The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-09-08
WHAT Is OF KNOWLEDGE7


written by the late James Freeman
Clark, and published in recent num-
Der of the Christian Life, we take the
following:
whenever Universalism asserts that
there is no punishment after death, it
passes from positive to negative
statements; not asserting what it sees,
but reasoning about what it does not see.
What it sees is, that God will forever love
all his children; that, if he sends them
suffering, it is sent in love, and meant
for their good.
But as men will always be free, they
will be free to resist Gods love in the
other world as in this. UniversRlism, there
fore, if it denies that there are souls WI h
may at any conceivable period in the
future resist Gods love, passes from
positive to a negative statement, from a
sight to an inference, and from what it
knows to what it thinks
OF course what Universalism denies
or asserts concerning the future condi-
ton of mankind, it does so upon the
authority of what il believes to be a
revelation of Gods thought touching
this matter. Whatever that revelation
may be, or however it comes, it must
be predicated as the ground of faith, or
of knowledge. Admitting that such
revelation has actually been, or can be
made, it must further be admitted,
that, since it comes from God, when it
is fully understood by men, it is au-
thoritative. Universalism teaches that
there is such revelation, a revela-
ton "of the duty, interest and final
destination of mankind" 1t teaches,
further, that this revelation affirms
that all men will not always be free to
resist Gods will, and that it is author
itative.
One reason why we believe that men
will not always be free to resist Gods
will is because they are not free to do
it now, and never have been. The
"stream of tendency" is toward God
now, because men are constrained of
God to do his will. The spirit Of God
sis in the wheels" of human action,
and men are slowly being lifted up into
1.-THE appearance of the likeness of the
glory of God" The methods of civili-
cation, the steady gains of man in
morals and in the knowledge of the
truth, the grand enterprises Of reform,
the hopes Of the race, all, turn upon
the conviction that Gods love and
power are supreme, that Gods will can
be done and must be done on the earth,
as it is in heaven.
However God may "govern" in those
things which constitute mans physical
environment, he "draws" in those
things which constitute mans spiritual
growth or moral gains. This drawing
or persuading of the will of man be-
comes apparent in ''the stream of ten
dency," the historical perspective,
which the life of humanity unfolds to
thought.
Another reason for our faith is that
we believe the Bible contains a revela-
ton of this same quality and character.
In the Bible we have history of the
development Of faith and hope, on the
part of peculiar people, in the power
of God to govern in the affairs of men.
The revelation made through the
growth and spread of the highest re-
ligious thought, as preserved for US in
the Bible, proves that men, from the
earliest times, have been coming into
"a positive statement" that souls may
not, neither in the present, nor sin the
future, resist Gods love-" The whole
force of Bible teaching turns upon the
fact that we must be saved by obedi-
ence to Gods will. In the history of
the world, as coming to US from other
sources than the Bible, we have the
same positive statement of the
gradual development of the same faith
and hope of the race in the sovereignty
of God. True, the sovereignty of God
presupposes that man is subject; but
it is spiritual subsection. The power
of God is subjective to man as well as
objective. 1t is in the motives and
desires of the heart as well as in the
laws of nature. Not only over man
but in man are the eternal principles
of love and truth.
1t appears, therefore, that Univers-
alism in denying shat there are souls
which may at any conceivable period
of the future resists Gods love-" does
not pass from "a positive to negative
statement" Universalism affirms that
men never were, are not now, and
never will be, table to resist Gods
love- to their own final destruction;
and it appeals to revelation made of
God in the history and experience of
the race, from the beginning until now
to prove it. The whole is made up of
the parts. That the race, as whole,
is gaining in the knowledge, and love,
and worship of God proves that a pre-
ponderating majority of individuals are
gaining in the same direction. AS no
small minority are ever able to resist