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received Him to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” 22. “Must one be a church member before he can be a Christian?” Most cer tainly not. One should not be a church member until after he has become a Chris tian. 23. “Have you ever made a special study of church creeds?” I have. I sup pose a more thorough study of them than •you have ever made. The wording of your questions seems to betray an ignorance of the creeds of the church. 24. “Do you know the chief doctrines of the different churches?” I do. I sus pect you don’t. “Name three reasons why you are a mem ber of your chosen church.” ' I have no chosen church. I do not believe in sec tarianism. I do not believe that there is any essential difference between the dif ferent evangelical churches. I would as soon belong to one as to another. “Have you ever read any Universalist literature ?” I have a good deal. I have sometimes regretted that I have wasted time in reading so much. “What is your chief objection to Univer- salism ?” (1) That it is unbiblical. It con tradicts the teaching of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. (2) It is impotent. I find that the Universalist church is doing prac tically ljothing for the salvation of the lost. I find that Universalist churches have a con stant tendency to die out for lack of spirit ual life. (3) Most of the Universalists whom I have known have been unspiritual men and women, and I have met a great many Universalists who have been Univer salists simply as an excuse for a careless and oftentimes a positively sinful life. VI think I ought to add, I was once a Universalist myself, in the sense of believ ing in a universal restoration. I did believe in hell, but not in an endless hell, but I was not so bigoted as to think that any one who did not agree with me in this must be an ignoramus. I found that my views which I held very tenaciously at the time, would not stand the test of rigid examination in the light of Scripture and reason, therefore I gave that up, but I do not think that every Universalist is an ignoramus, or a fool, or insincere. I leave that, kind of bigotry to a certain type of Universalists. Now let me ask you some questions, and as I have frankly answered yours, is it too much to expect a frank reply from you to mine? 1. Have you surrendered your will abso
lutely to God, in a definite act of sur render? 2. Have you put away every known sin? 3. Are you a man of prayer? Do you spend on the average at least fifteen min utes a day m definite prayer to God ? 4. Have you ever read the entire Bible through prayerfully and carefully? 5. Have you ever read any large and scholarly work on church history, such as Neanders and Hagenbach’s? 6. Have you taken a classical course taken a degree in arts? 7. Have you taken a thorough theo- kigical course and taken the degree of 8. Have you ever read the Greek Testa ment through? 9. Are you a soul winner? , 10-, Have you ever led at least ten drunkards in a year to a definite, renuncia tion of their sin and a definite acceptance of Jesus Christ ? . 11. Of how many churches have you been pastor? J 12 How many of these churches have torate? raembershiP under your pas- 13. Have you ever had one hundred accessions to your church of men and women who have been brought out of the world into an earnest Christian life? th eH oST p iriU 6Ver M baPtiZed with In conclusion may I be permitted to say that as I have written more than a dozen books on theological subjects, and as these books have gone up into the hundreds of thousands and have been translated into rrench, German, Spanish, Portugese, JJanish, Swedish, Norwegian, several Chinese languages and several Indian lan guages, it would hardly have seemed to have been necessary for you to have gotten your ideas of whaf I teach from the news papers, nor even by writing me a list of questions. You might have consulted the b° oks- i ,you would like to know in full what I believe on some of the questions I haye answered, I would refer you to my book, What the Bible Teaches.” Sincerely y°urs- R. A. T orrey ," The Universalist minister made no reply to the letter. Evidently, while he was per fectly willing to ask questions of others, he was not in a position to answer questions himself.
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