The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-21
CHARLES KINGSLEY'S UNIVERSAL
ISM.

We place on our first page THU
week an attractive illustrated article
describing a visit to Charles Kings
ley's home in Eversley village, Eng
land. Charles Kingsley was a Uni
versalist, a devout believer in the
fundamental faith of Christianity
that under the divine government all
things would issue we'll for all men
Passage after passage in his novels
poems and sermons embody this hui
name sentiment. 1t was at once the
source and inspiration of his noblest
activities for the good of men, and it
gave him the cheerful, hopeful and
happy view of God which is always
displayed in his writings. One of his
volumes is entitled, "The Good News
of God," and is pervaded with the
spirit and power of the Universalist
faith.
In letter to Thomas Cooper, the
whilom infidel author of the "Purga,
tory of Suicides" Kingsley thus ex-
plicitly declares his faith
Eyes, Thomas Cooper! Because 1 be.
lieve in a God of absolute and unbound
ed love, therefore l believe in loving
anger which will and must devour
and destroy all which is decayed, mon
strous and aburtive in his universe; till
all enemies shall be put under his feet.
to be pardoned, surely, if they confess
themselves in the wrong and open their
eyes to the truth. And God shall be all
in all. These last are wide words. 1t is
he who limits them. not l who accept
them in their fulness. who devises the
verbal inspiration of the Scriptures"
Kingsley's Universalism was vital
and practical faith, sincerely believed
and cherished, and made the founda-
ton of his religious creed. 1t is all
embraced in the glorious assertion
which he quotes with such emphasis
that "God will ultimately be all in
ALL"
In one of his sermons Kingsley's
Universalism is also made magnifi-
Gently evident. He asks: "How long,
then, is the cross of Christi" and he
answers thus: Long enough to last
through all time. As long as there
is a sinner to be saved; as long as
there is ignorance, sorrow, pain, death
or anything else which is contrary to
God and hurtful to man, in the uni
verse of God, SO long will Christ's
cross last. For it is written, He must
reign until he has put all enemies
under his feet, and God is all in all.
And that is the length of the cross
of Christ" And again Kingsley
says: "But if the cross be as high as
heaven, then it seems to me it must
also be as deep as hell-deep enough
to reach the deepest sinner in the
deepest pit to which he may fall"
And from yet another sermon wet take
these words:
"How can man turn to God who
does not know where to look for God,
who does not know who Go is, who
mistakes the devil for God, and fan
cies the ALLOWING Father to be a
task-master, and tyrant, and an &C
cuser, and a respecter of persons
without mercy and care for ninety
nine hundredths of the souls which
he has made? How can he find God
He does not know where to look fol
him."
As our readers make their visit this
week to KingsleY's well-beloved Ev
ersley home, under Miss Dixon's
guidance, and look upon his grave
with the beautiful monumental cross
resting over it, they will be pleased
doubtless, to have these testimonies
o Charles Kingsley's Universalism
and to know that the once famous
Broad Church clergyman of Eng
land, novelist, poet and philanthro
pist, was a believer in the Eternal
Hope, and found his JOY and inspira
ton in the characteristic teaching:
of the Universalist Church.