The Pro and Con of Universalism: Both as to Its Doctrines and Moral Bearings; in a Series of ...

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Table Of Contents

Note to the Read^ •. 4

Alice Sherwood, or, the Peimgylvania Valley — a tale, 5

Preliminary Qonsiderations, 40

Chapter I

CoNCEiYB, reader, if you please, a deep and quiet valley, of about five miles in length from the points whence it takes its particular designation, and a mile and a half in medial breadth ; the hills, by which on both sides it is hemmed in, may be some two or three hundred feet in altitude, and are very precipitous, varying indeed but a little from perpendicularity ; from their bases to their summits they are covered with a thick natural growth of hemlock-fir-trees, intermingled with stunted hazels and sumachs, save that here and there may be seen a soft spot which has been cleared by the axe of the settler : and how picturesque is the effect of those spots ! they occur mostly in the occasional curvatures and indentations by which Nature, with Iier usual taste, has varied the monotony of these mountainous ridges ; or in the defiles which the rivulets from the interior have scooped out in their journeyings towards the ocean.

I will suppose you standing on one of these acclivities, especially the one on the eastern side, for there the advantage of survey is greatest, and the eye from thence can take in an extent of prospect only bounded by its reach of vision. What a scene of loveliness you now have before you ! it is but little rivalled, if at all, by the l^r-famed and classic Wyoming. A wide reach of fertile bottom land under excellent cultivation stretches for more than a mile in your front, and for miles on either hand ; it varies in its shades of green according to the diversified products with which it is teeming ; the rich and extensive pasture grounds are mottled with cattle, and sheep, and lambs, which are feeding very tjontentedly, apparently conscious that their " lines are fallen to them in pleasant places/^ The trees which have been spared by the inhabitapjs <p» a2

M

6 PRO AHt> CON OF UNlVfiRSALIflf*

purpoBes of shade and ornament, throw oat their branches withl loxuriancy which betokens a generous soil, and certainly contribute their fttll quota toward the aggregate beauty of the picture.

A load, you perceive, runs lengthwise through the vale, along which many neat habitations are sprinkled ; and about midway there arises the steeple of a modest and tasteful house of worship ; on its vane at this moment the sun's setting beams are reposing: a more fitting emblem of the mild and cheering character of the doctrines dispensed within that temple, could not well be imagined—doctrines adapted to shed on the spirit's parting hour the light of an immoveable trust in heaven.

But the brightest feature in this lovely landscape is yet unmarked: cast your eye, reader, toward the' foot of yonder western barrier; there rolls a river, so exquisitely pure and placid, that it resembles a burnished mirror ; it is, however, partially hidden from our view by the elms and sycamores which fringe its margin, and immediately opposite to us its channel is divided by an island. How soft and verdant ! The muses, and the graces, yea, and goddesses too, might be well content with grottoes on that green and quiet spot. I fancy that, of a calm evening, we might hear at this distance — perhaps we might — the murmuring of the stream where it is broken by the upper point of the island; and then, in addition to this exhibition of Nature's taste in penciling, we should have a pretty specimen of her skill in music.

That river, reader, is the Susquehannah, and I doubt me much if io all this wide world the lord of day looks down upon a stream which reiects back his glory more clearly than doos this beautiful daughter of the Otsego lake. I have threaded its shores in all. their winding^, from where it issues from the aforesaid lake among^ the hills, to where it blends its translucent waters with the briny billows of the Chesapeake bay ; and nowhere, methinks, withiii equal limits, has beauty, in its softer forms, consecrated to ftselr a greater number of dwelling places : its bordering hills present every conceivable variety of aspect ; now they incline in grassy or arable slopes ; anon they tower in perpendicular or beetling ledges ; here they sweep away in graceful curves a mile or more from its ▼erge, leaving space for broad tracts of level and rich alluvion ; and there they run for miles along the river's brink, and mirror their hoge forms upon ite wateis».a8 ihoogh Nature were as provd

AlICS 8H£RW00D. t

88 Other beauties are, of contemplating the reflection of her charms. I have told yoa, reader, this river's name, but the valley itself yoa mns( be content with knowing under the fictitious cognomen of Univirsalia. Now Jet me point your attention to that school house : there are two in the valley, but this to which I allnde is toward its southern extremity ; it is a wooden structure, surroanded, you perceive, by a grassy plat, and shaded, almost embowered, with beautiful forest trees : it wants but to be white*washed to render it a perfect picture of the rural kind. I must give the settlers a hint of this when I next visit Universalia ; for pity it were that a scene so nearly perfect, should lack those little attentions which would constitute it completely so. I may add also, by the way, that in my opinion, school premises every where should be rendered as agreeable as possible ; for there the members of human society gather most of their- earliest associations, and these exert no small influence upon their subsequent lives. Virtue and happiness not oiity accompany, but they tiiso promote each other. By as much, then, as it is an object worthy of all attention to form a happy and virtuous society, by so much is it important to commence at the fountain head, and to blend with the business of juvenile instruction as much of purity and pleasantness as possible. With this digression I will close my first chapter.

