Earl Clement Davis Papers I Sermons, 1905-1919 | Pittsfield, Unity Church, 1905-1919

Sermons, 1905-1919

Here is a selection of sermons that Earl Clement Davis delivered at the Unity Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. In at least one case ("The Place of the Church in the Life of the Individual and in Society"), the sermon was printed and published, but most of the sermons here were delivered from these manuscripts. The undated sermons are listed first, followed by a reverse chronological order.

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Behold: A Man

Earl Clement Davis

A concise statement on the ongoing vitality of human thinking and seeking, and against the "mindless" recitation of earlier thinking, particularly in religious matters. Davis says to forget miracles and instead look to current human experience and how to best understand it. He concludes that "God is much more the unborn future than he is the sealed past."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Can the Christian Churches Adjust Themselves to the Coming Age?

Earl Clement Davis

A concise statement of religion and science, of the historical trajectory towards knowledge and democracy, and how all the various Christian religions fit in, including Unitarianism. Davis states that "the Unitarian Church is an attempt to leave behind completely the idea of religion as a supernatural revelation, to organize a church without a creed, either stated or implied, and to work our way through into the Coming Age..."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Growth and Salvation

Earl Clement Davis

Earl Davis approached this topic twice. While it is pretty clear that “Irrepressible Impulse to Growth” is the first attempt (it is short and does not really come to a conclusion), “Growth and Salvation” reads as a full completed sermon.

Here we provide both versions of the sermon. The primary downloadable document is for the combined text and translation of “Growth and Salvation". This is followed by the separate documents of the aforementioned, and then the corresponding three documents for “The Irrepressible Impulse to Growth.”

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Liberty and Responsibilty in Religion

Earl Clement Davis

In some cases, Earl Davis bound together manuscripts in bundles. This manuscript is part of one such bundle of seven, held together by four brass fasteners. Six of the seven can be dated to 1918.

This is another in a series of reflections regarding the meaning of World War I and the change it will prompt. Davis regards Christianity as a way of living while alive, not as a counsel to count on the second coming. He states that though we have given up the idea of a "ready-made Heaven" coming down to earth from above, this false idea has been substituted by an equally false alternative, that of a ready-made Heaven emerging up from "economic laws, unaided, unguided, unfed, and not paid for in effort and sacrifice." Davis urges for an understanding and harnessing of social and economic laws for the good of humanity. He states that "what we need, and what we must have, is straight, solid, unbiased thinking, corrected, supplemented and balanced by the wisdom of the ages, and the wisdom of the present."

Date refers to Date Given and The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription.

The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Obedience to the Will of God

Earl Clement Davis

In this sermon, Davis considers the need for our obedience to God's will. He examines three aspects of Calvinism:
(1) Sovereignty of God (which Davis suggests is effectively the same as the sovereignty of natural law)
(2) Man's dependence on God -- again consistent with the idea that natural law covers the whole universe
(3) the doctrine of man's depravity and that of election by God. Davis calls this "obnoxious and revolting."

Obedience to the will of God includes "obeying the natural and moral laws." But it is more: it is a transcendent identification with God -- of all men with God -- with God's purposes and being. It is a loss of self into God. Davis describes the feeling of this state of identification.

While this manuscript has no date, there are internal references (included in footnotes of transcription) that strongly suggest this sermon was preached during Earl Davis' time as minister of the Unity Church in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Reformation Without Tarrying For Any

Earl Clement Davis

The advances of history are made by men and women who do not tarry for any. They push forward for their ideals. Thus did Christianity supersede the Roman Empire (and thus did Octavius create the Roman Empire to begin with). But the danger of success comes when calcification and lower drives intercede.

This manuscript has no explicit date. However the reference at the end of the first paragraph to a “great war” suggests that this was written after the US entered World War I and before the conclusion of World War I, between April, 1917 and November, 1918. This is confirmed by the paper on which the manuscript is written, which is identical to paper used for manuscripts that can be dated to this period

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Sermon on Labor

Earl Clement Davis

A short and possibly incomplete sermon focusing on the need for "an abundant life," a life that provides for the necessities and speaks to our creative and adventurous impulses to discover more. Davis states that we must respond to those "knocked into the ditch of poverty," and coordinate labor with thought. He includes quotations from John Ruskin's Crown of Wild Olive and The Stones of Venice.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Compelling Power of the Christ Like Life [Notes]

Earl Clement Davis

When Davis Baird was going through his grandfather's materials, he observed that many sermons were pinned together with a straight pin in the upper-left corner. This led him to expect another beginning-to-end sermon here, but it is clear that this sermon was never completed. Furthermore, the notes as they were pinned together are almost certainly out of order, with the last page of what we'll call “Version 3” out of place. We provide both the notes in the original order they were found, and the notes as Davis Baird reordered them. As always, there also a transcription of the reordered notes. The primary document combines all of these together.

