USA > Ohio > Twenty-five years in the West > Part 16
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" Far in the deep where darkness dwells, A land of horror and despair, Justice has built a dismal hell, And laid her store of vengeance there."
Into this infernal dungeon, we are told, the Creator will thrust countless millions of mankind, swing the door upon them, and there they must remain the helpless victims of every vile passion, not for a day, but for all eternity. All grace, mercy, love, withdrawn from them ; deprived of all opportunity, of all power, all means to reform their lives, and doomed by the holy God to be unholy through the eternal ages. Say not, this is the work of holiness; say not, the holy God will do what would be so unholy, so diabolical. As long as God is holy he will seek the holiness of his creatures ; and as he is infinitely and everlastingly holy , in all places and in all times, he will seek man's holiness and happiness. Universal Salvation is the sequence of the proposition - God is Holy.
I spoke on Sunday after the discussion closed, in the Hall, and the spacious room was crowded to its full ca-
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pacity. Since then a church has been organized and a meeting-house built.
I journeyed to Alton, passing through Carlinville, Brighton, over the prairie where Girard and Virden now stand. There was nothing there then but wild prairie. From Alton I proceeded to Jerseyville, a small burg then, but now a beautiful town, and delivered my mes- sage. Thence to Exeter, Naples, and on to Macomb, through Rushville. In all these places I spoke to the people. In Macomb and Girard we now have churches and meeting-houses. Have often lectured in both places since that first visit. Had some talk in Macomb with a Presbyterian clergyman by the name of Chase.
C. " You do not believe in a hell; but it is as clearly revealed as heaven."
M. "You are mistaken. I believe in all the hell the Bible speaks of, and wicked men experience; but not in the hell of human creeds. God never revealed the lat- ter; Paganism is its progenitor."
C. " You cannot prove that."
M. "I think I can. It is now generally admitted that the Old Testament does not reveal an endless hell. But from Moses to Christ the Pagans believed in it, hence the vain imaginations of men must have been the father and mother of it. Hesiod, a Pagan and a Greek poet, who lived eight hundred years before Christ, tells all about hell. He says, hell is so far from heaven, it would take a mass of iron eighteen days to fall from the latter to the former place. The gate of hell was supposed to be guarded by a dog having fifty heads, and to make escape impossible, the horrid place was surrounded by a river of fire, called Phlegethon. Virgil, another Heathen poet enlightens us concerning its horrors :
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"' Here rolls the roaring, flaming tide of hell, And thundering rocks the fiery torrent swell.'
"The punishment of hell is thus described by the same writer :
" ' Here sits in bloody robes the Fury fell, By night and day to watch the gates of hell.
Here you begin terrific groans to hear,
And sounding lashes rise upon the ear.
On every side the damned their fetters grate, And curse, 'mid clanking chains, their wretched fate.'
"One sinner is bound to a wheel of fire on which he must revolve eternally. Another is tortured with endless hunger and thirst ; he is in a lake of pure water up to his chin, with the most delicious fruit a few inches from him, but he cannot get a drop of water nor a particle of food into his mouth. Danaus' forty-nine daughters, for mur- dering their husbands, were doomed to fill a leaky tub with water drawn from a well with a sieve. Another victim of the gods was chained to a rock, and vultures fed on his heart and entrails, which grew as fast as de- voured. Virgil also thus enlightens us concerning some of the tormentors of hell :
" 'At hell's dread mouth a thousand monsters wait ; - Grief weeps, and Vengeance bellows in the gate, Base Want, low Fear and Famine's lawless rage, And pale Disease, and slow repining Age. Fierce, formidable Fiends the portals keep, With Pain, Toil, Death, and. Death's half-brother, Sleep. There Joys, embittered by Remorse, appear, Daughter of Guilt ; here storms destructive War.
Mad Discord there her snaky tresses tore ; Here stretched on iron beds the Furies roar ; And close by Lerna's hissing monster stands Briareus dreadful with a hundred hands ; There stern Geryon raged ; and all around Fierce Harpies screamed, and direful Gorgons frowned.'
"This, sir, was the Pagan hell -- believed in by Pa- gans, preached by Pagan priests, hundreds of years before Jesus Christ brought a future life to light.
