USA > Ohio > Twenty-five years in the West > Part 6
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regenerated. And he, who may be sent there for steal- ing one dollar, should remain till he is no longer a thief; and if he resists all reformatory efforts, keep him till death releases him. It is better for him, and for society, that he should be thus excluded from the world. Man has no right to punish his brother man. God has estab- lished laws, and if they are violated punishment surely follows. It is our duty to reform the erring. This mode of dealing with offenders accords with the principles of the gospel, and the spirit of Christ; but the penitentiary, the gallows, and the guillotine, correspond with the spirit and principles of Orthodoxy.
When a great crime is committed our blood boils, and we cry aloud for vengeance; but a little reflection will do us no harm. The criminal, likely, inherited a bad moral organization, and was, perliaps, surrounded by evil associates from the cradle to manhood. All this should be considered in dealing with the offender; but the law of man sees it not, considers it not. He is deemed equally as blamable as his associate in crime
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who was born and brought up under the most favorable circumstances. But there is great difference between the criminality of the two. The latter sins against much more light than the former, and is a greater criminal in the sight of God. Most of criminals come into this world " half made up," and are educated in crime from infancy upward. Let the state take them under its special care and keeping; protect society from their depredations, and strive to make better men and women of such unfortunates.
Preached in Newark and Zanesville. In the former place a preacher opposed me, but in a gentlemanly man- ner. The subject of my discourse was hell, and the fol- lowing was the gist of it: Ist. The Bible nowhere locates hell beyond the grave, but rather here on earth. The lawgiver, Moses, writes: "For a fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mis- chief upon them; I will spend my arrows upon them. They shall be burned with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of
serpents of the dust. The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said I would scatter them into the corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time ; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste." Moses here tells his countrymen of the consequences of unfaithfulness to the trust committed to them The
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Lord would " hide his face from them, "" vengeance would overtake them, " " the day of their calamity would be at hand, "" they would be scattered into all parts of the earth," "the sword without and terror within would de- stroy them, " they would be " burnt with hunger." All these calamities are summed up in the words, "lowest hell." And the history of that remarkable nation shows that the prophecy has been fulfilled. That nation has been cast down to the lowest hell. David testifies that the results of sin are not far off: "The pains of hell got hold of me ; I found trouble and sorrow." Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees : "Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell." Matt. xxiii. 33. And then he added : " All these things shall come upon this generation." 2d. Hell no where in the Bible is said to be endless in duration ; and who has a right to assume it is endless? Popes, bishops and councils, have threatened the world with endless torment, if it did not bow to their yoke, but thank God our desti- ny is not in their hands. 3d. We have no information of the creation of an eternal hell. We read of the crea- tion of the heavens and the earth and all therein, but not a word about the building of a vast prison in which to torment countless millions, world without end. It is blasphemy to charge the God of love with making such an infernal place. God is good, and all his works are good. When creation was finished all things were pro- nounced good. An eternal hell then is no part of God's work. Let this be remembered. 4th. The New Testa- ment never speaks of saving men from hell. It was the mission of Jesus to save us from sin,from darkness,from a lost condition, from slavery, from the present evil world, but there is not an intimation in the New Testament that God
