the total and irreparable ruin of the fairest portion of his work manship.

“I find, indeed, my dear J, that all that is beautiful in sentiment is in reality connected with this doctrine; and that the most sublime and admired minds have indeed in every nation and age, so far as my reading extends, been more or less illumined by it. Who that has read with attention the works of Pope, Addison, Goldsmith, Akenside, Thompson, Gray, Fenelon, Schiller, Goethe, and others, can seriously doubt the fact? Would that the minds of my aged parents could be open to perceive its truth! How serene would the evening of their existence be, if the divine light of this faith were blended with the beams of their setting sun!

"I am more than ever convinced, my friend, that the doctrine of unending misery, in the proportion in which it is sincerely believed, blunts the natural sensibilities. How else could its advocates remain so manifestly indifferent with the dreadful prospect before them, that countless multitudes of human beings are con→ stantly drifting on the tide of time to never-ceasing burnings? My parents, for instance, (and they are to the full as kind as parents commonly are,) seem to have quite given me over to eternal reprobation: yet they appear but little affected by this circumstance! I ventured to ask them as we sat around the fire a few evenings since, whether, if I were bound to a stake to be burned alive in their presence, they would not be unspeakably afflicted by the event. • We would, undoubtedly,' replied my father, but spiritual things are not to be compared with natural our carnal attachments will have ceased when we reach the eter nal world; and we shall not retain a single feeling in oppositior to the will of God; whether that will be to damn or to save.' I was strongly tempted to respond, that except the divine Being shall undergo as great a change as we, his will must be, as it now is, to ‘have all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.' But I knew that to reason with him on this subject would rather tend to irritate than to convince him: and I therefore preferred to be silent, as it better comported with the respect due to the parent from the child.

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My new faith subjects me to numerous petty annoyances. If I attend upon preaching in any of the churches, I am sure to find a part of the sermon pointed against myself; and the heads of

my acquaintances will be turned around in order to see how I am affected by it. I cannot be present even at a prayer meeting but the several supplicants will for prayer substitute declamation and argument against my doctrine, as though Jehovah himself needed to be convinced of its falsity! Some attempt to gain me over to their views by flattery; they wonder at a person of my sense and accomplishments being a universalist. Others address themselves to my interests; they pretend that a conformity to their opinions is indispensable, in order to one's admittance into the higher circles of society; and yet these same persons term themselves the despised and persecuted followers of Jesus'!

"Parson Fearon seriously advised me the other day, in presence of my mother and sister Charity, as I respected myself. my parents, and connexions, and as I prized my soul, and christian fellowship on earth, &c. to disavow my false and dangerous opinions. Would you have me be a hypocrite, Mr. Fearon,' said I, for such I should certainly be, if, for any motive, I should disavow opinions which I seriously and heartily believe my opinions may give way before sufficient evidence of their falsity, but mere persuasions addressed to my pride or self-love, however they may bias my will, can surely not remove the convictions of my judgment. But,' continued I, after a little pause, and (I will confess it) with the view of bringing him out plainly, for I suspected that to gain numbers to his church was more a real object with him (as with too many others) than to win souls for heaven, -'what would you think if I were to unite myself to the methodists?'-'I should think you had gone from bad to worse,' said he; 'you had better remain as you are, Alice, for the methodists believe in being a saint to-day and a devil to-morrow, which is flatly contradictory to the bible doctrine of final perseverance.' In this sentiment my father (who came in during the conversation) fully united.

A few days subsequent I had an interview with the methodist minister, Mr. Steiningstinger, (rather a long name,) whose opinion was, that to go over from the universalist to the calvinist belief, was 'like jumping out of der fire into der frying-pan; for, mine Got in heavens! I would a goot teal rader pe a universalist as pe a calvinist.' The singularity is, that each of these sectarists affects to believe the faith of the other at least safe for salvation,

D

.

"

while they both agree in thinking the universalist faith unsafe; and yet each, rather than be saved in the faith of the other, would prefer to be damned in that of universal salvation! Such at least is the result to which their professions are reducible.

