I must answer your question, "Why no denunciation of sin (by
Unitarians)?" In the New Hampshire "Statement of Belief" I first
sent you, if you still have it, you will find: "(4) In Human
Nature, as not ruined, but incomplete. Man is not fallen from a
primitive state of holiness, but is imperfectly developed. Being
imperfect, he is liable to sin.... _The essence of sin is the
failure of the higher nature of man to rule his lower nature._
Human nature is made sacred by the indwelling presence of God.
Humanity is not tending downward, but is divinely guided from lower
to higher forms of moral and spiritual life."
Starting from such a high ideal of man's nature,--that he is
created in the "image of God," and as found in the first chapter of
Genesis, I think, and in Psalms viii.: "Thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with honor and
glory,"--we feel him capable of so much, that our ministers are too
busy talking concerning _being_ and _doing_ good to have any time
left for denunciation of sin. Our great concern is to raise man in
_every_ way. Teach him to be cheerful, looking _forward_ all the
time, moving onward and upward, and to find no opportunity to spend
in vain regrets,--only looking at his sins long enough to learn
lessons from the past, that he may avoid them in the future. Our
sins leave a deep stain that will affect us during our lifetime,
but the only way to overcome them is to be so engaged in right
doing that we rise above them. Now, do you not think this a far
higher way of converting men than by dwelling on their weaknesses?
Give the world something higher to do all the time, and they will
naturally rise to that level. We start from a higher standpoint
than the Orthodox, therefore our methods are very different. We
denounce sin by avoiding it whenever we come in contact with it, or
evil of any kind, and there is no more effectual way of overcoming
it. Do you not see why it is we have ceased to speak of it in
sermons? We are too busy with the good, the true, the beautiful, to
pay attention to the wickedness. Dr. Dewey wrote some stirring
sermons, on "Human Nature." The topic of one is, "On the Wrong
which Sin does to Human Nature;"--text from Prov. viii. 36: "He
that sinneth against me, wrongeth his own soul." That was the
former way of dealing with and denouncing sin; but the later way
is, to take care always to place the better in people's way, and
the sins will fall behind. Think you not so?
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