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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Robert Louis Stevenson, the Man of an Understanding Heart

Earl Clement Davis

A biographical study of Robert Louis Stevenson with a focus on his interest in, and care for, all the humans he interacted with. Special emphasis is placed on his burial on Samoa.

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.
That Man May Live

Earl Clement Davis

The second of two December 1909 sermons ("Good Will Among Men" is the first) on the "real meaning of Christmas. Davis says to honor Jesus -- to really honor him -- is to recognize that he really believed in creating heaven on earth. We have to do the work now to strive for that ideal and not worship some past hero -- such as Jesus -- and hope that said past hero will save us today. Such focus on the past distracts from the hard work needed today to create the better future for tomorrow.

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 Adventurous Task of the Church

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909. This sermon traces a long history of defensive defeats on the part of the church defending its once central place based on supernatural revelation. It starts with the conflict between Frederick II and Pope Gregory IX and continues through the Reformation and the scientific/historical studies of the Bible and of Jesus.

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 Fate of Tomlinson

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

The sermon concerns morally innocuous people -- not bad, but also not good. Rudyard Kipling's poem "Tomlinson" is used to make the case that such people are not doing their duties as human beings.

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.
The Individual and Society

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

In this sermon Davis considers, and rejects, two extreme views: complete determinism and complete personal responsibility.

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 Inevitable Compensation of Thought and Conduct

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

With reference to the idea of a "Religion of Healthy-Mindedness", as put forth by William James' in Varieties of Religious Experience, this sermon looks at the transition from a wrathful God to a loving God. Davis spends time warning against a "sentimentalist" idea of a loving God for which anything goes.

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 Making of Reality

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection —“bundle #4”— that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

The sermon focuses on the fact that humans make their realities -- at least partially -- and at least occasionally by design, following our ideals. Davis uses a play -- Herod: A Tragedy, by Stephen Phillips -- to illustrate his point.

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 Nature and Function of the Church

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

This sermon argues that there is a religious impulse -- an impulse to connect to "the infinite," or "the unseen" -- in human nature. Churches exist to support this impulse. This is an incomplete sermon manuscript, ending after just three pages.

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 Spirit of the Times

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection — “bundle #4” — that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

This sermon explores two principles of the modern world: (1) Democracy -- every person counts, and (2) Labor -- one should only achieve by one's labor. Davis traces the long germination of these ideas back as far as the Peasant's revolt of 1381 with quotes from John Ball (1338-1381) and William Langland's poem "Piers the Plowman." He then ties the second principle of labor to Christian ethics (with support from George Burman Foster's 1909 book The Function of Religion in Man's Struggle for Existence), and to socialism.

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 Spiritual Realities of Everyday Life

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection — “bundle #4” — that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

In this sermon, Davis argues for paying attention to the sacred aspects of everyday life, and not just the uncommon, astounding, or perhaps miraculous. The Ralph Waldo Emerson poem "The Rhodora"is quoted in full, while the James Russell Lowell poem "The Vision of Sir Launfal" is also referenced.

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 Travail and Pain of Human Life: What Can It Mean?

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection — “bundle #4” — that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

This sermon addresses the problem of evil, and considers how there can be evil in a world with an omnipotent, benevolent God. The first thing Davis argues is that the world is not finished. All the evidence we have is of continuous change at the natural and human levels. The unfinished and imperfect world provides us the experience we need to understand what would be better--and the motivation to consecrate us to action. Davis ends with the poem "All for One and One for All" by James Gowdy Clark.

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 Value and the Limitation of Allegiance to Religious Leaders

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

This sermon pesents a view of almost inexorable human progress -- with fits and starts -- where great leaders such as Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther, and John Calvin among many others, express the forward-looking cultural momentum for positive change. Followers follow leaders because leaders follow the interests of their followers. But then leaders get lionized and deified, and the true moral imperative -- the ideal they have articulated -- is lost in hero-worship. The tragedy is that we lose the sense that change is brought about by positive human -- not supernatural -- action.

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.
Two Great Principles of the Modern World

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

The sermon presents two principles of the modern world. The first is the integrity of the universe. The second principle is growth. The sermon closes with a passage from William James' A Pluralistic Universe, emphasizing the power of the will to believe. Davis ends the following week's sermon, "What To Do", with the paraphrasing of this same quote as well as discussion regarding these two great principles.
What Go Ye Out to Seek?

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

This sermon is a generous encouragement to be bold and seek the truth, seek righteousness, seek beauty, and seek justice. Davis states "Worship is not at all the attempt to pay tribute to some Deity, or to purchase favor from him. Rather, it is the essential impulse, which is [in] our very nature itself, the impulse to think the structural thoughts of the universe, to measure its ideal achieving capacity, to enter into its inner secrets, to penetrate its deepest and purest purposes, and feel ourselves caught up into the grasp of its onrushing majesty, and know that we are a part of its creating and developing power. That is aspiration, and when that aspiration comes to its moments of conscious relationship in the infinite, it is worship. It is the fundamental fact of life."

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.
What To Do

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

After reviewing the two principles of the modern world -- integrity of the universe and growth -- this sermon focuses on specific "plodding but necessary" things to do to improve Pittsfield. This includes topics such as housing, intellectual life, and class divisions.

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.
Clear Thinking and Right Living in the Individual

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from August 30, 1908 to November 26, 1908.

In this sermon, Davis argues that one's character is ultimately determined by one's clear thinking. He says, "Remember this above all things else, that the true nature of our work, its ultimate influence, and its final worth, is determined by the true nature of our inner and secret thoughts, our personal beliefs, our deeper convictions."

