help of God and
men. But we have no dogma about their “ Fall,” or about their
rise and progress, which one must agree to before he can take
hold with us to keep them up and on. And so we enquire not
Do you believe in the Depravity of men, or their Regeneration
but do you want to serve them ? If you do, you believe enough,
at least to begin with.
We apply no test of character as a condition of membership
in our church, but we do not thereby imply that character is of
little consequence. If there is anything we are agreed on, I
suppose it is that character is of first consequence; that it is
more than belief, more than action. Belief is what a man thinks?
action what a man does, character what a man is. One may be
saved by “faith,” if his faith be such as to transform his char
acter ; one may be saved by “ works,” if his works induce in
him the righteousness of heart which did not spring up till he
forsook his bad ways and began to do right ; faith or works may
thus lead to salvation, but character is salvation. We do not
make it a condition of fellowship in our church, however, be
cause of the impossibility of our judging it accurately. We
can’t undertake to divide men into saints and sinners. We
�[4]
think if men are very bad they will not feel much at home with
us until they change for the better; and we are very sure that
if they resolve to do that, and try to do it, we can put up with
them if they can put up with us; for we all need that change*
As an organization we stand simply on the ground of the reli
gious purpose. That is the thread on which we are all strung;
not for us to say who of us are precious stones, who only beads
of glass; not to be determined by any profession of faith or
performance of ceremonial, but by the Lord of the hosts of
men, in the day when He makes up His jewels.
What makes us a pioneer church is that we organize the re
ligious spirit in its two-fold relation toward God and toward
men, without the ordinary obstacles of fellowship. We believe
a great deal—a great deal more than we could put into any
creed; but if people want to know what it is, we ask them to
come and hear oui’ preaching, or to talk with us as individuals.
We lay great stress on character, but whether our character is
good or not, people will judge for themselves.
We feel that we are really organizing religion by the method
we adopt. It seems to us that to lay down tests such as are
employed in most of the churches is, as has been well said, to
organize not religion but the negation of religion, viz -: “ exclu
siveness, limitation, privilege.” The profession of belief in cer
tain doctrines unites those, doubtless, who agree in those doc
trines and in professing them, but it separates them from others;
marks them off as distinct: and' all that “ union” can mean in
a Church which insists on belief in these doctrines as a condi
tion of fellowship is a union of those who thus believe, with
separation from those who believe differently. And the inevi
table differences of opinion must forever prevent the union
which Christians are so much desiring to secure. Opinion is
divisive; theological opinion as much as any. It makes sects,
that is, portions cut off from a main body. Religion means
“binding together.” The religious spirit would bind together
all who share it, and the church which would organize that
spirit should welcome all in w'hom that spirit moves. It is true
that, practically, differences of theological opinion, when they
are great, will prevent men from working together in a religious
organization; that, in fact, the members of any church will
agree in the main, and those who do not believe as they do will
�[5]
remain apart from them. But this very fact makes it unneces
sary to enact any exclusion. The centrifugal force of opinion
is strong enough without our pushing one another away in the
name of religion. Differences of political opinion often prevent
men from worshipping together, but would it be wise to make
a man’s politics a test of church membership ? Is that a very
different matter? Not so different, when the fact is that what
is called political opinion is sometimes a moral judgment, far
more intimately connected with religion than a question of
mere speculative theology or religious history. So also differ
ences of social position, of wealth, or of general culture, will
work in religious bodies, and people will be brought in or kept
out more or less by facts of this nature; but would it be the
part of religion to insist on any special degree or rank in such
matters ? It cannot be said that these are unimportant; they
are of more consequence than theological notions ovei’ which
churches have sometimes quarreled to the death. There are
circumstances in which it is of far more consequence to us what
a man’s tastes, habits, manners arc, than what arc his religious
professions. It is for those who would organize religion not to
encourage any of these divisive-tendencies, but to unite in the
central purpose of religion. This holds them together and does
not cut them off from others. Others may not come to them,
but the door is not shut against any, and none will be or will
feel excluded. The Church likes to be figured as an ark, in
which alone is safety in the flood of divine retribution that
sweeps over the earth. Is it for those who see men struggling
in the waters to say to them : “ Come in hither I This is your
only chance; but before you can be taken aboard you must
believe as we do; must believe that this ark was made by a
different process from anything else in the world, and out of
different timber, grown by miracle and put together by miracle.’’
