3. Two men—A and B—avowed enemies, meet in the street. Each is armed with a rifle, and each makes ready to dispatch his enemy. A presents his gun—it snaps; the cap was out of order. In an instant B takes a deadly aim, his rifle discharges, and A is a dead man. B is arrested, condemned and dies; but, as in all such cases, he repented in time to secure heaven, as a reward! Now if A’s gun had not missed fire, he would have killed B, and, of course, sent him to hell, while he might have repented and gone to heaven. But he, poor fellow, must go to hell, merely for the want of a good cap!
The most abandoned wretch that ever disgraced humanity, can, according to this bankrupt system, obtain an easy passport to heaven, by a few minutes repentance just before he dies, while the moral, good, virtuous, humane, yea, the faithful Christian—the laborer in the cause of his Master—though he hath worn out a long life in warning his fellows, and inducing them to reform; though he has, according to Orthodoxy, been the means of converting hundreds to the belief and practice of the Christian religion, yet, if in an evil hour, he be drawn from the path of rectitude—become a sinner, and die suddenly, without time to repent, he goes to an endless hell! Oh, what justice! what consistency! Orthodoxy, thou art not a jewel!
Orthodoxy may sing her siren song the world over, it will not alter facts; men are punished here for their sins; and the worst of it all is, that these poor wretches, who have been deceived by the song, and thereby led into sin, still receive their punishment before they die, and often without knowing that it is the reward of their own doings! They will charge their suffering to a cruel fate, hard fortune, or some other cause, not knowing that the hand of a just God is upon them! But whether men believe it or not, if they do wrong, they must and will receive their reward; and if their experience fails to undeceive them, it may serve to convince those who live after them, that there “is a God who judgeth in the earth,” and that “he cannot do iniquity.”
I closed my last speech on the last proposition as follows: I am now nearly through with my part in this debate. I have presented the gospel to you the past four days as I truly believe it. The word gospel signifies good news; and it is good news from God to man, from heaven to earth. It tells us,
1. That God is the Father of mankind. “Have we not all one Father?” Addressing Pagans in Athens, the Gentile apostle said, “We are the offspring of God.” Jesus instructs us to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” And he also teaches that our heavenly Father’s love for us far exceeds the earthly parent’s love for his offspring. And the God who inspired him and his apostles to utter such noble sentiments, hath said, “The mother may forget her child but I will not forget you.” Is not this good news to the sons and daughters of earth? We are passing away from our earthly friends, and they are daily leaving us; and is it not a blessed assurance that we have an ever living and ever present Friend, who will never leave nor forsake us? Is not this hope good to live by—good to die by?
2. This same gospel also proclaims the good news of eternal life and a blissful immortality for mankind. We are the children of God, created in his image, partake of his immortal nature; and, commencing our existence in the bud of being, in the cradle of all life, are destined to manifest more and more the divinity of our nature, as the eternal ages bear us onward and upward.
3. And from these cardinal truths, the New Testament draws the logical inference, that we should love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength, and our fellow men as ourself. God is the Father of all, and his love extends to all, and hence we should be loving and dutiful children. We all belong to one family, are members of one household, and hence we should be kind, forbearing, and forgiving to each other. This is the gospel in letter and spirit, in theory and practice; and nothing but this is the gospel. It is all embraced in the word love—a little word, but the length, breadth, and depth of the universe are required to express its meaning. God is love, his purpose is love, and love will bless his children while immortality endures.
But there is not a drop of love, nor a note of glad tidings in my opponent’s creed. It proclaims it to be the purpose of the Almighty to consign millions of mankind to regions of eternal sorrow, darkness and death; and those who may escape that dreadful doom, unless they have hearts of demons, will forever deplore the sad fate of their earthly associates—those they were required to love as themselves. The words love, goodness, mercy, justice, gospel, good news, glad tidings, should be all stricken from the Bible, if Mr. Edmonds’ creed is true, and words that savor of fire and brimstone, should take their places. Yea, the sun, moon and stars, the refreshing shower, the genial breeze, and productive earth, should all tell us of fire and fury, instead of love, goodness and justice, if eternal woe is to be the doom of half of mankind. If this terrible dogma is true, it seems to me, that on the blazing disc of the sun should be written in characters as black as midnight—endless woe; on the pale face of the moon, and on every twinkling star—endless woe, that all might read their doom from night to morn, from morn to night; and that every breeze that blows, should scream in our ears so loud that the dead might hear—endless woe. But thank heaven, God is love, the gospel is good news, and these malignant creeds are false.
A large number of clergymen of different orders attended the discussion, and they held evening meetings during the progress of the debate, but all parties were silent on the subjects that were discussed during the day. The disputants were kind and courteous towards each other, and their christian spirit pervaded the hearers of all creeds. A society was organized in Franklin the day after the debate closed, it being Sunday, and I preached in the place monthly for one year. But the distance was too far for me to continue the visits, and as no one could be obtained to take my place, meetings were suspended. The good cause has suffered all over the West for want of competent ministers to supply the wants of the people. If a dozen faithful pastors had been located in Indiana in those days, liberal societies would now have been well organized and permanently established all over the state. In Franklin, Columbus, Martinsville, Gosport, Bloomington, Greencastle, Ladoga, Crawfordsville, Perrysville, Covington, Lafayette, Fort Wayne, Richmond, Madison, and in many other places where we have no organizations, flourishing and influential societies would now be established. But ministers could not be obtained, and hence much of the labor of the missionary was of but little avail. Having a paper on my hands, I was obliged to travel far and near to sustain it, and could not devote much time at any one place.
A few days after this discussion, I delivered several sermons in Edinburg; and one of them was preached in the Methodist meeting-house, and the subject, at the request of the pastor, was “Total Depravity.” The following is the gist of the discourse: