independent religious organizations as the Ethical Culture Society
and the Free Synagogue. We must find, or create, a system of
membership which shall accurately and fully represent the spiritual
idealism of this church, as well as practical utility, at its best;
and this is a task calling at this moment not for action but for
meditation.

There is left the most important of all questions which I have
raised--the continued connection of this church with the Unitarian
denomination. It is to me an occasion for surprise that some of you
should have imagined that I was desiring, or expecting, action on
this matter last Monday night. I have been still more astonished to
hear, during the week, that some of you suspect or infer that a
decision on my part to remain will involve an immediate intention to
proceed to the capture of the church for purposes not disclosed. On
Monday night I gave expression to a conviction and a hope, and asked
you to register opinion thereupon. Beyond that I would not go, and
could not if I would. Those of you who have been Unitarians for
years, are Unitarians today, and desire to remain Unitarians, must
be protected in your rights. The indebtedness of this church to the
many in generations gone who have served it for the sake and in the
name of Unitarianism, must not be repudiated. Moral obligation as
well as legal necessity may make it impossible for this church to
sever connection with the body of its origin. Above all, I am
insistent that there shall be no quarrel or schism on this issue.
There may be place here for change by evolution, but never by
violence. No faction must presume to dictate what may [22]
come beneficently by consent alone. What I did on Monday last was to
plant in your minds the seed which found lodgement years ago in
mine. What I shall now do is to wait the germination of that seed