How I Brought Universalism to America" by Rev. Michael McGee, July 17, 2011

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"How I Brought Universalism to America"

Good morning to all of my Universalists brothers and sisters. I'm the Reverend John Murray, and I must say, it's so good to be with you this morning, especially when I consider the alternative. You see, I've actually been dead for almost 200 years, but fortunately I'm no worse for wear.

I want to thank your most kind and gracious minister, Michael McGee, for inviting me to be with you today in celebration of the 50th year of the merger of Universalism and Unitarianism. You are most fortunate to have such a thoughtful and inspiring minister, not to mention one who has such an uncanny resemblance to me. I hope you will take this opportunity not only to celebrate my ministry but the spirit of Universalism as well.

Rev. McGee asked me to tell you something about my life and ministry, which I am only too happy to do. I was born 270 years ago, in 1741, in the English village of Alton. I was one of nine children, and my father was a stern Calvinist Anglican who we held in awe and fear, like the Calvinist God himself. My mother was a gentler Presbyterian soul. I was promptly baptized into the Anglican Church as an infant when a temporary ailment almost took my life. I recovered however from the disease and eventually from the Baptism.

I lived a normal childhood in robust health, and if I must say, I was a model Christian youngster. My first understandable word, according to my parents, was an "Amen" at the conclusion of my sister's baptism. Our family moved to the vicinity of Cork in Ireland when I was but ten years old. During those early days my family became acquainted with Methodism being spread by itinerant preachers, and my father became an enthusiastic follower. I was also attracted to the Methodists, though I continued my attendance at the Anglican Church.

One matter particularly bothered me about the Anglicans, however -- it appeared that gloom and melancholy were considered as infallible signs of a gracious disposition. I was even criticized because my sadness was not uniform and my cheerfulness became too obvious. So I restored my respectability and with such sorrow that my father became concerned.

As I grew older my sorrow became sincere. My father, who had been an invalid for almost twenty years died, and I became the head of my family, managing my father's business while looking after my mother and siblings. Somehow I also found time to preach, and I discovered that I was gifted of tongue to speak the word of God. I returned to England where I met a woman who changed my life. My true love, Eliza Neale, became my wife.

It was also in England that I met James Relly, a zealous Universalist preacher in the city of London. For several months I resisted Rev. Relly and his heretical message that everyone was saved by the love of God. But then one day, nagged by the realization that I had judged and condemned his work without even having given him a hearing, I decided to go hear him preach. Aside from the fact that the congregation did not appear very religious; that is, they were not melancholy, everything impressed me about Reverend Relly.

I was captivated by the sermon and convinced that there is no such body as "the Elect," who were destined for salvation while all others were doomed to damnation. I told my wife afterward that Relly's was the first consistent sermon I had ever heard. It was soon afterward, following a great deal of study and prayer, that Eliza and I both converted to Universalism, and I was prepared to proclaim it to the whole world. But not until I persevered through a tragic time in my life.

First, I was arrested and put into debtor's prison. Then my only son died at the age of one. Soon afterward my dear wife's health declined and she passed from this world, leaving me emotionally destitute. Finally, as if my life had not been shattered enough, I received word that one of my brothers and three of my sisters had died. My mother and remaining brothers soon came to live with me in England.

I had no understanding of why such affliction must happen to me, but now I can see what destiny God had planned. After being deeply depressed, and even pondering suicide, I finally came to the conclusion that I must depart this world, but not this life. Like so many others, I decided to go to the New World to start my life over again.

I sailed on the brig "Hand-in Hand", with money, clothes, a Bible, and my personal papers. But the ship grounded on a sandbar off the southern coast of New Jersey. Stranded there until the wind changed I was sent ashore for provisions. What occurred when I first set foot in the New World was quite miraculous indeed.

Soon after I arrived I was welcomed by an unlettered but deeply religious man by the name of Thomas Potter. Mr. Potter had a sizable estate in the area as well as a meeting house for the use of itinerant preachers. As it turned out Mr. Potter was a follower of John Rogers, a Quaker Baptist, who believed that Christ had died for all humanity, and for years he had prayed that a preacher who believed in universal salvation would some day preach in his meeting house. When I arrived this pious man became convinced that I was heaven-sent to fill the pulpit, and he begged me to stay as God's appointed messenger.

I could not bring myself to yield to the entreaties of Mr. Potter, and still urged the necessity of departing, the moment the wind would answer. Mr. Potter was positive the wind would not change until I had spoken to the people. I determined to take the changing of the wind for an answer; but the wind changed not, and when Sunday morning arrived I made my way to the meeting house.

The pulpit was rather in the Quaker mode; the seats were constructed with backs roomy, and even elegant. There was one large square pew, just before the pulpit; in this pew sat, upon this occasion, Mr. Potter, and, surely, no man, upon this side of heaven, was ever more completely happy. He looked up to the pulpit with eyes sparkling with pleasure; it appeared to him, as the fulfillment of a promise long deferred. When I returned to his house following the services, he caught me in his arms. "This is the happiest day of my life," said the transported man: "There, neighbours, there is the minister God promised to send; how do you like God's minister?"

I had decided to retire in peace to the New Jersey wilderness, which pleased Mr. Potter to no end, but urgent requests for my services kept coming from Philadelphia and New York. But every time I would accept a request more and more would come in, until it became evident to me that I would be unable to retire as I had hoped. I caution Rev. McGee that the same may be true for him when he retires.

