Twenty-five years in the West

by E. Manford

CHAPTER VII.

Located in Lafayette—The Christian Teacher Commenced—A Circuit—Society Organized—Meeting-House Built—All Alone—Conflict in Frankfort—Old Testament Doctrine of Punishment—Debate Proposed in Frankfort—Discussion in Independence—Character of my Sermons—Slanders Refuted—Debate in Burlington—Endless Woe—Some Voting—The Use of Discussion—A Traveler.

A new era now commenced in my life. I made Lafayette, Ind., the center of my operations, and commenced the publication of the Christian Teacher, a monthly publication of twenty-four pages, at one dollar per year. The first number was issued April, 1841. There were then two other denominational publications in the West—the Star in the West, a weekly, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the Philomath Encyclopedia, a monthly, in the eastern part of Indiana, the Better Covenant and the New Covenant had no existence, and the Glad Tidings and the Berean were discontinued. There was a large field for a publication of that kind, and I thought it would do a good work. When the first number was issued, I had two hundred subscribers, and at the close of the first volume, eight hundred subscribers. I owned no printing materials, but had the work done at the office of the Lafayette Journal, published by Major Seaman, a zealous Methodist, and an honorable man. He has been in his grave these many years.

In addition to getting out the magazine, I traveled extensively this year, preaching, and obtaining subscribers for the journal. Wherever I went I had no difficulty in introducing it, humble and imperfect as it certainly was. But I was not able to make many such long journeys as I had heretofore, for I had to be in Lafayette monthly to read proof and mail the Teacher. I also established a circuit which I traveled monthly. It included Lafayette, Dayton, Yorktown, West Point, Perrysville, Jefferson, Independence, Rainsville, Thorntown, Crawfordsville, Ladoga, Terre Haute, Lockport, and perhaps two or three other places. The distance round was about three hundred miles. In Perrysville a society was organized this year, and a meeting-house commenced. There was also one formed in Terre Haute, and preparations made to erect a house of worship. In Lafayette, Dayton, and Yorktown, there were also societies established. As I was the only minister in western Indiana, where this work was going on, I had my hands full.

The first time I visited Frankfort, I preached in a vacant lot by the way-side, as no house could be obtained. The Presbyterian clergyman, Mr. Taylor, told his congregation that he had rather the cholera would come to town than a preacher of my stamp. A few months after, he attended one of my meetings, and replied to my discourse. My subject was the Old Testament doctrine of punishment, and I discoursed as follows:

1. As the Old Testament contains a record of God’s first revelations to man, it is reasonable to expect, that the whole truth concerning the consequences of wrong doing would be there clearly stated. 2. As that book speaks of the creation of mankind, and of the introduction of sin into the world, infinite wisdom must surely tell the whole truth concerning sin’s direful results—tell when and where, punishment is inflicted, and how long it is to continue. 3. The Old Testament contains the law of God. Jesus said, “The law came by Moses.” Examine the statutes of any state, published by its law-makers, and you will find that the same page that contains the law also contains the penalty, the whole penalty, for transgressing that law. Is this right, or is it wrong? If it is right for human legislators to write the law and the penalty in the same book, and on the same page, is it not right for the Divine Legislator do the same? Would not a king be justly deemed a fool, or a tyrant, who, in publishing his laws to his subjects, should be silent concerning the penalty, or make known only a part of it? Has God revealed the moral law, and is he silent concerning the penalty for transgressing that law? Is man wiser than God? Does the wisdom of earth exceed that of heaven? All admit, that part, at least, of sin’s penalty is revealed in the Law Book, but many deny that the whole of it is therein revealed. But why this partial revelation? Why was the world for four thousand years in the dark concerning the penalty of sin? For the forty centuries before Christ, was a vast stream of human beings plunging headlong into a bottomless pit, and not a warning given of their impending fate, till they heard the stunning roar of the infernal cataract? This is affirmed by many learned divines. They admit that the Old Testament does not teach eternal punishment, but at the same time they contend, that from Adam to Christ, the penalty for transgression was eternal punishment, and consequently all nations and people were during that time exposed to that terrible storm of wrath. Away with such blasphemous imputations. Wisdom, goodness, justice, assure us, that the great Lawgiver kept nought back of sin’s penalty, but revealed the truth, the whole truth, and at the same time he gave the law. And here it is in such plain language that a child can understand it. I will read from Deuteronomy xxviii.:

“It shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and statutes which I command thee this day, that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee: Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field. Cursed shall be thy basket and thy store. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy cattle, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and cursed shalt thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation and rebuke in all that thou settest thine hand unto to do.... He shall smite thee with consumption, and with a fever, with blasting and mildew; and the Lord shall make the pestilence cleave unto thee, until he shall have consumed thee from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.”

“Moreover, all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkendst not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes, which he commanded thee. Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things, therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things. And thine enemy shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls shall come down, wherein thou trustedest. Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity. And thou shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee.”

This language cannot be misunderstood. No lawgiver ever stated the penalty for transgression in plainer terms. The Jews, if they sinned, were to suffer in body and mind, in head and heart, at home and abroad, till they were consumed from the land. But beyond the land there is not an intimation that endless woe would be their doom. That the apostle Paul understood the consequences of sin to be temporal, is evident from these words, “For if the words spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” Heb. ii. 23. The apostle here speaks of past wickedness, and says it HAD RECEIVED A JUST RECOMPENSE OF REWARD, and the countless millions of the dead consequently were not TO BE receiving it through the ceaseless ages of eternity. They had received a just recompense of reward, and were at rest. All the moral elements of the law are as much in force to-day as they were when they were revealed to Moses, and the penalty is the same now [as] it was then. Good men are blessed now, and wicked men are cursed now. Goodness blesses the one, and vice curses the other. It is as true now of all who have lived, that they have received a just recompense of reward, as it was in St. Paul’s day and generation. The Old Testament, from beginning to end, reiterates the same lesson concerning the present blasting effects of vice in all its varied forms.

Mr. Taylor, in reply, admitted that the Old Testament teaches, that the wicked in part are punished in this world, that they have a foretaste of hell this side of the grave, a morsel of what is in reservation for them beyond the tomb. He also admitted, that Moses did not teach endless punishment, but the prophets did teach it, though not in as clear language as did Christ and the apostles. A future life was only partially revealed during the Law Dispensation; it was reserved for the Son of God to fully bring life and immortality to light. So with regard to hell; it was obscurely revealed by the prophets, but clearly revealed by the Savior of man.