USA > Ohio > Twenty-five years in the West > Part 14
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"One who has been an Atheist all his life; never heard of a God, or of a future life, when told for the first time there is a God who governs the world, and guides
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the destinies of men, and that he is immortal and will live forever, I say when these facts are first revealed to him, he would most likely say, 'It is too good to be true.' A family that has ever been doomed to want, sickness, disappointment, and sorrow in every form, when informed that a kind friend has deeded them a comfort- able home, and provided for their future support and happiness, and that within a few days they will come in possession of all these blessings, when informed of this they would probably unbelievingly exclaim, 'It is too . good to be true.'
"I am not at all surprised to hear people, who have lived all their life-time in the shade and gloom and sor- row of a dark, repulsive, and cruel theology, say, 'Uni- versalism is too good to be true.' There is so vast a difference between that partial, gloomy creed, and the 'grace of God which bringeth salvation to all men,' I do not wonder they think the latter too good to be true. It is certainly true we do not merit, by any act of ours, such blessings, and are lost in wonder when we reflect on the vastness of our heavenly inheritance, and nothing short of the best of evidence makes us rest in our glori- ous hope. But our hope is based on a sure foundation, on the Character, Purpose, and Promises of God. On this divine trinity we found our faith, and rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.
" But the doctrine of endless misery is too bad to be true. The theory, that consigns countless millions of mankind to the wrath of God, and the flames of hell, is altogether too bad to be true. Before I can subscribe . to such a monstrous creed, I must believe God to be the worst being in the universe, has no love, mercy, justice, goodness, but is the very essence of cruelty and malig-
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nity; I must believe all this ere I can, for a moment, harbor the thought that he can be the author of ceaseless suffering. But while I have reason to rejoice in his good- ness, I will cling to the faith the gentleman thinks is ' too good to be true.'
CHAPTER XII.
While residing in Terre Haute, I had a debate in Franklin, Ind., with A. L. Edmonds, on the final destiny of man. The discussion continued four days. Mr. Ed- monds dwelt long and emphatically on the Justice of God, claimed that it required the endless wretchedness of offenders. I replied as follows :
It is said Justice requires the endless suffering of some men; that though the goodness, mercy, and benev- olence of the Deity may be in favor of the ultimate hap- piness of all men, yet his justice requires that the wicked who die in their sins, be doomed to suffer unending tor- ment. The system of faith of which the doctrine of endless punishment is part, suspends men's final state up- on the condition they are in when they leave this world. The question is not how they live, but how they die. This is the point, the pivot, upon which turns the immor- tal destinies of men. No matter how sinful a man may live; " though wicked as Cain, and corrupt as Mary Magdalene with her seven devils, " if he only repents, believes in the Lord Jesus, joins the church, or, in fine, " gets religion " just before he dies, all is well with him, his reward is heaven. While on the other hand, no mat-
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ter how moral, upright and godly a man lives, though he knows and obeys the scriptures from his youth up to a good old age, discharges all his duties as a humble and faithful Christian, and is the means of blessing hundreds of his fellow beings, both temporally and spiritually ; yet, " if he falls from grace, " and becomes a sinner, even but one day before he dies, he goes to hell.
This is a briefly drawn picture of the system advocated by that class of men who seem to be such sticklers for justice. And it is a true and faithful representation, so far as it goes, of the Orthodox plan of salvation and damnation, " nothing extenuated, nor aught set down in malice." Nor all its advocates can do, will ever be suf- ficient, to make the system appear anything different from this representation. Indeed, I do not think they will try to do it, they believe and understand it, as I have de- scribed it. Let it stand sc then, as good and wholesome Orthodoxy, while I instance a few cases for illustration, that we may be the better enabled to see some of the monstrosities and legitimate conclusions which must for- ever fellow the above admitted premises.
