IMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-3) / ^ fA 1.0 SIU " IIM l.i • IIM 1.25 1 1.4 IIM IIM 1.6 cS»^ ^ V] J^i % T CAMI=>13EJ.I.. jnTBi^isiiKi> uv iiiiJc^T 'fi:sa\ HALIFAX: NOVA 8C0TIA TRINTINCi COMi^ANY. 1875. wmmmmimmmmmm ( '. SERMON. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment."— Matthew, xxv. 4t». The doctrine of the salvation of all — irrespective of merit or principle — is, in my humble conception, as untair as it is illogical and untenable. That it is the mere vrgary of the fancy, and the evidence of that pride natural to the human heart, I think I shall be able to show. I ask of yoii, tl^erefore, kind reader, — and I feel confident 1 .shall receive it, — your free and uninterrupted attention through the following pages. This I solicit, as it is necessary to the realization ot the subject I am about to discuss. The first question I shall endeavour to answer for you is the very natural one — *' AA^hat is Universalism 1 " Now, brethren, that is about the only question connected with the subject I have never been able satisfactordy to answer for myself. What do the Universalists believe ? is a question which they them- selves cannot answer — at least they never have answered. Indivi- duals will give you, most glibly and niml)ly, what they themselves believe in the great matter of salvation, but does that express the voice of the body calling itself the Unlversalist Church ? ISfost assuredly not. Kor do those things called individual opinions in any Church carry the slightest authority with them, n(.)r can they be tfiken in any mea- sure to express the Church's opinion. There are doctrines preached ]\y ministers of our own Ciiurch to which I by no means subscribe — (^pinions held which I repudiate, and books written by ministers of the Church which are fit only for the fire ; the autlioritative writings of any Church are those of her standards, and of these Universalism has none. One man saith he belicveth all things ; another, who is weak, belicA'eth nothing. . ^i. , , -— -? -^: 2 Theso facts, tliea, must be the explanation and defence of my taking up the matter only in a general way. All 1 can say in a {lositive and empliatic manner with reference to Unlversalism is, that it asserts the salvation of all, whether worthy of salvation or not. Their acknowledged belief seems to be summed up in two propo- sitions : — •' (1.) There is no such thing as eternal punishment, notwithstand- ing the words of the text. And be it noted, the word translated " Everlasting " is as strong a term as the Greek language can supply, ineaning, emphati(;ally, without end. (2.) The hnal salvation of the hum in race is a certainty, quite irrespective of individual character and life ; " because," forsooth, they say, " God is a merciful God — a Goil of love, and thus He cannot consign to everlasting death any soul of man." Xow at the outset, let me say, I would like to believe this doctrine if I could — BUT I can't. 1 would like to be able to stand in this Church and announce it to the world that it is true of the human i-ace that none can [)ossiljly ]>e lost ; hid lujai.n I say I emit. It is a doc- trine most awfully pernicious, because; at the first sight and to thought- less persons, it carries with it a certain measure of plausible recom- mendation to the fedings of the sinner — though certainly not to the head or the lieart. Herein covsids Its darir/er. It is lial)le to b^; accepteil by the unthinking. It comes in upon those who, in religious matters, though perhaps not in matters of the workl, are unthinking and unreflective, steals away their faith from the good old paths which led their forefathers home to God, and kept them from the snares of the devil and the pains of eternal death,- — with results spiritually disastrous, in a measure too awful for contemplation. I. — T cannot believe in this doctrine, became it is contrary to common sense. >; : ; I make no hesitation in declaring tliis as my firm conviction in the matter. God never asks men to believe in that which plain and simple reason shows to be a contradiction in terms. This I make no hesitation in declaring the; (Tniversalists' theory of eternal life to be. C'onsiiler, for one moment, what their theory ot Heaven is. Just this, — a place where the souls of the departed shall be together for- ever and ever in peace. It is Just Iiere I quarrel with tliem. I say such a condition of things would not fje peace. It would not l>e <1 s ri I>eacc fin- He good, hecaiiao they would be brought into continual | (•(.ntact with the wicked, and such every good man knows would be niisfiry worse tlian death. I have a right to speak for myself in this particular, dxidedly and emi)hatically. In reference to myself, I can assure ;;ou of this— (and I do feo not in words of levity, bur in words of prufoundest solemnity and deepest reverence), if I ani~ to be brouglit into contact with beastly Tom Paine in Heaven,— if blasphemi ig Voltaire and flippant Kousseau are to be there,— if Heaven is to be filled with those who deny the existence of a pers(mal God, who laugh at Divine Kevelation, and who declare the Lord Jesut, Christ the greatest impostor the world has over «een,— which He is, if He is an impostor at all ; if rogues and swindlers and eheati— if persons of foul words and unclean lives arc to be there, — if there are to be in Heaven those who sneer at holiness of life, and who call all true religion hypocrisy, who weary of prayer, and who sleep under instruction, who are selfish, and as unlike the Lord Jesus as they can be,— if these persons are to be in Heaven, an.) It is his to endeavour to Avin the sinner from his sin. But to be put down for eternity with those from whom one's soul recoils, would indeed be misery untold, incalcidable, and in view of which the soul, with its desires and longings after rest, Avoidd be justified in niurniuriug. Kebellion, under such circumstances, would deserve coiii- meudation. The soul would rightfully declare that it was not dealt with truthfully ; for in it there are longings after eternal rest which, in a Hciven such as we are considering, (a Heaven in which the evil and the good are eternally commingled, and in which they never shall be separated), is necessarily de.nied. This Heaven is not a place Qf rest for the good. That is j)laui. V ^ Again: Would .sik.'Ii ;i ir-oavon as the Universali't^ts bcliovf in 1)p .i plueo of rest /or tltc wirht'd / Ia-I thoso wlio cxporioncc tlic wor.slii|» ot God to be citlicr nninttu'csling or unjn'ofitablc lu'iv,ju.sL think what it would 1)0 to thoni to bo kept .serving (lod citlitu' by good works, Awhich they abhur, or by spirilual wor.sliiii, which they hate, for one continuous year I Would they not bo wrotched and niiscrablo in a mea- sure which Ihcy are unable to comprohond ? Thi.s produced to all etornity would represent their nn.sery and woo in thatlieaven of theirs in which good and bad r.re to (somniingle in an eternal feIlowshi[i. I'o the g(jod and to the bad alike such a Heaven Avould be a j)laco of endletis torment, — a place whose worm dietli not, and whoso fire is not quenched. In jdain words, the Heaven of the IJniv'ersulist becomes a Hell of })(!rpetual torment to all eternity, to the righteous and to the wicked alike. This I think plainly convincing, that the (hjctrine of tlio Univer- .salist is one confrnnj io common sense. The theory lands us in this position, that, in afhrming T'nivorsal Salvation to all alike — to the good and to the bad — to those who l)eliovc in God and to those who deny Him, — you alfirm not Universal Salvation, T)ut I.^niversal lieprobation ; not eternal life, but eternal ieath ; not a Heaven for all, but a place which corn^sponds, in almost every particular, to the Hell of the Scriptures, and the place of woe in which orthodox christians believe that the tinally impenitent arc consigned to that everlasting punishment Avbich they deserve, and which they have brought ni)on themselves, tliat which they shall experience to all eternity wherever they are. 1 have treated this head of the. subject withont reference to Scrip- ture, as Iwishto discuss it (in the first place) not as umatterof Eovela- tion at all, but as a ])oint made clear by reason alone. And the foregoing thoughts have kept my own mind from swerving from the truth, and I trust they will keep yours also. And I think they have brought lis to this conclusion on the matter, viz. : — In denying eternal punish- ment, as the desert of the finally impenitent, they affirm the woe of everlasting misery ui)on good and bad, pious and impious alike. In trying to escape Scylla, they fidl into Charybdis. in tiying to escape one thing, they fall upon another, a thousandfold more teiTible, more awful, more disastrous. In denying the punishment of the finally impenitent, they would consign all to everlasting misery and spiritual death. 6 l^ut we must lot tho fTnivorsalist sinjak for liinisclf. He says that^ tho soul is punished here for sin. ami that Iho [(uni.slitnont is ooniph'ted w hereafter, and, wljf-n jiustico is satislifd, tlio soul is adniittod into Heaven. But I ask him mIkmv doe.s he get his information 1 :N"ot from Sei i])ture, as we sliall sec presently ; and not from exj)erience, for I would ask him, does punishment reform the sjiirit ? AVas there ever a spirit regenerated in the workl by mere i>unishment? I main- hiin there was not. rnnisjnnent may deter from crime through fear, hut that is all. 