JOURNEY IN OHIO--INTEMPERANCE--GENERAL BALDWIN--IN COLUMBUS--DEATH
PENALTY--HOW TO DEAL WITH OFFENDERS--PREACH IN NEWARK AND
ZANESVILLE--HELL DISCUSSED--MRS. FRANCES GAGE--INVITED TO SETTLE IN
MARIETTA--W. H. JOLLY--IN CHILLICOTHE--OPPOSITION IN RICHMOND-- --.
WEBBER--IN KENTUCKY--DR. CHAMBERLIN--OPPOSITION IN LEXINGTON--IS
UNIVERSALISM INFIDELITY?--A SLANDEROUS STORY BY A D.D.--IN
PARIS--EXCURSION TO PATRIOT--A DISCUSSION--DANIEL PARKER--CURE THE
AGUE--GOOD HEALTH.
In a few days I commenced a journey through Ohio on my ever faithful
horse. Lectured in Mason on temperance. I have seen the blasting
effects of rum drinking, but neither my body or my soul was ever
polluted by a glass of distilled liquor. Cannot distinguish the
different kinds of spirits, and have no inclination to know more
about them. Rum selling, and rum drinking, are abominations that
make desolate the hearts and homes of multitudes; and it is amazing
that sensible men will rush headlong to destruction with the bottle
in their hands and their eyes wide open. The guilty parties in this
wretched business are, 1st, The manufacturers; 2d, The sellers; 3d,
The drinkers; 4th, The authorities that license the traffic; 5th, The
communities who empower the authorities to license. Most of the people
are guilty, and all suffer more or less, directly or indirectly. But
let the friends of temperance labor in season and out of season, to
reform the people, and banish the curse from the land. Their noble work
will not be in vain; God will crown it with success. I also delivered
several sermons near Edwardsville. General Baldwin resided near
there--a reliable friend of liberal principles. He was an intelligent
and influential man, and devoted to our cause. He was one of the first
to make an effort to establish Universalism in Southern Ohio. Although
a layman he often spoke in public in its defense. Subsequently he moved
to Illinois; but he carried his religion and zeal with him. He died
full of years, and went down to an honored grave.
Spoke in Columbus on religion, and delivered a discourse against the
death penalty. Universalism repudiates the taking of life. It is
wrong for an individual to kill a man; it is wrong for a state to
kill a man. But taking of life may sometimes be justifiable. Is this
a contradiction? A wretch enters my house at midnight, and attempts
to murder my family. Either he must be disabled, or he will kill the
whole household. In attempting to disable him I take his life. Am I
not justified, although I have violated the command, “Thou shalt not
kill?” An army marches through the land, and takes provisions for man
and beast, without permission of the owners. Are they not justified,
although they have violated the command, “Thou shalt not steal?” A
vessel enters a port laden with food; the inhabitants are starving, but
the owner refuses to sell or give to the starving citizens. Are they
not justified in helping themselves, although in doing so they commit
theft? They must either steal or die; and of the two evils they choose
the least. It is wrong to steal, but it is a greater wrong to die if
one can avoid it. So it is wrong to kill a man, but a greater wrong is
committed when an assassin kills an innocent man. But when a murderer
is in custody, the safety of no one requires that his life shall be
taken. Put him in prison, and keep him there till he becomes a safe man
in the community, and if he never reforms, keep him there for life.
The world’s mode of dealing with offenders is radically wrong; there
is too much of the leaven of revenge in it. They should be treated as
morally insane, rather than as criminals. Our penitentiaries should be
converted into moral reform schools, and transgressors should be put
there, and retained there, till well qualified persons, who scrutinize
their conduct every day, pronounce them regenerated. And he, who may
be sent there for stealing one dollar, should remain there till he is
no longer a thief, and if he resists all efforts to reform him, keep
him there as long as he lives. It is better for him, and for society,
that he should be thus excluded from the world. Man has no right to
_punish_ his brother man; God has established laws, and if they are
violated punishment is sure to follow; and it is our duty to reform the
erring. This mode of treatment accords with the gospel, and the spirit
of Christ, but the penitentiary, the gallows, and the guillotine,
correspond with the spirit of Orthodoxy.
