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Ethical Religion Affirms The Continuity Of Progress Toward Moral Perfection. It Affirms That The Spiritual Development Of The Human Race Cannot Be Prematurely Cut Off, Either Gradually Or Suddenly; That Every Stone Of Offence Against Which We Stumble Is A Stepping-stone To Some Greater Good; That, At The End Of Days, If We Choose To Put It So, Or, Rather, In Some Sphere Beyond The World Of Space And Time, All The Rays Of Progress Will Be Summed And Centred In A Transcendent Focus.

-Felix Adler

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Ethical Religion Affirms The

Felix Adler

...

Ethical Religion Affirms The Continuity Of Progress Toward Moral Perfection. It Affirms That The Spiritual Development Of The Human Race Cannot Be Prematurely Cut Off, Either Gradually Or Suddenly; That Every Stone Of Offence Against Which We Stumble Is A Stepping-stone To Some Greater Good; That, At The End Of Days, If We Choose To Put It So, Or, Rather, In Some Sphere Beyond The World Of Space And Time, All The Rays Of Progress Will Be Summed And Centred In A Transcendent Focus.

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The Past Speaks To Us In A Thousand Voices, Warning And Comforting, Animating And Stirring To Action.

It Is The Moral Element Contained In It That Alone Gives Value And Dignity To A Religion, And Only In So Far As Its Teachings Serve To Stimulate And Purify Our Moral Aspirations Does It Deserve To Retain Its Ascendency Over Mankind.

It Is The Nature Of The Noble And The Good And The Wise That They Impart To Us Of Their Nobility And Their Goodness And Their Wisdom While They Live, Making It Natural For Us To Breathe The Air They Breathe And Giving Us Confidence In Our Own Untested Powers. And The Same Influence In More Ethereal Fashion They Continue To Exert After They Are Gone.

Man Is Like A Tree, With The Mighty Trunk Of Intellect, The Spreading Branches Of Imagination, And The Roots Of The Lower Instincts That Bind Him To The Earth. The Moral Life, However, Is The Fruit He Bears; In It His True Nature Is Revealed.

Admitting The Force Of These Contentions, Nevertheless, The Custom Of Meeting Together In Public Assembly For The Consideration Of The Most Serious, The Most Exalted Topics Of Human Interest Is Too Vitally Precious To Be Lost.

People May Be Said To Resemble Not The Bricks Of Which A House Is Built, But The Pieces Of A Picture Puzzle, Each Differing In Shape, But Matching The Rest, And Thus Bringing Out The Picture.

An Optimist Is A Person Who Sees Only The Lights In The Picture, Whereas A Pessimist Sees Only The Shadows. An Idealist, However, Is One Who Sees The Light And The Shadows, But In Addition Sees Something Else: The Possibility Of Changing The Picture, Of Making The Lights Prevail Over The Shadows.

The Human Race May Be Compared To A Writer. At The Outset A Writer Has Often Only A Vague General Notion Of The Plan Of His Work, And Of The Thought He Intends To Elaborate. As He Proceeds, Penetrating His Material, Laboring To Express Himself Fitly, He Lays A Firmer Grasp On His Thought; He Finds Himself. So The Human Race Is Writing Its Story, Finding Itself, Discovering Its Own Underlying Purpose, Revising, Recasting A Tale Pathetic Often, Yet None The Less Sublime.

Ethical Religion Can Be Real Only To Those Who Are Engaged In Ceaseless Efforts At Moral Improvement. By Moving Upward We Acquire Faith In An Upward Movement, Without Limit.

The Ethical Manifold, Conceived Of As Unified, Furnishes, Or Rather Is, The Ideal Of The Whole.

It Is Our Hope, That Men In Proportion As They Grow More Enlightened, Will Learn To Hold Their Theories And Their Creeds More Loosely, And Will None The Less, Nay, Rather All The More Be Devoted To The Supreme End Of Practical Righteousness To Which All Theories And Creeds Must Be Kept Subservient.

The Hero Is One Who Kindles A Great Light In The World, Who Sets Up Blazing Torches In The Dark Streets Of Life For Men To See By. The Saint Is The Man Who Walks Through The Dark Paths Of The World, Himself A Light.

The Family Is The School Of Duties - Founded On Love.

The Right For The Right's Sake Is The Motto Which Everyone Should Take For His Own Life. With That As A Standard Of Value We Can Descend Into Our Hearts, Appraise Ourselves, And Determine In How Far We Already Are Moral Beings, In How Far Not Yet.

We Should Teach Our Children Nothing Which They Shall Ever Need To Unlearn; We Should Strive To Transmit To Them The Best Possessions, The Truest Thought, The Noblest Sentiments Of The Age In Which We Live.