And if those in the ark do act thus, is it strange, that the strong
swimmers say irreverently : “Go along with your old ark;
there won’t be much of a shower I”—while the weak and
struggling feel that such offers have very little “ grace” in them.
Is it not the part of the Church to say, Welcome to such shelter
as we can give ! we will do all we can to save you. You want
to .come—that is enough. Such a church is not exclusive, but
reaches out its hands to all with a free invitation. It is not in
�[6]
an attitude of separation from other churches, on the one hand,
or from the multitude who are outside the churches on the
other. We may feel that we are with the other churches in
this city, not- against them; we stand for religion, as they do,
against irreligion; for morality, as they do, against vice and.
iniquity. If they shut us out by any test of belief, we do not
put up any barrier against them; there will never be more than
one wall between us—the one they erect. And, on the other
hand, we are with the multitudes of people who do not belong
to the churches. We are with ^those who do not and cannot
assent to creeds and ceremonies which have no truth or interest
for them, but who desire a fresh interpretation of the everlasting
gospel of Truth and Righteousness, of the Divine in Humanity,
of the Kingdom of God on Earth. We know, indeed, that
there are many outside the churches who do not care for this
gospel or any other; who are utterly indifferent to spiritual
growth and health, given over to sensual and wicked living.
We are with these, not to encourage them in their wrong but to
help them to the right; we are for them, to help and rescue
them, and we wish we could make them feel that if they have
any earnest desire to forsake evil courses, and to lead a better
life, they may find with us tender reception and sympathy,
encouragement and aid. Peace and Good Will to churched and
unchurched 1 these are in the principle of our organization. If
we Will live up to the principle we shall get religious union
embodied in our Church.
Is it a cold intellectualism, this religion we are undertaking to
organize? It means a piety so genuine that it can employ no
forms which are not the natural expression and furtherance of
its own spirit of devotion; it means a sympathy so deep and
tender that it will reach out after the lowly, though in order to
save them it must let go the hand and lose the company of the
high. It means devout aspiration, consecration, holiness of
heart and life; it means kindly feeling and helpful deed. It
means Love to God and to Man; it means “doing justly, and
loving mercy, and walking humbly with God;” it means “visit*
ing the fatherless and widows in their affliction and keeping one’s
self unspotted from the world.”
Is it not Christian ? Then so much the worse for Christianity,
For this is the divinest religion yet revealed to man. But we
�[7]
think it is the very sum and substance of the religion of Jesus of
glazareth, as it is also of the Hebrew Law and the Prophets.
Some may question the need of a church like ours, on the
ground that the free thought and the liberal opinions which are
recognized and entertained by us make their way of themselves,
without the aid of special organizations to promote them. There
would be force in this if free thought and liberal opinion were
the chief need of society, and the only or the main purpose of
our union. Society wants freedom of thought, will have it;
and does not ask any church to give it, having learned to get it
in spite of the Church and to regard the Church as an adversary
of it. But society needs also religious impulse and inspiration,
needs moral instruction and education, needs humane develop
ment. It is the office of a church to give these, but the churches
in general give them in connection with a creed and a discipline
which repel free-thinkers, liberal minds. Hence the need of a
church which will do its religious work without limiting freedom
of thought. And it is for the lack of such a church that many
people are outside of all religious and moral influence whatever,
and others, who will have these in some shape for themselves
and their children, feel their common sense, and their inalien
able right to liberty of thought, attacked Sunday after Sunday,
and see their children taught doctrines which will be a burden to
them in mature years. We are not undertaking to organize
freedom of thought; we believe that might do very well without
a church, might get along by itself, or by the agency of the
press, or by a system of lecturing. We are trying to organize
Religion, allowing freedom. We want to impart vigor to the
sense of the Divine in men; to educate the conscience, and to
stimulate the sentiment of humanity; and to dok it without
infringing in the least upon the natural and sacred rights of the
mind, and we feel that the need of doing this is great. There is
a demand for the religious pioneering which we propose to do.
People might get along somehow in the ways of the spirit, but
with stumbling and delay; we want to make the road easy and
inviting, to bring low the mountains and hills and to bring up
the valleys; “ to make straight in the desert a highway ” for
religious progress.