'J'he soul is unntlected hy it. Take one of our Kock- head eriminals ; tell him, as you liberate him, that there is to be no further punishment of rri/.'ir, and wjfth what result? This: that he would now give full scope to liis wieked nature, and the lust state of that man would be worse than the first. So Avith souls in the Universal ist's Heaven. A Heaven lilled with tho souls of such men— with elmmcters unehanged from their C(uuli- tion on earth, is not the Paradise of the blessed. And thus I nniin- taiu, whatever it may l)e, it is ]iot a doctrine of common .sense. There is one othi-r argument used and urged against the commoidy received doctrine of eternal i)unishment. It is this: *' How caii (Jod,"they say, "being a God of love and benevolence, permit a large projjortion of the immortal .souls of the world to be punished forever in the misery and woe of everlasting death?" " How can thi.s be 1 " To this I can give no reply. How can it be, is a question which man will perhaps never be able to answer, not even when wo come to know " eirn as we are known:' JJut I can tell you how aome of the human race may be made su})remely ha[)py throughout eternity, i.e., in the enjoyment of the companionshii) of God and Christ, and the good and godly of all agaa—fipj^arate from all evil and xhi, and erll and sinfid mm, and the way to this is open to all through .Testis (Jhrist. There is, however, one condition on which alone tho ITniversaliat'-s doctrine may be made true in th(,' futurf>, hy all men roming unto the Lord Jesus ! AVould God Ave could dream of such a glorious consummation of the Avorld ! In one Avord, by the generally received doctrine, some can be made happy, though some Avho deserve it shall be f(jrever punished. On the doctrine under consideration (as shown) you sul)ject all to the • wretchedness already pointed out. As to the number.>3 .saved and the numbers lost, Ave have nothin^^ to 6 tlo. One soul lost is the suinc to (Jod as ten tliuusand souls, Ijooause A one souI'h (lumtion is inlinite--it uevrr ciuls. 80 tliiit one lost soul means the sanie, in the eye of God, us tl'.e loss of a myriad. lie to whom one day is as a thousanHsii)le signify this cinUcs.s (lunition. •' 'riic lin; th;it shall not Ik* ([UcnchtMl," "The worm that ncvca- dicth," "The smoke of tlu-ir torment arising forever and ever," the tares and the wheat, the eorn and the (half, the net taking ewry kind of lish, the, good kept, and the had cast away, the ricth man and l,a/arns, are figures, every om; of whi('h teaches us the ductrino of Una) separation and condemnation. The unpardojwihle !-in is neither to he forgivitn in this world nor the world to come. III. - 1 do not liflievc this doctrine, hecause it is not according to the do(;trines of this Church : " The end of (lod's ai)pointing this ilay (last -hidgment) is for the tnanifeslation of the glory of 11 is mercy in the salvation of the elect, and of His justice in the damnation of the reprohate, who are wicked and disohedient. For then shall the righteous go into everlasting life, and receive, tin; fulness of Ilis joy and refreshing which shall «'ome fn»nitlie presence of the Lord: hut the wi(;kc(l who know not ■(!od, and obey not the (Jospel of Jesus (,'hrist, shall he cast into eternal torments, and he punishe(l with everlastinj; destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." These things being taken for granted — being taken as jjroven, 1 think 1 should rather say— it becomes us to reflect over the subject for a few inoments. (1.) ()f the throe points adduced, the second (Scripture) is the most important — it is our supreme standanl of appeal. (2.) Are those who profess this doctrine noted for fervent l>iety / and is the doctrine one which tends therev.nto ] (3.) Would you, as fathens^ like to instil into the minds of your children the doctrine that, do what you may, it will ha all the .same in another world ? Isn't the risk too great a one 1 (4.) Would yon as mothers, with cpiiet consciences, teach your daughters that purity, chastity, atid all the sweet charms that go to mak(> ni» our conception of woman,, are mere bugbears, sent here to frighten humanity into an unreal and forced piety] Would you like them to l)e brought uj) to think that the future world will right all the wrcjngs of the })resent, and that God is too good — too characterless, (i.e.) — to make any difference. 8 (.").) Hti.sliimds and wives, would ynu acofi»t ns tlic sacrccl truth ^Jlof God. Iliat whii'li t.'iudics that (lod make's no ditrorenru! concernin*; that of wliich yen make all tlic dill'crcncc in tlie world — your laith- fuhic'ss to oaidi otlierl I think vou iiinst rocoil iVom all such ; and if .so, Lctakc you to the t(n\clun<'-s cf \h" Lord .Icsns <'|iri-,t. and all will In- wtdl. -Amkx. mmmm K..m