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sent his Son to save us from a hell of his own creating. 5th. The word hell in the Bible does not signify, ac- cording to good authority, a place of ceaseless woe. Dr. Adam Clarke, the well-known commentator, says : " The word hell used in the common translation, conveys now an improper meaning of the original word ; because hell is only used to signify the place of the damned. But as the word hell comes from the Anglo-Saxon helan, to cover, to hide, hence the tyling or slating of a house is called, in some parts of England, (particularly Cornwall,) heling, to this day ; and the covering of books, (in Lan- cashire,) by the same name." This admission is fatal to the commonly received views of hell. 6th. The word hell in the Old Testament, is taken from the Hebrew term sheol, and learned men of all schools admit, it sig- nifies the state of the dead in general, without regard to their condition. Dr. George Campbell remarks as fol- lows: " Sheol in itself considered, has no connection with future punishment." Dr. Whitby, a profound English scholar tells us, that " Sheol throughout the Old Testament signifies not a place of punishment, or of the souls of bad men only, but the grave only, or the place of the dead." Other critics admit the same. 7th. In the New Testament, the word hell ten times is from the Greek term hades, and that being the Greek rendering of the Hebrew sheol, its meaning is the same as its corres- ponding Jewish word. Hence Dr. Campbell says, " Hades occurs eleven times in the New Testament, and is rendered grave once, and hell ten times. In my judg- ment, it ought never in Scripture to be rendered hell, at least in the sense wherein that word is universally under- stood by Christians. In the Old Testament the corres. ponding word is sheol, which signifies the state of the
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dead in general, without regard to the goodness or badness of the persons, their happiness or misery. It is very plain that neither in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, nor in the New, does the word hades convey the meaning which the present English word hell, in the Christian usage, always conveys to our minds. The attempt to illustrate this would be unnec- essary, as it is hardly now pretended by any critic that this is the acception of the term in the Old Testament." 8th. The word hell in the New Testament in twelve in- stances is from the Greek term gehenna, and Orthodox scholars thus define that word : "Gehenna is a Hebrew word denoting a place near Jerusalem, in which the Is- raelites, giving themselves up to idolatry, sacrificed children to a heated image of Moloch, which represent- ed the form of an ox. This place, the valley of Hin- nom, the Jews afterwards so detested, that they were ac- customed to cast into it the unburied carcasses of those whom they desired to punish with unusual severity. It is called a gehenna of fire, because Josiah, in order to render the valley of Hinnom more odious, commanded that filth and dead carcasses should be cast into it; for the burning of which there was kept a perpetual fire." 2 Kings xxiii. et seq. This is the testimony of Dr. Ros- enmuller, and it is the testimony of all the learned, be- long to what school they may. This is the literal mean- ing of the word, twelve times rendered hell in the New Testament. Figuratively, it refers to the temporal deso- lation that was soon to befall the Jewish nation. The damnation of gehenna overwhelmed Jerusalem, the whole land, and the people. Jesus told his countrymen they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, that the vials of wrath and fiery indignation were about to be poured
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upon them, that on them would come all the righteous blood their nation had spilt. When these things shall come to pass, said Jesus, " there shall be great tribula- tion, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time." He told them over and over, that all these things would surely come on that generation. Theolo- gians now locate all this in yonder world. They might as well assert, that the Ohio valley is the name of a place beyond the grave, and the destruction that befell the Indians therein is immortal woe in a post mortem hell.
The gentleman said this was partly right and partly wrong. Met him several years after, when he was preach- ing the annihilation of the wicked. He had made some progress, for it is certainly better to burn us to ashes than to burn us forever. Lectured in McConnersville, where I became acquainted with Mrs. Frances D. Gage, who, since then, has been before the public as a writer and lecturer. Notwithstanding her limited education, she writes good poetry and prose, and is a superior lec- turer. She is a noble woman, and devotes her life to noble purposes. Spent several days in Marietta, a beau- tiful town on the Ohio river. Was urged to settle, and devote all my time to the church in the place, but declined, my health not being sound. Lectured in Belpre. Stopped with General Putman, a descendant of the revolutionary hero of that name - a splendid man, and a devoted believer in the Restitution. Here I met W. H. Jolly, an early pioneer preacher. He trav- eled most of the time through the wilderness of Ohio, preaching in private houses, school-houses, barns, and wherever he could have a hearing. He received small compensation for his much labor, but did not mind that, as his whole soul was in the work. He was dearly
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beloved by his fellow believers. He died soon after, but is still remembered as a devout and earnest man. He had a daughter, a young lady, who wrote well for our periodicals. She afterwards married, and I do not know what has become of her.
