UNIVERSE 



61HX) 



UNIVERSITY 



setts, under the direction of an English clergy- 

 man, John Murray, and the present plan of 

 organization was adopted at the Centennial 

 Convention, held in 1870. The local parish is 

 the unit, and the states are organized as inde- 

 pendent federations. The supreme legislative 

 body is the general convention, composed of 

 representatives elected by the several states. 

 Members of this Church subscribe to belief in 

 the following elements of its creed: 



The Universal Fatherhood of God ; the spiritual 

 authority and leadership of His Son, Jesus Christ ; 

 the trustworthiness of the Bible as containing a 

 revelation from God ; the certainty of just retri- 

 bution for sin ; the final harmony of all souls 

 with God. 



There are about 55,000 members of the Uni- 

 versalist denomination in the United States, 

 and about 2,000 in Canada. 



Consult Fisher's Brief History of the Univer- 

 salist Church; Campbell's The New Theology. 



UNIVERSE, u'nivers, the works of creation 

 taken as a whole. The universe has not been 

 for man a constant thing, but has expanded 

 constantly to keep pace with his expanding 



knowledge. He once regarded the inconsider- 

 able planet which he inhabits as the center of 

 the universe and believed that the majestic 

 sun, the moon and the stars revolved about 

 him. A more rational conception that owes its 

 development to such thinkers as Pythagoras, 

 Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler and Newton has 

 finally shaped itself down the ages, until it is 

 now known that the sun is the center of a sys- 

 tem about which the earth, with the other 

 planets and the asteroids, revolves. But the 

 sun itself is lost in the unthinkable immensity 

 of space, being but a single star among count- 

 less millions. Science, in revealing truth after 

 truth about the universe, has finally produced 

 a conception of its vastness that staggers the 

 mind. 



Related Subjects. From the following arti- 

 cles in these volumes the reader may gain some 

 idea of how modern scientists regard the uni- 

 verse : 



Asteroids 



Astronomy (with list) 



Earth 



Moon 



Nebular Hypothesis 



Planet 



Solar System 

 Star 

 Sun 



THE STORY OF .THE 



NIVERSITY, urtiver'siti, an educa- 

 tional institution for the most advanced in- 

 struction or for the examination of students 

 who have received such instruction. It has 

 authority to confer degrees that are recognized 

 throughout the civilized world. Strictly speak- 

 ing, a university is of higher grade than a col- 

 lege, and requires either graduation from a col- 

 lege of regular standing or at least two years 

 of college work or the equivalent of these 

 courses for admission to its classes. Such a 

 university maintains a college of liberal arts, 

 and faculties of medicine, law and engineering. 

 To these the larger universities add faculties of 

 science, mathematics, theology (excepting state 

 universities), schools of education and com- 

 merce, while some have schools of music, agri- 

 culture or journalism. 



In the United States the term university is 

 used very loosely, and not a few institutions 

 call themselves universities whose work is 

 scarcely more advanced than that of the aver- 

 age high school. Such a use of the term is mis- 

 ' leading. It causes those unacquainted with 

 these self-styled universities to believe them to 

 be institutions of superior instruction, and it 

 causes others to place a low estimate upon the 

 work and value of the real university. Some 

 institutions calling themselves universities are 

 in reality colleges. Their requirements for 

 admission are the completion of a four years' 

 high school course or its equivalent, and their 

 courses are the same as those offered in the 

 undergraduate school of the university. They 

 have no faculties of law, medicine, theology or 

 other professions. There are, however, some 