I. Charles and Henry were brothers, twin brothers; they lived together until they had attained their twentieth year, when Charles died ; and as he had made no pro- fession of religion, was sent to hell. Had Henry died at the same time, he would have shared a similar doom, for he was as destitute of religion as his brother; luckily for him, however, he lived until his seventieth year, dur- ing the whole of which time he was in an unconverted state, except the last six months ; for the last six months he had lived a pious life, and consequently was admitted, after his death, into heaven.
"The punishment of sin," saith my friend, "does not
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take place here, but is deferred until the sinner reaches the spirit world." Consequently, Henry received no punishment in this world, for his long career of sinful- ness; and it will not be pretended he received any in heaven - he was therefore not punished at all. But how fares it with his brother Charles? He, poor fellow, must welter in quenchless flames, for the crimes of his brief existence. Has God rendered to these twins ac- cording to justice ?
2. Two young men attempt murder for money, and while engaged in the foul deed, one of them is killed accidentally, by his comrade, from the discharge of a pistol, and, of course, goes immediately to an endless hell ! The other succeeds in assassinating his victim - takes his money, which is sufficient to purchase a vessel ; one is procured, and after obtaining a crew to his mind, he launches forth upon the "great deep," an abandoned pirate. Hark! do you hear those cries of despair floating from a ship in distress ? Hark again ! those were the cries of women; the young mother, and the "gay guiltless " maiden are there. The youth and the man of gray hairs - but the sounds of lamentation have ceased-all is over with them. The pirate ship has been there, and the unfortunate have all been doomed ; for alas they had no religion. Forty years pass, and the pirate is arraigned before a tribunal of justice - is con- demned -and confesses that, besides the innumerable abominations he has committed in his long life of wicked- ness, he has been accessory to the murder of four hun- dred persons! What must be done with him? hell is too good for him! Yes, hell is too good for him, and, of course, he must go to heaven. A few days are given him -he repents-and swings from the gallows off to
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glory. There, from his exalted station of bliss, he looks down into the abodes of the damned, and sees scores of wretched beings, sent there by his own hands. Among his unfortunate victims, he sees the innocent girl of six- teen, and the gray-headed father - and there, too, is his first companion of crime, who fell ere he completed his first deed of wickedness. Is this justice ? the justice of an infinitely just God? Oh mockery !
3. Two men, A and B, avowed enemies, meet in the street. Each is armed with a rifle, and each makes ready to dispatch his enemy. A presents his gun, it snaps ; the cap was out of order. In an instant B takes a deadly aim, his rifle discharges, and A is a dead man. B is arrested, condemned and dies; but, as in all such cases, he repented in time to secure heaven as a reward ! Now if A's gun had not missed fire, he would have killed B, and, of course sent him to hell, while he might have repented and gone to heaven. But he, poor fellow, must go to hell, merely for the want of a good cap !
The most abandoned wretch that ever disgraced hu- manity, can, according to this bankrupt system, obtain an easy passport to heaven, by a few minutes repentance just before he dies, while the faithful Christain, the laborer in the cause of his Master - though he wears out a long life in warning his fellows, and inducing them to reform; though he is the means of converting hun- dlreds to the belief and practice of the Christian religion, yet, if in an evil hour, he deviates from the path of recti- tude -becomes a sinner, and dies suddenly, without time to repent, he goes to an endless hell! Oh, what justice ! what consistency ! Orthodoxy, thou art not a jewel !
Orthodoxy may sing her syren song the world over, it
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will not alter facts; men are punished here for their sins ; and the worst of it all is, these poor wretches, who have been deceived by the song, and thereby led into sin, still receive their punishment before they die, and often without knowing that it is the reward of their own doings! They will charge their suffering to a cruel fate, hard fortune, or some other cause, not knowing that the hand of a just God is upon them ! But whether men believe it or not, if they do wrong, they must and will receive their reward ; and if their experience fails to un- deceive them, it may convince those that live after them, that there " is a God who judgeth in the earth, " and that " he cannot do iniquity."