In these notes are five different beginnings; five attempts, none finished, to argue for the power of a Christ Like Life as against a life of sin.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Democratization of Industry I

Earl Clement Davis

There are two versions of this sermon. An earlier incomplete version, with a slightly different title, “Making Democracy Safe In America: Democratization of Industry,” was one of the sermons in the “Four Fasteners Bundle.” That sermon was substantially expanded and worked over into “The Democratization of Industry.” Both manuscripts and their transcriptions are provided here, with the latter being the primary document featured.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Ethical Significance of the Changing Social Order in its Bearing on the Institution of Education

Earl Clement Davis

A sermon centered on the idea that education is fundamentally about learning how to live. It comes in informal ways over centuries -- eons -- the ten commandments were not "revealed" but were the result of "hundreds of thousands of years, and millions of human lives." He laments "some people seem to imagine that God is some kind of an expert head accountant, who spends all his time pouring over balance sheets of individuals and nations", reminding that "we talk and act as if we really imagined God were such a creature as that, but the rain falls upon the just and the unjust alike. God is no respecter of persons."

There is no date on this manuscript. However, the paper—size and type—are identical to sermons that can be dated to Earl Davis’ time at the Unity Church in Pittsfield (1905-1919). His early sermons (1905-07) there were hand-written. So this typed manuscript is later than 1907.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Ethical Significance of the Changing Social Order in its Bearing on the Institution of Government

Earl Clement Davis

Davis discusses how the forces of history continue pressing forward in all areas, including the government. Nothing is static or finished, and change is constant: "the impulse of an ever-expanding conception of democracy, have the best of their effort and thought. Today this same unseen spirit, working in the minds of men and women all of the land is changing, the form and broadening the scope of the common efforts of humanity. Through the change is coming greater freedom, higher development, and a sturdier, and nobler generation of men and women."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Hope for a New Age [Notes]

Earl Clement Davis

This manuscript consists of six half-size pages held together with a straight pin. The contents appear to be early attempts to develop a sermon on “The Hope for a New Age.” Each page of the manuscript in individuated in this transcription between horizonal lines. On inspection, the pages as pinned together appeared to be out of order. The scan of the manuscript and the transcription presents the pages in a more sensible order with three parts: (1) an outline sketch (1 page); (2) A first version of the sketch of the sermon (2 pages); (3) A second version of the sketch of the sermon (3 pages).

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Richness of the Religious Life

Earl Clement Davis

This sermon discusses three important elements to the religious life: (1) Evidence from nature of a powerful and ill-understood force behind the universe; (2) A realization that man is akin to God--both physically and more importantly mentally/morally; (3) A transcendent experience of being one with God and sharing God's purposes on earth. Davis is clearly motivated by his experiences in nature. He concludes that the religious life is not a sacrifice, but a "full complete, ever broadening life".

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Thirst for a Living God

Earl Clement Davis

In this sermon, Davis discusses God not as a static thing to be worshiped but as a symbolic way of "expressing our conception of the totality and essence of things".

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
What Is Christianity? The Letter Killeth but the Spirit Giveth Power

Earl Clement Davis

In this sermon, Davis looks at various answers to this question. He rejects a supernatural answer, an "evolving, but continue with the old language" answer. He rests with the spirit of Jesus's life and these two commandments: "Thou shall love the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and "Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
What is the Nature of Worship and Will it Have a Place in the Coming Age?

Earl Clement Davis

Worship is based in understanding the truths about our world and using the constraints of these truths to figure out how to make a better life. Davis likens it to a garden:

"I have a plot of ground which I call a garden and I have a desire to develop a more beautiful garden than the one that I had last year. I study my garden; I study the laws of flower culture, and I select seeds that I want and then develop a plan for planting the seeds and plants that, during the season, are to constitute the changing panorama of a garden. I can’t change the laws of nature; I can arrange the flowers and plants according to color and size so that I may have a succession of flowerings harmoniously related and placed. I gather together what knowledge I have about plants and the laws according to which they grow; I have the fixed place of my garden plot and some memories of other gardens. With these as raw materials, I draw in my mind a picture of a garden that exists only in my mind and, even in my mind, is subject to change. I make the realization of that garden, that exists in my mind, the basis of a season’s activities; it becomes a purpose, and to the realization of that purpose, my activities are bent. In the realization of this purpose there are certain factors which I cannot change and there are others which I can change and do change. If I take the attitude which I have towards my garden and transfer it to the world at large, I shall have an illustration of what worship, in its truest and best sense, is."

Davis says that prayer is all well and good, but primitive; we are all "inclined to become victims of the notion that we can bribe life and the universe and God." On worship, Davis says that "it is not a question of choice. Worship is a necessity of life."

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Why Does No One Go To Church?

Earl Clement Davis

Davis ponders what is the purpose of going to church? It appears to waste a productive day. Most of the contributions of churches in the past -- education, culture, philanthropy -- have been taken by other institutions. Davis "rejoices" in religion's success in prompting other institutions to take on these tasks. But still, then, why go to church? It is important for community making and it is important for prompting us to "see the bigger picture." Nice history of the sabbath in this sermon.

