In our day we have seen something of an
Evangelical Alliance,
that is, a manifestation of the great fact that people are
yearning after a Catholic union, and are caring less and less for
denominational differences. The Unitarians all speak and
write of the orthodox as of a body of Christians perfectly
distinct from themselves. Yet there is an approximation
between them, nevertheless.
Unitarianism, as it becomes a
living faith — as it leans to the theology of the sweetest
singers and most impassioned orators of the universal
Church — becomes in sentiment and
practice
orthodox; while orthodoxy, as it grows enlightened, and burst the
bonds of habit, and, laden with the spoils of time, gathers up
the wisdom and the teaching of all the ages underneath the sun,
sanctions the Rationalism and the spirit of free inquiry for
which Unitarianism has ever pleaded and its martyrs have died in
our own and other lands.
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| Sign on a UU church in the United States. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Actually, at the meeting of the
British and Foreign Unitarian Society, an effort was made to get
rid of the title altogether, and to call themselves instead a
British and Foreign Free Christian Association, on the plea that
the Christian Church consists of all who desire to be the
children of God in the spirit of
Jesus Christ His Son, and that,
therefore, no association for the promotion of a
doctrine which
belongs to controversial theology can represent the Church of
Christ. To this Unitarianism has attained in our
time. This is the teaching of Foster, and Ham, and Ierson,
and Martineau — a teaching seemingly in accordance with the
spirit of the age.
Unitarian theology is always coloured
with the philosophy of the hour, and consequently it is now
spiritual and transcendental instead of material and
necessitarian.
As regards
London, the statistics of Unitarianism are easy of
collection. In their register we have the
names of fifteen places of worship, where
HolyScripture is the only rule of
faith, and difference of opinion is
no bar to Christian communion. In reality Unitarians are
stronger than they seem, as in their congregations you will find
many persons of influence, of social weight, of literary
celebrity. For instance,
Sir Charles Lyell and
Lord
Amberley are, I believe, among the regular attendants at Mr.
Martineau’s chapel in
Portland Street. At that chapel
for many years Charles Dickens was a regular hearer. The
late Lady Byron, one of the most eminent women of her day,
worshipped in
Essex Street Chapel, when Mr. Madge preached
there. In London the Unitarians support a domestic mission,
a Sunday-school association, an auxiliary school association, and
a London district Unitarian society.
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p. 196 - p 204 from The Religious Life of London
by J. Ewing Ritchie
Release Date: June 16, 2010 [eBook #32844]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Religious Life of London, by J. EwingRitchie
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