DISCUSSION

ON THE

FINAL SALVATION OF ALL MEN.

"DO THE SCRIPTURES TEACH THE FINAL SALVATION OF ALL MEN ?"

AFFIRMATIVE.

NEGATIVE.

REV. T. J. SAWYER, D.D.

REV. ISAAC WESCOTT.

FIRST EVENING.

A DISCUSSION On the above question was commenced in the Broadway Tabernacle, on Tuesday evening, April 4th, 1854, between the Rev. T. J. SAWYER, D. D., pastor of the Orchard-street Universalist Church, New York, and the Rev. ISAAC WESCOTT, pastor of the Laight-street Baptist Church. The Tabernacle was filled at an early hour with an immense audience-two thousand at least were supposed to be present. The public interest seemed to be deeply excited on the topic of debate, and a general desire to listen to the discussion was manifested. The platform was occupied by the disputants, and sundry other clergymen of various denominations.

The hour for the opening of the Discussion having arrived, prayer was offered by Rev. Dr. HODGE. Dr. SAWYER then arose and said:

In opening the Discussion now before us, and to which we invite your serious and candid attention, you will have the goodness, I trust, to indulge me in a few preliminary remarks.

There is, if I mistake not, a prejudice against religious controversy in general, and against oral discussions in particular. The grounds of such prejudice I do not well understand, nor have I ever been able to see why such discussions may not be made eminently profitable. Let men holding different opinions, come together and discuss their matters of difference with candor and in a christian spirit, and what injury can it possibly do to the cause of truth? Perhaps I shall be told that such discussions are seldom or never so conducted, and hence the objection to them. Which then is our duty, to mend our spirits and tempers, and mould them into a more christian form, or to abandon a good means for the promotion of christian knowledge, simply because men are apt to abuse it?

Not a few seem to think it a matter of reproach to a christian, if he ever seeks for controversy and discussion. He is said to be an agitator and to love excitement, and to live only by debate and strife. Such persons little reflect that every reform has been carried forward by this very means, and that even Christianity itself has never made a single step of progress without exposing itself and its advocates to this censure. In the apostolic times the servants of Christ were regarded as men who "turned the world upside down," who wandered about the earth as 'pestilent fellows," preaching new gods, and introducing a new religion and new laws. Among these St. Paul was eminent. When at Athens, that seat of Grecian literature, and philosophy, and religion, he not only disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons, but also in the

market daily, with them that met with him. So at Corinth, the same Apostle-

"Went into the synagogue, and spake boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. But when divers were hardened and believed not, but spake evil of that way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, disputing daily in the school of one Tyrannus.And this continued by the space of two years, so that all they that dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks."-(Acts 19: 8-10.)

It was by such means the Gospel of our Lord was carried forward in the apostolic age. Fishermen and publicans were the first heralds of the cross; and the world knows what they accomplished. Where do we find such fruits. from our elegant churches, and velvet cushions, and satin ministers, who are too genteel, and whose reputation is too delicate to allow of disputation. There is one class of men who are never benefitted by discussion. I mean those whose opinions are false. When they are conscious of their weakness, they are certainly not to be condemned for being tender and chary of them. Such men are politic in sneering at discussion, and in their endeavors to make honest and earnest men despised. They had their prototypes in the days of the apostles. There was a whole shopfull of them at Ephesus-the craftsmen of one Demetrius, who very well understood by what craft they had their wealth.

When I am either afraid or ashamed to advocate or defend my religious convictions, in public or in private, from the pulpit or through the press, I trust I may have the honesty, at least, if not the grace, to abandon them. Few things seem to me more contemptible than that professed minister of the gospel, who, charged with great truths, shrinks from

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maintaining them, and then seeks to cover his cowardice, or his want of faith, by affecting to despise those who attack them, or by throwing himself upon a dignity as shabby as his own character is poor. Origen, Luther, Zuinglius, and other eminent christians, did not shrink from a life of controversy.

I deem these remarks due to my opponent and myself. We claim to be honest men, and to be governed by solemn convictions of truth and duty. On some points of great moment we differ, and differ widely. And we meet here to open the Bible before us, and to discuss those points of dif ference in a candid and christian spirit. God succeed the right! Neither he, nor I, nor any one of you all, can have any real interest in being in error. It is truth, and truth alone, that can either strengthen our virtue, improve our characters, or increase our spiritual happiness and peace.

The question which we propose to discuss, is simply, "Whether the Holy Scriptures teach the final salvation of all men?" I need not speak of the importance of the question. It is one that addresses itself to every man's business and bosom. In every age it has agitated the human heart. Our own salvation is infinitely dear to us—as dear as our love of life and of happiness. But our interest does not stop here. It were a very selfish view which should satisfy us with a merely personal interest in the redemption of Christ Jesus. Our loves and our sympathies go out still further. From the narrow circle of home, they stretch from neighborhood to neighborhood, and from nation to nation, until they embrace the whole human family. One thing I may confidently assert, that whatever may be our faith, and whatever may be the truth, no human, and, most of all, no christian soul, can ever be satisfied by a salvation less than universal.

But this is not all. Our question does not concern merely