“I understand you and your fiery faith perfectly well. It is worse than Atheism, for it asserts that death is the end of man, while your creed asserts, that nearly all mankind will be raised from the dead on purpose to burn them up. Atheism is a hundred fold better than your theory. It is amazing to me, that a man with the Bible in his hands, and God all round him, can entertain such a terrible theory. You have eyes, but you see not; ears, but you hear not; understanding, but understand not. Read the words of truth emblazoned on God’s word and works, accept their teachings, and abandon your fiery creed, your worse than atheistical dogma.”
Spent one month on the Illinois Central railroad, and went south as far as Du Quoin, about three hundred miles, and lectured in most of the important towns, on and near the road. When in Mattoon and Charleston, the glorious news arrived of the evacuation of Richmond, and the surrender of Lee. Up went the banners, and loud were the hosannas. Every body were in the street, shaking hands, and with smiling faces. The terrible war was over, the government was triumphantly sustained, and the soldier boys would soon return. No wonder the people were happy.
I was in Ashley, April 14th. Some one said, “Have you heard the news?” “What news?” “Mr. Lincoln was murdered last night!” “It cannot be so,” I replied; “it is doubtless a false report?” But in a few moments, the passenger train came down with its engine draped in black. That confirmed the heart-rending report. As the train approached the depot no one spoke—no one could speak. The people turned homeward with meditative steps and down cast look. All over the land, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in city and country, where the sad tidings was conveyed, the people were struck dumb. Mr. Lincoln’s character had been tested by the most difficult circumstances, and he had proved himself to be a wise, noble, far-seeing man. Every body had confidence in him—in his judgment, his uprightness, his patriotism. He was deemed the Savior of his country. No wonder the people were “stricken, smitten and afflicted.” And then, the awful news was so different from what the people had just been feasting on. This was victory, victory, victory. The enemy was subdued, and the country saved. That was death, death, death. The great, the good, the beloved President, was murdered, and that, too, in the very hour of his triumph.
I was at Du Quoin the next day; and it was reported of three men in town, that they had said, “Lincoln was served right,” and forthwith some soldiers, who were at home on a furlough, started post-haste, and brought them into town. They would have been hung, if it had been proved they dropped those obnoxious words.
I had a discussion in Milford, Ohio, with John Sweeney of Chicago, which continued four days. He was pretty well posted on doctrinal points, and did some good work for his cause. The discussion was conducted pleasantly, and I trust profitably to the hearers. He said, that the idea of the salvation of all men was new in the world; had been entertained but a few years. In my reply I remarked:
The gentleman greatly errs in asserting that the idea of the final purification and salvation of all souls, is a new thought in this world. The apostle Peter informs us, that the “Restitution of all things was spoken by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began.” Acts iii. 21. It is as old, then, as inspiration, as revelation. And far back in the depths of the past, hundreds of years before Christ, and outside of the Jewish nation, the “Restitution of all things” was cherished by many of the wise and good. Upper India was doubtless one of the first abodes of mankind after the flood, Noah or some of his children, having settled there. In the sacred books of the early inhabitants of that country, the redemption of all souls is distinctly stated. Budhism, a sort of Protestant Reformation of the old faith of the people, avows the same destiny for mankind. Padmahani, the Son of the Supreme God, made a vow not to return to heaven until all beings should be brought through him to salvation. True, they were to pass through many terrible hells—first, a hell of snakes, then came thirty-two principal hells, and then one hundred and twenty minor hells. The road to heaven, according to that old theology, was certainly hard to travel; but I suppose one had better go to heaven through all those hells than not get there at all. The author of the “Friend of India,” gives the following as the views of many of the present inhabitants of that country. “According to the Brahmos, God is a loving Father, and men are his children; to secure happiness, men must avoid sin and subdue the sins to which they are prone. They must fulfil all human duty, and especially devote themselves to works of benevolence among the ignorant and poor. For the wrong they do, they will suffer punishment; but their sufferings are remedial, and will purify the soul from all its errors. Meditation and prayer are to be employed for the same end; and to assist their followers in this duty, a little book has been published, which is extensively used.”
In Egypt, the land of ancient wisdom, many of the priests, Dr. Enfield thinks, entertained a belief in the salvation of all men. See his “History of Philosophy,” Book I, chapter 8. In the old Persian mythology, the same idea is contained. It has a God and a Savior; and the latter will finally restore all from the power of satan.
For three or four hundred years after Christ, many of the leading Christian writers were believers in the “Restitution of all things.” Says Clement, President of the theological school in Alexandria, the most noted school of the second and third centuries: “How is he a Savior and Lord, unless he is the Savior and Lord of all? He is certainly the Savior of those who have believed: and of those who have not believed he is the Lord, until by being brought to confess him they shall receive the proper and well-adapted blessing for themselves.” “The Lord is the propitiation not only for our sins, that is, of the faithful, but also for the whole world; therefore he indeed saves all, but converts some by punishments, and others by gaining their free-will, so that he has the high honor that unto him every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth; that is, angels, men, and the souls of those who died before his advent.”
Clement’s great pupil, Origen, was a noted advocate of Universal Salvation. He says: “We assert that the Word who is the wisdom of God, shall bring together all intelligent creatures, and convert them into his own perfection, through the instrumentalities of their free-will and their own exertions. And the consummation of all things will be the extinction of sin; but whether it shall then be so abolished as never to revive again in the universe does not belong to the present discourse to show. What relates, however, to the entire abolition of sin and the reformation of every soul, may be obscurely traced in many of the prophecies; for there we discover that the name of God is to be invoked by all, so that all shall serve him with one consent, that the reproach of contumely is to be taken away, and that there is to be no more sin, nor vain words, nor treacherous tongue. This may not indeed take place with mankind in the present life, but be accomplished after they shall have been liberated from the body.”
A century later, Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, advocated the same faith in the plainest terms: “What therefore is the scope of St. Paul’s dissertation in this place? That the nature of evil shall at last be wholly exterminated, and divine, immortal goodness embrace within itself every rational creature; so that of all who were made by God, not one shall be excluded from his kingdom.”