world to save us in another world, is contrary to all the representations which are found in the scriptures."* He saves men in this world from ignorance, superstition and fear, by revealing a future life of blessedness; it is also added for the sake of appearances, he saves men from sin;-but how, the system has never clearly demonstrated either in theory or in practice.

As for the institution of a Church and the ordinance of the Lord's Supper, the editor of the Universalist Expositor (whom Mr. Whittemore quotes with a general endorsement) admits that they are discarded in practice by more than two-thirds of their congrega tions; and adds for himself, "we have doubts of the existence of ordinances in Christianity; we mean in the usual technical sense of the term."||

Of the views which extensively prevail in the denomination concerning the Holy Scriptures, I must defer speaking until a future occasion.

I have given a rapid sketch of the main features of the system. But after all, the great theme, the grand burden of the system, is the doctrine of all men's salvation. This is the fore-front of it-the beginning, the middle, and the end. It is the sum and substance of the gospel - the glad tidings of great joy. For this the whole Bible is racked, and every doctrine it teaches, wrenched, and hammered, and clipped. It is, in some form, the perpetual theme of the Universalist preacher, it is the ceaseless want of the hearer, it is the sole, yea, let me say, the forlorn hope of the Uni

*Lecture Sermons, p. 17.

Plain Guide, pp. 424, 326.

speak too

Says Mr.

versalist's heart. In proof that I do not strongly, listen to their own statements. Williamson, "This is with us the crowning excellence of the gospel-a theme on which we ever dwell, with the most lively satisfaction and joy. To this grand consummation of the Divine government, all the attributes of God and all the principles of the Divine government are tending."* Says Mr. Whittemore, it “is the central sun of Universalism. This with them [Universalists] is the all absorbing topic; the crowning excellence of revealed religion; the richest glory of God; the highest honor of Christ; the fullest joy of saints; the sweetest answer to prayer; the strongest motive to praise; the most potent charm of christian faith; a fountain of consolation in life; a holy triumph in death; the joy of angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect. Such is the doctrine of the ultimate salvation of all the human race.”†

But enough. The doctrine of universal salvation is, by their own showing, the "all-absorbing" feature of the system:-and that, too, the immediate blessedness of all men at the resurrection a blessedness with which neither their conduct nor Christ's work has any thing to do. So far as evidence appears and according to the recent testimony of its late patriarch, no other doctrine is now publicly and emphatically pro

*Exposition, p. 18.

† Plain Guide, p. 18.

How it comes to pass, I have not attempted to state, because it is left indistinct by their writers. A view sometimes stated and apparently oftener implied is that "as the present life is the simple gift of God, so will be a future life of blessedness."

mulgated than this: that every man, however vile and loathsome, is raised from the dead to enter at once on perfect and eternal bliss. That is the nature, and that the central sun of Modern Universalism.

I have laid before you, as briefly as was consistent with the proof of my statements, the creed whichwith occasional deviations-veiled by many a circuitous phrase and orthodox term, covered by many a feint, and sometimes, as we have seen, denied or retracted in pure shame at its naked deformity, yet underlies and pervades the preaching, the books, the periodicals, of the Universalist denomination- taught by its great names, spread through its weekly sheets.

Behold the system. And before proceeding to refute its teachings, let us gaze a little on its monstrous features at our leisure, as we proceed to consider

II. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MODERN UNIVERSALISM. 1. This system is, in every practical aspect, solely an earthly system.

Its aim is earthly. Its sole aim is to make men happy in this world. Do not understand this as a figure of speech-it is simply the literal fact. Universalism tells men, indeed, that they shall be blessed hereafter; but that is only in order to make this life pleasant and to take away its gloom. All it professes to do for man is confined to this world. It is to make no difference with the future. Universalism does not of fer one shred of information, one fragment of advice, one caution, or suggestion, or hint not one-that has the shadow of a practical influence on our condition in the life to come.

It does not pretend to do it. It

distinctly avows that it cannot do it. It does not say, "do this and it shall be the better for you in another world;" but, "do it or not, be holy or vile, Christlike or devilish, you shall be happy alike. Believe the statement or not,-do what you can to defeat it,—you shall still be happy in spite of yourself." Not one thing of all its swelling words and boisterous proclamations is to have the influence of a feather's weight, on man's condition through all that portion of his being to which this whole life is the first beat of an eternal pulse. It stands up in the pulpit Sabbath after Sabbath, and pretends to teach religion, to utter a communication from the eternal God to his immortal creatures; and yet, not one word it utters is to affect, in the slightest degree, that creature's immortality—it shall not, cannot modify one hair's breadth that creature's character or destiny throughout all eternity. It openly snaps all connection between a future life and this, and preaches to him a message that concerns him only while he is among the beasts that perish. And this is preaching! This is a religion! This is a message, and all the message from the God of Heaven! a message to immortal man, having no practical bearing on his immortality!

And this is not all. It is of the earth in its origin and all its special doctrines. It contains not a teaching that breathes of any higher original than the soul of sinning man. Its whole effort, the burden of its teaching and its preaching, is to bring the entire character and requirements of the great God, down to the standard of his fallen creatures. The system is a mere naturalism, and the naturalism of a sinner. Its per

petual strain in regard to God and his character is that he will not do so and so, because a human father would not do so. Its grand and ceaseless argument against eternal punishment, which sticks out through every disguise, is that it cannot be true because it is so horrible and so shocking to the sensibilities of weak, sinful man. God is, in his moral character, little more than a magnified Universalist. And in his speech he is represented as, like the lowest order of men, in constant habits of monstrous exaggeration.

Sin against God is not the thing that "God hates," an "abomination" unto him; it in express and open words denies that sin is an infinite evil,* or that God hates the workers of iniquity; it is a thing that a little earthly suffering fully remedies. It studiously toils, as the groundwork of all its pretensions, to inculcate the lowest earthly view of sin and of holiness — to make them just what sinful men deem them and no more. And thus its doctrine of reward and punishment is equally low and earthly; it is nothing but the law of natural cause and effect, open to the eye of every man vice produces unhappiness; and for obedience, says Ballou, "there is no extraneous reward,"

"the reward is the deed, the reward is the obedience itself." And to make this earthly view tenfold more earthly, it arrests the action of the cause, and violently breaks it off at the hour of death, so as to reduce it to its lowest conceivable compass. And for this natural result here on earth, it offers no alleviation. "Set it down as one of the peculiar doctrines of

*Voice to Un., p, 33.

† Id. p. 93.