I closed my last speech on the last proposition as follows: I am now nearly through with my part in this debate. I have presented the gospel to you the past four days as I truly believe it. The word gospel signifies good news ; and the gospel of Jesus Christ is good news from God to man, from heaven to earth. It tells us
I. That God is the Father of mankind. "Have we not all one Father?" Addressing Pagans in Athens. the Gentile apostle said, "We are the offspring of God." Jesus instructs us to pray, " Our Father, who art in heaven." He also teaches that our heavenly Father's love far exceeds the earthly parent's love for his offspring. And the God who inspired him and his apostles to utter such noble sentiments, hath said, "The mother may forget her child but I will not forget you." Is not this good news to the sons and daughters of earth ? We are passing away : our loved ones are passing away ; and is it not blissful news, that we have an ever living and ever present Friend, who will never leave nor forsake us ?
2. This same gospel also proclaims the good news of
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eternal life and a blissful immortality for mankind. We are the children of God ; we are created in his image ; we partake of his immortal nature; and, commencing our existence in the bud of being, in the cradle of life, are destined to manifest more and more the divinity of our nature, as the eternal ages bear us onward and upward.
3. From these cardinal truths, the New Testament draws the logical inference, that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength, and our fellow men as ourself. God is the Father of all ; his love extends to all, hence we should be loving and duti- ful children. All belong to one family ; are members of one household, hence should be kind, forbearing, and forgiving. This is the gospel in letter and spirit, in theory and practice; and nothing but this is the gospel. It is all embraced in the word, love - a little word, but the length, breadth, and depth of the universe are re- quired to express its meaning. God is love, his purpose is love, and love will bless his children while immortality endures.
But there is not a drop of love, nor a note of glad tidings in my opponent's creed. It wickedly asserts it to be the purpose of God to consign millions of man- kind to regions of eternal sorrow, darkness and death. The words, love, goodness, mercy, justice, gospel, good news, glad tidings, should be all stricken from the Bible, if Mr. Edmonds' creed is true, and words that savor of fire and brimstone, should take their places. Yea, the sun, moon and stars, the refreshing shower, the genial breeze, and productive earth, should all tell of fire and fury, instead of love, goodness and justice, if eternal woe is to be the doom of half of mankind. If this terrible dogma is true, on the blazing disc of the sun
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should be written in characters as black as midnight -- endless woe ; on the pale face of the moon, and on every twinkling star-endless woe, that all might read their doom from night to morn, from morn to night; and every breeze that blows, should scream in our ears so loud that the dead might hear - endless woe. But thank heaven, God is love, the gospel is good news, and these malignant creeds are false.
Clergymen of different orders attended the discussion; meetings were held by them evenings, but all were silent concerning the subjects in dispute. The disputants were kind and courteous, and their Christian spirit pervaded the hearers of all creeds. A church was organized in Franklin the day after the debate closed, and I preached in the place monthly for one year. But the distance was too far for me to continue the visits, and as no one could be obtained to take my place, the meetings were suspended. The good cause has suffered all over the West for want of competent ministers to supply the wants of the people. If a dozen faithful pastors had been located in Indiana in those days, liberal churches would have been permanently established all over the state-in Franklin, Columbus, Martinsville, Gosport, Bloomington, Greencastle, Ladoga, Crawfordville, Perrys- ville, Covington, Fort Wayne, Richmond, and in many other places where we now have no organizations. But ministers could not be obtained, hence much of the labor of the missionary was of but little avail. Having a paper on my hands, I was obliged to travel far and near to sustain it, and could not devote much time to any one place.
A few days after this discussion, I delivered several discourses in Edinburg - one in the Methodist meeting_
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house, and the subject, at the request of the pastor, was "Total Depravity." The following is the gist of the discourse :
I will first show by the advocates of total depravity, what they mean by it. The " Presbyterian Confession of Faith" thus defines it: "The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consisted in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of that righteousness wherein he was created, and the corruption of his nature, whereby he is utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is spiritually good, and wholly inclined to all evil, and that continually."