When a great crime is committed our blood boils, and we cry aloud for
vengeance; but a little correct reflection on such occasions will do
us no harm. The criminal inherited a bad moral organization, and was,
perhaps, surrounded by evil associates from the cradle to manhood. All
this should be considered in dealing with the fallen; but the law of
man sees it not, considers it not. He is deemed equally as blamable as
his associate in crime, who was brought up under the most favorable
circumstances. But there is a great difference between the criminality
of the two. The latter sins against much more light than the former,
and is a greater criminal in the sight of God. Most of offenders come
into this world “half made up,” and are educated in crime from infancy
upward. Let the state take them under its special care and keeping;
protect society from their depredations, and strive to make better men
and women of such unfortunates.
Preached in Newark and Zanesville. In the former place a preacher
deemed it his duty to oppose me, but he did it in a very gentlemanly
manner. The subject of my discourse was _hell_, and the following was
the gist of it: 1st. The Bible no where asserts that hell is beyond the
grave, and in the immortal world. On the contrary, it teaches that it
is on the earth. The lawgiver, Moses, locates it here. “For a fire is
kindled in my wrath, and shall burn unto the _lowest hell_, and shall
consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of
the mountains. I will heap mischief upon them; I will spend my arrows
upon them. They shall be burned with hunger, and devoured with burning
heat, and with bitter destruction; I will also send the teeth of beasts
upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust. The sword without,
and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin,
the suckling also with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter
them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from
among men. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall
slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the
things that shall come upon them make haste.” Moses here tells his
countrymen what would be the consequences if they should be unfaithful
to the trust committed to them. The Lord would “hide his face from
them,” “vengeance would overtake them,” “the day of their calamity
would be at hand,” “they would be scattered into all parts of the
earth,” “the sword without and terror within would destroy them,” they
would be “burnt with hunger.” All these calamities are expressed by
the words, “_lowest hell_;” and the history of that remarkable nation
shows that the prophecy has been fulfilled. That nation has been cast
down to the lowest hell. David testifies that the results of sin are
not far off. “The pains of hell _got hold_ of me; I _found trouble_ and
_sorrow_.” Jesus said to the scribes and Pharisees, “Ye serpents, ye
generation of vipers! how can ye escape the damnation of hell.” Matt.
xxiii. 33. And then he adds, “All these things shall come upon _this
generation_.” 2d. Hell is no where in the Bible said to be endless;
and who has a right to assume that it is endless in duration? Popes,
bishops and councils have threatened the world with endless torment,
if it did not bow to their yoke, but thank God our destiny is not in
their hands. 3d. We have no information of the creation of such a
place as Orthodoxy proclaims. We read of God creating the heavens and
the earth, and all therein, but not a word about his building a vast
prison in which to torment countless millions of his creatures world
without end. It is blasphemy to charge the God of love with such work.