In Richmond and Chillicothe I also spoke. In the former place the meetings caused considerable excite- ment, which brought out a preacher. He abused me, my faith, and every body that entertained it. He was a regular blackguard, and a son of thunder. My clothes being rather seedy, the friends, as a compensation for my labor, presented me with a new suit, and I went on my way rejoicing. Delivered lectures in several places in Highland county. Became acquainted with a brother by the name of Webber, who soon after commenced preaching. After laboring about ten years in Ohio, he moved to Scotland county, Mo., where he died, after traveling and preaching in that state two or three years. His lone grave is on the wide and wild prairie. The last time I saw it, a frail fence enclosed his resting place, and that, ere this, has probably disappeared.
I returned to Cincinnati, May, 1839. Had been absent five months, delivered ninety-three discourses, and trav- eled, in the saddle, six hundred miles. The succeeding nine months were spent in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky. Delivered a series of discourses in Warsaw, Ky., which awakened much interest. Dr. Chamberlain, a wealthy and influential citizen of that place, had recently em- braced the better faith. He had been a member of the Disciple church, and all who knew him, freely admitted that his new faith had made a new man of him. It ex- panded his soul, and opened his hand and his purse. His wealth, time and talent, and the latter was of a,
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superior order, were devoted to the dissemination of the truth. He distributed hundreds of our denominational books through Kentucky, and was ever ready to aid in advancing the good cause. He subsequently moved to Burlington, Iowa, donated to every Universalist church in Iowa one hundred and sixty acres of land, and, I think, gave Lombard College, in Galesburg, Ill., ten thousand dollars in cash, besides many valuable books, and a collection of American antiquities. Lectured three times in Lexington, Ky. One of the preachers in town delivered a long and angry phillipic against the new faith - said, among other mean things, that it is the worst kind of infidelity. I asked, what is there infidel about it. It asserts, there is a God, who rules in heaven and on earth, and that in him we live, move and have our being. Is that infidelity ? It teaches that Jesus is the Son of God, and Savior of the world. Is that infi- delity ? It declares that God will surely and fully reward every virtue, and surely and fully punish every vice. Is that infidelity ? It proclaims man to be an immortal being destined to advance onward and upward forever and ever. Is that infidelity? It asserts that our chief happiness consists in communing with God, and living a pure and virtuous life. Is that infidelity? Portions of your system, sir, are worse than infidelity. You are a Calvinist; and in the language of John Wesley, "You may call me an infidel, a Turk, a Mohammedan, but don't call me a Calvinist. I had rather believe in no God than believe he is an almighty tyrant." You believe in a hell into which God plunges most of the dead, to be the victims of his vengeance world without end. Is there any thing in the baldest infidelity half so infernal as that? You believe God creates us all totally depraved,
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not capable of thinking a good thought or performing a good act, and if we do not change our nature, he will roast us in hell forever. And then to cap the climax of infamy, you teach, God decreed from all eternity, that the victims of perdition should be born totally depraved, should live wickedly, and in the end should fall into the bottomless pit. If your creed is religion, give me infi- delity. To exchange the latter for the former, would be exchanging heaven for hell.
I also lectured several times near Lexington, at the request of a venerable man by the name of Taylor, a relative of President Taylor. Several years after, I heard Dr. Young, a Methodist minister, tell the follow- ing story in his pulpit at St. Louis, about Mr. Taylor and an imaginary clergyman : " There lived an old and rich man near Lexington, Ky., by the name of Taylor, who was a Universalist. He once sent to Cincinnati for a minister of his choice to come and preach for him, and the minister having performed his labor, Mr. T. paid him one hundred dollars. All right, preachers should be paid for their work like other folks. Some time after, the preacher again visited him, by Mr. T.'s request, and he again paid him one hundred dollars. He did right. When the preacher was about departing, he told the old man he needed five hundred dollars, and would be much obliged if Mr. Taylor would lend him that sum for a short time. He did so, and to this day the debt has not been paid. The old man renounced his Universalism, and died a Methodist. If any of you doubt the truth of this story, I tell you it is true as the gospel, for I know all about it." I called on the gentleman the next day, and asked him if he was ever acquainted with Mr. Taylor.
Dr. Y. "No."
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M. " Do you know any of his relatives? "
Dr. Y. "No."