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Did he teach eternal woe? Then the gospel is Pagan- ism-not the wisdom of God. But it is clear your hell was bred and born in Heathen darkness. You ad- mit it is not in the Old Testament; that it was not the Jewish faith in the days of Moses and the prophets. But it was then part and parcel of Paganism, hence it is not of heaven, but the product of Pagan barbarity."
C. "Christians do not believe in the Pagan hell, but in the Christian hell; the Pagans corrupted the truth."
M. " The hell of modern creeds is as horrible as that of Paganism. I will give some choice extracts concern- ing your hell from Christian authors, for your consider- ation. Rev. Isaac Ambrose, an English divine, and a man of great talent, contends that the Heathen did not represent hell bad enough. Alluding to the Pagan poets just quoted, he says :
"' Let poets feign of Tantalus's tortures, Prometheus vultures, Ixion's wheels, and Charon's rowing ; these are far short to express the pains that rage in hell. There plagues have no ease, cries no help, time has no end, place no redemption. It is the dark prison where the Tares [the damned] are chained, and the wicked bound in fetters of fire and darkness. Are there not wonder- ful engines, sharp and sure instruments of revenge ? fiery brimstone, pitchy sulphur, red-hot chains, flaming whips, scorching darkness? Will you any more? The worm is immortal, cold intolerable, stench unendurable, fire unquenchable, darkness palpable. . . . What music af- fords the place but roaring and crying and howling? Cursing is their hymns, wailing their tunes, blasphemies their ditties, tears their notes, lamentations their songs, screeching their strains; these are their morning and evening songs. What mean these chains and whips, and
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links and scourges? iron chains, whips of steel, fiery links, knotty scourges. Furies shake their bolts to frighten souls ; the irons strike through their ears, and the hooked engines tear out their bowels, as if the tor- ment of the damned were the delight of devils.
"' Oh, what a bed is this for delicate and dainty per- sons; no feathers, but fire ; no friends, but furies ; no ease, but fetters; no light, but smoke; no clock nor chimes to pass away the night, but timeless eternity. A fire intolerable ; a fire burning, never dying! Oh, im- mortal pains ! . . . What torment, what calamity can be compared to the shadow of this. The wicked shall be crowded together like brick in a fiery furnace. There is no servant to fan cold air on their tormented parts - not so much as the chink where the least puff of wind might enter to cool them.'
"An Orthodox poet waxes eloquent in describing the infernal regions :
" ' Pale phantoms, hideous spectres, shapes which scare The damned themselves, and terrify despair,
Gorgons and harpies, and chimeras dire, And swarms of hissing serpents, hissing fire.'
" Dr. Trapp thus writes of the rivers of hell and their fiery tide :
"' Fires spout in cataracts, or in furies flow In bubbling eddies roll the fiery tide, And sulphurous surges on each other ride. "
" The Orthodox Pollock gives this idea of hell :
"' Wide was the place And deep as wide, and ruinous as deep.
Beneath, I saw a lake of burning fire, With tempest tost perpetually, and still The waves of fiery darkness 'gainst the rocks Of dark damnation broke, and music made Of melancholy sort, and over head,
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And all around, wind warred with wind, storm howled To storm, and lightning, forked lightning, crossed, Of sullen wrath.
" The Pagan account of hell is tame compared to the Orthodox representation of it. A Methodist elder, a short time since, in Lafayette, Ind., told his hearers, that hel' was so hot, that a soul taken out of it and put into a red hot smelting furnace, would freeze to death in five minutes."
C. "I will not talk with you, for you are making sporť of a very serious subject."
M. " I am merely relating the common view of hell, as preached all over the land."
C. "I do not believe in such a hell; neither do I preach it. The wicked will be banished from the pres- ence of God, there to remain forever."
M. " Make hell mild as you please ; put out all its fires, throw away all its brimstone, chains and pitchforks, and say, it is only a condition of sin, darkness, mental an- guish, and moral death, and then it is awful beyond im- agination. Fire, red hot wheels, boiling lead as means of torture give only a faint conception of the horrors of such a state, if it is to continue forever. As John Wes- ley said, ' What is gained if there is no material fire in hell, when all admit, that if there is no material fire there, there is something worse."
