unit of great importance is the electric charge represented by 1 electron (see Electricity). This according to the latest determination is nearly 3.4×10−10 electrostatic units of quantity on the C.G.S. system. Hence, 2930 million electrons are equal to 1 E.S. unit of quantity on the C.G.S. system, and the quantity called 1 coulomb is equal to 879×1016 electrons. In round numbers 9×1018 electrons make 1 coulomb. The electron is nature’s unit of electricity and is the charge carried by 1 hydrogen ion in electrolysis (see Conduction, Electric, § Liquids). Accordingly a truly natural system of physical units would be one which was based upon the electron, or a multiple of it, as a unit of electric quantity, the velocity of light or fraction of it as a unit of velocity, and the mass of an atom of hydrogen or multiple of it as a unit of mass. An approximation to such a natural system of electric units will be found discussed in chap. 17 of a book on The Electron Theory, by E.E. Fournier d’Albe (London, 1906), to which the reader is referred.
See J. Clerk Maxwell, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, vol. ii. chap. x. (3rd ed., Oxford, 1892); E. E. N. Mascart and J. Joubert, Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, translation by E. Atkinson, vol. i. chap. xi. (London, 1883); J. D. Everett, Illustrations of the C.G.S. System of Units (London, 1891); Magnus Maclean, Physical Units (London, 1896); Fleeming Jenkin, Reports on Electrical Standards (London, 1873); Reports of the British Association Committee on Electrical Units from 1862 to present date; J. A. Fleming, A Handbook for the Electrical Laboratory and Testing-Room (2 vols., London, 1901); Lord Rayleigh, Collected Scientific Papers, vol. ii. (1881-87); A. Grey, Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism, vol. ii. part ii. chap. ix. p. 150 (London, 1893); Oliver Heaviside, Electromagnetic Theory, i. 116 (London, 1893); Sir A. W. Rücker, “On the Suppressed Dimensions of Physical Quantities,” Proc. Phys. Soc. Lond. (1888), 10 37; W. Williams, “On the Relation of the Dimensions of Physical Quantities to Directions in Space,” Proc. Phys. Soc. Lond. (1892), 11, 257; R. A. Fessenden, “On the Nature of the Electric and Magnetic Quantities,” Physical Review (January 1900). (J. A. F.)
UNIVERSALIST CHURCH, a religious body organized in
the United States, and represented chiefly by parishes and
churches in that country and in Canada. While the distribution
of the denomination extends to every state in the Union, the
greater number of organizations and members are found in New
England and New York.
A distinction should be noted between Universalism and the Universalist denomination. Universalism is found very early in the history of the Christian Church—apparently from the beginning. It was certainly held and taught by several of the greatest of the Apostolic and Church fathers: as Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, Origen and probably by Chrysostom and Jerome. It was taught in a majority of the Christian Schools of the second and third centuries; at Alexandria, at Antioch, at Edessa and at Nisibis.[1] But the Universalist denomination is of modern origin and confined mostly to the American continent. It dates from the arrival in Good Luck, N.J., of the Rev. John Murray (1714–1815),[2] of London, in September 1770; although there were some preachers of the doctrine in the country before Mr Murray came. He preached in various places in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts, and societies sprang up as the result of his ministry in all these states. His first regular settlement was in Gloucester, Mass., in 1774, whence in 1793 he removed to Boston, which from that time forth became the headquarters of the denomination. A contemporary of Murray in his later years was Hosea Ballou (q.v.), also of Boston, who soon became the recognized leader of the movement, and for half a century was its most honoured and influential name. During his ministry the sect developed from twenty or thirty churches to five hundred, with a distribution over the Eastern and Middle states. In the period of Mr Ballou’s domination little attention was paid to organization. It was the period of the propagation of the doctrine and of the controversies to which that gave rise. But about 1860 began an agitation for a more coherent organization, and a polity better suited to unity and progress than the spontaneous congregationalism that had developed during the earlier period. The result of that agitation was the adoption, at the Centennial Convention in 1870, of a somewhat elaborate plan of organization, and a manual of administration under which the denomination has since been conducted.
The plan of organization of the Universalist body follows, with necessary modifications, the scheme of the civil organization of the national government. While the local parish is the unit, the states are organized as independent federations, and combined into a national congress or convention. The parishes within the territory of a state are organized into a state convention; representatives, duly elected by the several state conventions, constitute the General Convention, which is the supreme legislative authority of the denomination. The state conventions meet annually; the General Convention once in two years. In the interval of sessions a Board of Trustees, consisting of eleven members, of whom the secretary, the chief administrative officer of the Convention, is one, administer the affairs of the denomination, except those concerns “reserved to the state sand the people.”
Doctrine.—The historic symbol of the denomination remains the Winchester Profession, adopted at the meeting of the General Convention—then a spontaneous yearly gathering of Universalists, without ecclesiastical authority—in Winchester, N.H., in Sept. 1803. It consists of three brief articles, as follows:-
Article I.—We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.
Article II.—We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness.
Article III.—We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.[3]
At the session of the General Convention in Boston in October 1900, a still briefer “Statement of Essential Principles” was adopted and made the condition of fellowship, in the following terms:—
1. The Universal Fatherhood of God; 2. the Spiritual authority and leadership of His Son, Jesus Christ; 3. the trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a revelation from God; 4. the certainty of just retribution for sin; 5. the final harmony of all souls with God.
Universalism, shortly described, is the belief that what ought to be will be. In a sane and beneficent universe the primacy belongs to Truth, Right, Love. These are the supreme powers. The logic of this conception of the natural and moral order is imperious. It compels the conclusion that, although we see not yet all things put under the sway of the Prince of Peace, we see the Divine plan set forth in Him, and cannot doubt the consummation which He embodies and predicts. Universalists are those members of the Christian family in whom this thought has become predominant. The idea that there is a Divine order, and that it contemplates the final triumph of Good over Evil, in human society as a whole and in the history of each individual, has taken possession of them. Hence they are Universalists.
- ↑ See Dr Edward Beecher’s History of Opinions on the Scriptural Doctrine of Retribution (New York, 1878), and Hosea Ballou 2nd’s Ancient History of Universalism (Boston, 1829).
- ↑ A Wesleyan, then a follower of Whitefield, Murray became a Universalist after reading the tract on Union (1759) written by James Relly (1720–1778), minister of a Universalist congregation in London. Murray was a chaplain in a Rhode Island brigade during the War of American Independence, and a friend of General Nathanael Greene. His Universalism was Calvinistic in its tone, arguing from a universal election to a universal redemption—Ballou first openly broke with Calvinism. Murray’s parish in Gloucester through him brought successful suit for the recovery of property appropriated for the use of the original (Congregational) parish, and thus gained the first legal recognition granted in New England to a Universalist society. See the Autobiography (Boston, 1816) edited by his wife, Judith Sargent Murray (1751–1820).
- ↑ Certain Universalists objected to the last clause of Article II. as implying a universal fall in Adam’s sin; and others objected to the material and utilitarian construction which might be put on the last clause of Article III.
