burden of the flesh, and gave him admittance into the presence of his Saviour.

C. Then, Sir, you believe that all mankind are redeemed, and that death is their greatest blessing, and that as soon as they come to die, they are all as happy as they can be; and that instead of God's being so angry with the obstinate sinner, that he will not allow him to live out half his days, he loves these vile sinners so well, that he rewards them by the best of blessings, death

M. I am really, Sir, surprised at your manner of conversation; I think you do not express yourself in that generous, candid manner, which one Christian has a right to expect from another. I have not said what you impute to me, either directly or indirectly. You set out, by endeavouring to prove that Jesus Christ hath not redeemed us from the curse, that he is not a complete Saviour; and you have based your argument upon an indisputable fact, because death passes upon mankind.

I endeavour to prove that the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ has taken away the sting of death, and rendered it a blessing to mankind. But that they will never see it so until they believe the gospel, which bringeth life and immortality to light; and that although Jesus, by his death, redeemed them from that death, which is called the curse of the law, yet nevertheless, so long as they are ignorant of this, so long they are children of wrath, vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, and the wrath of God apparently abideth on them; but yet they are saved from wrath, through their Redeemer, and sooner or later they shall be made acquainted with this truth.

C. Pray, Sir, are those saved from wrath through Christ, to whom he says, "Depart ye cursed into everlasting punishment prepared for the Devil and his angels?"

M. No, Sir; you have just observed it is the Devil and his angels for whom this punishment is prepared, and you have truly spoken. For he who according to the scripture died for our sins, when he took upon him our nature, passed by the angelic nature.

Here I was necessitated to go through the whole parable, and after I had with as much clearness as possible, proved that all mankind were sheep, and all blessed of the Father, and that the good shepherd, undertaking to separate them from those evil spirits, who now work in their hearts, served to corroborate this fact he still questioned.

C. But, Sir, who are those on the left hand?
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M. Not men, Sir, as I conceive I have already proved, for the families of the earth were long since blessed. But he says to them on the left hand, "Depart ye cursed."

C. Well, Sir; but who are these? Who are they, I say.

M. Fallen spirits; angels who kept not their first estate, and who are reserved under chains of darkness unto the judgment of the great day. These evil spirits, as I before observed, are now blended with the human nature. But at that period, God will separate them one from the other, and he will say to the one," Come ye blessed of my Father," and to the other, "Depart ye cursed." The arch-fiend, as the doer of the deed, was cursed in the garden of Eden; and the Saviour of men, not being made a curse for angels, they are still cursed.

C. So then it is to the Devil God speaks, and says, "Depart ye Devils, ye are cursed, because ye did not feed my brethren." I am satisfied, Sir, I now see your principles.-And he arose to depart. M. Not yet, Sir; one moment, if you please.

C. No, Sir, it is late, and my wife will expect me.

I took hold of him by the skirt of his coat.

C. I must go, Sir; I am expected home.

M. I see your design, Sir; you have been endeavouring, even in my presence, to wrest my words and misrepresent my expressions. I have by scripture testimony proved whatever I have asserted, while you have not produced from the same divine authority, a single argument to confront me. I repeat, Sir, that I am aware of your design; but before you depart, I insist on your proving me false, or acknowledging that I am right: and I pray you earnestly, to point out some better way of reconciling scripture testimonies. C. I did not come to give you my opinion.

M. But what right do you possess, to ascribe to me what I have never said?

C. I am satisfied, Sir, I have got all I wanted.

M. Yes, Sir, I believe you; and I trust that God will keep my soul in patience, and enable me to regard, with perfect indifference whatever man can say of me, or do unto me.

Here the physician took the matter up, and said:

Physician. You must allow, Sir, that there are at least as many plain positive scriptures, that speak of the destruction of a very great part of mankind, and of the salvation of some, as of a contrary import; nothing can be plainer than the account given of the good

and the bad, the righteous and the unrighteous, and a thousand other passages to the same purpose.

M. Well, Sir, if you can bring as many plain passages to prove the damnation of a great part of mankind, as I can to prove the salvation of all men, I will entirely give up the point; nay, I will go further, if you can bring any positive declaration, any one positive declaration from the sacred records, that a single human being will be consigned to never-ending misery, I am silenced.

P. Then, Sir, I can. The sheep and the goats are one; and the wheat and the tares are another: In the parable of the wheat and and the tares, God commands his angels to gather up the wicked, and bind them in bundles, and burn them: They shall be sent into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his angels.

M. But, Sir, do you not see you are blending two passages, which are positively distinct?

P. Pray let me speak; a layman may speak sometimes: you have no right to engross all the talk.

M. True, Sir. I stand reproved; proceed, if you please.

He then went on about the tares and the chaff, and the chaff and the tares, over and over again, for a long while; at length having run himself out, he was silent: so we were all. I was determined to say nothing more. But a gentleman sitting next the doctor questioned:

Well, Mr. Murray, what say you to all this?

M. Nothing, Sir. You know I have already spoken more than comes to my share.

P. But I wish you, Sir, to tell me what you think of these things? M. As I did before; they are the words of grace and truth. The burning of the tares is the salvation of man. You say the tares are the sinners of mankind, and the wheat are the good. But the testimony of our Saviour is different. He says, there are none good; no, not one. You say, the tares are human nature, and the seed of Devils; but the Apostle declares, the family of man, the whole family of man, are the offspring of God. You make the Devil the father of the spirits of all flesh, for all flesh have corrupted their way. But the Holy Ghost says, God is the Father of the spirit. So you see, Sir, how far you are from proving your point. For my own part, I must be excused, if I adhere to the testimony of sacred writ. I cannot persuade myself that the Devil ever created any human being, or that he ever breathed into any child of man, the

animating breath of life. And, indeed, if the sinners of mankind be tares, preachers are employed to very little purpose; for neither tares nor chaff can ever be converted into wheat.

The doctor then flew out in defence of ministers, and with a torrent of clamour upbraided me with ridiculing clergymen. I was astonished, and insisted on being permitted to speak. But he proceeded virulently, and without pause, for a long period, until his language and his breath appeared to be nearly exhausted.

I then observed I considered myself very ill treated; I had advanced nothing against any clergyman, and I would not submit to the slander. I did not understand such treatment, nor could I account for such unprecedented virulence.

The good minister, from the time the doctor espoused his cause, sat silent and quite at his ease, forgetful of his home, or the necessity which he conceived existed for his departure; nor did he quit us, until the whole company left the house.

The doctor observed, at taking leave, that my principles had been much misrepresented. I assured him I was aware of this fact, and I was well persuaded both myself and my testimony, would continue subjects of malevolence; but, for every thing of this sort I was prepared, and I would endeavour in patience to possess my soul.

Thus, after an evening of as much fatigue, as I have for many years experienced, they happily left me.

Had I leisure, I could now transcribe, while it is fresh in my memory, a conversation of a very different description from the foregoing; but I have only time to sketch it. A number of gentlemen called on me, among whom was a lawyer of great eminence, who thus addressed me:

Lawyer. I attended your labours yesterday, Sir, and I think as far as you went, you were very consistent; but it is beyond my power to reconcile what I then heard, with what I find in other parts of divine Revelation.

M. How then, Sir, can you depend on any part of revelation? you are at the bar, What do you do with a contradictory witness? L. Reject him entirely.

M. Why, Sir.

L. Because he is not to be depended upon.

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M. You act quite right, Sir, just as I would do with my Bible, if it appeared to me contradictory; but as it does not, I reverence it as the pure word of my God, and I rejoice to make it the rule of my faith and practice.

L. Then, Sir, you are a very happy man. I confess it does not appear so to me; and I am very much at a loss to conceive, how you can reconcile such scriptures, as I could, and with your permission will mention, with the doctrine of Universal Redemption.

He then produced many passages; such as the sheep, and the goats; the tares, and the wheat; the broad, and the narrow way; the believing and being saved, and not believing and being damned; the rising to the resurrection of salvation, and a part to the resurrection of damnation. To each of these particulars I replied as usual, and had of course to travel over the same ground I went over the evening before.

But I had not the same characters to deal with. The gentlemen to whom I last spoke, were open to conviction, and acknowledged they felt the force of truth; that in this view, and in this view only, the scriptures harmonized, and were worthy of the character, by which they are distinguished, that is, the WORD OF GOD.

The company appeared pleased, and obliged; observed that they had heard much of me and my testimony, but were now fully convinced they had been imposed upon in both respects; and they parted with me as people convinced of the truth.

My reflections on the past evening, form a pleasing contrast to those furnished by a recurrence to the preceding; but the value of light, when succeeding darkness, is incalculably advanced.

The president of Yale College has given his orders, his com mands that not one of the students shall hear me. This increases the curiosity of the young gentlemen, and many of them are determined at all events, to hear for themselves. Is it not exceeding strange, that men of high literary standing, possessing talents and genius, and rich in acquirements, reaping through successive years all the knowledge which books can give, should evince so little acquaintance with human nature, as frequently to resort to those expedients, which are the best calculated to defeat their own purpose? I speak with reference to religion. Fagots and flames where they are allowed, are the dernier resort; and where the complexion of the laws are more mild, backbiting and slander of every description constitute a substitute. Well, it is, as I believe the Lord's doings, and I confess it is marvellous in my eyes.

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