The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-03-17

bringing more souls to Christ than /,
ardently will rejoice while continue
to preach what seems true to the great
facts of the Pauline theology: 1.-THE
love of Christ cOnstraineth u.s." and
knowing therefore the terror of the
Lord, we persuade men," 1t is your be-
lief that orthodoxy has been led by
your position to modify its rigors
and to emphasize the more gracious
aspects of the divine revelation. This
may be true, and you will therefore re-
jOice that the Christianity which we
represent has made wider and greater
and loftier progress in the last thirty
years than in any other equal period
since Jesus vanished into the radiant
skies of Bethany. We should not
make the mistake of thinking that all
who do not walk in line with us are
surely going away from God. Truth is
large and, like Shakespeare's brain,
myriad minded There are more
ways than one in the province of God by
which men emerge out of intellectual
error. 1t is not along the path of any
one sect or philosophy that Augustine
and Origen, Athanasius and Clement
and Jerome, Calvin and Grotius,
Luther and Schleiermacher, Arch
bishop Whateley and Robert Hall,
Newton and Agassiz, John Henry
Newman and Arthur Penrhyn Stanley,
Jonathan Edwards and William Ellery
Charming and Edwin HI. Chaplin walked
out into the light of the eternal. The
great high wall of heaven is pierced by
twelve jeweled portals, on the north
three gates, on the south three gates, on
the east three gates, on the west three
gates, and if ever we pass within those
shining walls many of us who may have
unduly limited Gods mercy, will
doubtless be surprised to find there
those we had not expected to see. [
believe that it is my privilege here on
earth to walk in loving fellowship with
all who trust in Jesus Christ as Saviour
and Lord, and that it is also my high
est duty to strive, in the spirit in which
Jonathan Edwards labOred among the
Indians, to walk heavenward, "hand
in hand with poor pilgrims who might
otherwise wander far away from the
home of the great spirit" And you
as l learn-believe and teach future
retribution-and | have sometimes
thought that when you consider some
of the developments of human wicked
ness in this city, when, with noble and
divine anger, you mediate on the
doubly distilled diabOlism which lures
the boys and girls of Chicago into
saloons and other vestibules of moral
perdition, and lives by efforts to bestia-
lie humanity, you would all be happy
to sign a petition to an old fashioned
Presbyteria minister - like Professor
Swing select discourse from the
bottom of his barrel and come here on
Sunday morning and turn on, for your
relief, the gatling-gun Of an Old-fash-
ioned birthstone charged hell fire ser
mon!
There is no question in our minds
that the doctrine Of eternal punishment
as it has sometimes been taught, has
driven souls into inhdelity; and there
is no question in my mind that the
doctrine of the final salvation of all
men, as sometimes preached, has hada
tendency to lead some men to postpone
repentance and life of holiness. And
yet cannot fail to recognize my spirit
ual indebtedness to many who have
cherished the larger hope, like Robert
son and Kingsley and FaTTar.
But the greatest fact of the Church's
life to-day is this, that the different
denominational paths we walk in are
seen to be glittering radii, all leading
from and toward the one solar center of
the Christian universe, Jesus the
Christ. The antipathies of Romanist
and Protestant, Orthodox and liberal
Churchman and Dissenter, are marvel
lously giving way to growing measure
of love and fellowship. The denOmin-
ations are influencing and modifying
each other. Some one has said that the
doctrine of eternal punishment as
taught by Edwards compared with that
taught by Joseph Cook is as a bengal
tiger compared with household cat.
The change may have been good one,
but l venture to suggest, even here,
that the cat is likely to live. believe
that we have learned some things from
the Unitarians, in cherishing a more
loving delight in the humanity of our
divine Lord; and Jas. Freeman Clarke
is grateful to orthodoxy for keeping
alive the sense of sin. A hundred years
ago l am told that Universalism land
ed all men at death in heaven, and
Orthodoxy consigned to perdition at
once all who had never heard of the
historic Christ, however faithfully they
might follow the light they had. Both
sides have abandoned, or are abandon
ing, these positions. One of your men,
beTs,, after hearing a distinguished
Presbyterian preacher Of this city as
sert his belief that in every nation they
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