UNIVERSALIAN THOUGHTS - Godbeite Transcription

 As found in the Mormon Tribune on April 9th, 1870

UNIVERSALIAN THOUGHTS

By F. T. Perris

True religion is universally conceded by the thoughtful of every sect and denomination to be the practical working out and application to our every day lives of the higher attributes of our natures, such as love, charity, mercy, justice, etc., and these are the fundamental principles requisite on which to rear a religious superstructure to educate humanity rather than a confining and trammeling set of dogmatic rules for religious observance. This was the embodiment of the thought in Joseph Smith’s mind when he gave utterance in one of his inspirational bursts to the words, “I teach the people pure principles and they govern themselves.” It was a glorious truth, purely democratic and universalian in its character and tendencies. It is the underlying principle necessary to all future religious advancement and progress, and must be a great plank in any platform that has for its object the elevation of the race to higher conditions of intellectual thought and the sweeping away of traditional forms of religious worship.

There is no denying the fact that special forms and rules are needed, and are absolutely better for certain classes of minds than higher conceptions; but to the mind that grasps humanity as a grand aggregate and understands the mental growth and characteristics of the various races and nations, from the lowest form of human life, the digger Indian, to the brightest intellectual ornament of the age, the merest glance is sufficient to show that a creed adapted to the capacity of the Indian and divine to him, is not the form that other grades of brain-power would require. So that a form of worship and articles of belief, divine and harmonious to the lowest stage of mentality, would be positive nonsense and utterly inappropriate to a mind more cultivated and advanced, and whose cravings for something higher must be gratified. Hence we can readily understand that all the various creeds which history furnishes any account of have had a divine essence and were calculated to lift mankind step by step to higher and brighter truths. What supreme folly would it be to present Catholicism or Methodism to the Mahommedan or the worshippers of Buddha! With what stolid indifference the aborigines of New Zealand receive the teachings of the English church?

It is but a just analogy to say that humanity from God’s standpoint is contemplated, and their conditions considered as a father views his family of children. The education and training suited to one is frequently inapplicable to another, and when forced on them without a proper understanding of their capacities and inherent tendencies leads to results most undesirable.

Mankind is as diversified in mental characteristics as in features or as nature is in all its varied grandeur and magnificence. Had the divine mind contemplated a perfect automatic system of thought and unity of action, why not have created all alike in the first instance, and thus have saved all the trouble of bringing it about by the tedious process of continued antagonism of mind against mind?

Man in his great variety is but a reflex of all other portions of nature, and in his diversity contributes to a harmonious whole. We see no two trees alike; each blade of grass and each grain of sand differ from the other, yet each contributes its share to make up the aggregate that constitutes a source of never-ending pleasure and gratification.

One portion of nature–a tree for instance–might with as much propriety say to another, “I have assumed the proper proportion. I have grown in all my details in accordance with the divine will. The color of my leaves is the peculiar tint nature desired when she brought us into existence,” as one mind try to enforce its peculiar conceptions of what a world should be religiously and socially, unless those ideas should be compatible with its education and experience.

The fundamental qualities referred to in the commencement of this article do harmonize with the highest aspirations of our natures, and their exercise applied to our lives necessarily involves a universality of thought which willl [sic] result in theology being universal so far as advanced minds are concerned.

Man’s mental status is undoubtedly a result of hereditary tendencies, education, association and influences. Hence his belief is as varied as are the conditions that have produced it, and is as much beyond the control of his will as was his ability to create all the surroundings that make up his individuality. A man became a Latter-day Saint from the circumstance that he has at some period in his life (probably accidentally) been led to listen to the teachings of a Mormon elder, and his mind being of that type that the doctrines were suited to, he yielded to his convictions. Was this a result of his will, or was he simply outreasoned?

Shall a fortunate episode in the history of this man place him immeasurably higher in the realms of celestial glory than another equally honest and good in his intentions, but whose characteristics of mind were different, and who, moreover, never had been fortunate enough to listen to the identical discourse that captivated his brother, and which even if he had might not have presented itself to his comprehension in the same light and with the same force. My conceptions of a just and affectionate father will not permit the elevation of the one to a superior bliss and happiness over the other in consequence of this inequality of conditions. Justice would take into consideration the purity and purpose exhibited by each individual and credit them according to integrity.

Mind acts upon mind magnetically. The strong, forceful and positive natures have ever controlled the weaker and more negative ones. Hence religious opinions and theories have been left to the more active brains for dissemination, and their deductions and assumptions have controlled and swayed the masses who have invariably allowed their religious nature to be moulded and biased by magnetic fire and eloquence rather than appealed to and convinced by the slow but irresistible evidences of common sense and reason.

True religion will be universalian in its endeavors to educate to a standard, instead of forcing or coercing, by creating a feeling of fear of some dread result, or loss of some great blessing to be gained by obedience to priestly dictation. It will also teach that one of the first steps to thorough social reform and the production of superior intelligences can only be accomplished by radical changes in the marital relation.

The world understands the philosophy of producing better kinds of domestic animals, but neglects the application of the same self-evident truth to the development of superior minds; and physical organization in the human family. How few there are, when contemplating marriage, philosophically study the affections and fitness for each other physiologically, and which if generally understood and made a part of life’s education would result in their offspring being a step in advance of themselves intellectually and physically.

This subject alone made a universal study and acted upon would be worthy the genius of the age and result in its incalculable blessings on future generations, and is one that needs no array of arguments to prove its utility. The question is how can it be accomplished? It is however a proposition that social reformers will at no very distant period investigate. The world’s progress demands it.

Universalian sentiments are an outgrowth of nations, nearer contact with nation, and are also a result of the liberalizing influences of traveling. Man can now see his brethren of every clime, in all their various phases and peculiarities of religious and political organization in an almost inconceivably short space of time as compared with the facilities for doing so fifty years ago. Hence we find intelligent and observant travelers liberal in their ideas and sentiments as a rule.

Had President Young traveled incog. within the last few years over the civilized portions of the world, and divested himself of antagonistic feelings, he could not have avoided the impress of its greatness and the gigantic strides it was making in the path of progression and refinement. Our elders unfortunately see too much of its worst features, and too little of the great efforts made in all civilized countries for the mitigation of evils, in other words they see only the one side of the great panorama of life.

Instead then of circumscribing our ideas, by theoretically claiming the truth and good in the world, and practically ignoring it let us expand in our ideas and sense the fact that the world moved uninterruptedly along in its grand development before our religious faith had an existence, and in all probability will continue to do so for countless ages to come.