The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-09-14

l1c COululduOcQ oil buC ClbiAOho w 40
semble in the theatre. They obeyed.
Utterly in his power, they expected
no mercy-felt that they deserved no
mercy. The theatre was surrounded
with armed men, and on each side of
the stage was stationed body of the
kings own guards. Demetrius en-
tered, and confronted the assembled
citizens who awaited in terror to hear
the signal for their slaughter. But
no such signal was heard. He ad-
dressed them in soft and persuasive
tones, complained of their conduct in
gentle terms, forgave their ingrati-
tude, took them again into favor,
gave the city a hundred thousand
measures of wheat, and promised the
re-establishment of their ancient in
situations. The people, relieved from
their terror, astonished at their good
fortune, and filled with enthusiasm
at such generous forbearance, over
whelmed Demetrius with acclama
| tions.
Horace Greeley was fascinated by
this story. He thought the conduct
of Demetrius not only magnanimous
and humane, but just and polite.
Sparing the people misguided by
their leaders, seemed to him the best
way to make them ashamed of their
ingratitude, and the best way of pre-
venting its recurrence. And he ar
gued: If mercy is best and wisest on
small scale, can it be less SO on a
large? If man is capable of such
lofty magnanimity, may not God be
who made man capable of it? If in
human being, revenge AMI jealousy
are despicable, petty and vile, what
impiety it is to attribute such feelings
to the bene6cent Father of the Uni
verse! The sin of the Athenians
against Demetrius had every element
of enormity. Twice he had snatched
them from the jaws of ruin. Twice
he had supplied their dire necessity.
Twice he had refused all reward ex-
cept the empty honors they paid to
his name and person. He had en-
trusted his wife, his ships and his
treasure to their care. Yet in the
day of his calamity, when for the first
time it was in their power to render
him service, they refused him even
an admittance within their gates, and
met him with mockery and subter-
fuge. But Demetrius forgave even
this. The nobler and greater man
is, the less keen is his sense of per-
sonal wrong, the less difficult it is for
him to forgive.
Amid such thoughts as these, the
orthodox theory of damnation had
little chance. The mind of the boy
revolted against it more and more;
and the result was, that from the age
of fourteen he was known wherever
he lived as champion of Universal
ism, though he never entered Uni
versalist church till he was twenty
years old. The boy appears to have
shed his orthodoxy easily. His was
not nature to travail with new
idea for months and years, and arrive
at certainty only after struggle that
rends the soul, and leaves it sore and
sick for life. He was young; the
iron of theological system had not
entered into his soul; he took the
matter somewhat lightly; and, having
arrived at theory of the divine gov
eminent which accorded with his own
gentle and forgiving nature, he went
on his way rejoicing.
Yet it was no slight thing that had
happened to him. A mans faith is
the man. Not to have a faith is not
to be man. Beyond all comparison.
the most important fact of mans
life is the formation of the faith which
he adheres to and lives by. And this
early change in his religious belief
was the event which gave to all his
subsequent life its direction and char
acter. The deliberate and intelligent
exchange of a severe creed in which
a person has been educated, for less
severe one to which he attains by the
operations of his own mind, quickens
his understanding to an extent which
one who has never experienced it can
not possibly conceive. 1t induces a
habit of original reflection. 1t makes
him slow to believe a thing merely
because many believe it, merely be-
cause it has long been believed. 1t
renders him open to conviction for he
cannot forget that there was time
when he held opinions which he now
clearly sees to be erroneous. 1t dis
solves the spell of authority; it makes
him distrustful of great names. 1t
lessons his terror of pubIic oninion.