"Shorter Catechism : " "The sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell, consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corrup- tion of his whole nature."
The "Baptist Philadelphia Confession " says, that " Our first parents, by this sin, fell from their original righteousness and communion with God, and we in them, whereby death came upon all, all becoming dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the faculties and parts of soul and body."
" Methodist Discipline : " "Original sin standeth not in the following of Adam (as the Pelagians do vainly talk) but in the corruption of the nature of every man, that is naturally engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man is very far gone from original righteous- ness, and of his own nature inclined to evil, and that con- tinually."
John Calvin thus explains this doctrine : "Original sin seems to be the inheritable perverseness and corrup- tion of our nature, poured abroad in all parts of the soul, which first makes us deserving of God's wrath, and then
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also bringeth forth those works in us, called in Scripture, the works of the flesh. These two things are distinctly to be noted, that is, that, being thus in all parts of our nature perverted and corrupted, we are now, even for such corruption, only holden worthy of damnation," etc.
W. W. Perkins : " In reprobate infants, the execution of God's decree is this : as soon as they are born, for the guilt of original and actual sin, being left in God's secret judgment unto themselves, they dying are rejected of God forever."
Twiss: "Every man that is damned, is damned for original as well as actual sins, and many thousand infants, only for original."
Arthur Hildersham: "There is in them (infants) a natural proneness, disposition and inclination to every thing that is evil; as there is in the young lion, or of a bear, or of a wolf, unto cruelty, or in the egg of a cock- atrice, before it is hatched. You have heard it evidently proved, I. That all infants are sinners and deserve damnation. 2. That many infants have been vessels ot wrath and fire-bands of hell."
Here we have a full, clear, perfect definition of total depravity, as taught by Presbyterians, Baptists and Meth- odists. They teach that all mankind are by nature, " utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all that is good, and wholly inclined to all evil." Every human being, according to this theory, is " wholly inclined to all evil"- to lying, cheating, stealing, murdering, etc., etc., etc. All men, then, by nature are liars, thieves, and murderers. This is the character of every infant when born into this world. Mark the words, "There is in infants a natural proneness, disposition and inclination to every thing that is evil, as there is in the young lion,
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or of the bear, or of the wolf, unto cruelty, or in the egg of the cockatrice before it be hatched," hence the writer adds, " I. All infants are sinners, and deserve damnation. 2. That many infants have been vessels of wrath and fire-brands of hell."
If this is all true, for six thousand years God has been creating totally depraved beings - thieves, liars, assas- sins, murderers. God is the source whence all crime flows, for he creates all mankind villains ; gives them all an "inclination to all evil." And this is not the worst of it - all deserve everlasting damnation, because God creates them inclined to villainy of every name and grade The definition of depravity given above, means all this, says all this, and to be a true Presbyterian, Bap- tist, or Methodist, one must believe all this. But we ask, who really believes a word of it? Who believes God is the monster of these creeds? Who believes he has cursed us all with an infernal nature, and then damns millions forever and ever, for being cursed with such a nature? Where is the mother who really believes her infant is totally depraved, wholly "inclined to all evil," " a fire-brand of hell," and " deserves damnation ? " People may subscribe to such horrid notions, preach them, and try to defend them, but who really, heart and soul, believes them ?
Faith in total depravity would destroy all confidence between man and man. Who would trust a fellow he believed to be "wholly inclined to all evil?" Who would employ such a physician, lawyer or clerk? Who would trust such a banker, or commission merchant? Who would ride on a railroad, or sail in a vessel, run by such wretches ? If men really believed in total deprav- ity, they would tremble with fear by day and by night.
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They would shun each other as they shun a deadly ser- pent. And if that dogma were true, there would be no virtue, truth, purity in the world, but crime of every name and grade would reign supreme. God would not be known, and a devil would be universally worshiped. I am aware several passages of scripture are adduced to sustain this theory of innate total depravity, and will briefly show they refer to nothing of the kind.