Some will tell us that we cannot succeed, that we cannot hold
together without a common profession, of belief, and distinctions
�[8]
between godly and ungodly among us. But jve think that a
union in the religious spirit will bind us more firmly than a
profession of faith, by as much as sympathy is more than agree
ment. There is no need of laying down a platform of theolog
ical opinion. A platform does not hold together the people who
are standing on it. What holds them together is the purpose
with which they stepped upon it. And as to distinction between
“ converted” and “ unconverted,” they are no more essential in
a religious society than the distinctions of noble and commoner,
patrician and plebeian, in civil society. Our forefathers were
told that their community would go to pieces because they left
out these things. But they thought not; they thought these
divisions were divisive, that partitions kept people apart, and
that the best hope of union was in having no upstairs and down
stairs, no parlor and kitchen, built into the national mansion,
but in living on the same floor and meeting in a common room.
Differences would come, no doubt; the less need of enforcing
them; better keep as clear of them as possible. Is there less
union, less strength of cohesion, in the United States than in
governments that recognize and sanction differences of rank and
quality ? Differences will exist in a church ; noble and villain ;
no criterion of professed religious experience will avail to
prevent them; the spiritual peerage is not pure in any of the
churches about us, and among those not admittted to it there
are many nobly born ; but a stronger union is probable where
no artificial division is wrought into the ecclesiastical constitu
tion.
Of course there is question of every experiment so long as
it is an experiment. Pioneering is work that calls for trust and
energy and endurance. The main question of our success is
whether we have it in us. There is going to be outward
growth enough in this city to ensure the stability of our organ
ization, if we can answer for its inward growth. We must
not be easily discouraged. We are trying to raise the religious
grade of this city, which some think is as low as the natural
level of the soil. We are a corporation to effect just that. We
want to to make healthful and clean and convenient the ways of
social and moral life for this community; to get rid of theo
logical sloughs, and to lift men out of the mud of sensuality.
It will cost us money and labor, and it will be hard to get all
♦
�[9]
we want of both, and it will take time. And to make a good
road we may have to be put to inconvenience, and the new way
for a while way seem not so pleasant as the old; and it may
have a bad odor, as of tar and asphaltum in the nostrils of some
of the community; and some of the work may be poorly done
and need to be done over again ; and those for whom we work
may be dissatisfied with our survey and our plans, and our
execution of them, and we rnay sometimes be dissatisfied
ourselves. But we are doing a good work and one which
the city will yet bless us for.
It is work we are put
into the world, into our generation, for.If we can realize
that, we shall do it cheerfully; shall not be surprised that
it grows upon us, but shall expect it to make more and
more demand upon us, and only desire that our ability and
our will may increase with our opportunities. We need some
thing more than belief in the ends we propose ; we need devo
tion to them; as in order to be a California Pioneei’ it was not
enough to believe in California, but to go there, and to go early.
If we are content to forget our own comfort and convenience
in consecration to the common good, we shall not be discour
aged, and we shall succeed.
When I say we are a pioneel’ church, I do not claim that we
are discoverers of any new or unknown country of the spirit.
We are merely taking possession of the region of religious
faith and humane work which has been heard of from the
earliest times, and where the great leaders of religion have al
ways pitched their tents. There may be truth which we have
not yet come up with even in our belief, to say nothing of our
practice. Let us always keep an open ear for that! But we
propose to camp on what seems to us the most advanced
ground; to settle down here into some sort of orderly living—to
become a religious community. There is a respectable number
of us already; we are not scattered so much as to be out of
hail of one another’s homes, and we want to make society. We
want to concentrate and organize our religious sentiment and
conviction, that they may be more efficient, may make better
way. And we invite and welcome the fellowship and assistance
of all, though we depend mainly on ourselves—on the Div ine
Spirit in us which leads into all Truth and Right if we only
follow.
��
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Victorian Blogging
Description
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Pamphlet
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Title
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A pioneer church: a sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7 1869
Creator
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Brown, H.W.
Description
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Place of publication: Sacramento
Collation: 9 p. ; 22 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. By Rev. H.W. Brown, minister of the First Unitarian Church of Sacramento. Printed by request.
Publisher
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H.S. Crocker & Co.
Date
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1869
Identifier
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G5264
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Unitarianism
Sermons
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (A pioneer church: a sermon preached in Pioneer Hall, February 7 1869), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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Text
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English
Conway Tracts
Unitarianism