God is good, and all his works are good. When creation was finished all
things were pronounced _good_. An eternal hell then is no part of God’s
work. Let this be remembered. 4th. The New Testament never speaks of
any one being saved from hell. It was the mission of Jesus to save us
from _sin_, from _darkness_, from a _lost condition_, from _slavery_,
from the _present evil world_, but there is not an intimation in the
New Testament that God sent his Son to save us from a hell of his own
creating. 5th. The word hell in the Bible does not signify, according
to good authority, a place of ceaseless woe. Dr. Adam Clarke, the
well known commentator, says: “The word _hell_, used in the common
translation, conveys _now_ an improper meaning of the original word;
because _hell_ is only used to signify the place of the damned. But
as the word _hell_ comes from the Anglo-Saxon _helan_, to _cover_,
to _hide_, hence the _tyling_ or _slating_ of a house is called, in
some parts of England, (particularly Cornwall,) _heling_, to this day;
and the _covers of books_, (in Lancashire,) by the same name.” This
admission is fatal to the common received views of hell. 6th. The word
hell in the Old Testament, is taken from the Hebrew term _sheol_, and
learned men of all schools admit, that it signifies the state of the
dead in general, without regard to their condition. Dr. George Campbell
remarks as follows: “_Sheol_ in itself considered, has no connection
with future punishment.” Dr. Whitby, a profound English scholar tells
us, that “_Sheol_ throughout the Old Testament signifies not a place
of punishment, or of the souls of bad men only, but the grave only, or
the place of the dead.” Other critics admit the same. 7th. In the New
Testament, the word hell is translated from the Greek term _hades_, and
as that is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew _sheol_, its meaning is
the same as its corresponding word. Hence Dr. Campbell says, “_Hades_
occurs eleven times in the New Testament, and is rendered grave once,
and hell ten times. In my judgment, it ought never in Scripture to be
rendered hell, at least in the sense wherein that word is universally
understood by Christians. In the Old Testament the corresponding word
is _sheol_, which signifies the state of the dead in general, without
regard to the goodness or badness of the persons, their happiness or
misery. It is very plain that neither in the Septuagint version of
the Old Testament, nor in the New, does the word _hades_ convey the
meaning which the present English word hell, in the Christian usage,
always conveys to our minds. The attempt to illustrate this would be
unnecessary, as it is hardly now pretended by any critic that this is
the acception of the term in the Old Testament.” 8th. The word hell in
the New Testament in twelve instances, is taken from the Greek term
_gehenna_, and Orthodox scholars thus define that word: “_Gehenna_ is a
Hebrew word denoting a place near Jerusalem, in which the Israelites,
giving themselves up to idolatry, sacrificed children to a heated image
of Moloch, which represented the form of an ox. This place, the valley
of Hinnom, the Jews afterwards so detested, that they were accustomed
to cast into it the unburied carcasses of those whom they desired
to punish with unusual severity. It is called a _gehenna of fire_,
because Josiah, in order to render the valley of Hinnom more odious,
commanded that filth and dead carcasses should be cast into it; for
the burning of which there was kept a perpetual fire.” 2 Kings xxiii.
10, et seq. This is the testimony of Dr. Rosenmuller, and it is the
testimony of all the learned, belong to what denomination they may.
This is the literal meaning of the word, twelve times rendered hell in
the New Testament. Figuratively, it refers to the temporal desolation
that was soon to befall the Jewish nation. The damnation of _gehenna_
overwhelmed Jerusalem, the whole land, and the people. Jesus told his
countrymen that they had filled up the measure of their iniquity, that
the vials of wrath and fiery indignation were about to be poured upon
them, that on them would come all the righteous blood their nation had
spilt. When these things shall come to pass, said Jesus, “there shall
be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world
to this time.” He told them over and over, that all these things would
come on that generation. Theologians now locate all that in yonder
world. They might as well assert, that the Ohio valley is the name of
a place beyond the grave, and the destruction that befell the Indians
therein is immortal woe in a _post mortem_ hell.
The gentleman said I was partly right and partly wrong. I met him
several years after, and he was then preaching the _annihilation_ of
the wicked. He had made some progress, for it is certainly better
to burn men to ashes than to burn them forever. I lectured in
McConnersville, and became acquainted with Mrs. Frances Gage, who
since then has been before the public as a writer and lecturer on
temperance and woman’s rights. Notwithstanding her limited education,
she writes good poetry and prose, and is a superior lecturer. She is
a noble woman, and devotes her life to noble purposes. Spent several
days in Marietta, a beautiful town on the Ohio river. I was urged to
remain there, and the society offered me five hundred dollars per year,
a liberal salary for the times, but I declined. I was fearful that
I could not sustain myself in preaching at one place all the time.
The friends there had no idea but I could, but I fancied that I knew
myself better than they did. Preached in Belpre. Stopped with General
Putnam, a descendent of the revolutionary hero of that name--a splendid
man, and a devoted believer in the restitution of all things. Here
I also met with W. H. Jolly, an early pioneer preacher. He traveled
most of the time through the wilderness of Ohio, preaching in private
houses, school-houses, barns, and wherever he could have a hearing.