Chapter II

She who teaches the school at present, in the buijding above described, is a youg lady from Connecticut: her stature is about the middling height, her form slender, the color of her hair and eyes

light hazel; the latter are large and prominent, and, by their expression, say much for the sweetness and innocence of the indfvelling soul. I could tell yoa the true name of this young lady if t chose, but I do not choose ; and, therefore, since she must bear soQie name in our story, we will call her Alice Sherwood. She is not, as I have said, a native of this valley, but is an exotic, of recent transplantation from the " land of steady habits ;'* and sooth to say, there blooms not in all the vale a lovelier flower than Alice, which 18 saying much for her, for many a lovely flower blooms there.

Ia religion, Alice is a Calvinist of the modem stamp : of course her fidth is but an edaeatioiial one, in whieh her understanding has

8 PRO AND CON OF UNIVER8ALISM.

extremely little concern ; for what concern can the under8tandiD(r of a young lady of eighteen have with the mysteries of the trinityy which represents Jehovah as being both the father and the son of himself 1 — native depravity — the demands of the divine law agairoA n8 to an infinite amount, on the ground of a debt alleged to have been contracted by onr progenitors, some thousands of years before we were born ! — the satisfaction of this claim hy the murder of an innocent victim — the transfer of our guilt, both original and actual^ upon the head of the unoffending Son of God — and the imputation of his righteousness to creatures who have no righteousness of their own ?

These are subtleties for the brain of the metaphysical divine, but are not at all suited to the unsophisticated mind, and guileless heart, of a young lady of eighteen.

It will be understood, then, that in describing our heroine as a Calvinist of the modern school, I mean, simply ,-that she adheres to that party from educational and family prepossessions. The dogmas of this, as distinguished from those of the did school, are, that God has provided in the gospel ample means to save those whom from all eternity he unchangeably determined to damn.^ — that Christ shed his blood for the same class, with the certainty before him, that they could never be availed by it ! — that all may be saved if they will, notwithstanding that none can wilTio be saved but such as God has foreordained to that end, and they can do no otherwise than will it ! — and that the chief aggravation of the miseries of the damned, will arise from their having rejected a gospel that was never meant for them, and which it was utterly out of their power to accept I with other matters equally sane and salutary.

Alice, nevertheless, is a good and pious girl — for there arc go and pious persons of every religious persuasion— either becau their natural dispositions are so good as to defy the corrupting influence of a bad faith, or because they do not entertain that faith with so firm a persuasion of- mind as to allow it its full weighl of evil influence. However, so stands the fact, be the philosophy of it what it may ; and it is certainly better of the two to be theoretically wrong, and practically right, than the contrary : for if the heart be wrong, the head will easily be induced to stray with it; whereas, if the former be right, the latter may easily be redeemed from its errors. And yet it must be confessed that many a young and innocent heart receives its earliest taint fiiom the prinoi-

ALICE 8HSRW00D.

bs which a false edacation imposes upon tha nnderstaoding. Alice had been taken seriously to task by her sincere but mistaken old father, shortly previous to her leaving home, because she had commended the goodness of a certain lady of her acquaintance. "You must always bear it in mind, my dear," said old Mr. Sherwood, " that persons who are out of the church are in a state of naiure — ^which is a slate of unmixed depravity — however good, therefore, they may seem to be, they are in fact vile and abominable : they cannot think a good thought, nor do a good act — and their deeds which seem to be good are but * deceitful workings,' and are more detestable in the divine sight, as being the ofispring of hypocrisy, than are even those that we would pronounce evil. Beware, then, of looking to the unregenerate forany thing truly virtuous ; you will be deceived with specious appearances, but will never find what you seek ; * for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean 1 Not one ;' — the virtues of the unconverted will be but as millstones around their necks to sink them the deeper under the waves of divine wrath." ** But my dear father," enquired Alice, '' is it not possible for a person to be pure and upright, and as such, acceptable to our Creator, even though without religion in our sense of the term 1" " In our sense of the term /" somewhat impatiently retorted Mr. Sherwood ; '* I tell you, Alice, that there is no other true sense of the term, but that which you are pleased to characterize as ours ; and if a person be without religion in this sense, then is he without it in any sense — his heart is rankin rebellion against Jehovah, and he would, were it possible, tear him from his throne. Talk not to me, then, of the goodness of ''^cnregenerated man ; ' there is no soundness in him,' but * from Ithe crown of the head to the sole of the foot, he is nothing but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores.' "

