The speakers were Drs. Osgood, Bellows, Sawyer, and Chapin;
Rev. Messrs. Barrett, Peters, Mayo, Higginson, Miel, Blanchard, and
Frothingham; and Richard Warren and Horace Greeley, Esquires.
The Union seems to have been designed as a counterpoise to the large and
flourishing Young Men's Christian Association, which is comprised of
earnest and active members of all orthodox denominations. The platform
of the former may be determined from the following significant language:
"The Anniversary of the Young Men's Christian Union was the first
instance in which so many of the leading minds in the various branches
of the liberal and progressive portion of the Christian church have met
on one common platform, for the purpose of discussing the practical
bearings of that higher type of Christianity which refuses to be limited
by any dogma, or fettered by any creed."[259] One of the speakers, in
explaining the relations of the Union to the church, said: "We maintain,
then, that we are _in_ the church, _are_ the church--not a part of it,
but the whole church,--having _in_ us the heart and soul of orthodoxy
itself, the essence of all that gave life to its creed, the utmost
significance and vital force of what it taught and still teaches, in
what we conceive to be a stuttering and stammering way, in a cumbrous
and outworn language, with a circuitous and wearisome phraseology; but
meaning really what we mean, and doing for men essentially what we are
doing.
Pages:
858
859
860
861
862
863
864
865
866
867
868
869
870
871
872
873
874
875
876
877
878
879
880
881
882