He received but a small compensation, his whole soul was in the work,
and he was dearly beloved by his fellow believers. He died soon after
I saw him, but he is still remembered as a devoted and good man. He
had a daughter, a young lady, who wrote well for our periodicals. She
afterwards married, and I do not know what has become of her.
I preached in Richmond and Chillicothe. In the former place the
meetings caused considerable excitement, which brought out a preacher
against me. He abused me, my faith, and every body that entertained
it. He was a regular blackguard, and a son of thunder. My clothes
being rather seedy, the friends, as a compensation for my labor,
presented me with a new suit, and I went on my way rejoicing. A
clergyman of the liberal faith, by the name of Wood, resided and
preached in Richmond. He, however, soon after left there, moved to
Patriot, Ind., ceased to preach, was, for one or two sessions, a member
of the Indiana Legislature, and finally died insane. He was a worthy
man, but was too easily discouraged to be a minister in the West in
those days. Delivered lectures in several places in Highland county.
Became acquainted with a brother by the name of Webber, who soon after
commenced preaching. After laboring about ten years in Ohio, he moved
to Scotland county, Mo., where he died, after traveling and preaching
in that state two or three years. His lone grave is on the wide and
wild prairie. The last time I saw it a frail fence enclosed his resting
place, and that, ere this, has probably disappeared.
I returned to Cincinnati May, 1839. Had been absent five months,
delivered ninety-three discourses, and traveled six hundred miles.
The succeeding nine months were spent in Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.
Delivered a series of discourses in Warsaw, Ky., which awakened much
interest. Dr. Chamberlin, a wealthy and influential citizen of that
place, had recently embraced the better faith. He had been a member
of the Campbellite church, and all who knew him, freely admitted that
his new faith had made a new man of him. It expanded his soul, and
opened his hand and his purse. His wealth, time and talent, and the
latter was of a superior order, were devoted to the upbuilding of
the truth. He distributed hundreds of volumes of our denominational
books through Kentucky, and was ever ready to aid every effort to
advance the good cause. He subsequently moved to Burlington, Iowa,
donated to every Universalist society in Iowa one hundred and sixty
acres of land, and, I think, gave the Lombard College, in Galesburg,
Ill., ten thousand dollars in cash, besides many valuable books and a
collection of American antiquities. Lectured three times in Lexington,
Ky. One of the ministers in town delivered a philippic against the new
faith; said Universalism was a species of infidelity. I asked, what
is there infidel about it? It asserts, that there a God, who rules in
heaven and on earth, and in who we live, move and have our being. Is
that infidelity? It teaches that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and
Savior of the world. Is that infidelity? It declares that God will
surely and fully reward every virtue, and surely and fully punish
every vice. Is that infidelity? It proclaims that man is an immortal
being, and destined to advance onward and upward forever and ever.
Is that infidelity? It asserts, that our greatest happiness consists
in communing with God, and leading a pure and virtuous life. Is that
infidelity? Portions of your system, sir, are worse than infidelity.
You are a Calvinist, and in the language of John Wesley, “You may call
me an infidel, a Turk, a Mahomedan, but don’t call me a Calvinist. I
had rather believe in no God than believe he is an _almighty tyrant_.”
You believe in a burning hell in which God will plunge most of the
dead, to be his victims eternally. Is there any thing in the baldest
infidelity half as infernal as that? You believe that God creates
us all totally depraved, not capable of thinking a good thought or
performing a good act, and if we do not change our nature, he will
roast us in hell forever. And then to cap the climax of infamy, you
teach that God decreed from all eternity, that the victims of perdition
should be born totally depraved, should live a wicked life, and in the
end should fall into the bottomless pit. If your creed is _religion_,
give me _infidelity_. To exchange the latter for the former, would be
exchanging heaven for hell.
I also lectured several times near Lexington, at the request of a
venerable man by the name of Taylor, a relative of President Taylor.
