"UNITY OF SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE"

A MESSAGE AT CHERRY STREET MEETING

PHILADELPHIA, 9TH MONTH 2, 1849

How are we, my friends, to attain the state, so desirable, as just described, when there will be true unity of spirit in the bond of peace; when strife and contention shall no more enter, but when we shall experience the truth, that "they shall not hurt or destroy in all God’s Holy mountain?"

We may so far forget our sectarian predilections, and bury our prejudices as to feel great charity for those who have not found this spirit. We may even say as did the Apostle, "It was that through ignorance ye did it as did also your Rulers," but if we attain to the State when we can say "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"; we must come to understand that spirit, and by obedience be established in this high mountain of the Lord above the influence of sectarian feelings.

We desire this attainment but in what manner shall we seek and how shall we find it? In no other way, than by aiming and arriving at the great truth that the highest righteousness is the true condition of man; exalting the standard of justice and mercy, truth and honesty above all sectarian attachments in theological speculations. If we read understandingly and intelligently the religious history of ages long past, [we] find this standard of truth set above all forms and ceremonies by the prophets and righteous servants of God, from generation to generation.

When the people were just coming out of great barbarism; when, in order to satisfy their religious zeal, they even sacrificed their own children; and when in the progress of time, their veneration led them to build magnificent temples and palaces to the Highest, and bring their burnt offerings to the altar; the more spiritual and enlightened among them discovered that the Lord accepted not these things at their hands, as a substitute for true worship.

Practical goodness was at that day required, and not burnt offerings or sacrifices. Their worship in outward temples was not sufficient. They only ascended His holy mountain, and entered His temple, who were found walking uprightly and working righteousness. So long as they continued to take up a reproach against their neighbor, "to sit and speak against their brother, or slander their own Mother’s son," the rebuke went forth: "What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shoulds’t take my covenant in thy mouth, seeing thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee?"

The Jewish history as we have it handed down to us, [implying] as it does that there is one universal practical religion and that the God, our God has loved righteousness and hated iniquity in every age of the world, [in it] we find that no man has acceptably bowed before him who has not done justly, loved mercy, and walked humbly.

But let us come down to a later period; for it is with the present we have to do. We may profitably look back and examine the history of past ages but true religion does not consist in a veneration of the past, not in receiving the errors of any age as the word of God. The word of God we have to do with is that which is manifested to our souls in our day, which teaches our every duty, enlightens our understanding and leads us to discriminate between that which is erroneous, and that which is really and substantially true.

In reference to the religious observances of our day, we may well say as did the ancient servants of God "these things are not required at your hands" as a substitute for true religion. When we behold the imposing ceremonies of the present age, the magnificent temples and places of worship in Christendom, to say nothing of the so-called heathen world, who amid rude forms still exhibit that divine spirit breathed in all God’s children the world over, we must come to the conclusion that the universal church, of which we have just heard, is not composed of mere ceremonial worshipers. The fast which God has chosen, is to "loose the bonds of wickedness, undo the heavy burdens, and let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke."

Is there not as in ancient times a tendency to depend upon religious teachers rather than our own selves judging what is right, and obeying the testimonies committed to us? Instead of daring to reject the Jewish errors, lamentably prevalent in early time, we have them engrafted upon the Christian stock—not by Jesus—blessings, heavenly, divine blessings be ever upon His exalted memory—but by some of the early converts and apostles, introducing their theology into the primitive church. These errors have been handed down to us, declared the word of God, and believed in or assented to in all Christendom, as the true religion—the saving faith of the Christian.

This creed based upon the assumption of human depravity and completed by a vicarious atonement—connected with a belief in mysteries and miracles as essential to salvation—forms a substitute for that faith which works by love and which purified the heart, leading us into communion with God and teaching us to live in the cultivation of benevolence, to visit the widow and the fatherless in their affliction and to entertain charitable feelings one unto another.

