It is the last time that I shall
enjoy the great privilege and honor of occupying this chair.
"Perhaps I may be pardoned, as I have said something of the
religious faith of my fellow Unitarians, if I declare my
own, which I believe is theirs also. I have no faith in fatalism,
in destiny, in blind force. I believe in God, the living
God, in the American people, a free and brave people, who
do not bow the neck or bend the knee to any other, and who
desire no other to bow the neck or bend the knee to them.
I believe that the God who created this world has ordained
that his children may work out their own salvation and that
his nations may work out their own salvation by obedience
to his laws without any dictation or coercion from any other.
I believe that liberty, good government, free institutions,
cannot be given by any one people to any other, but must
be wrought out for each by itself, slowly, painfully, in the
process of years or centuries, as the oak adds ring to ring.
I believe that a Republic is greater than an Empire. I believe
that the moral law and the Golden Rule are for nations as
well as for individuals.
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