“Dr. Paley, another great man of your church, admits the same:—‘This (Mosaic) dispensation dealt in temporal rewards and punishments. In the 28th of Deuteronomy you find Moses, with prodigious solemnity, pronouncing the blessings and cursings which awaited the children of Israel under the dispensation to which they were called. And you will observe, that these blessings consisted altogether of worldly benefits, and these curses of worldly punishments.’
“Jahn, the best of authority says:—‘We have not authority, therefore, decidedly to say, that any other motives were held out to the ancient Hebrews to pursue good and avoid evil, than those which were derived from the rewards and punishments of this life.’
“This is the testimony of able and learned men who have made the Bible their life-study. Notwithstanding they believed in eternal woe, they candidly admit that it is not taught by the great Lawgiver, Moses, or the prophets.”
“They do seem to think that doctrine is not taught in the Old Testament, and I admit their judgment is entitled to much respect. I will look into the subject.”
“I am glad to hear you express such a purpose. And I am sure that you will agree with those wise men, after a careful examination. If they are correct, and the dogma in question is true, is it not amusing that the Old Testament writers say nothing about it? If they had believed in eternal punishment, they surely would have spoken of it in distinct terms, and warned their countrymen of their danger. You believe in ceaseless woe, and you preach it faithfully, earnestly. You are right; you act according to your convictions. And were Moses and the prophets less faithful and earnest? But they did not speak of it, and the inference is, they had no faith in the doctrine. But, sir, if that dogma is true, would not God have forced those inspired men to proclaim it to a dying world? Would God have permitted the Jews to be ignorant of so important a matter? What! thousands of immortal spirits daily dropping into a fiery gulf, and not a word of warning given? have no intimation of such a place till they find themselves in its fathomless vortex? Believe this who can, I cannot.”
I spent six months in this part of Maryland, traveling and preaching all the time. My head-quarters were at Salisbury, and from thence I went east, west, north and south, sometimes on foot, and sometimes on horseback. The liberal faith I advocated was almost totally unknown in that region. O. A. Skinner, who had resided in Baltimore, once traveled through there, and delivered a few discourses, but I found not more than a dozen persons, who knew or cared any thing about liberal christian sentiments. It was any thing but a favorable field for one so young and inexperienced as I was, to operate in. I was tired of traveling, and desired to settle where I could devote my time to two or three places, that I might have an opportunity to study, for I well knew my literary needs, and as such arrangements could not be effected in that region, I resolved to try some other locality. That my well intended labors had much effect, is more than I can affirm, as I have heard but little of the religious sentiments of the people since I left there. Much of the Eastern Shore is a very poor country, and were it not for the fish and oysters that abound in Chesapeake bay, part of that region would be an uninhabited desert, at least, till the soil was improved, for the farmers in those days merely scratched over the ground, and exhausted it more and more every year. Slave labor and scratch culture, I have observed, generally go together. And, I think it is a fact, that poor soil, unless there are counteracting causes, such as commerce and manufacturing, produces weak heads and sterile hearts; and it is also a fact, that the rich sentiments of our faith will not flourish permanently in physical or moral deserts. The apostles of our Lord spread the gospel among the ignorant and brutal nations of the earth, but how soon was it corrupted. Their “darkness comprehended it not,” and there was soon developed a wretched compound of light and darkness, error and truth, sin and virtue, life and death, heaven and hell, and this compound corresponded with the intellectual and moral culture of the people. Since Luther’s day, the process of disintegration has been going on, and it will, I trust, continue till the dross shall be all separated from the gold, and the former burned with unquenchable fire.