When I first started preaching in Philadelphia the combined efforts of the clergy in that city barred against me the door of every house of public worship. But at Bachelor's-Hall the people attended in great numbers, and many accepted Universalism as their new-found faith.

There was in the city, a minister of the Seventh-day Baptist persuasion who told me he passed on foot nine miles, upon the return of every Saturday, to preach. I asked him, "How many his congregation contained?"

"About a hundred."

How many of this hundred do you suppose are elected to everlasting life?

"I cannot tell."

Do you believe fifty are elected?

"Oh no, nor twenty."

Ten perhaps?

"There may be ten."

Do you think the non-elect can take any step to extricate themselves from the tremendous situation, in which the decrees of heaven have placed them?

"Oh no, they might as well attempt to pull the stars from the firmament of heaven."

And do you think your preaching can assist them?

"Certainly not; every sermon they hear will sink them deeper, and deeper in damnation."

And, so then, you walk nine miles every Saturday, to sink ninety persons out of a hundred deeper and deeper in never-ending misery! [Universalism in America]

Eventually few churches were large enough to hold the crowds that came to hear me in Philadelphia and New York, and my travels took me even further, to Newport, Rhode Island, to Boston, and as far north as Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was while I was preaching in Boston one day that a stone was thrown at me by one who did not take kindly to my Universalist message.

And there's the man who threw it right there!

"And I shall throw another stone at you Murray, for your abominable heresy, but this time I shall not miss!"

“And I shall say to you as I said in Boston that day: 'Not all the stones in Boston – or Arlington -- except they stop my breath, shall shut my mouth, or arrest my testimony.'"

Those were trying days in many ways, and yet I was gratified at the enthusiasm of those who came to believe in the universal love of God and accepted that love into their hearts. For some time I resisted settling with any one church, but finally the brothers and sisters of Gloucester, Massachusetts called me to be their minister, and together, in 1780, we built the first Universalist Church in America – 231 years ago!

We soon ran into serious difficulty however when the First Parish Church, which our Universalist members had left, claimed that the dissenting group were still obligated to contribute to the support of the established church. We denied such an obligation, using as our authority the provisions of the recently adopted Bill of Rights, which guaranteed the freedom of all religious teaching. After a long and difficult legal battle, the Supreme Judicial Court finally affirmed that most precious right. And that is why throughout the history of Universalism we have been unrelenting enemies of church and state alliances.

My ministry in Gloucester was long and fruitful, but after 13 years I accepted a call to minister to the First Universalist Society in Boston. It was while I was in Boston that we gathered together Universalists from all over New England for a meeting in Winchester, New Hampshire. It was the year 1803 and the enthusiasm for Universalism was high. During that meeting we created the Winchester Profession. It was the first creed of Universalism, and here it is:

Article I.
We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind.

Article II.
We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind of holiness and happiness.

Article III.
We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practice good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men.

This was a wonderful time to be a Universalist. We were growing in spirit and numbers, filled with visions of a new American Awakening. But in 1809 I suffered a severe stroke that left me an invalid for the next six years. And in 1815, a few weeks short of my seventy-fifth birthday, I passed on.

Though I was fortunate to be the founder of Universalism in America I regretted not being able to follow its progress. I left that future to people like Hosea Ballou, Joseph Priestley, Benjamin Rush, and Thomas Starr King.

But from a distance I've been greatly surprised by the events of history. After a period of unprecedented growth, Universalism went into a decline in the mid-19th century, largely because other denominations began accepting a loving God as their deity, thus depriving us of our unique “market share,” as I believe you call it today. But fifty years ago, in 1961, the Universalist Church merged with the American Unitarian Association to create the Unitarian Universalist Association – though I wonder why it's not called the Universalist Unitarian Association.

In my day the two denominations did not get along very well. The Unitarians were mostly Boston Brahmans, graduates of Harvard and economically upper class and intellectual. And my Universalist brothers and sisters were from the small towns and farms of New England, North Carolina, Ohio and all across our small nation. The Unitarians prided themselves on their ability to reason and their God was a product of their rational minds. But Universalists affirmed love as our doctrine, and our deity was a God of love.

But we did have our commonalities, which apparently have grown over the years. It was said the Universalists believed that God was too good to damn men, and the Unitarians believed that men were too good to be damned. Apparently our merger has brought together the individuality and rationality of Unitarianism with the spirit and heart of Universalism.

And I must say, what I see happening in your churches today is much different than the Universalism of my day, and yet I see the similarities as well. Though your beliefs are more diverse than I never imagined, nevertheless you are spreading the good news that a universal love for all beings is our calling, and if we are not standing on the side of love in our world, then we fall short of that calling. Perhaps our difference is that the Universalists of my day worshiped God as love, and you worship love as your God.

I congratulate all of you for capturing the spirit and enthusiasm of Universalism 230 years after it first began in this land. And I leave you with this charge: “You may possess only a small light, but uncover it, let it shine, use it in order to bring more light and understanding to the hearts and minds of men and women. Give them not Hell, but hope and courage... And preach the kindness and everlasting love of God."

SERVICE PHOTOS

Sermon Resources:

• The Larger Hope: The First Century of the Universalist Church in America, 1770-1870, by Russell E. Miller, Unitarian Universalist Association, Boston, Mass.
• The Unitarians and the Universalists, by David Robinson, Greenwood Press, Westport, Conn.
• Universalism in America--A Documentary History, edited by Ernest Cassara, Beacon Press, Boston, MA.