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Polity Among the Universalists: The First Century (1770-1870)

Introduction by Peter Raible

In its assessment of the first fifteen years of merger, the Commission on Appraisal began with background, in which it stated:

It has been said of the Universalists, “They began with neither script nor purse,” with only a great theological principle, and gathered their congregations largely from the unchurched, and from dissident elements in the orthodox churches. 

Gerard Manley Hopkins

GOD’S GRANDEUR

The world is charged with Your grandeur, O God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do we then now not reck Your rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared smeared with toil;
And sears our smudge and shares our smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.…