The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-01-14
RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF UNIVERSAL
lists.
BY REV. A. A. THAYER.
Dosage, Iowa.

alike they would have no occasion to
| give each other reason for their hope.
There would be no room for controversy
mo sense m inquiry. The Bible gives
assurance Of investigation. 1t lends
endorsement to variety of opinion. 1t
encourages education in religious things
by instruction from each other; by in
quiries and answers.
What are the hopes and faith of the
people called Universslists- what
are the reasons therefor ?
1. Our hopes are founded on the Bible.
We believe in the inspiration of the
Bible. No man can lawfully stand in
our pulpit as an exponent of our relig
ion, who rejects the inspired authority
of the Bible. 1t is sufficient rule of
faith and practice. 1t is above all
creeds that have been drawn from it,
or written against it.
Our reasons for resting such great
hopes upon the Bible, for having such
great faith in it are: First that the
Bible is infinitely the most masterful
Book that was ever written OF printed.
To our minds and hearts it carries
within itself its own evidence of its
inspiration, in its prophecies of its doc
trine, in its relations of futurity, in its
authority over men, and as the source
of the grandest civilization and the
most glorious liberties which have been
known to mankind.
2. Our religious hopes and faith are
founded in God as revealed in the Bible.
We do not hold to the cold God of sci
ence and philosophy. We worship the
warm, living, personal divinity of the
New Testament, who sendeth rain and
sun and dew, and feedeth fowl and fish
and man-who so careth for us that we
also should cast our care upon him.
Our chief reasons for believing in such
a God are firstly the impossibility of
accounting for the world above and be-
low, and creatures which they contain,
without him; secondly, the universal
conviction in mems hearts that there is
a God and mankind are accountable to
him and all animate and inanimate
nature is dependent upon him, for he
holds the destiny of all things and be-
ings past and present, born and to be
born, in his hands And all immortal
beings will finally become what it is his
will and pleasure they should become.
8. Our religious hopes and faith are
founded in Jesus of Nazareth and in the
power of the gospel which he preached.
There is none other name given
under heaven among men whereby we
must be saved" This gospel is the
power of God unto salvation TO every
one that believeth. 1t is not our posi-
ton that all mankind are to be saved
''any way" They can be saved in but
one way, to wit : Through the princi-
pies and doctrines of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Perhaps you can find people
who think mankind can be saved s'any
way" But we are not that people.
They speak enormously when saying
we are such a people. Tell it in your
churches-publish it on the house-tops,
that the Universalists declare that man.
kind can be saved in only one way, viz:
Through the principles and doctrines of
the Lord Jesus Christ, 1. e., through
the gospel Of our Lord Jesus Christ
and that is through Christ. His way is
the way. His truth is the truth. His
spiritual life is the eternal life.
So if you ask our reasons for such
hopes and faith in his religion, l shall
tell you that our hopes and faith in him
are born of experience, of observation
and of comparison. We know how this
religion transforms ourselves. We ex-
perience the transformation. We OBJ
serve, also, how it transforms others.
And by comparison we find no other re-
ligion or philosophy in the whole earth
that worketh so great transformations
AS the sun to vegetation-as the air to
animal life-as pure water to ANNA
ted creation-so the religion of Jesus is
perfectly adapted to the growth of the
soul in righteousness, in peace, in bless
edness. The golden rule, the law of
love to God and man, combined, form
perfect religion. And when, by inven-
ton, man improves the sunlight and the
rain and the air we breathe, then let
him not presume to improve the religion
of Jesus. To US it is perfection. There
fore it is eternal. Therefore it is the
religion for the paradise of God, no less
than for mortals in the flesh.
1 have now explained that we believe
in the Bible, in the heavenly Father
and in his Son, and in the power of the
gospel unto salvation. We ground our
hopes and faith in them. Suffer me
now to explain that all Of these require
US to believe in retribution also, both
for this world and the next. Religion
and morality and justice and all the
principles of righteousness are as eter-
nal as the principles of chemistry or the
Jaws Of gravitation. Physical death can
work no moral change in the soul. 1t
| OnIv atona tho circulation of the hloOd