M. " But you said yesterday you knew all about this matter."
Dr. Y. "Brother Kavanagh told .it to me, and he learned it from a brother in Kentucky."
M. Now, sir, I knew Mr. Taylor, and I suppose I am the preacher you referred to, and I pronounce the whole story, save that Mr. T. was a Universalist, and that I preached in his neighborhood, false."
Dr. Y. "Oh, this took place a long time ago, - before your day."
I took occasion to lecture him for telling slanderous tales about the living or the dead. Mr. Taylor took me to Richmond where I spoke twice. Two men came to me at the close of one of the meetings - their hearts were full. They thanked God the scales had fallen from their eyes, and that they now beheld the gospel in all its heav - enly beauty. I also preached in Paris, Flemingsburg, and many other places in Kentucky. In the latter place, I remember having in the middle of the sermon a hard ague chill, and had to stop half an hour, when I resumed the discourse.
The new meeting-house in Patriot, Ind., was to be ded- icated, and a large party of Cincinnatians chartered a boat to take them there, forty miles down the Ohio riv- er, and back. It was a delightful excursion. George Rogers and E. M. Pingree were of the party - both now in heaven, I trust. We three did the preaching. J. L. Johnson was installed pastor of the church. He had been a Methodist, and still retained some of his old no- tions, and all of his Orthodox phraseology, consequently had poor success. He soon left us and returned to his
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mother church. About this time I attended a discussion in New Richmond, Ohio, between Robert Smith, and a Mr. Fisher, a Methodist layman. Mr. F. was an able man, and better qualified to defend his cause than three- fourths of the preachers of his order. Both being strong men, the discussion was very interesting. Daniel Parker resided there, and had long been in the ministry. He called himself a Restorationist, and would not associate, religiously, with Universalists. I suppose his views cor- responded with those of Elhanan Winchester. He was a disorganizer; would not form churches, but was a very sincere, devout and good man. He was also an ardent Abolitionist of the Garrison school, and advo- cated his cause publicly and privately. He preached one evening, and in the midst of his sermon buried his face in his hands, and wept like a child. Said he had not believed in Universalism one minute in all his life. In his old age, I have understood, he joined the Baptist church.
My health continued feeble, not having recovered from the ague, engendered in the South, but was not con- fined in-doors. Had a slight chill every day, succeeded by an inward fever, which kept me debilitated. Occa- sionally, though, I had a violent shake. Often when rid- ing, I would have an attack, when I would stop two or three hours, and then resume my journey. I took all sorts of medicine without the desired effect. It finally occurred to me that breakfast might have some connec- tion with my ague, as it returned every morning soon after eating. I refrained from that meal a week, and the ague did not trouble me. Two or three times after- wards, my morning ague returned, but abstaining from breakfast always checked it. I soon entirely recovered;
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and since then, with the exception of two attacks of bil- lious fever, one in St. Louis and one in Chicago, brought on in both cases by walking and riding in the blazing sun, and preaching too much, I have enjoyed perfect health. I certainly have reason to be thankful for the good health I have enjoyed, and for innumerable other blessings, temporal and spiritual.
CHAPTER VI.
George Rogers had traveled in the Southern state and was urged either to return or send one in his stea He could not go, and at his solicitation, I consented journey in Kentucky, Tennesee, Mississippi, Alaban Georgia, North and South Carolina; and from then I purposed going by sea to Boston, Mass. That was t programme. February, 1840, with horse and bugg I started from Mount Healthy, on what I expect would be a long and hard journey, through a thinly se tled region, and among strangers. Crossed the Oh river at Cincinnati, and traveled about ten miles on splendid pike. But at the end of the pike, the sublin and ridiculous joined hands. Horse and buggy plunge from the hard, dry and smooth road, into an ocean mud and water. This enlightened me concerning tl condition of the roads generally ; and after flounderil in the mud awhile, I succeeded in getting back to d land, and at once abandoned my contemplated southe journey.
