The Wandering Host

The work contained within this manuscript was penned by   David Starr Jordan circa 1904.  The Wandering Host is an allegorical story about the search for spiritual meaning. Symbolic of Jesus Christ’s ministry, it succinctly embodies our Christian heritage and the fourth of the six sources Unitarian Universalists draw our faith from, namely that which calls us to respond to God's love by loving our neighbors as ourselves. Matrika Press is proud to preserve this work.

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Two of the focuses at Matrika Press are to preserve texts and thoughts of our ancestors, and to create publications that share the values and principles of Unitarian Universalism. This allegorical story by David Starr Jordan is a tale about the search for spiritual meaning.  Symbolic of Jesus Christ’s ministry, it succinctly embodies the UU Christian heritage and the fourth of the six sources they draw their faith from, namely that which calls one to respond to God’s love by loving our neighbors as ourselves.

This manuscript was initially printed under the title of “The Story of the Innumerable Company” by Messrs. Whitaker & Ray, of San Francisco.  Later, with edits by the author, published in 1904 by the The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A. 

David Starr Jordan was the first President of Stanford University, and also the President of Indiana University. He was a pacifist and ichthyologist. 

While he never officially became either a Unitarian or Universalist, he held liberal religious beliefs, and was said to be a regular philosophical spokesperson of the American Unitarian Association.  

He reputedly chose Starr for his middle name because of his love for astronomy and to honor his mother’s respect for the Unitarian minister, Thomas Starr King.  

As the story goes, his parents had been Baptists when they first married, but turned away from that religion “because of their doubts as to ‘eternal damnation.’” They became Universalists and thus raised David without religious orthodoxy and rather within the framework of a living tradition that would evolve into Unitarian Universalism.

David Starr Jordan’s manuscript has been edited and arranged by “Twinkle” Marie Manning and it is "with humble privilege we resurrect this piece of our literary history."

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Twinkle" Marie Manning is the Founder of Matrika Press.  A natural-born artist and poet,  she is dedicated to ensuring that great works of the past continue to be available for future generations to benefit from.

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Matrika Press publishes this work in deep gratitude to the online archives and other resources that house manuscripts to source and attribute ancient and otherwise lost works that are in the Public Domain.  Readers are encouraged to support the ongoing existence and maintenance of the Public Domain archives and the publishing of such works.  

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