From. Macomb I proceeded to Burlington, Iowa, thence to Iowa City. In the latter place we have an elegant meeting-house, built by the united effort of Rev. Miss Chapin and her parish. Some of our people are opposed to women being in the ministry, but those we have in the work are quite as successful as the best men. That is a pretty strong argument for the women ! Their
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success show they are qualified for the work. Miss Cha- pin, Miss Brown, Miss Le Clerc, Mrs. Hannaford and Mrs. Wilkes, are all doing a good work in our denomina- tion.
Lectured in West Liberty, Tipton, Rochester, Musca- tine, Washington, and Davenport. In Tipton our peo- ple have a meeting-house; B. F. Snook, till recently, was their pastor. Some five years since I delivered a discourse in Centerville, Iowa, Mr. Snook being present, and dissenting to what was said, replied. He was then an Adventist, advocating the annihilation of the wicked, and editor of a paper devoted to that cause. Before I left town we two agreed to hold an oral discus- sion, and then publish it in book form. He went to work posting himself for the debate, and the result was, he renounced the faith he proposed defending, and we had no discussion. He has proved himself worthy of our confidence, and is now Superintendent of our churches in Iowa, which almost amounts to being Bishop.
Returning home I stopped at Nauvoo, Ills., and lec- tured twice. This was three years after the "Mormon war, " traces of which were still seen, for a few cannon balls were thrown into the town by the enraged anti- Mormons. The place was generally in a dilapidated condition, and many buildings were empty. Elder Platt, a Mormon leader, conducted me through the temple, for it was not burned till a few months thereafter. It was a fine edifice; the walls were limestone, but the inside was not entirely finished. In the basement was a large laver, supported by several wooden oxen, in which the converts were baptized. Smith began his career by pretending to dig some plates from a hill near Manches- ter, New York. It is now called " Bible Hill." I have
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seen it - not the plates. Letters, or something else, were engraved on the plates in an unknown language called the "Reformed Egyptian." The Book of Mor- mon is this " Reformed Egyptian " in English. In real- ity, said Book is a novel by one Spaulding of Ohio, which Sidney Rigdon, a Disciple preacher, stole-he and Smith putting it in its present shape.
From Nauvoo I returned to Indianapolis by the most direct route. This was a long and laborious journey. Traveled about one thousand miles, and delivered forty discourses.
. A short time before the new Convention was organiz- ed, I was in North Manchester, Northern Indiana, where a youth introduced himself as William J. Chap- lin, and said he had walked fifteen miles to attend my meeting. He also stated he was studying theology, and intended to be a minister. I encouraged him in his purpose, and shortly afterwards he delivered his first sermon.
About this time I had an oral discussion with Benja- min Franklin on three subjects- The General Judg- ment - Universal Salvation - Endless Misery. We discussed each proposition six hours. The debate was published by both parties, and makes a book of three hundred and fifty-nine pages. It has had a wide circu- lation - five editions having been issued. Mr. Franklin is an influential minister, editor and author. He resides in Cincinnati, and publishes a large weekly religious pa- per in that city.
I also had a debate in Covington, Ind., with Mr. French, a Baptist clergyman, which continued four days. He was a pastor of the Baptist church in that place, and his people had immense confidence in his ability to de-
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molish the better faith. But he labored under great dis- advantage, as he could not extemporize ; and how he wrote his speeches was a mystery to me - he must have worked hard during the intermissions. But his labor and wit did not save him. His friends were disappoint- ed, and he soon after left Covington. The discussion was in the Baptist meeting-house, and very large con- gregations listened to the argument, pro and con.
Soon after this, I spent four days in discussion near Ladoga, Ind., with Mr. Russell, a Disciple minister. The neighborhood was chiefly of the preacher's faith ; I put up with one of his brethren while the debate was progressing. They all treated me kindly, and we parted in friendship. Mr. R. now resides in Iowa, and is a noted man in his denomination.
At this time, in the midst of these arduous labors. I wrote and published the " One Hundred and Fifty Rea- sons for believing in the Salvation of Mankind," about twenty thousand copies of which have been distributed.
Alexander Hall, of Ohio, published a book, called, " Universalism Against Itself," which was exten- sively circulated in the West. He has since turned infidel, and says he wrote the book to please the Ortho- dox; he was probably an infidel when he wrote it. But his hypocrisy not then being known, I employed Dr. Jordan to answer it in The Teacher. His review occu- pied a portion of the paper for one year, and when fin- ished was published in book form, making a volume of nearly four hundred pages. An edition of two thousand copies has been sold. It is a strong and vigorous work, and well answers the objections urged to the Universalist construction of the Bible.