.Such are the dark principles of theology in which our heroine was educated — ^principles which, had they taken root in her mind, would have driven thence all its; native benevolence, and with their sombre shadows must have darkened her vision to all that is fair and beautiful in life : happily for her they found not a congenial •oil in her nature; and, consequently, although they perplexed her understanding, they failed of corrupting, in any great degree, that pure fountain whence principally the streams which sadden or {[ladden existence have their source— the heart.

Chapter III

One of the most beautiful features of Christianity — not, alas ! as it connmonly exists in the practice of its professed disciples, but as taught by its author — is the spirit of kindness ^nd forbearance it enjoins toward those who differ from us in faith and principles. " If ye salute your brethren only," saith Christ, " what do ye more than others 1 for even the publicans do the same." And the moral of that affecting story of the man who fell among thieves, manifestly is, that all are to be considered as our neighbors who stand in need of our services, that good Samaritan-like we must not stop to enquire whether the claimants upon our sympathies be Jew or Gentile, but must do good to all, without distinction of nation or sect.

Alice Sherwood had not been accustomed to exhibitions of this spirit, although her whole life had been spent in the bosom of religious society ; for even the christian charities of the present age are but too much confined within party limits, and are exceedingly selfish and calculating. She had been wont to hear denounced as heretics, all who withheld assent to the dogmas of her faith, however distinguished they might be for uprightness and amiability of character. One of her first impressions, therefore, relative to the people amongst whom she is now sojourning, was, that as they were perfectly tolerant toward persons of all religious opinions, it was not possible that they possessed any religious opinions of their own. But see — she is at this moment engaged in writing to her parents — we can take the liberty of peeping over her shoulders, and of thus satisfying to the full our curiosity as to all these . matters. With motives so laudable, it will be no trespass against politeness, I trust.

****** Having described to you the situation of my school, I proceed, my dear parents, to acquaint you with other circumstances connected with my condition here. And first, I am almost wholly deprived of access to the outward means of grace. There is no church of our persuasion short of a distance of four miles from my residence, and even it is on the other shore of the river, in a delightful village called thk point. The expense of ferriage thither and back is incarted eacVi t\m© 1 zXHavA it^ and there Jg about » mile of the way <Sa\Aed TBit vkkilonva^^nW^Va

ALlCfi 8BSIIWOO0. 11

nnsafe : it lies between abrupt ledges of rock and the water^s , and the road is scarcely of sufficient width to admit the pas- ^slM ^^^ ^ vehicle. I seldom think of surmounting these difficulties to attend worship ^ere. As to the people here, they are nearly 2^- all of one religion, and that a new kind to me. In fnoral and aoeial respects, however, they are all that I could wish them to be. I have found very intimate companions in two young ladies — they are both very thorough subjects of this new faith, and very zealous in its propagation. I must do them the justice to say, that in my opinion, no good cause could fail of gaining by their advocacy. The one is about my own height and age, and is a very impersofiaiion of mildness and sweetness of disposition. An angel sent from heaven to soothe a wounded spirit, might borrow her voice and accents with advantage. The other is somewhat her superior in years, and likewise in those accomplishments which are the result of cultivation. She seems also to surpass her companion in religious zeal, from the fact that her natural temperament is more ardent : her peculiar views in theology are with her a favorite topic k of conversation, and her language is often marked with much P felicity of expression.

*' I supposed, till I had been several weeks with this people, that they had discarded religion in eyery form ; for I had witnessed amongst them no acts of devotion, nor did their external appearance or bearing indicate piety, according to my ideas of it.

*' On one fine evening, after school, I was enjoying a ramble on the mountain which forms the eastern boundary of this beautiful L « vale — I had reached a point in the obscure path I was pursuing ^here it emerges from a thicket of sumachs, when I was startled ft finding myself very close to an aged man, who was seated on the ground, apparently so occupied with his own thoughts as to be. unconscious of my approach : I soon, however, regained selfposQession, when I had scanned his venerable appearance, and catching his eye at length, had read its intellectual and benign expression ; besides, I had seen him before, and knew him to be a highly respectable old gentleman, and looked up to by the settlers as a kind of patriarchal head. He greeted me with much courtesy, and motioned me to take a seat on a moss-covered fragment of lock opposite to him, which, as I was short of breath from toiling op the rugged acclivity, I was sufficiently inclined to do* tS PRO AND WN ^ UNIVBftSALISH.

