We heard of a man who had heard Universalists occasionally, and gave
them something when they were making contributions for their preachers.
A preacher, who made one of his finest efforts to prove that all will
be saved, inquired of him how he liked his argument. The man replied,
“I did not like it at all.” The preacher, disappointed, said: “You
believe our doctrine?” The man replied: “I do; but you tried to prove
it by the Bible, and all intelligent people know that the Bible is
against us from one side to the other. The way I prove it is this: _I
deny the Bible, and then prove it by reason_.” This is certainly the
more rational way. We care not who he is, nor where he comes from,
nor what his attainments may be; but the man who attempts to prove
Universalism _by the Bible_ opposes the common sense of mankind and the
clearest language ever written. The man who rejects the Bible out and
out, and is wandering in the darkness of unbelief, in the vagaries
of those who reject the wisdom of God, might, in his philosophical
speculations, try to show that all men would be saved, with at
least some show of plausibility possibly; but there is not only no
plausibility in anything that can be adduced from the Bible to show
that all men will be saved, but clear statements of the Bible can not
be true and all men be saved. It cannot be true that those “who believe
not the Son shall _not see life_,” and that all men shall be saved.
It can not be true, as stated in Scripture, that “these” (the wicked)
“shall go away into everlasting punishment,” and _all men be saved_.
The man who affirms that those _who die in their sins_ shall be wholly
and happy in heaven contradicts the clearest utterances of Scripture.
When time shall end and God shall exclaim, “He that is filthy, let him
be filthy still,” there will be no more repentance; yet some will be
_filthy_—_unsound_.
Universalism had its day in this country; has run its course and is
going by. There is not one-tenth as much of it in this country as
there was thirty years ago. There is no argument of consequence about
it any more. The only thing wanting to show what it is, will appear
anywhere when they undertake to form churches, keep up Sunday-schools,
keep up prayer-meetings, meet regularly on the first day of the week
and worship. Let them undertake to enforce the clear requirements of
Scripture on their people, and they will soon get a lesson. They will
soon explain that _all will be saved_, and they will find that they
will have no use for baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer-meetings, nor
any regular worship.
It will not do to read, “He who believes not _shall be saved_;” “He
who believes not the Son _shall see life_;” “The wrath of God _shall
not abide on him_;” “If you believe not that I am he, you _shall
not die in your sins_;” “Where I am _you shall come_;” “These” (the
wicked) “_shall not_ go away into everlasting punishment;” “The beast
and the false prophets _shall not_ be tormented day and night forever
and ever;” “He who shall sin against the Holy Spirit shall not be in
danger of eternal damnation,” etc., etc. The man who denies his Bible
first, and then starts out to prove that all will be saved from some
other source, is a much more sensible man than the man that undertakes
to prove it from the Bible. Whatever the Bible may mean besides, it
does not mean Universalism. The man who holds and undertakes to prove
Universalism has no use for a Bible, unless it be to show his skill in
getting round the clearest things ever written.