Unitarians

in theology, those who reject the doctrine of the trinity but accept the idea of one God. Using the term in a broad sense, the Hebrews, who never accepted the divinity of Christ, are the leading Unitarian people. The term may be applied also to the Turks and Arabs, who declare that there is but one God and that Mohammed is his prophet. The Arians of the East, including the old Gothic and the Greek churches, were Unitarians to the extent that they declared Christ to be like unto the Father but not equal to Him.

In the modern use of the word, however, the Unitarians are an outgrowth of Congregationalism, both in Great Britain and in this country. Churches, Unitarian at least to the extent that they dissented from the strict Calvinistic doctrine of the day, were founded as early as 1672 at Salem, 1685 at Dedham, 1699 in Boston, and at Philadelphia in 1796. In 1792 Unitarian congregations were formed at Portland and at Saco, Maine. The denomination is accustomed to trace its foundation, however, to the establishment of a Unitarian church by Joseph Priestly in Northampton, Pennsylvania, in 1794 and at Philadelphia in 1796. One of the chief founders of American Unitarianism was William Ellery Channing, who became pastor of the Federal Street Church, Boston, in 1803. Other prominent Unitarian clergymen were Theodore Parker, James Freeman Clark, and Dr. Edward Everett Hale. Jared Sparks was installed pastor of the Unitarian Church in Baltimore in 1819. The American Unitarian Association was formed in 1825. Though founded by Congregationalism Harvard College early became a center of Unitarian influence. A large number of prominent literary and public men of New England have been Unitarians. The list includes Joseph Story, Wendell Phillips, Garrison, Charles Sumner, the historians Parkman, Prescott, Motley, and Bancroft, the novelist Hawthorne, and the poets, Lowell, Holmes, Emerson, and Longfellow. Horace Mann, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Dorothea Dix, Henry W. Bellows, and Thomas Starr King were Unitarians. At present the Unitarians have about 450 societies in the United States. No creed has been formulated. No examination or theological test is required for membership.

The theological attitude of modern Unitarianism was stated succinctly by President Emeritus Eliot of Harvard in a recent address in which he said that religion is not fixed, but fluent, and that it changes from century to century. He gave an outline of the new religion of this century--a religion having for its only commandments the love of God and the service of one's fellow men.

The new religion will not be based upon authority, either spiritual or temporal; the present generation is ready to be led, but not driven. . . . . . A new thought of God will be its characteristic. The twentieth century religion accepts literally St. Paul's statement: "In Him we live and move and have our being." God will be so immanent that no intermediary will be needed. . . . The new religion will admit no sacraments except natural, hallowed customs, and it will deal with natural representations of such rites. Its priests will strive to improve social and industrial conditions. It will not attempt to reconcile people to present ills by the promise of future compensation. Prevention will be the watchword of the new religion, and the skillful surgeon will be one of its ministers. . . . . The new religion will laud God's love, and will not teach condemnation for the mass of mankind. The true end of all religions and philosophies is to teach man to serve his fellow-man, and this religion will do so increasingly. It will not be bound by dogma or creed; its workings will be simple, but its field of action limitless. Its discipline will be the training in the development of co-operative good-will.