It Is Written That The Last Enemy To Be Vanquished Is Death. We Should Begin Early In Life To Vanquish This Enemy By Obliterating Every Trace Of The Fear Of Death From Our Minds. Then Can We Turn To Life And Fill The Whole Horizon Of Our Souls With It, Turn With Added Zest To All The Serious Tasks Which It Imposes And To The Pure Delights Which Here And There It Affords.

There Is A Universal Element In Man Which He Can Assert By So Acting As If The Purpose Of The Universe Were Also His Purpose. It Is The Function Of The Supreme Ordeals Of Life To Develop In Men This Power, To Give To Their Life This Distinction, This Height Of Dignity, These Vast Horizons.

In Order To Join Vigorously In The Moral Work Of The World I Must Believe That Somehow The Best I Can Accomplish Will Endure, Will Leave Its Trace On Things, Will Aid The Final Consummation.

Religion Is A Wizard, A Sibyl . . . She Faces The Wreck Of Worlds, And Prophesies Restoration. She Faces A Sky Blood-red With Sunset Colours That Deepen Into Darkness, And Prophesies Dawn. She Faces Death, And Prophesies Life.

The Office Of The Public Teacher Is An Unenviable And Thankless One.

An Anxious Unrest, A Fierce Craving Desire For Gain Has Taken Possession Of The Commercial World, And In Instances No Longer Rare The Most Precious And Permanent Goods Of Human Life Have Been Madly Sacrificed In The Interests Of Momentary Enrichment.

Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other.

Inspirational Love

The Truth Which Has Made Us Free Will In The End Make Us Glad Also. Every Outcry Against The Oppression Of Some People By Other People, Or Against What Is Morally Hideous Is The Affirmation Of The Principle That A Human Being As Such Is Not To Be Violated. A Human Being Is Not To Be Handled As A Tool But Is To Be Respected And Revered.

Act So As To Encourage The Best In Others, And By So Doing You Will Develop The Best In Yourself.

People May Be Said To Resemble The Pieces Of A Puzzle, Each Unique, Yet Each Essential To Bring Out A Complete Picture.

What I State As Certain Is Certain For Me. It Has Approved Itself As Such In My Experience. Let Others Consult Their Experience, And See How Far It Tallies With That Which Is Here Set Forth.

Ethical Religion Affirms The Continuity Of Progress Toward Moral Perfection. It Affirms That The Spiritual Development Of The Human Race Cannot Be Prematurely Cut Off, Either Gradually Or Suddenly; That Every Stone Of Offence Against Which We Stumble Is A Stepping-stone To Some Greater Good; That, At The End Of Days, If We Choose To Put It So, Or, Rather, In Some Sphere Beyond The World Of Space And Time, All The Rays Of Progress Will Be Summed And Centred In A Transcendent Focus.

No Religion Can Long Continue To Maintain Its Purity When The Church Becomes The Subservient Vassal Of The State

Act So As To Elicit The Best In Others And Thereby In Thyself.

The Freedom Of Thought Is A Sacred Right Of Every Individual Man, And Diversity Will Continue To Increase With The Progress, Refinement, And Differentiation Of The Human Intellect.

The Ethical Society, Therefore, Is Like A Church In Maintaining, And Emphasizing The Importance Of Maintaining The Custom Of Public Assemblies On Sunday.

As The Light Of Morning Strikes Now One Peak And Then Another, Some Being Illuminated While Others Are In The Shadow, So The Light Of The Essential Moral Principle Shines Now Upon One Duty And Then Upon Another, While Others Are In The Shadow.

Simplicity Should Not Be Identified With Bareness.

For A Long Time The Conviction Has Been Dimly Felt In The Community That, Without Prejudice To Existing Institutions, The Legal Day Of Weekly Rest Might Be Employed To Advantage For Purposes Affecting The General Good.

We Cannot Adopt The Way Of Living That Was Satisfactory A Hundred Years Ago. The World In Which We Live Has Changed, And We Must Change With It.

There Is As Yet No Civilized Society, But Only A Society In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. There Is As Yet No Civilized Nation, But Only Nations In The Process Of Becoming Civilized. From This Standpoint, We Can Now Speak Of A Collective Task Of Humankind. The Task Of Humanity Is To Build A Genuine Civilization.

The Infinite, From Which Comes The Impulse That Lead Us To Activity, Is Not The Highest Reason, But Higher Than Reason; Not The Highest Goodness, But Higher Than Goodness.

For More Than Three Thousand Years Men Have Quarreled Concerning The Formulas Of Their Faith. The Earth Has Been Drenched With Blood Shed In This Cause, The Face Of Day Darkened With The Blackness Of The Crimes Perpetrated In Its Name.

The Unique Personality Which Is The Real Life In Me, I Can Not Gain Unless I Search For The Real Life, The Spiritual Quality, In Others. I Am Myself Spiritually Dead Unless I Reach Out To The Fine Quality Dormant In Others. For It Is Only With The God Enthroned In The Innermost Shrine Of The Other, That The God Hidden In Me, Will Consent To Appear.

