THE UNIVERSAL CHURCH;

ITS FAITH, DOCTRINE, AND CONSTITUTION.

BOOK I.

INTRODUCTION.

THE Universal Church is so called because the great truths which it teaches are common to all created beings throughout the universe: and as all such beings are immortal, and exist, for ever progressing and for ever active in the service of God, their Creator, Lord, and Master, so is the Church everlasting as well as universal, and forms the connecting link between the present and the future, between this world and the life to come. Nor is the word "Church" to be understood as implying anything more than the whole body of those who hold the faith; the congregation, ministers, and councils in one combined body, forming the true Church on earth.

The Church, moreover, is universal, because from the earliest times, through all ages, and amongst all nations, it has never ceased to exist, though often in secret, hidden and stricken down by its foes: it still was in existence so long as one man alone held the truth, and transmitted it on to his descendants.

It is universal, for it includes and contains all other churches, as the greater does the less; seeks to assimilate them to itself, to purge them of their evil, and retain and utilise what is good in them all. It will destroy truth in no church, but preserve it; and that is all the various churches themselves profess to desire. But it goes further, and recognising what truth the world has, to be still partial and imperfect, seeks to advance and amplify it. We shall extend the limits of our holy land, plant it with all truth-bearing trees, and nourish them so that they may all bear good fruit, useful in their season. We will

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keep such truth, moreover, as we possess, pure and free from taint, which it cannot be when combined with error, falsities, ignorance, and superstition.

Superstition makes the night of the soul; in past creeds there has always been a glimmering of reflected light from the sun upon the moon, and from the stars of the night; but since superstition resembles night, and is truly spiritual darkness, the moon has been its principal luminary, and the orbs of heaven its lesser lights; but however beautiful is such a night, however cloudless the sky and pure the air, it is night still, well fitted may be for repose, for meditation, and the contemplation of God's glory in the heavens, but not adapted for active work. And as when the great orb of day arises in his strength and glory, the lesser and reflected lights all disappear before the overpowering, the brilliant rays of the sun, so when the sun of truth dawns upon the obscurity of the soul's night, it brings with it the blessed light and heat of spiritual life. Man no longer stumbles in the darkness, is affrighted by fantastic shadows, and is scared by phantoms, nor wastes his life in fanciful and fruitless meditation, but hears the voice of his Lord and Master, borne on the morning breeze, calling upon him to be up and doing; to be active in the service of his God; active for his own advancement; active for the welfare of his fellow-creatures; active against sin; active against error; active in well-doing; active in all good deeds whilst yet the day shall last.

Let us all work, then, whilst there is light, for the time is not far distant when our evening hour draws near, when night on earth will set in and close around us, each in his turn; that night which is the harbinger indeed of a brighter morn, but which shuts us out from earthly work for ever.

Those great churches of the past, to whom truth has been confided in trust for all mankind, have more or less failed in their mission, and have perverted what truth they had in charge to their own selfish ends. All such truth, however, it is the mission of the Universal Church to search out, exhume, and bring once again to light. Whatever great spiritual and moral principles are still embodied in existing churches, will be combined with the

later revelations and sounder knowledge, the science and experience of the Universal Church.

The

In her re-lives the spirit of the most antique past. Asia, as well as Europe, will, by her means, reap the growth of seeds sown throughout their lands, in the earliest ages of humanity. India, Persia, Judæa, Egypt, Greece, Rome, all have served in the religious development of man's spiritual life, and all will yet serve to assist in his onward, though difficult progress. No good seed once sown but has borne fruit, and left more seed for future growths. No good thing shall be lost, nothing rejected or cast away which can be of service to mankind. Church wills not to destroy, but to remould; not to scatter, but to collect; not to disjoin, but to combine; not to patch up, but to rebuild. In effecting such a purpose, however, a greater or less amount of pulling down and reconstruction is absolutely necessary, in proportion as it is found that the old work is in a good and fit state to be recombined and united with the new edifice; that glorious temple of the faith which is yet to rise in honour of the One, only true and living God, the Creator of man, the world, and the universe. But, it may be said, all that the Universal Church professes is little else but what we have often heard before, and is known as Natural religion. We accept the term; we desire nothing better than that our religion should be called natural, in contradistinction to others which are unnatural; and as it is natural, so is it rational, as opposed to irrational religion; practical, as differing from speculative; and true as distinguished from false religion.

True religion has no necessary connection with any church, but is that which informs our souls as to the existence and providence of a great and good Creator, and expounds the duties which we are bound to perform towards Him and towards our fellow creatures. Nor can this knowledge alone render mankind religious, though it forms the groundwork of all faith; but the love and reverence which flow from the first, and a life directed by the principles of the last: by these and these alone can man deserve the name of a religious being. The true faith of the Universal Church is alone catholic and eternal; and all other creeds calling themselves catholic, are only

transient states of religious development, adapted to the times in which they flourish, but one after another broken up as an entirety, and submerged by every succeeding wave of the great ocean of spiritual life, the ever flowing tide of which, the churches and their ministering priests, madly and in vain endeavour to drive backwards or to

arrest.

True religion consists in the doctrine of Love the Lord thy God, and seek in all things to obey and love His laws; seek in every way thy neighbour's welfare; seek also unselfishly thy own.

These injunctions we are all bound, for our own sakes, for the sake of mankind, for the sake of cur Maker, to fulfil, so far as in us lies; and in seeking the best methods, in choosing the most effectual and practical means of attaining that desired end, we must stand in awe of no secession from conventional ideas; no impending condemnation; no authority which would impede our progress; no censure which our fellow-creatures may attach to us. To this end we steadily adhere, and the attainment of it, be sure, can confer nothing but final happiness and glory upon us, and upon our descendants, to the end of time.

It is not uncommon to meet with persons who weep tears of blood over their thick-coming doubts; to give up old and cherished opinions is always more or less painful. We grieve to part with old friends and companions who have accompanied us on a long and wearisome journey, full of peril and adventure, even though they have led us often astray, and caused us to miss the right road. Men are attached to their creeds by a thousand delicate nerves of feeling, to sever which must always cause pain. But the soul which desires and earnestly seeks after the Truth must be prepared for suffering. The search is difficult, and perhaps painful, but there is really nothing to justify either this shrinking fear, or terrible spiritual anguish. Nothing should affright us but sin." It cannot be so; if conscience tells us that the result will be to make us love our Maker more nobly, truly, and tenderly; destroy false ideas which distract and mislead the soul; to render existence more useful to ourselves and to our fellows, and furnish man with more practical rules of

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