Several years after, I heard Dr. Young, a Methodist minister, tell the
following story in his pulpit at St. Louis, about Mr. Taylor and an
imaginary clergyman: “There lived an old and rich man near Lexington,
Ky., by the name of Taylor, who was a Universalist. Some time since,
he sent to Cincinnati for a preacher of his choice to come and preach
for him, and the preacher having performed his labor, Mr. T. paid him
one hundred dollars. All right; preachers should be paid for their work
like other folks. Some time after, the preacher visited him again, by
Mr. T.’s request, and he again paid him one hundred dollars. He did
right,” added Dr. Young. “When the preacher was about departing, he
told the old man he needed five hundred dollars, and would be much
obliged if Mr. Taylor would lend him that sum for a short time. He lent
it to him, and to this day the debt has not been cancelled. The old man
renounced his Universalism, and died a Methodist. If any of you doubt
the truth of this story, I tell you it is as true as the gospel, for I
know all about it.” I called on the gentleman the next day and asked
him if he was acquainted with Mr. Taylor.
“No.”
“Do you know any of his relatives?”
“No.”
“But you said yesterday that you knew all about this matter.”
“Brother Kavanagh told it to me, and he learned it from a brother in
Kentucky.”
“Now, sir, I knew Mr. Taylor, and I suppose that I am the preacher you
referred to, and I pronounce the whole story, save that Mr. T. was a
Universalist, and that I preached in his neighborhood, _false_.”
“Oh, this took place a _long time ago, before your day_.”
I took occasion to lecture him for telling slanderous tales about the
living or the dead on mere hearsay. Mr. Taylor took me to Richmond,
where I spoke twice. Two men came to me at the close of one of the
meetings; their hearts were full. They thanked God that the scales had
fallen from their eyes, and that they beheld the gospel in all its
heavenly beauty. I also preached in Paris, Flemingsburg, and many
other places in Kentucky. In one place, I remember that in the middle
of a sermon I had a hard ague chill, and had to stop half an hour, when
I resumed my discourse.
The new meeting-house in Patriot, Ind., was to be dedicated, and
a large party of Cincinnatians employed a boat to take them down
and back. It was a delightful excursion. We had music and dancing,
talking and promenading. George Rogers and E. M. Pingree were of the
party--both are now in heaven, I trust. We three did the preaching. J.
L. Johnson was installed pastor of the church. He had been a Methodist,
his faith was now enlarged, but he retained many of his old notions,
and all his Orthodox phraseology, and consequently he had poor success.
He soon left us and returned to his mother church. About this time I
attended a discussion in New Richmond, Ohio, between Robert Smith, and
a Mr. Fisher, a Methodist layman. Mr. F. was an able man, and better
qualified to defend his cause than three fourths of the preachers of
his order. Both being strong men, the discussion was very interesting.
Daniel Parker resided there, and had long been in the ministry.
He called himself a Restorationist, and would not associate with
Universalists. I suppose his views corresponded with those of Elhanan
Winchester. He was a disorganizer, would not form societies, but was
a very sincere, devout and good man. He preached one evening, and in
the midst of his sermon he buried his face in his hands, and wept like
a child. I recollect that he said in his sermon, that he had never
believed in Universalism one minute in all his life. In his old age, I
have understood, he joined the Baptist church.
My health continued feeble, not having recovered from the ague
engendered in the South, but it did not confine me in-doors a day. I
had a slight chill every day, succeeded by an inward fever, which kept
me in a debilitated condition. Occasionally though I had a violent
_shake_. Often when riding, I would have an attack of the ague, when I
would stop two or three hours, and then resume my journey. I took all
sorts of medicines, but nothing did me any good. It finally occurred
to me that breakfast might have some connection with my ague, as it
returned every morning soon after eating. I refrained from partaking
of breakfast for a week, and the ague did not trouble me. Two or
three times afterwards my morning ague returned, but abstaining from
breakfast always prevented a relapse. I was soon entirely free from it,
and since then, with the exception of two attacks of bilious fever, one
in St. Louis, and one in Chicago, brought on in both cases by walking
and riding in the blazing sun, and preaching too much, I have enjoyed
perfect health. I certainly have reason to be thankful for the good
health I have enjoyed, and for innumerable other blessings, temporal
and spiritual.