I also published a little book of two hundred pages,
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called "Truth vs. Error," composed of selections from some of our best writers, one thousand copies of which were distributed.
In 1848 commenced issuing the paper weekly, calling it the Western Olive Branch. Soon after, I unwisely moved it to Cincinnati, hoping it would have a more gen- eral circulation if issued from the "Queen City " of the West. But unfortunately, I had a partner, H. Torry, who proved to be a dead weight on my hands ; and to throw him off I disposed of the paper to J. A. Gurley, and he con nected it with the Star in the West. After this partnership of a few months, resulting thus disastrously, I returned to Indianapolis, and devoted all my time and attention to the ministry. When this transfer was made, the circulation of the Olive Branch was thirty-three hun- dred, and it had been published nearly nine years. I was sorry to give it up, but deemed it best to do so un- der the circumstances.
The succeeding eighteen months, I was from home most of the time, traveling in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Ohio, preaching wherever I could have a hearing. On horseback I went from Cin- cinnati to Lake Erie and back, five hundred miles. Lectured in Springfield, Dayton, Columbus, Upper San- dusky, and in many other places. I also journeyed West as far as St. Louis, and Northwest to Iowa City, one thousand miles, at least. Returning from the West in December, I came to the "Father of Waters," oppo- site Quincy. Had tried to cross at Keokuk, Alexandria, forty miles above, but the river being full of ice I failed. The ferryman opposite Quincy said the ferryboat could not run, and it was impossible to cross. I offered him five dollars to take me over ; and after much hesitation,
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said he would try. His little skiff was a frail craft to encounter so much ice ; but we made the trip. The ferryman said he would not attempt to return till there was less ice for a hundred dollars.
CHAPTER XIV.
Having disposed of the paper, I resolved to move to St. Louis, and publish one in that city. Accordingly,in the fall of 1850, went to St. Louis, and issued the first number of a magazine of twenty-four pages, called the Golden Era. I proposed issuing it monthly, at one dollar per year. Returning to Indianapolis, I remained till the succeeding spring, and then left for the new home on the banks of the Mississippi. We, that is, Mrs. Manford, baby Mae, and self, with horses and carriage, proceeded to Crawfordsville, Ind., where we attended the annual meeting of the Upper Wabash Association. Dr. I. D. Williamson was present, and all were much edified with two or three excellent discourses by that gifted clergy- man. Josiah Davis was then residing in Crawfordsville. For many years he was a prominent minister in the United Brethren church. But his faith having gradually enlarged, he was then an active and able minister of the Restitution. He now lives in Avon, Ill.
Proceeded to Dayton, and there spent four days in discussion with Mr. Russell - the man I had previously debated with near Ladoga. One of his propositions affirmed " The annihilation of the wicked." "Man," he said, " by nature is all mortal; and immortality will be conferred in the resurrection only on those who are regenerated in this world." He has since renounced what he then defended, and has written a book, proving
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he was wrong. I combated this materialistic position thus :
As I read the Bible, man is a child of God, created in his image, and therefore an immortal being. "And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. . . So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him." Gen. i. 26, 27. "In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him." Gen. v. I. "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ; for in the image of God made he man." Gen ix. 6. In the first book of the Bible, then, it is repeated four times, that man was created in the image of God. Some tell us that image was lost in Adam, and all his posterity have been created in the image of the infernal, but this is not the theology of the New Testament. The apostle Paul says, “ Foras- much as man Is the image and glory of God." I Cor. ii. 7. And another testifies to the same : " Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which ARE made in the similitude (or image) of God." James iii. 9. We may, then, safely affirm, that mankind from the morning of creation to the present time, have been created in the image and glory of God. The fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, the beasts of the forest, are all created - but not in the image of God. Man only is thus distinguished.
The record cannot mean, that the body is in the image of God, for God is a spirit. The body rather is in the image of the earthy. " And as we have borne the image of the earthy." I Cor. xv. 49. But the body is not the all of man. There is a thinking, reasoning, willing, propelling power, within this physical organism. It is designated by various terms in the Bible-called a
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" spirit," the "inward man," "the mind." It is doubt- less this inward man that is created in the image and glory of God.
