The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1881-01-06
WHAT DIR. CHAPIN's DEATH sUG-
GESTS.

The death OF the Rev. DR.. Chaplin, the
most eloquent and the best known of
Universaist ministers, reminds us of the
great ard radical changes which have
taken place since the beginning of his
career as preacher with reference to
the doctrine of everlasting punishment.
Forty years ago, when he was the pastor
of a Universalist church at Charlestown,
in Massachusetts, the doctrines he taught
were utterly odious to the whole ortho.
COX Church. Now, it is not too much to
say, they are very little different from
the prevailing views even in what are
known as the evangelical denominations.
During the early years of DR.. Chapin's
ministry, Universalism was the bugbear
and the butt of orthodox preachers.
There was no religious teaching which
they held in greater detestation. They
treated it as a denial of Christianity, as
a virious encouragement of wickedness
in men, and as something too absurd for
the consideration of intelligent Chris
tians. A Universaist was a man far out
side of the Christian fold, in their eyes,
and it was frequently and jeeringly asked
among them why Universalist Church
was needed at all when men would be
saved anyway.
The great revivalists like Finney and
Knapp were in the fullness of their
power at the time DR.. Chaplin began his
ministrations, and for many years after
they continued to make converts by the
hundred. The terrors Of hell, the sure
retribution which awaited the unCon-
verted throughout all eternity, and the
unrelenting purpose Of God to doom the
sinner to everlasting misery were the
great themes of such preachers. Finney
pointed out the awful peril of the sinner
and the inevitable consequences of sin
unrepented of after the the CalvanistiC
fashion, and Knapp portrayed to his
awestruck congregations the torments of
a realistic hell.
Finney's manner was intense and his
method logical as he gradually closed up
every loophole of escape for the impeni.
tent; and though his delivery was not
violent, he would at length work his au
dienCe up TO the highest pitch of excite
ment. To escape the perils of hell and
to find refuge in the ark Of safety was
usually a common impulse with those
among his hearers who had not yet &C.
cepted the terms Of salvation as he laid
them down. All through the older
States Of the North his voice was heard,
and he had powerful influence in build.
ing up the Calvinistic churches. It is
not too much to say that the doctrine of
eternal punishment was fundamental
with them all, as it was the essential
doctrine of his own religious system.
Knapp went at the work in a rougher
and more violent way He'll was favor.
ite term with him, and to his excited
imagination there came as he preached
the sounds of the fearful screams of the
doomed inhabitants of the place of tor
ment. He had no words except those
of ridiCule and contempt and detesta-
ton for the Universalists. He classed
them with rumsellers and gamblers, as
the worst enemies of humanity. And
certainly, so far as the Baptists were con.
Cerned, Jacob Knapp was in his time q
man of prodigious influence. He wa'
the CONSPICUOUS worker in the revivsls
which planted the seed from which
many churches have grown; and we
must bear in mind that the Baptists are
now more numerous and ara increasing
more rapidly than any other religious de.
nomination except the Methodists. The
lay preachers, revivsists, ordained min
listers, exhorters, and class leaders Of the
Methodists have also used the doctrine
of eternal punishment as the strongest
means of inducing men to accept the
terms of salvation.
1t may therefore be said broadly that
the diCtrine of hell has been the most
commonly received teaching, and one of
i the most urgently pressed doctrines, in
all our Protestant Churches which have
attained numerical Importance. Jona-
than Edwards preached it to the Congre-
gationslists at Northampton, as Cotton
Mather had done to the early Puritans.
1t lay and still lies az the centre Of Pres
byterian theology, and 1t appears In the
Episcopal Prayer Book.