Every Dogma, Every Philosophic Or Theological Creed, Was At Its Inception A Statement In Terms Of The Intellect Of A Certain Inner Experience.

But Even Our Pleasures Are Calculated And Business Like. We Measure Our Enjoyments By The Sum Expended. Our Salons Are Often Little Better Than Bazaars Of Fashion.

Few Are There That Will Leave The Secure Seclusion Of The Scholar's Life, The Peaceful Walks Of Literature And Learning, To Stand Out A Target For The Criticism Of Unkind And Hostile Minds.

Perhaps A Hundred People Assembled One Evening, May 15, 1876, At The Time When The Country Was Celebrating The Hundredth Anniversary Of Its Political Independence.

Dogma Is The Convictions Of One Man Imposed Authoritatively Upon Others.

The Unique Personality Which Is The Real Life In Me, I Cannot Gain Unless I Search For The Real Life, The Spiritual Quality, In Others.

No One Can Fail To See That The Power Of The Church Among Large Numbers In Many Communities Is Today Diminishing, Or Has Already Ceased.

I Believe In The Supreme Excellence Of Righteousness; I Believe That The Law Of Righteousness Will Triumph In The Universe Over All Evil; I Believe That In The Attempt To Fulfil The Law Of Righteousness, However Imperfect It Must Remain, Are To Be Found The Inspiration, The Consolation, And The Sanctification Of Human Existence. We Live In Order To Finish An, As Yet, Unfinished Universe, Unfinished So Far As The Human, That Is, The Highest Part Of It, Is Concerned. We Live In Order To Develop The Superior Qualities Of Man Which Are, As Yet, For The Most Part Latent.

If You Desire Information On Some Point Of Law, You Are Not Likely To Ponder Over The Ponderous Tomes Of Legal Writers In Order To Obtain The Knowledge You Seek, By Your Own Unaided Efforts.

The Platform Of An Ethical Society Is Itself The Altar; The Address Must Be The Fire That Burns Thereon.

May The Humanity That Is Within Every Human Being Be Held Precious. The Vice That Underlies All Vices Is That We Are Held Cheap By Others, And Far Worse, That In Our Innermost Soul We Think Cheaply Of Ourselves.

Love Is The Expansion Of Two Natures In Such Fashion That Each Include The Other, Each Is Enriched By The Other. Love Is An Echo In The Feelings Of A Unity Subsisting Between Two Persons Which Is Founded Both On Likeness And On Complementary Differences. Without The Likeness There Would Be No Attraction; Without The Challenge Of The Complementary Differences There Could Not Be The Closer Interweaving And The Inextinguishable Mutual Interest Which Is The Characteristic Of All Deeper Relationships.

To Care For Anyone Else Enough To Make Their Problems One's Own, Is Ever The Beginning Of One's Real Ethical Development.

Where The Roots Of Private Virtue Are Diseased, The Fruit Of Public Probity Cannot But Be Corrupt.

By What Sort Of Experience Are We Led To The Conviction That Spirit Exists? On The Whole, By Searching, Painful Experience. The Rose Religion Grows On A Thorn-bush, And We Must Not Be Afraid To Have Our Fingers Lacerated By The Thorns If We Would Pluck The Rose.

Painful Experiences

You Do Not Build Your Own Houses, Nor Make Your Own Garments, Nor Bake Your Own Bread, Simply Because You Know That If You Were To Attempt All These Things They Would All Be More Or Less Ill Done.

It May Be Impossible For A Man By Merely Willing It To Add Wings To His Body, But It Is Possible For Any Man, By Merely Willing It, To Add Wings To His Soul. This Perennial Miracle Of The Moral Nature Is Capable Of Happening At Any Time.

When The Light Of The Sun Shines Through A Prism It Is Broken Into Beautiful Colours, And When The Prism Is Shattered, Still The Light Remains. So Does The Life Of Life Shine Resplendent In The Forms Of Our Friends, And So, When Their Forms Are Broken, Still Their Life Remains; And In That Life We Are United With Them; For The Life Of Their Life Is Also Our Life, And We Are One With Them By Ties Indissoluble.

We Stand, As It Were, On The Shore, And See Multitudes Of Our Fellow Beings Struggling In The Water, Stretching Forth Their Arms, Sinking, Drowning, And We Are Powerless To Assist Them.

We Should Seek To Free The Moral Life From The Embarrassments And Entanglements In Which It Has Been Involved By The Quibbles Of The Schools And The Mutual Antagonisms Of The Sects; To Introduce Into It An Element Of Downrightness And Practical Earnestness; Above All, To Secure To The Modern World, In Its Struggle With Manifold Evil, The Boon Of Moral Unity, Despite Intellectual Diversity.

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