I then resolved to go East through Ohio, Pennsylv nia, New York and Massachusetts; and in a few days w on my way to the noted city of Boston. Made tl whole journey, about one thousand miles, on horsebac in six weeks. Went East to visit my mother, and hu ried through rapidly as possible. But I could not tra el very fast, the roads being in a bad condition, and tl weather often stormy. Lectured in Woodstock to larg
C
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assemblies. Spent three days very pleasantly, visiting kind friends, and talking to the people. A church was subsequently formed and a meeting-house erected. Cy- rus F. Wait, then a youth, attended my meetings. He soon entered the ministry, and after laboring faithfully many years, laid down his armor, and' went home. He lived and labored in Woodstock most of the time he was in the ministry, and was an efficient preacher and an excellent man. Delivered several discourses in Delaware, and had the following conversation with a Baptist cler- gyman :
B. "You preached in town last night, did you ? " M. "Yes."
B. "If you are right, I cannot be wrong."
M. " If I am right, you are radically wrong, as we es- sentially differ. If my views of God, Christ, heaven, hell, man, rewards and punishments, are correct, you are in error, of course, wherein you differ from me. Any one with half an eye, and it nearly out, can see that."
B. " Well, I am safe if Universalism is true."
M. "He only is safe whose life is in harmony with the truth. 'Know the truth, ' said Jesus, 'and the truth shall make you free.' 'Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth.' Jesus attached great importance to the saving influence of truth."
B. " But I shall be saved as well as you if Universal- ism is of God."
M. " You will be saved when sanctified by the truth, and not till then. Universalism promises no salvation, in this world or the world to come, without purity of heart. Let that be remembered."
B. " But I thought you believed we should all be saved anyhow."
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M. "You thought wrong. There is only one way to be saved, and that is, by the baptism of the truth. Those thus baptized are saved, heaven now reigns in their souls ; the kingdom of God, which is righteousness, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, is within them. That is the salvation Jesus lived, labored, and died to bless man with."
Delivered a discourse in Circleville, and there met W. Y. Emmett who has recently died full of years. He was long known in Ohio as a faithful minister of the New Testament. His father was a Methodist clergyman, but the son greatly improved on the theology of the father. There are three steps from extreme error, in religion, to truth -Calvinism, Arminianism, Universalism. Per- haps his grandfather was a Calvinist. Passing on, lec- tured several times in Ashtabula, but sectarianism taking alarm, all doors were closed and I proceeded to Con- neautville. Ammi Bond resided there. He has re- cently died. His ministry was confined, chiefly, to the northeast part of Ohio, and to contiguous portions of Pennsylvania. His personal appearance was attract- ive ; had a well formed head, a Grecian face, and the soul within, corresponded to the man without. From here I proceeded more rapidly on my journey. Called on A. B. Grosh, Utica, N. Y., who was then publishing the Gospel Advocate. Crossed the Hudson river at Troy. L. L. Sadler had charge of the church in that city. He had formerly resided in Ohio, and preached extensively in that state as a missionary. The elderly believers in Ohio, well remember L. L. Sadler. He was connected with the Star in the West, was a fair writer, and good speaker. After six weeks traveling I reached Princeton, Mass., where my mother resided. Visited my old home
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in Haverhill, shed a tear over my brother's grave in Plaistow,N. H.,attended a Conference meeting in Boston, and then sailed from Boston for Philadelphia, in the brig Mary Ann, commanded by Captain Chase. We encount- ered a tremendous storm - an equinoctial storm - which made the vessel roll and plunge fearfully,and set the sailors telling stories of shipwrecks, ghosts and home. The cap- tain, a member of one of our churches on Cape Cod, related the following: The previous season there was a terrible storm off that coast, and many vessels were lost. A friend of his, who ran a vessel between New York and Boston was out in it, and during the hardest of the gale, in a pitch-black night, he was trying to weather Cape Cod, to get into a sheltered position. About midnight, when the storm was doing its worst, he went into the cabin, dripping with salt water, when one of the passengers, a Methodist preacher, enquired how the vessel was getting along. The captain replied, " the wind is driving us rapidly ashore - we shall all be in
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