Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/227

Rh  by J. S. Skinner, C. L. Flint, J. J. Mapes, S. W. Johnson, D. J. Browne, T. Bridgman, W. Gaylord, L. Tucker, G. H. Dodd, J. Harris, H. S. Olcott, and others. The useful manuals of Mrs. Hale, Miss C. E. Beecher, Miss Leslie, and Mrs. Terhune represent the contributions to domestic economy. J. E. Snowden and W. C. Prime are the principal writers on numismatics; E. Jarvis, L. Shattuck, J. Chickering, J. D. B. De Bow, and F. A. Walker represent the statisticians; James Renwick and Thomas Ewbank the writers on mechanics; H. W. Herbert has a unique reputation as a writer on field sports in America; and C. E. Lester has been a prolific miscellaneous author. Among the miscellaneous literature of the period may be classed the numerous volumes of “Collections” and “Memoirs” illustrating the national history, published by the historical societies of the several states, particularly by those of Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. The “Archæologia Americana,” or transactions of the American antiquarian society, form also a valuable contribution to the archæological literature of the country. Lastly, the foundations of American bibliography have been laid by the valuable works of Isaiah Thomas, O. A. Roorbach, G. P. Putnam, Nicholas Trübner, H. E. Ludewig, H. Ternaux, H. Stevens, O. Rich, E. B. O'Callaghan, F. Leypoldt, and Joseph Sabin. (See, and .)  UNIVERSALISTS, a religious denomination, holding the final destruction of evil, and the restoration of all souls through Jesus Christ. The following statement probably represents the belief of the great majority of Universalists of the present day. I. They believe that God is infinite in all his perfections, creating man with the fixed purpose that the existence he was about to bestow should prove a final and everlasting blessing; that, foreseeing all the temptations, transgressions, and struggles of man, he shaped his government, laws, and penalties with express reference to these emergencies, and adapted the spiritual forces to the final overcoming of all evil; that being almighty, he can convert and save a world of sinners as easily as he converted and saved Saul of Tarsus or Matthew the publican, and without any more violation of “free agency” in the one case than in the other. They also believe in the perfection of the divine justice; and affirm, on this ground, that God would not impose on finite beings a law infinite in its demands and penalties; but that, being perfectly just, he will deal with every man according to his works, whether good or bad. II. They uniformly reject the doctrine of the Trinity, making Christ subordinate to the Father. They believe that he is gifted with spirit and power above all other intelligences; that he is “God manifest in the flesh,” i. e., that God has displayed in him the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, as in no other being tabernacled

in flesh; that he was sent of God to be the Saviour of the world, and that he will actually save it, because God would not offer, nor would Christ accept, a mission which both knew would end in failure; therefore, they say, the work of redemption will be thorough and universal. III. They believe that Adam was created upright, but liable to sin; that all men are formed, as Adam was, in the moral image of God; and that this image, though it may be disfigured by sin, can never be wholly lost. Faith and regeneration remove the stains and defilements of sin, and renew or reform the soul in the divine likeness. IV. They believe the new birth to be that thorough change of heart which takes place when a man, wrought upon by divine truth and grace, forsakes his sins, or turns from his former life of worldliness and indifference toward God and the Saviour, and is drawn into fellowship with the Holy Spirit, and, thus quickened into new spiritual vitality, consecrates himself to a life of active goodness and piety. This new birth is not supernatural, but the result of appointed means suitably improved. The Holy Spirit blesses the use of these means, and moves upon the heart of the sinner, encouraging, comforting, assisting, sanctifying. They do not believe in instantaneous regeneration, though they teach that there may be a turning point in the life of every man, when his attention is specially directed to religion. Conversion is only the commencement of religious effort. V. They teach that salvation is not shelter nor safety, nor escape from present or future punishment. It is inward and spiritual, and not from any outward evil, but deliverance from error, unbelief, sin, the tyranny of the flesh and its hurtful lusts, into the liberty and blessedness of a holy life, and supreme love to God and man. This is an important doctrinal and practical point with Universalists, and is constantly enforced in their preaching and writings. They urge on all to seek salvation, not from the torments of a future hell, but from the present captivity of sin. In reply to the objection that millions die in sin, in pagan ignorance and unbelief, they answer that no one is wholly saved in this life, but that all men are saved, in a greater or less degree, after death; and assert that the power of Christ over the soul does not cease with the death of the body, but that he continues the work of enlightenment and redemption till he surrenders the kingdom to the Father, which does not take place till after the resurrection is complete. VI. The resurrection is not merely a physical but a moral and spiritual change. It is not only clothing the soul with an incorruptible body, but it is an anastasis, a raising up, an exaltation of the whole being into the power and glory of the heavenly; for, “as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” It is a change, they