The  most  distinctive  contribution  of  the  Baptist  pul-
pit is  that  of  freedom  of  teaching.  No  pulpit  is  freer
and  no  pulpit  is  more  loyal  to  the  truth.  Each  man
is  not  only  free  to  find  his  own  truth  and  express  it
in  his  own  way,  but  any  man  who  has  the  gift  and
desire  may  do  this.  The  Church  has  little  to  do  with
it  all.  There  are  few  paths  in  which  men  are  forced
to  walk.  Freedom  is  not  often  abused,  and  an  in-
creasing number  know  that  it  means  obedience  to  the
highest  use,  and  to  use  the  best  ways  of  fitting  them-
selves for  their  work.  Freedom  leads  to  self-reliance
and  courage  and  large  sympathies.     And  with  increas-


SOME  DISTINCTIVE  CONTRIBUTIONS        191

ing  culture  the  Baptists  are  known  for  the  generous
manhood  of  their  preachers.
The  Unitarian  Pulpit

The  condition  of  the  New  England  churches  out
of  which  Unitarianism  arose  as  a  distinct  form  is
thus  described  by  O.  B.  Frothingham,  the  biographer
of  Theodore  Parker.  **  The  doctrines  of  the  Puritan
theology  had  lost  their  hold  on  an  unimaginative  peo-
ple; and  with  them  the  fervors  of  the  evangelical
spirit  had  declined.  The  sinfulness  of  human  nature,
the  need  of  redemption,  the  deity  of  Christ,  the  aton-
ing efficacy  of  his  blood,  the  necessity  of  inward  re-
newal by  the  grace  of  God,  the  worthlessness  of  mor-
ality, the  everlastingness  of  future  punishment,  the
consciousness  of  acceptance,  the  immanence  of  Christ
in  the  Church,  the  eternity  of  bliss  for  believers,  were
all  more  or  less  thoughtfully  rejected  by  men  whose
sober  lives  had  settled  down  into  prose,  and  whose
experience  suggested  little  of  mystery.  The  preach-
ing lacked  inspiration:  even  the  prayers  were  didactic.