<• > I hare been indulging, forperhape the last time on eartb,* Btii the old Squire, (for by such familiar cognomen is he known in thest*^ parts,) * in an evening survey of the wonderfully varied works of our Creator: the scriptures are certainly correct in affirming, *he hath made every thing beautiful in his time,' nor beautiful only, for they speak forth to the distrusting heart of man the most intelligible assurances of his Maker's infinite loving-kindness. With all their grandeur and glory, they nevertheless but faintly shadow forth his wisdom and benevolence. The poet's deduction is just:

* Thus wondrous fair, thyself how wondrous then ? Unspeakable, who dwellest in highest heaven. To us invisible, or dimly seen In these thy lower works.*

** < When I was a child,' says Paul, ' I thought as a child.' 1 remember that when a lad I used to think the whole world was comprised between these parallel ridges. How great was my surprise when I first ascended to where we now are sitUng, and beheld range behind range in apparently interminable continuity. I used to set bounds to the goodness of God from the same principle. My religious education had prescribed for me but a narrow range of intellectual vision. I supposed that the sun of his mercy arose and set within that contracted horizon — but, * when I became a man I put away childish things,' and for many years have calmly rested in the persuasion, that the divine benevolence is as immeasurable as space, and as all-embracing ; which blessed trust has been the light of my spirit in my darker hours, and continues to be so still as the day-istar of my life is setting.'

'* I expressed my surprise at his utterance of these pious 8en|P ments, Mn as much,' said I,> as I have concluded with confidei|b6 that there is no religion amongst you — you certainly never priy,

and ' • Pardon me,' interrupted he, * how came you by 4he

certain knowledge that we never pray V ' I infer it,' waf my answer, ' from the fact that I never either saw or heard yon so engaged.' ' Not the most logical inference in the world, tey fair friend,' he rejoined, * sinee many things are constantly transpiring around yon which yon neither see nor hear. Moreorer, the religion of Christ courts not the eye nor the ear of man— it is modest, and is content with being visible t n t/t efecti* To see or heftt us prajr, iherehre, vroold be to detect as in a flaftrast ridatioii of the

JOICS BHEBWOOIK 13

(^08pel coniinand : ' When thou prajest, enter into thy eloeet, andl when thoa haet shut the door, then pray to thy Father which is in secret,' etc. Have yon, young lady, been so accustomed to an iafraetion of this express precept, that its very ohseryance on our partis deemed evidence that we are irreligious T

^ My dear parents, what could I reply to this ? I felt it, indeed, to be a thrust that there was no possibility of parrying. So, abandoning this ground, I attempted to sustain my impeachment upon another. * How is it, sir,' I inquired, < that I observe among you none of those anxteiiea that are usual to pious persons } Your people exhibit no solemn feelings with regard to death and eternity — ^they have no concern about the preparation requisite to stand in the awful presence of their Maker. Does not this evince their destitution of piety 1'

" I wish you tsould have witnessed the surprise which these inqniries elicited. He surveyed me in silence for a time, but with a most placid expression of countenance. * Can it then be possible !' he at length exclaimed, < that a freedom from dittnuU in the goodness of heaven exposes to the charge of being without miigion ? — for rest assured, young lady, that the anxieties and awful feelings^ of which you speak, can be no otherwise rationally interpreted, than as evincing a want of confidence in God. Let me put the case to your own private experience. You are at present far from the home of your parents — suppose that the time for your return were at hand, would your mind be affected with anxieties, lest, for want of certain preparations, they might spurn you from their presence? or would you indulge in anticipations W delight, that the moment was near that would find you enfolded i\ their arms, and your heart cheered with their benedictions V ' I rilpuld, certainly,' said I, ' be affected in the latter way, but * *I^ardon me once more,' he replied, *that hut comprises the whole dilficuUy. Your trust in your Father in heaven is not eqniM to that in your parents on earth. That is the sum of the matter — your religious education is to blame for this ; you have bfen accustomed to a class of religionists whose confidence in hec^en's love is as weak as your own. You now, however, hare found a different people ; we trust that the Being who made Q^ if able, and as williag a$ aUe, to talsa caie oC^.iAmWWI^ tie Jilr-'^e fsed$ the i/iarroir^— and B

—and whj 8l iy\| gltlK^%^ria|

the subjects of his providence ? But see, my yoiing friend, it is time we were on our way down the mountain, for one half of the sun's disk is already below the western horizon.'