I returned to Baltimore in December, 1836. Encountered a terrific storm on the Bay, which came near sending the vessel and all on board to the bottom. It raged during a bitter cold night, the wind was directly ahead, and most every wave swept the deck fore and aft. The owner was on board, the steersman was his negro slave, and he stood to his post like a man the whole of that boisterous and cold night. In the morning we anchored in a sheltered situation, and during the day reached Baltimore. Spent several weeks traveling and preaching in the vicinity of the city, and from thence went to Hagerstown, Md., which I made my home for six months. Samuel A. Davis had labored in the vicinity some time previous, as a missionary, but receiving little encouragement, had moved to Pittsburg, Pa. I preached in Hagerstown, Woodville, Frederick, Sharpsburg, and many other places, in many of which I was the first to proclaim our beautiful faith, and encountered all sorts of opposition. Our ministers who have always labored where our cause is well established, have no idea of the mean and contemptible opposition a laborer encounters in a new field, where hardly any one knows any thing of our faith or its history. At the close of a sermon I delivered in Frederick, a clergyman of the place, arose and poured forth the vials of his wrath. He said Universalism was the lowest grade of infidelity, that the blasphemies of Tom Paine were purity itself compared to it; and that Universalists were the scum of society, that the grog-shops, gambling dens, jails and penitentiaries were full of them. Hosea Ballou and Walter Balfour died drunkards, and they were the best men the sect ever had. The fellow overshot the mark, and disgusted the people with himself; and the mild remarks I made after he got through, turned the tide in my favor. Ever after, I had large congregations in Frederick.
I spoke several times in Charleston, Va., where John Brown was hung; also in Harper’s Ferry, the place he so easily captured, and in Winchester, where several battles, during the late rebellion, were fought. In Smithfield, Va., I had an exciting season. Went there an entire stranger, and delivered a discourse in a school-house, the first sermon on the great salvation ever delivered in the place. As soon as I said amen, up jumped three men to reply. It was with difficulty they agreed on which should first speak. They finally settled that matter, and then gave me particular attention. Each of them occupied about half an hour, and as the night was short, for it was an evening meeting, it was midnight when they got through. I notified the people that I would notice the arguments of the speakers the next evening. The novelty of my faith, and the attention I received from three of the most prominent men of the town, caused intense excitement, and the whole village, and the region round about, attended the next meeting. My three opponents, one doctor and two lawyers, were on hand, with paper and pencil, which was ominous of another attack. I noticed the arguments and proofs of the gentlemen, and replied to them in the best way I could. One of them had charged me with denying a judgment day. I stated that I believed in a judgment day, yea, in many judgment days. The Bible speaks of numerous judgment days, but they are all this side of the end of the world. When Adam and Eve were condemned and driven out of Eden’s bowers, it was a judgment day to them. When Cain was banished to the land of Nod, it was his judgment day. When the wrath of heaven burst on the world and destroyed all but Noah’s family, it was a terrible judgment day. The Sodomites experienced the horrors of a judgment day when they were destroyed by fire. The ten tribes of Israel, when they were banished to the far East, never to return, knew something of a day of judgment. When Babylon, Nineveh, and other mighty cities of the old world were destroyed, they suffered the desolations of judgment days. When Jerusalem was trodden under foot by the Babylonian power, and when subsequently it was burned up, ploughed up, and drenched with the blood of its citizens, did it not suffer, what the sacred writers call, days of darkness, of gloom, of judgment? The world has been crowded with judgment days: all nations and people have sadly experienced their sorrows. The Christian dispensation is also termed a day of judgment. It commenced when the kingdom of God was established on earth by the Son of the Highest, and will continue, till Jesus shall return the kingdom to God the Father, as recorded in 1st Corinthians 15th chapter, when God shall be all in all. It commenced amid sin, error, suffering and death, and when it shall end those evils will be known no more, but truth, virtue, life and immortality will be the universal and everlasting boon of Adam’s race.
As soon as I got through, a lawyer commenced reading a long chapter of quotations from the Bible, to prove that there was a devil. He had prepared it with much care, and read it loud and emphatically. It was supposed that a preacher or two in town helped him to his texts, and comments. When he closed, a doctor commenced an harangue, but I begged him to hold on till I had disposed of his brother’s sermon. I told the people that I believed in many devils—lying, slanderous, revengeful, cruel, superstitious, sectarian devils; that every man was his own devil, and if any of my hearers should become vile and degraded, if they would look into a mirror, they would see a devil. But I had no faith in the devil the lawyer had been preaching about. As soon as I had finished my remarks, the doctor resumed his speech. He launched into the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, and did a large amount of special pleading, to show that the hell spoken of in that passage was a place of eternal woe. When he was through, I asked him if he would answer a few questions. He replied that he would.
“Do you regard that passage to be a literal relation of facts?”