I. "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Psalm li. 5. There is nothing here about total depravity, or of our nature being " wholly inclined to all evil." All inherit tendencies to evil and to good, not, though, from Adam, but from their parents. Such biases are constitutional, not natural. Besides, we are not to understand these words literally. David uttered them in a season of great debasement. They are hyperbolical like the following : " I am poured out like water; and all my bones are out of joint ; my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels." "And my bones are consumed." " All my bones shall say, Lord, who is like unto thee." " I am a worm and not man." All this is to be understood figuratively.
2. "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? Not one." Job xiv. 4. Of course, the moral character of many is unclean, but what does that prove about their nature ? It does not intimate that any one is born unclean.
3. "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thought of his heart was only evil continually." Gen. vi. 5. This simply means that the antediluvians were a very wicked people; not that they were born totally depraved, tor in the 12th verse it is said, "all flesh had
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corrupted his way," which it could not have done if the Creator had made "all flesh " totally corrupt at its birth. The men before the flood were corrupt by practice, not by nature.
4. " The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?" Jer. xvi. 9. The prophet is speaking "of the sin of Judah." In the first verse he says, " The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and the point of a diamond; it is graven upon the table of their hearts, and upon the horns of your altars." It was not the sin of Adam entailed upon tlem ; it was their own sin, the sin of Judah. They had corrupted their hearts, had departed from virtue's ways, had become "desperately wicked." I see nothing here about being created totally depraved.
5. " They are all gone out of the way, they are to- gether become unprofitable; there are none that doeth good, no, not one." Rom. ii. 12. This passage clearly proves that men, in the days of St. Paul, had corrupted themselves, not that they were born totally corrupt. " They had gone out of the way," not born " out of the way." They had " become unprofitable," not born "un- profitable." "Their throat is an open sepulcher, their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness, their feet is swift to shed blood." Verses 12, 14, 15. Is this true of in- fants? We know it is not. He is not speaking, then, of man's condition by nature but by practice. In the preceding chapter the apostle says, " For when the Gen- tiles, which have not the law, do by nature, the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which shows the works of the law written in their hearts." Wicked as men were in those days, " deceitful " as were their hearts, and " des-
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perately wicked," the law of God was written in their hearts, and they often did by nature, "the things con- tained in the law," proving that their nature was not totally depraved.
These are the principal passages cited to prove the total depravity of man; but it is evident they fall short of anything of the kind. They prove, what all know to be true, that mankind have voluntarily corrupt- ed themselves - some more and some less. None are perfect, none are totally depraved, and there are all grades and degrees, from the best man to the worst man. And, as we corrupt ourselves, we can reform ourselves. Corruption and purity, right and wrong, evil and good, life and death, salvation and damnation, heaven and hell, are set before us, and we have the ability to turn from the wrong, and lay hold on the good ..
" There's the marble, there's the chisel; Take them, work them to thy will. Thou alone must shape thy future - Heaven give thee strength and skill."
But the terrible theory that we inherit damnation and hell, that those blasting evils permeate our whole nature, corrupt the very springs of our life, constituting us " fire- brands of hell," and that nothing but a miracle can purify us, and save us from endless burnings, I reject as utterly false and monstrous.
While in Edinburg, had some conversation with a Presbyterian minister on religious subjects.
P. "Why, you contend, Christians are rewarded in this world for their piety and virtue. I dissent from that. The Bible teaches me, that Christains are crushed to earth by the cross they bear. Sinners have no such bur- den to carry."
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M. " It is true, the early Christians, by their enthusi- asm in the Christian cause, often incurred the wrath of Jews and Pagans, and were sometimes roughly handled. But this was not because they were good men and women, but because they were deemed enemies of truth and righteousness - fanatics of a dangerous creed and party. The world did not know it was opposing God's noblemen, hence Christ, when in the agonies of death from the hands of the unbelieving multitude, cried, " Father, for- give them, for they know not what they do." The trials, hardships and persecutions they suffered, were incidental to the times, not the legitimate results of a holy life.
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