Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical SketchesAdams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Religion
Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical Sketches
Adams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Universalism; Universalist Church -- Biography; Universalists -- Biography; Universalists -- United States -- History
Rev. WOODBURY M. FERNALD was for several years a prominent preacher
with the Universalists. He was born in Portsmouth, N. H., March 21,
1813, and died in Boston, Mass., Dec. 10, 1873. He was ordained at
Portsmouth, N. H., in 1836. In 1838 he was pastor at Cabotville (now
Chicopee), Mass. In 1840 and 1841 he was located at Newburyport, and
while there published a volume entitled "Universalism against
Partialism," an able statement of the contrast set forth. He was next
in Stoneham as pastor for three years. In 1854 he removed to Boston,
and becoming interested in the works of Swedenborg and the writings of
Andrew Jackson Davis, he was after a while ordained as a Swedenborgian
minister. He was so fascinated by the New Church doctrines as to
become alienated from his former associates and lost to their
ministry. He published, in 1854, a "Compendium of the Theological and
Spiritual Writings of Swedenborg," and in 1859, "God in His
Providence," in which he implicitly renounced the notion of "the
eternity of Hell," and put forth a Universalist view of human destiny,
turning Swedenborg's principles against the Seer's own conclusions,
and making those principles the ground of an assurance of Universal
Restoration. He published afterwards other works, evincing much
ability. His sincerity was never doubted.
Rev. CALEB PERIN MALLORY was a minister of the Universalist
faith in Canada during most of his life. He died at Huntingville,
P. Q., July 13, 1882, aged seventy-one.
He was born in Eaton, C. E. His early training was under the influence
of the theology after the kind taught by Calvin and Arminius. Being of
a thoughtful and studious disposition, however, he came to see in the
teachings of the New Testament strong and unmistakable evidences of
the Gospel of Universalism. When about thirty years old he appeared
before the public as an advocate of it. Rev. L. H. Tabor, who
officiated at the funeral, gave the following account:--
"As nearly as I can learn, he preached some three years in various
places to good acceptance, and was ordained at Glover, Vt., Sept.
19, 1843, and in just one year from the time of ordination (Sept.
19, 1844), was installed at the request of several brethren residing
in as many of the eastern townships over which he was installed. For
several years he preached regularly at Huntingville and other places
in the vicinity, and for over forty years had attended funerals and
weddings, baptizing children and adults as the disciples of Jesus,
the Saviour of the world. He was a Christian reformer, ready for
every good word and work. No one man could have been taken from that
community whose departure will be felt more. And when we saw the
multitude that gathered at his burial, with weeping eyes, we were
led to say,'Behold, how they loved him.' It was said, by good
judges, that there were a thousand people at his funeral, some
coming the distance of fifty miles.
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