p. 148 | A Liberal Platform

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 25, 1871

A Liberal Platform.

A New-York paper gives the following account of a recent sermon by H. W. Beecher. The thoughts are loose and liberal enough for the freest thinker. He is not only all things to all men, but to all creeds. We suspect, however, that his declaration that he is not bound to keep Sunday is owing not so much to his lax views on most Scripture subjects, as to the clearly-ascertained fact that there is no sacred authority whatever for the institution. It is becoming more and more evident that the only hope for the first-day Sabbath is in human legislation. The report says:—

One of Henry Ward Beecher's boldest sermons was preached last Sunday, and it was supported throughout by a logic unusually powerful, even in the efforts of its distinguished author. He spoke very freely regarding the observance of the Sabbath. “Love with faith,” he said, “sets men free from the bondage of ordinances or ceremonies; says to me, ‘If you need them, use them; but if you have no need, do not use them.’ I do not keep Sunday because I think it a religious day as the law defines it. I keep Sunday because I love it; but I am not bound to do so. If a man say, ‘I feel at liberty to seek my Sunday in the forest,’ I say you are at liberty to. If he says he wishes to worship God in the fields, I tell him to do so. I may question his sincerity, but if I find him sincere, I tell him he is at perfect liberty to go. Do you call those heresies? They are shocking heresies, and for all of them I plead the example of the Church at Jerusalem, I plead everything that is 2,000 years old, and the age of everything from winds up to creeds is generally the test of its superiority.” He then spoke of the objection often urged by good men to association with those who differ with them on religious points, opposing it in a broad, liberal spirit. Paul, he said, encouraged such association, and he did it on principle. We quote from the report:

He made himself all things to all men that he might win souls to Christ. So if, for the sake of winning them to a higher life, a man conforms to the opinion of others, and acts in such a way as not to jar their educated beliefs, if he does this for the sake of winning them to a higher belief, then this is right. It is a miserable orthodoxy that cannot bear the contact with another belief. God sheds his sun over all alike, even on devils. When the terrible disaster at New Hamburg occurred, and men were rushing in crowds to the rescue, do you suppose it was necessary for them to stop and ask each other, “Are you a Democrat or Republican?” or say, “I am not going to be seen working along side of a Democrat”? For years and years, in this city of Brooklyn, the children of the Unitarian Sunday-schools have not been permitted to walk with the other schools on anniversary day. These little children are not permitted to walk the streets together for fear of contamination. There was one sad eye and one glad eye that looked at that scene. Christ was sad, and the devil was glad. If we have the love of Christ above all other things, there is not one human being on earth that you cannot own as a brother, or go down to him and work with him and for him. I could sit and worship in many and many a Unitarian church or Swedenborgian church, or Roman Catholic, or Baptist, or Methodist, or Episcopal. I could go their way if it was necessary, and I would not hesitate to be immersed, even as I immerse others, if I thought I could gain them on the other side of immersion. It is immaterial to me; but they are weak, and need it. But churches save the chaff and straw and let the wheat go where it may.