Gilbert Reid

A Christian's Appreciation of Other Faiths: a Study of the Best in the World's Greatest Religions Gilbert Reid

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...is not much of a proselytizing organization. Its interest in missions has been in the form of doing good and helping on all good causes, and of reviving the life that is within these other Religions. The Rev. Dr. William E. Channing once used these words concerning other Christian denominations: "Accustomed as we are to see genuine piety in all classes of Christians, in Trinitarians, in Unitarians, in Calvinists and Arminians, in Episcopalians, Methodists, Baptists, and Congregationalists, and delighting in this character whenever it appears, we are little anxious to bring men over to our peculiar opinions." This unwillingness to make converts characterizes social settlement work in England and America. It is this which has made the Unitarian body a small one, in comparison with those more zealous and also more sectarian, and has kept it from participating in missions, so long as the main idea has been to convert people from their traditional faith to Christianity. Unitarians need to understand that, leaving out the proselytizing motive, they have a duty as followers of Christ to live out Christianity and make the Christian message known to all the brotherhood of men. Unitarianism in the old Arian form was as much missionary as was the Athanasian. The first translation of the Bible into a vernacular tongue was made by Bishop Ulfilas for the Gothic peoples, and the Gothic type of Christianity was Arian. It was also Nestorianism which in the seventh century carried the Gospel to Persia and China. It was a member of the family of Socinus who carried the Gospel in sixteenth century to Poland and Transylvania, and it was the same Socinian scholars who translated the Bible into the Polish tongue. The Unitarian Churches of Hungary are the descendants of...