of, in the days of Murray, seventy-five years ago! He tells us he expects to stand, by-and-by, among the Evangelical Christians. Well, there is some hope. I believe he is better than many others. He admits some punishment beyond the grave. There is some hope of him; and when he comes among the evangelical, we will welcome him, and then how easy will his task be, when he has passages on every page of the Bible to support him, instead of having to look and look, and take the poet at last!

As to his illustration of the punishment of a child by its father, I think I last night clearly enough showed the object of God in creating men. Now, I do not intend to be diverted from the logical and natural course. But I will say, I believe God created man for his own glory, and gave him the means of serving and obeying him. But men do not do that here. He will not dare to tell you that God's design in making men was that they should act as they do here; that he designed every murder, theft, all wickedness, and sin, in this world-although he is a pretty strong fatalist. But he will hardly take the ground that everything that exists is by the determinate purpose of the great and good God.

He quotes the passage of the Psalms-"Before I was afflicted, I went astray," and explains the word afflicted, as if it really meant punishment; but affliction is not punishment. Strange confusion of terms! The one is the gentle discipline of the parent towards his erring child; the other, may be the imprisonment for life of the incorrigible disturber of government. When a man is an incorrigible disturber of the peace, and commits a specific crime on which justice can lay her hand, we imprison him for life. Shall not God have the same power, during the spiritual life, as we during the natural life? But the discipline of a father towards his children is a very different thing. God deals with his chil

dren differently from what he does with the children of the devil. If men will not yield obedience, they shall, nevertheless, bow the knee before him; if they will not yield willingly, they must, as subjects of his power. He calls on me to prove not only the existence, but the reason of endless punishment. That is more than is in the bill. The question which we discuss is "Do the Holy Scriptures teach the final salvation of all men?" Men are in misery and in sin. You must get them into heaven. We seek the facts which God has established, without presuming to judge of the motives of the Almighty. Allow me to remark, (and with this I will relieve your patience for the evening,) that the same reasons which induce me to reject Universalism, ought to induce you to reject it. I wish to give you, in closing, one reason why I cannot be a Universalist, according to their own explanation of what Universalism means; and to preface what I have to say, let me quote from the Gospel Banner, of Feb. 20th, 1841, a Universalist paper. Speaking of endless misery, the writer

says:

"We believe it to be the greatest error of our time. Put all the other errors of the world in one, and these would not equal in magnitude that to which I refer. Is it any longer a wonder that we, as Universalists, should employ so much of our time in preaching and writing against this great error?"

To this sentiment their papers and pulpits respond; this is their great purpose! Now, I cannot believe Universalism because it would represent my Saviour as acting an inconsistent part in the whole of his ministry on earth. He lived, labored, and preached, among a people who believed in endless misery—(" and this the greatest error of the world, mightier than all the rest put together,") for it is conceded that Jew and Gentile believed it. And yet he labored.

preached and toiled, and never a word escaped his lips against this the greatest error of the whole world. Can I believe that my Lord and Saviour, coming on purpose to do the world good; to preach the truth to them; being in the midst of the greatest error the world ever saw, preached for three years and a half, and yet never uttered a word to oppose and correct the error, that they might forego it? He was in the habit of exposing other errors. He rebuked their superstitious washing of hands, and their tithing of mint and anise; their long prayers, and yet exclaimed, "Ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" Such words uttered by him who was all truth, to men who believed in eternal punishment! What else could he mean than that hell is eternal? Yet, if Universalism be true, Christ was a Universalist. Still he did not preach and expose this "great error," equal to the sum of all other errors !

As Universalists feel bound to employ most of their time in preaching and writing against this "horrible error," and as Christ employed none of his time for that purpose, I must inevitably conclude that Christ was not a Universalist; and as Christ was not, neither can I be. This is a conclusion from which we cannot escape. If Universalism be true, it represents my Lord and Saviour as acting a very inconsistent part in all his mission and ministry.

THIRD EVENING.

The Rev. Mr. MILLER, of Yonkers, having offered a prayer, Rev. Dr. SAWYER said—

My learned opponent has offered a criticism on the Greek word rendered will in the passage "God will have all men to be saved." It is very important for him to ward off the force of that passage. He therefore tells us that this word signifies a wish, a desire, a willingness that all men should be saved, and not a determinate will or purpose. He seems to have examined the New Testament critically, and his judgment in the case is undoubtedly entitled to consideration. Yet I am sorry to say that his criticism contradicts directly the opinion of Dr. Edward Robinson, Professor in the Union Theological Seminary in this city, whose scholarship is unquestioned, both in America and Europe. He says that "w signifies to will, to wish, to desire, implying active volition, and purpose, and thus differing from Bouhouas. According to Dr. Buttman, the distinction between Bouhouas and Jew is that the latter expressed an active volition, and purpose; the former a mere passive desire, propensity, willingness."

I quote these words for the sake of correctness, and not because they are important for my purpose. For if God desires, or is in any degree willing that all men should be saved, I should like my opponent to tell us when God will have any less desire. I believe that God is the same, and

will never change; and of course will never cease to will that all men shall be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. St. Paul tells us, Eph. 1:9, that God having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness, he might gather together in one, all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him. Here this is shown to be a

will of purpose.

I confess that I was taken somewhat aback by the bold and hardy declaration of my brother-brother if we chance to have the same father-that God is not the father of all men, but that a portion of our race are children of the devil. It seemed to me an unusual position even in the straitest sect of orthodoxy at the present day; and the statement of the fact as it lies in the bible is important here.

I laid down the proposition last evening, and now repeat it, that God is the Universal Father, or Father of all men! In proof of this proposition, I wish you to consider

1. That God, and not the devil, made man. He made him in a manner different from any other thing or creature that he created. "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." My argument here is, that man is the child of God, because God made him in his own image. Now amidst all the ruins of sin, this image has not been utterly obliterated. The fall did not abolish it. It remains still; for after the flood, when God was giving laws against murder, he said: "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God made he man"-thus clearly recognizing something divine in him.

So St. James, speaking of the tongue, says: "Therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men,