While we see much error in the worship now practiced and feel bound to express our dissent and to become nonconformists, still in the present condition of the people it may be necessary that they should have their temples, their imposing forms, their psalmody, and their prayers, but it is not the highest idea, the most enlightened view of the exercise of spiritual worship of our God. These things may be aids to the piety of those who perform them in sincerity. Among the ignorant coloured people of our city they seem to require this animal excitement, these appeals to the imagination, in order to arouse them to a consideration of that religion which will regulate their everyday life and conduct.

So also with others who have their chosen ordinances—baptism of the communion and Sabbath day observances—these may be as school masters to lead them to Christ, but having come to the substance, what need they any longer of the shadow? While we recommend to all therefore not to continue in them after their end shall be answered, we must cultivate that charity which will leave all in the enjoyment of such forms and outward devotions as shall seem to them most fitting.

Our religious Society may derive spiritual strength from our silent communion, by mingling together and setting on "the quiet"; and by this spiritual exercise we may more nearly approach unto Him who is a spirit and who requireth of the children to worship in spirit and in truth. But let us beware how we imagine silence to be of itself acceptable worship.

It may be a means of quickening our devotions and we can respond to the sentiments expressed in this meeting, that there is a sympathy of hearts leaving us to come together and mingle feelings of devotion and tears of sympathy with those who have mourned because they have been bereaved. But when our better nature has been ministered unto, our higher and holier affections called forth, and our spirits drawn together in love, and in divine feeling one with another, let us not regard this as the sum and substance of our religious duty.

We should feel the importance of daily watching over ourselves, and striving to obtain the mastery over our animal propensities wisely bestowed by Him, who "giveth us richly all things to enjoy." We should strive to establish the eternal, the divine principle of righteousness and truth. And when we come together, we should try our faith, and our professions by this unvarying standard. Then, instead of going away self-satisfied with our forms and devotions, our belief or our faith, we should feel that we have something more to do, to make our actions consistent with our profession of Christianity. We should set a higher value upon good works than too many now do and we should endeavor to promote that righteousness which "exalteth a nation.

Were this the acknowledged and practised religion of Christendom think you that the spirit of war would still be so rife in the world? Would justice be prostrate in our streets and mercy be crying at our doors as now emphatically in the persons of the millions who are trampled to the dust by the iron hoof of despotism and oppression? In vain [is] all your temple worship, in vain your faith in trinity, or unity, in human depravity and original sin, the atonement by an imagined sacrifice—in vain all your forms and observances, while ye thus grind the face of the poor, give countenance to this most crying inequity of the land, this great sin of the nation.

Look abroad also into other lands. With all the high profession of religious worship[,] all the . . . church establishments, are not a proud aristocracy, a devouring hierarchy and a manufacturing monopoly in these countries crushing the oppressed people to the very dust and bringing upon them all the evils which are the concomitants, of such a state of poverty and wretchedness?

Who is so unenlightened as to regard the sufferings as the direct visitation of providence? As though God did not design that all his children should be happy.

Let us in view of all these things be concerned to discover how far we are implicated, individually and nationally, in war, slavery and other oppressions, in the famine and pestilence which we find abroad through the earth. I believe there is a heavy and mighty responsibility attached to us.

The more intelligent and educated in physiological science teach us that by a violation of the established laws of our Creator we bring upon ourselves these evils and destroy the blessed harmony which belongs to God’s creation and which can only be brought about by human beings coming into an observance of these laws, recognizing within us that holy glorious light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, implanted in every human soul.

Are there not many now present who know this truth, who have made the discovery that it is more blessed to give than to receive, who heed the claims of the poor and of the fatherless and visit them and minister to their wants? These hear the welcome message, "Come ye blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world for I was hungry and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me, I was in prison and ye came unto me."

May these principles spread, so shall we be brought into unity, one with another, and introduce that harmony which in faith we see in its approach when knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

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