*' The above conversation, my dear parents, is but an outline of that which took place betwixt the old Squire and myself; he is very prolix in discourse, but his ideas are strikingly just, and his arguments forcible. Whether it be from the influence of religion, or philosophy, or both combined, I know not, but so it is that he maintains with admirable composure his position on that awful line, where the territory of time unites with that of eternity.

** I will close this letter with some remarks as to our co-religionists in this region. Either they,are much below the same class in Connecticut, in sincerity, moderation, and courtesy, or the veil of partiality, through which I may have been accustomed to see them, has been removed ; for cretain it is, that in respect to these indispensable christian graces, they compare very disadvantageously with the people of this valley, which is a pity, too, for the latter are despised by them, and denounced as heretics. But why heresy should be invested with such fascinations of candor, christian charity, and purity of life, while what is.termed truths is often found associated with moroseness and intolerance, is, dear parents, a sad puzzle to Your affectionate daughter, Alice.''

I must inform you, reader, that the latter member of the above alternative expresses the truth. Alice's co-religionists on the POINT are, I suspect, as good as the same class in Connecticut, or any where else ; but the mind of our heroine had undergone a gradual change — her partialities were in some degree removed, and her perceptions were in consequence less clouded. She now saW many things in the conduct of those denominated minU^ whiSh shocked her ideas of propriety, and led her to inquire within herself, " Is it possible that Connecticut christians would act thus !'* Simple hearted girl ! she will find before she dies that evil p^nciples of religion, in all climes alike, exert an evil moral influence

CHAPTEk IV.

th has>elaf>$ed since the epistle was written which of the iirregouig chapter: as the humble

ALICE SHSRWOOD. Ifjf

chronicler of events in whieh our heroine is concerned, I must record what has transpired within the time ; especially as the material required for the completion of onr history is to be drawn principally from the incidents of that month.

Be it known, then, that in the early part of it, the good folk on THE POINT held a religious meeting of twelve days' continuance : Aiiee attended it throughout, suspending her school for the purpose, a usual thing on such occasions — not with regard to schools merely, but also to most of the ordinary operations of life— and vhilst the dass of religionists who have recourse to this measure (evidently for sectarian ends,) affect to be horror-stricken at the idea of being employed in secular pursuits on the sabbath, they at the same time regard the command, *^six days shalt thou labor," frith about as much respect as though it had emanated from the . Spartan law-giver. So much for puritanic consistency.

Alice had fresh occasions, during this meeting, for observing how much a comparison between the people of her own church, and those of Universalia, resulted in favor of the latter. Old Mrs. il^thewa, a resident on th£ point, with whom she tarried during the twelve days, was of the latter class ; she rendered our heroine every friendly attention, and afforded her every facility in her power foi attending upon all the services. She even accompanied her, when she could do so consistently with her domestic duties, although, in carrying her civility so far, she subjected herself to the necessity of frequently hearing the doctrines she cherished, together with the believers in them, made the subjects of violent invective and misrepresentation. *' Never mind it, my dear Mrs. ^atthews," Alice would say on their way from church, " I cannot ^^link our preachers in Connecticut would thus decry their christ|m neighbors without the slightest reason or provocation.*' " Nor wpuld they here," the old lady would calmly reply, "if they deefaed that their own faith, or morals, would endure a candid co^iparison with those of the people they denounce."

Mis. Matthews had a hired girl, who was a member of the church on the point, and quite a zealot too in that way : had she possessed as much brain as piety it would have been well enough wj^ het ; but, as it was, her zeal was constantly running ^^ay

wUh the little sense she had ; although a very pj

aotlier 9 widow in extremely indigent cixcqttii(Wlfet she cool

16 PRO ANB CON OF ITNITBftlALim.

not forego, on the preeent occa8K>D, the attending npon OTer ▼ice of the meeting ; she entered into a compact with the old by which her wages were to be suspended for the twelve during which she was to have the privilege of attending at preachitogs and two prayer meetings each day, and to recei^ board for such little service about house as she coulcf render intervals. ** If you were in unison with me in religious opii Bridget,'* said old Mrs. Matthews, very mildly, '^ I should my duty to control you In this matter, for your own an( mother's interests ; as it is, however, it would not fail, wei interfere, to be ascribed to unworthy motives."

That the heart of Bridget Bounce (for so was she named profited by these religions exercises, is possible ; whethe undentanding was improved, or her scanty stock of inforn enlarged, is a matter of much doubt. At the conclusion of th day's service^, Bridget returned home excessively elated in i ** Oh, Mrs. Matthews !" she exclaimed, ** I do wish you had

Mr. F , to-day ! If he ain't a dear man there never was <