Page:Records of the Life of the Rev. John Murray.djvu/259

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LIFE OF REV. JOHN MURRAY.
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These, judging themselves, are therefore not to be judged; Saints of God, they shall surround the Redeemer at his second coming, or be caught up in the air to meet the God-Man; after which, the whole world shall be summoned at the imperial bar of the Sire of angels and of men, the Creator of all worlds: That a separation will then take place; the Judge, the Redeemer will divide them, as a shepherd divides the sheep from the goats; will separate every individual from that body of sin and death, of which Paul complained, being burdened; from that fallen spirit, which attaches to every individual in such sort as to the man among the tombs, rendering it a truth, that he who sleepeth, apparently alone upon his bed, is, nevertheless, still connected with his tormentor, and will so continue, until this glorious day of separation, and of restitution; when these two shall be separated, one from another, the one taken, and the other left. The fallen angels, figured by the goats, shall be ranged on the left hand, while the harassed human nature, redeemed by the God who created it, shall be found on the right hand of the Most High. Thus, after the world is judged, out of the things written in the books; after they are found guilty before God, and every mouth is stopped, the book of life shall be opened, in which all the members of the Redeemer, every individual of the Human Family, shall be found written; and the ransomed of the Lord shall be declared denizens of that kingdom, where dwelleth felicity uninterrupted.

Such were the leading sentiments of Our Universalist; and he was firmly of opinion, that the doctrines of the Gospel, rightly understood, would teach men, every where, to be careful of maintaining good works, to love one another, and in all things to regard the best interests of their brother man.

Conversant with the Preacher upwards of forty years, we never knew his testimony to vary, in the smallest degree. In joy and in sorrow, in health, in sickness, and in death, not a single cloud appeared to gather upon the Countenance of his God, or to obstruct, so far as it referred to his prospects beyond the grave, the clear sunshine of His soul.

If we except the Rev. John Tyler, episcopalian minister in Norwich, Connecticut, and the Rev. Edward Mitchell in the city of New-York, we do not know that the sentiments of any Preacher of Universalism, now upon this Continent, are exactly in unison with the departed Promulgator. But, if they build upon the great foundation, we devoutly wish them God speed; well assured, that those who build upon this foundation—gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble—eve-