All the elements, laws, forces, of the physical universe are represented, imaged, in man's physical form, hence he is physically an epitome, microcosm of the outer uni- verse. So, the inward man, the spirit, being in the image and glory of God, all the elements of the Great Spirit are represented, imaged, in man's spiritual organ- ism, but in a finite degree. God is a spirit, an immortal spirit ; a being of infinite wisdom, love and power. Man's spirit being in his image, and partaking of his glory, must possess all these qualities, but in a finite degree. He is a finite spirit; a spark from the central sun, and partakes of the immortality, wisdom, love and power of God.
The objector has said, "I know man has a body for I see it : but I do not see the spirit you talk about, and so cannot believe in its existence." Do you not see this lands you in Atheism? You cannot see God, there- fore, according to your reasoning, there is no God. The apostle Paul did not reason in this unphilosophical man- ner. He said, " The things that are seen are temporal : the things that are unseen are eternal." The truth is, not only God and the spirit of man are invisible to our mortal vision, but all the forces of the universe are in- visible. The laws of gravity, of repulsion, of cohesion, are all invisible ; but they are at work in all things, from a pebble to the sun. We cannot see them, but we do see their mighty work. We cannot see electricity, but we behold it rend the mountain oak, and melt the hard- est metal. We cannot see the atmosphere, but we be- hold it prostrate the forest, and dash to atoms the work of
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man. We cannot see steam, but we see its effect -- it drives the heavy train on the iron track, and propels the giant ship across stormy seas against wind and tide. So, we see God only in his works, and there, we every- where behold him.
' God hath a being, and that we may see In the fold of the flower, the leaf of the tree ; In the sun of the noonday, the star of the night, In the storm-cloud of darkness, the rainbow of light, In the waves of the ocean, the furrow of land, In the mountain of granite, the atom of sand ; Turn where we may, from the sky to the sod, Where can we gaze that we see not a God? '
We cannot see the spirit inhabiting this mortal body, but we behold its wonderful work. It builds up and controls the body ; gives strength to the muscles, vigor to the hand, brightness to the eye, manliness to the form, and genius to the brain. It constructs our rail- roads, steamships, and executes all the works of art. It employs human bone and muscle; but they are only its servants; the indwelling spirit plans all, executes all. What the spirit is to the body, God is to the universe. I can as easily comprehend the Great Spirit as I can my own spirit. I can as easily understand how God is pres- ent in the whole universe, as I can understand how my spirit is present in the whole body. Take the spirit from the body, and the body dies. Take God from the universe, and the universe would die- become an im- mense corpse. When we know our spirit, we know God. When we know our body, we have the philosophy of the universe. Man, then, is godlike in his nature-is a spirit, has the attributes of a spirit, one of which is immortality. If God is immortal, man is, as he is in the image of God. I see no way to avoid this conclu-
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sion, if the premise is admitted, and if we deny that, we discard the plain teachings of the Bible.
What has been said concerning man being in the di- vine image, is confirmed by the scriptural testimony, that God is the Father of mankind. "Have we not all one Father ?" Mal. ii. Io. "For to us there is but one God the Father." I Cor. viii. 6. "One God and Father of all." Eph. iv. 6. Jesus instructs us to pray, "Our Father who art in heaven." "O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh." Num. xvi. 22. This is repeated (Num. xxvii. 16,) and the apostle Paul (Heb. xii. 9) quoting it substitutes "Father of spirits" for God of spirits. As God is the Father of mankind, we are his children, his offspring, hence the declaration, "Inasmuch as we are the offspring of God." Acts xvii. 29. Children always partake of the nature of their parents. As God is the " Father of spirits," we must partake of his spiritual nature - be immortal. This body is of mother-earth and partakes of earth's perishable nature; the spirit is of Father-God, and partakes of his immortai nature; and when death severs body and spirit, the earthy re- turns to the earth whence it came, and the spirit to God whence it came ; and one is death, the other the resur- rection.
If these premises are correct -if the spirit of man is in the image of God; if God is the "Father of spirits," it follows that man, with other rich endowments, is blessed with an immortal nature, and Mr. Russell's po- sition, that man is all mortal is incorrect. This heaven- endowed spirit is often spoken of in the Bible. When man was created, it is said, God breathed upon him, and he became a "living soul." We are also told he formeth the spirit of man within him; (Zech. xii. I)
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