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WE heard of a man who had heard Universalists occasionally, and gave them something when they were making contributions for their preachers. A preacher, who made one of his finest efforts to prove that all will be saved, inquired of him how he liked his argument. The man replied, “I did not like it at all.” The preacher, disappointed, said: “You believe our doctrine?” The man replied: “I do; but you tried to prove it by the Bible, and all intelligent people know that the Bible is against us from one side to the other. The way I prove it is this: I deny the Bible, and then prove it by reason.” This is certainly the more rational way. We care not who he is, nor where he comes from, nor what his attainments may be; but the man who attempts to prove Universalism by the Bible opposes the common sense of mankind and the clearest language ever written. The man who rejects the Bible out and out, and is wandering in the darkness of unbelief, in the vagaries of those who reject the wisdom of God, might, in his philosophical speculations, try to show that all men would be saved, with at least some show of plausibility possibly; but there is not only no plausibility in anything that can be adduced from the Bible to show that all men will be saved, but clear statements of the Bible can not be true and all men be saved. It cannot be true that those “who believe not the Son shall not see life,” and that all men shall be saved. It can not be true, as stated in Scripture, that “these” (the wicked) “shall go away into everlasting punishment,” and all men be saved.

The man who affirms that those who die in their sins shall be wholly and happy in heaven contradicts the clearest utterances of Scripture. When time shall end and God shall exclaim, “He that is filthy, let him be filthy still,” there will be no more repentance; yet some will be filthy—unsound.

Universalism had its day in this country; has run its course and is going by. There is not one-tenth as much of it in this country as there was thirty years ago. There is no argument of consequence about it any more. The only thing wanting to show what it is, will appear anywhere when they undertake to form churches, keep up Sunday-schools, keep up prayer-meetings, meet regularly on the first day of the week and worship. Let them undertake to enforce the clear requirements of Scripture on their people, and they will soon get a lesson. They will soon explain that all will be saved, and they will find that they will have no use for baptism, the Lord’s Supper, prayer-meetings, nor any regular worship.

It will not do to read, “He who believes not shall be saved;” “He who believes not the Son shall see life;” “The wrath of God shall not abide on him;” “If you believe not that I am he, you shall not die in your sins;” “Where I am you shall come;” “These” (the wicked) “shall not go away into everlasting punishment;” “The beast and the false prophets shall not be tormented day and night forever and ever;” “He who shall sin against the Holy Spirit shall not be in danger of eternal damnation,” etc., etc. The man who denies his Bible first, and then starts out to prove that all will be saved from some other source, is a much more sensible man than the man that undertakes to prove it from the Bible. Whatever the Bible may mean besides, it does not mean Universalism. The man who holds and undertakes to prove Universalism has no use for a Bible, unless it be to show his skill in getting round the clearest things ever written.