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.
Faith in Life

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from August 30, 1908 to November 26, 1908.

Davis traces the evolutionary instinct to live to the human faith in life. The sermon includes stanzas from The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

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.
Fall 1908 Sermons [List and Announcements]

Earl Clement Davis

Here is a list of all the sermons for Fall, 1908 made from the subsequent document a series of notices of sermons for September through December 1908. These included several "paragraph pulpits," which gave a kind of one-paragraph abstract of a sermon.

It seems almost certain that these sheets were used for announcements made in the local newspaper about upcoming services. Sermon topics included several on labor problems, problems with wealth accumulation and disparity, discussions of the nature of religion and the place of the church in religious observation (aimed at non-attenders) among others.

Only a few of these sheets have dates on them. But the titles of the sermons coordinate with sermon manuscripts that are dated. In a few cases, dates have been extrapolated.

In mid-October Earl Davis made a decision to offer a Sunday evening service in addition to the Sunday morning service. The announcement sheets include a short explanation for what he hoped to accomplish with the evening services.

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.
For the Joy of Living

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from May 24, 1908 to August 9, 1908.

Expresses the view that every life -- every day of every life -- should be joyous in celebration of each of our individual divine natures and purposes. He writes, "Your very soul hungers and thirsts for the life that satisfies, for the life that shall bring joy and deep returns as each day passes, and accumulates a potentiality for life that shall make you feel that it is worthwhile to be immortal. If you would realize that satisfaction, banish from your mind from this time forth and forevermore the idea that you are forever a victim of evil. In you is the divine life to be unfolded and disclosed in days that shall be joyous as they pass, and by their fruitfulness shall link themselves to eternity and infinity."
Helping the Other Man: The Moral and Religious Problem of the Present

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from May 24, 1908 to August 9, 1908.

Follows up on the previous Sunday's sermon ("The Bearing of Burdens, July 19, 1908) specifically the need for a living wage for all workmen, a wage that would allow women to be homemakers. Davis also suggests that part of the problem is open-door immigration, which drives down wages. He also states that the pursuit of wealth, at the expense of human personality, is another part of the problem, but remains optimistic that once recognized, the problem will be fixed.

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.
In the Service of the Country

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from May 22, 1908 to August 9, 1908. The date for this sermon may be incorrect as Sunday fell on the 24th of May in 1908.

Starts with a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson given on the anniversary of emancipation in the West Indies (August 1st, 1844) which (a) affirms that no human should ever be treated as property, and (b) that the arc of progress is toward justice, confirmed here. The bulk of the sermon is about problems in the relationship between employers and employees, of people not being treated as fully human. Davis believes the core of this issue to be moral, not economic.

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.
Keeping Back a Part of the Price

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from August 30, 1908 to November 26, 1908. A handwritten note on the first page of the manuscript says, “Adams, March, 1910; ???, March, 1910.” Evidently, Davis reused this sermon at least twice, once in Adams, Massachusetts and once in another — unfortunately unreadable — location, both times in March, 1910.

This sermon is a discussion of the story in Acts 5:1-11, where Ananias and Sapphira seek to join the early Christian church, giving away most of their possessions while keeping some. The idea that they could purchase their way into this group betrays a deep misunderstanding. It is not about money it is about ideals. Davis quotes several writers on this same theme: Rudyard Kipling's "When Earth's Last Picture is Painted", Walt Whitman's "One Thought Ever at the Fore", and Ralph Waldo Emerson's "The Informing Spirit", and "1827 Prayer."

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.
Moral Responsibility and Moral Accountability

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection—“bundle #4”—that includes sermons from February 14, 1909 to December 26, 1909.

In discussing the moral responsibility of man, and using the theological system of John Calvin as a framework, Earl Davis says that since God is only manifest in the actions of humans -- the "living God" -- the urgency of this responsibility is that much more evident: "in the affairs of human society, the voice of God speaks in the voice of man and the will of God is manifested in the will of man. It is doubtless true that the moral and the intellectual dynamic which shall bring cosmos out of chaos, is already forcing its way to crystallization. But we must remember that there is no royal road to righteousness. The appeal of our times, sounding deep and clear, through the harsh noises of the day, is for us to reaffirm our deeper convictions of moral responsibility to respond yet more nobly and yet more simply to that sublime self-assertion that we are the agents of the living God in the affairs of men."

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.
Mountain Climbing

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from May 24, 1908 to August 9, 1908.

Earl Davis begins with a quote from James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans to the effect that God is to be found in nature. Davis suggests that at some point everyone feels an urge to get to the hills and commune with nature. Included is a lengthy passage from Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Feet of Young Men". What is the draw? It is a desire to feel the "depth and the glorious mystery of life." But this "mountain climbing" is also a metaphor; it is the longing for understanding truth, beauty, and goodness in the world. Once one does so understand, one also understands that it is down to us to make this a world of truth, beauty and goodness.

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.
Our Growing Hunger for an Absorbing Service

Earl Clement Davis

This is from the bound collection that includes sermons from August 30, 1908 to November 26, 1908.

As a consequence of industrialization -- among other things -- Earl Davis believes that people have lost the sense of their own personal worth, instead seen as just a cog in a machine, entirely replaceable. This has created a great hunger for feeling and being of value. Davis says, "However hard we may struggle against the fact, do we not have to admit to ourselves at times this feeling of the relative unimportance of our individual personal lives? Does not this hungering sense for a more absolute service and work in life grow out of the fact that we have largely obliterated our sense of the value and the importance of human life?"

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.