"I assure you, my dear J—, that my faith gathers confirmation from nearly every day's observation and experience. I cannot tell you how much I rejoice and thank God that ever I was a sojourner in your beautiful valley, for my new faith is a talisman which blends a hitherto unknown delight with every scene and incident of existence. I had the unspeakable pleasure, but two days ago, of so establishing its truth and exhibiting its excellency to a neighboring woman, whose spirit for some time past has been fluttering at the gates of death, that she has become a confirmed and rejoicing subject of its influence. Oh!' she exclaims, 'I can now die satisfied; I can now part with my husband and children, and my kind neighbors too, in the confidence of meeting them again in a brighter world; there the sun never sets, for God is that sun, and all intelligences shall bask in its beams. I formerly,' said she, often surveyed my little ones with an anxious heart, reflecting that they were about to be left in a world of sin and temptation, where the probability was strong that they would not all escape that dark and dreadful pit of irreparable perdition which I conceived to be yawning beneath their feet; and I used to ask myself, which of these-Oh! my God! the thought was full of agony-which of these that have been nourished in my bosom, and have engaged my anxieties by night and by day; over whose cradles I have watched in their sickness until the stars grew dim in the morning light, and bright and dim again—which of these, and how many, shall I have brought up for endless burnings? But now-God be praised for ever more!—these anxieties are all dispelled, and I can leave them with Him who has pledged his truth that he will take care of them; under the wings of his protection they are more secure than they could be in my care." Not small is the astonishment of the good people about here that my faith should thus have gained a trophy within the very shadows of the grave, for the woman described is very near her end, being in the last stage of a pulmonary consumption.

"My playful sister Charity, who is at my elbow, says, 'tel: Miss J that I mean to come in a year or two and see what they

can do with me in her pretty valley; for being a rattle-brain, I have been given over as a child of the devil from my infancy, insomuch that I feel something like a filial attachment for the old gentleman, and hope there will be a favorable turn in his hard fortune some day or other. However, I am willing to be quits with him after all, if there's a better chance for me; for, to say truth, I am tired of having certain pert and ignorant misses about here, roll their eyes and pucker up their faces as they meet me on the road to church, regarding me as infinitely their inferior, because they are pleased to term themselves God's children: but if God esteems them above me it is more than their neighbors do. Tell her, too,' she continues, that I am much obliged to her for making Alice a universalist; for she too is now a child of the devil, and is therefore nearer akin to me than formerly, since we can now both claim the same spiritual as well as natural father.'

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• Adieu, my dear friend. May the light of this glorious faith extend to the farthest bounds of intellectual being-that wherever Jehovah is known at all, he may be known and felt as a GOD OF LOVE. So sincerely prays ALICE SHERWOOD."

The author feels it incumbent on him to assure the reader, that all the principal incidents in the above story are true. The valley itself has a real existence, and is faithfully described from his memory of the scene. Alice Sherwood and her two companions, the old Squire, Mrs. Mathews, Bridget Bounce, Mr. Waters, and the other dramatis persone of the tale are true characters. He states this fact, in order that the story may not lose its proper effect, from the supposition that it is a mere figment of the imagination.

PRO AND CON OF UNIVERSALISM.

PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS.

We are about, reader, in a serious and candid spirit I hope, to examine together the claims and pretensions of universalism, pro and con: we wish to be honest in this business, do we not? I do, and am disposed to believe that you do also; well then, let us make a right beginning, since much depends on starting aright, and except we conduct our investigation according to some kind of system we can accomplish but little to advantage; under this persuasion I proceed to suggest some considerations, which in the task before us ought to be kept steadily in view.

1. You will admit that the scriptures cannot support two opposite doctrines as true, without destroying their own credibility; you will also admit that the contrary to what they do teach as true must be false; consequently, if in a single instance they sanction the notion that sin and misery will be of endless duration, it must follow that Universalism is untrue-for universalism asserts the contrary. Now if this doctrine stands contradicted by one text in the bible, we must not think of looking up other texts for the purpose of sustaining it-that one must be admitted as proving it false. See, reader, how I shorten business to your hand; you have now, in order to refute the doctrine of universal salvation, no need to furnish a multitude of texts, one will do-only bring one that is plainly to the purpose, and the work is accomplished. Do you fancy that the passage concerning the rich man and Lazarus is to your purpose? or that concerning the unparnonable sin? or those that relate to Christ's second coming? very well, we shall see in the course of this investigation, and if they are, or either of them, your doctrine is then established. You, of course, are willing to abide by this rule? So am I, and, remember, it works both ways equally; if I can find but one passage which learly

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