While this sermon is not dates, it is almost certainly from the 1905-1906 period when Earl Davis hand-wrote his sermons. In addition to the hand-writing, the paper is consistent with other dated sermons from that time.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Channing, the Apostle of Liberty

Earl Clement Davis

A discussion of William Ellory Channing's views about the dignity -- indeed deity -- of man and the importance of liberty in human life. Note that page eight of nine is missing.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Democracy and Socialism [Four Fasteners Bundle]

Earl Clement Davis

In some cases, Earl Davis bound together manuscripts in bundles. This manuscript is part of one such bundle of seven, held together by four brass fasteners. Six of the seven can be dated to 1918.

Earl Davis follows through on the common assertion at the time: "After the war, socialism." He ties democracy to socialism, stating that both give voice and power to all individuals. He then sees socialism as the obvious counterpoint to the surging inequities of industrial capitalism. Davis sees Socialism as the answer and felt it would be the obvious -- and salutary -- result of the war.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing. Transcription by Davis Baird.

Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Making Democracy Safe in America: Democratization of America [Four Fasteners Bundle]

Earl Clement Davis

In some cases, Earl Davis bound together manuscripts in bundles. This manuscript is part of one such bundle of seven, held together by four brass fasteners. Six of the seven can be dated to 1918.

This is an incomplete earlier draft of "The Democratization of Industry" (also located in this series). It is a sermon on the history of democratic government as it emerged out of feudalism, and its current conflict (meaning World War I) with the autocratic Industrial Empire. Davis sees this conflict as the defining conflict of the age. He states that one system -- political democracy or industrial autocracy -- has to have supremacy over the other; they cannot coexist as equals. Davis fears for democracy.
Peace Service Sermon: A Dynamic Peace

Earl Clement Davis

Davis' first sermon following the Armistice of 11 November 1918, marking the end of World War I. He believed Woodrow Wilson had significantly changed the war's purpose to be one of democracy against autocracy. Included is a lengthy quote from the H.G, Wells novel Joan and Peter. He ends his sermon with the same words he spoke after the war's initial outbreak, remarking on the exciting work to establish democracy and humanity world-wide.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Religion, in Life and In Reality [Four Fasteners Bundle]

Earl Clement Davis

In some cases, Earl Davis bound together manuscripts in bundles. This manuscript is part of one such bundle of seven, held together by four brass fasteners. Six of the seven can be dated to 1918.

This sermon is a commentary on the transformations being wrought by the war. Davis makes a case that "we are surging forward towards a better tomorrow." He supports this with some history: From the 19th century, "if we have learned anything at all, [it is] that God operates in and through human life, human history, human experience." God does not operate by revelation or miracles, and both extreme positions of pure materialism and pure spiritualism are untenable. He also observes that "the universe is ordered in intelligence, and to our tasks we must bring intelligence, disinterested, fearless, and keen. Every thought, every custom, every institution must be subjected to this test".

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The Great Tradition Becomes the Great Faith

Earl Clement Davis

According to a note attached to this sermon, it was given during June, 1918. Earl C. Davis also gave this sermon in Petersham on July 15, 1951.

This sermon is about the need for and search for "values that are good enough or true enough or beautiful enough to command our complete allegiance and fidelity; to give purpose and dignity to our life beyond the mere motions of animal existence." Jesus met this challenge in staying true to his conviction, even unto death; that was his commitment to his disciples in the story of the transfiguration. In current times with threat of authoritarianism we hunger for this kind of truth and integrity. There is also extended discussion of Henry David Thoreau's May 12th, 1857 journal entry.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
The New Era

Earl Clement Davis

This was Davis' first sermon after the outbreak of World War I. He blames the war on international industrial imperialism's century-long development. He states that this horrible consequence was to be expected given the imperialistic tendencies of all the nations involved (including the US), an imperialism driven by commerce and proselytizing so-called Christianity. Yet, Davis sees reason to hope, by working to establish a better world order based on democracy and humanity.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.
Good Will Among Men, Is it a Fact or a Theory? (incomplete)

Earl Clement Davis

This is the first of two 1909 sermons (the second being on the 'That Man May Live') David gave about the "real meaning" of Christmas. Davis is concerned that the real meaning of Christ is submerged in a bunch of sentimental pseudo-history, "pure and unadulterated rot." He discusses the Roman god Saturnus and the annual Saturnalia festival and holiday. He discusses Jesus' early life and initially becoming aware of his faith. He also talks about his early disciples. This sermon is incomplete.

Date refers to Date Given.

The primary downloadable document contains the original document followed by the transcription. The bottom of each item page also features the primary document as an embedded pdf for browsing.

Transcription by Davis Baird. Item description based off writing and context provided by Davis Baird.