The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-04
A REMARKABLE AND BEAUTIFUL
EXPERIENCE.
BY "CLERIcUs."

l want to give, as briefly as may be,
what 1 regard as remarkable and
beautiful religious experience of two
very interesting young people. These
young people, husband and wife, came
from two most excellent families the
father and mother on either side are
members of the Congregational church,
people of high order of intelligence,
and of beautiful religious spirit. The
young people are educated, intelligent,
cultivated, disposed to be free, to think
for themselves, to grow, to be nobly
useful, and not to settle into any rut.
They were both members of the Con-
gregational church in one of the West
ern States. They left their old home,
with others, to make a new home in a
far distant Western Territory.
In their new home they very soon be-
gan to look after their religious inter-
ests, as all true Christians should. They
began to hold religious meetings among
themselves for prayer, conference, study
of the Bible, and to consider the matter
of organizing church and employing
preacher. These young people, being
unusually capable, cultivated, spirit
ually minded, were sometimes appoint
ed to lead in these meetings. They had
their own thoughts, and read the Inde-
pendent and the Bible. Inow will quote
the words which the young man writes
home to his mother, and that will tell
the rest of this quite remarkable story
of the beautiful development of the
higher religious life of these young
people.
The young man says to his mother:
81 wrote you some time ago about our
church prospects. Mary and may not
join the church after all. If you will
have patience 1 will explain. Two or
three weeks ago Mary was appointed
to lead the prayer meeting last Sunday;
so she took for her subject the latter
part of the 18th verse of 1st Peter, Sd
chapter And be ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh
you reason of the hope that is in you,
with meekness and fear;' and of course
we had both thought on the subject,
and studied it some. I thought, of
course, we would be expected to give
an answer or reason for our hope,'
outside the Bible, as the people to whom
Peter wrote had no Bible. So during
the week previous to the meeting,
proved to my own mind, outside of the
Bible, the existence of God-one that
we could see in nature. We can see his
power in nature in many ways-one for
instance, the laws of nature, heat,
gravity, etc. We can see this love in
nature, providing even for the beast or
smallest insect. His love for man is
seen in giving him all things. And
right here, on this one word, love, was
where hung my hope. Coming then
to the Bible, which we all believe and
have, we find God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten Son. etc.
God is love- we love God because he
first loved u.s. After proving in my
own mind, Gods love for me, I have
this hope. What hope2 Hope to be
saved ? Hope to be saved from what ?
From punishment No. All these
questions kept coming up in my mind.
And 1 could find nowhere in the Bible
that 1 am to be saved from punishment.
But can find in the Bible that 1 will
be punished if I sin; and we see in all
nature that will be punished if vio-
late its laws. The question comes
again, if my hope is not to be saved
from punishment, what is it then
My hope is to be saved from sin. John
says, Behold the Lamb of God that
taketh away the sin of the world.' And
there is the same idea in Cor. XIV, 81,
%: For since by man came death, by
man came also the resurrection of the
dead.' For as in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive And
here we see Christ's mission in the
world. Although it has been eighteen
years since his crucifixion, we
read he is the same yesterday, to- o-day,
and forever
"Well, 1 will go on to the prayer
meeting. at the meeting, all others
had, it seemed, looked at the subject
from a different standpoint from what
Mary and had !; and because of some
remark which made in regard to end
less punishment, James and Joseph
Smith, and Mr.. and Mrs. Jones pitched
into me- had been reading Fosters
article in the Independent, on The Out
look of the World and there find that
only one-sixteenth of the inhabitants
of the world are Protestant, only one
fourth are what can be called Chris
tians. According to James and Joseph,
and Mr.. and Mrs. Jones, ffteen-six-
teenths Of all the inhabitants of this
world are punished forever.
81 simply quoted, Christ came into
the world to save sinners, NOT to save
one sixteenth of the sinners; also the
21st and 22d verses of Cor, 18th chap
ter. These verses Joseph would try