The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-26
Rev. J. M. Pullman Spoke on Sub
iect Of UniversaIism and New
World Problems at Buffalo
Convention
WHAT DOCTRINE OF
UNIVERSALISM MEANS
1t is Belief in Conversion Of Bad
Beings Into Good Beings and
Discards Theory Of Endless
Punishment For Idea Of lust
Punishment
Special to The Spy.

j. M. Pullman at the Universalist gen
unusual interest and Importance. Many
Worcester friends would have been
cheered by his eloquence had they been
able to attend the convention.
His subject was: "Universalism and
the New World Problems. In his adj
dress he said:
1T is principle of Universahsm that
good is intrinsically stronger than evil
and in the long run will surely prevail.
| Now the greatest good of associated
human life-the fruitful mother of all
| other good-is good government; and
the greatest evil is anarchy--headless-
ness, no government. For many years
| the American people have been build
ing up social order founded on equal
ity of opportunity for all. And because
they know that human society canneyer
| at any time be anything but the pro-
| duct of human character and culture,
they have kept education and religion
at the heart of their plan, For years
! they have wrought diligently at this
| great structure, at enormous cost of
blood and treasure, taking out slavery
and putting in freedom, substituting
good for evil whenever and wherever
| possible, until the great republic,
/ eAtS05H Wy ti4CdIS pCtiCClt tOWtT5
among the nations of the earth as the
noblest and strongest social order yet
achieved by man.
| Now the ancient civilizations were
| destroyed by barbarians from without
! but the modern civilizations are mem
aced by mastering or barbarians
from within; and SO it happened on one
recent dreadful day, here in this very
city where l speak, that the evil hand
2 CT tfoIT rI,,o -
| be deadly blow at the very heart of
our precious and costly social good.
And for few hours after the presi-
dent of the United States was shot. it
seemed to us in our bewilderment of
grief and terror and rage, that evil was
fatally stronger than good, and had
triumphed. But was it so? No, our
social structure, founded in essential
! righteousness, did not even stagger at
that blow. 1t stood like a rock, not a
stone Of its foundations was displaced.
Not for a day nor an hour were the
necessary functions of our government
! interrupted. The whole nation trembled
| indeed, but it was with grief and in
4 dlgnation, not with weakness. That
stroke of evil was failure. The heart
OF the nation beat fuller and stronger
after than before it. If you shoot out
/ the handspring of watch, that watch
will stop, but the whole life of the
American nation is not coiled In the
brain of any one citizen, however emf
nent or beloved-it has 10000, 900 sepa-
rate lives. The assassination of the
president showed, not the triumph, but
the futility of evil
A DOUBTFUL TRIUMPH.
But you say evil killed the man, and
| therefore did have some triumph.
doubt the triumph. All men must die
| and what Is so universal, cannot under
| God, be of itself an evil. Most men dIt
| ingloriously in their beds. But thai
| shot gave William Mckinley an oppor.
tunity to die nobly, and he SO noblS
| took 1t that 1t has multiplied his life q
millionfold here on earth, and 1t trans
lated him to the uplands of the uni
verse where he walks with Washington
| and Lincoln and Garfield and the rest,
and serves the interests of the universe
in higher ways than the highest ways
of earth.
but still you say, that evil shot tri-
umphed in the sorrow which II
wrought, doubt that. OF all the infiu-
ences that God brings to bear upon
man in this life. none is more refining
and ennobling than a noble sorrow. And
in this case that common sorrow not
| only melted and fused the nations soul
| compactly ytogether but 1t raised a
great resolve against the evil thing it.
! self. There is a distinct sense in which
| that. shot was the suicide of anarchy
The scorpions tail has stung its head!
! We shall be more vigilant in detecting
| the presence of anarchy, more sure
| that 1t is an evil. more persistent, hon
est and fair in our search for the caus-
es of 1t, and therefore safer against IT
| than we ever were before. We shall
cure anarchism in the only way in
which it can ever be cured. We shall
not fight the battle of Cosmos with the
weapons of chaos, nor tyrannize free
speech under pretense of protecting lib
erty.
But we shall strictly restrain those
in whom anarchism has become men,
tai and moral disease, educate the ig-
| norance in which that disease takes
root, and reform the abuses that SOW
the seed. Education and religion are
the only permanent cures for anarch-
ism. No man, loyal to God and be-
lieving in His success, can ever be an
anarchist. He will antagonize bad gov
eminent with reason and not with the
knife.
CONVERSION DESIRABLE.
But there is another vital aspect Of
the case. Universalism is belief in the
| conversion of bad beings into good be-
| ings. 1t discards the theory Of endless
punishments in favor of the doctrine
of just punishments, which man
ifest the divine justice instead Of an
undivine vengeance. 1t is not punish
ment that we protest against but
against the endless duration of sin and
| misery. For the endless continuance
of sin and misery means everlasting
anarchy in Gods moral universe.
Now take the case of the assassins
of Lincoln Garfield and McKinley How
you abhor and ~loath their crime, and
how you hate and detest theml How
Willingly in the first spasms Of your in
dignation, contempt and hatred you
would have torn them in pieces, and
now glad you are in your sobe. second
thought that you did mott That you did
not sink to their level, that even in
your grief and rage you honored law
and order, that you soberly tried, con-
demned and executed them. thus hand
ing them over to the higher powers for
punishment commensurate with their
crime, which you feel yourself wholly
inadequate either to prescribe or in
fiict.
Next week the assassin of William
Mckinley will die at the hands of the
law. What, beyond this. ought to be
mis- fatey What do the moral inter-
ests of the universe demand? That he
be kept in everlasting worthlessness in
chains and torments. an eternal blot
evil that is in him made to live forever?
or that he be awakened from his
nightmare of anarchy. purged Of his
leprosy so as by fire, changed to clean
ness and sanity converted to order,
trained to obedience and set to atone
for the harm he has done?
- WISHES OF MKINLEY.
Nay, men and brethren. let US take