The Immortality of the Soul by Dudley Marvin Canright

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jun 12, 1879

The Immortality of the Soul.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

BY ELD. D. M. CANRIGHT.

IN THE UNITED STATES.

It is in the United States that this doctrine is taking the deepest root and spreading the fastest.

In the early part of the present century, publications upon this subject began to make their appearance, and a few here and there embraced the doctrine of the mortality of the soul and the sleep of the dead.

In 1803, a church sprung up simultaneously in many parts of the United States, calling themselves Christians. Some call them Christians. They rejected the immortality of the soul, eternal misery, etc. Of them, the historian says: “They declared that the atonement was full; that the wicked at death were to be annihilated,” etc.; that is, at the second death. This, however, was not a prominent article of their faith; hence, at present, some of them hold to it and others do not. But, as many of their ministers publicly advocated these views, and a large share of their members believed them, it served to arouse discussion upon the point.

In 1808, Rev. Elias Smith, in the “first religious newspaper published in the world,” viz., The Herald of Gospel Liberty, issued at Portsmouth, N. H., defended the view that immortality was God’s free gift bestowed on the good alone through Christ at their resurrection, all the wicked utterly perishing and truly dying in the day of the second death. Thousands of his followers in the Christian connection held the same opinion.

Aaron Bancroft, D. D., an author and able Unitarian minister at Worcester, Mass., in sermons published in 1828, advocated endless life alone through Christ. The same year J. Sellon, in a work of 106 pages, issued at Canandaigua, N. Y., maintained the extinction of the wicked. Walter Balfour, in 1829, at Charlestown, Mass., published a book advocating the sleep of the dead.

Calvin French, a deacon of the Congregational church, and afterward a minister, published a pamphlet of 54 pages at Boston, 1842, in which he defended immortality as coming only through Christ, the annihilation of the wicked, and the sleep of the dead.

Very many of the denomination called “Disciples,” or “Campbellites,” believe in the sleep of the dead and the destruction of the wicked, though generally, as a denomination, they do not hold these sentiments.

In the providence of God, this subject was brought prominently before the Advent people in the great religious movement of 1840–44.

In 1837, Mr. Geo. Storrs, a Methodist preacher, first had his mind called to this subject by reading a pamphlet put out by Henry Grew, of Philadelphia. After thoroughly studying the subject for some three or four years, he adopted the doctrine of the mortality of man, the destruction of the wicked, etc. In 1841, he published “Three Letters” to prominent ministers, in which he advocated his views of this doctrine. In 1842, he preached to a congregation in Albany, N. Y., “Six Sermons” on this subject. These he soon after published, and scattered extensively. In the fall of 1842 he embraced the doctrine of the soon coming of Christ, as taught by Adventists. The next year he traveled and preached very extensively among them, and freely distributed his “Six Sermons” among his hearers. His views met with much opposition at first; yet some prominent men embraced them. In 1843, he started the Bible Examiner, as an occasional issue, mainly for the purpose of disseminating light upon these subjects. Later, it was made a monthly.

After 1844, the Adventists almost as an entire body embraced the doctrine of the mortality of the soul, the unconscious state of the dead, and the final annihilation of the wicked. Those who did not embrace these views were left as a separate party, which has since dwindled to very small proportions, and they have nearly lost their position as Adventists.

About this time Eld. Jacob Blaine, Baptist minister, Buffalo, N. Y., put out a book of 117 pages, entitled, “Death not Life.” This had a wide and rapid sale, soon running through many editions. The arguments being very plain and pointed, it made a powerful impression on the minds of thousands. H. L. Hastings, of Boston, Mass., also dealt some heavy blows against the doctrine of eternal torment. He wrote several stirring pamphlets upon the subject, which were extensively read.

Mention should be made in this connection of the writings of the late Prof. C. F. Hudson, of Cambridge, Mass. During the latter part of his life he became interested in the subjects of future punishment, nature of man, etc., and traveled extensively, visiting libraries, and consulting with literary men; and some of the fruits of his research were given to the world in an elaborate volume entitled, “Debt and Grace, as related to the Doctrine of a Future Life;” which was followed by “Christ our Life: The Scriptural Argument for Immortality through Christ Alone;” and some minor works. “Debt and Grace” is a volume of several hundred pages; and “Christ our Life” is an able work of 164 pages.

During the last thirty years so many ministers and scholars have written pamphlets and volumes advocating the scriptural view of the subject, that we could not undertake to name them all.

In answer to inquiries upon the extent of the spread of these views, Eld. D. T. Taylor writes the author thus: “In 1860 I made a partial census of the beliefs of the so-called Adventist ministers and others on these questions. I collected the names and addresses of 600 ministers residing in nineteen different States, and in Nova Scotia and Canada. I estimated the whole number of Advent believers under the ministry and influence of these 600 clergymen to be 54,000, and the population of the community generally attending Adventist meetings as numbering 150,000. Since this census and estimate was made—now eighteen years ago—the total number of preachers has increased, I judge, to over 1,000, and I think the believers have doubled. . . . Thousands and tens of thousands in the denominations also hold the doctrine in question.”

We consider the above estimate too low rather than too high.

Prominent among those advocating this doctrine may be mentioned Prof. Chas. L. Ives, M. D., late of Yale College, and author of “Bible Doctrine of the Soul,” an able and scholarly work of several hundred pages; Rev. J. H. Pettengill, M. A., author of a masterly volume of 285 pages, called “The Theological Tri-lemma;” Rev. John Miller, of Princeton College, and Rev. A. G. Pease, of Rutland, Vt., both of whom have written able works defending the doctrine of immortality alone through Christ; Eld. J. H. Whitmore, a clear and forcible writer, the author of a book entitled, “Immortality.” Eld. D. T. Taylor, of Rouse’s Point, N. Y., has written many powerful articles on the subject. Eld. Uriah Smith, for a quarter of a century editor of THE ADVENT REVIEW, Battle Creek, Mich., and author of several volumes, has cast a heavy influence on the right side of the question. Besides articles and small tracts, he has written an excellent book on this subject, entitled, “Man’s Nature and Destiny.” Eld. J. N. Andrews, a critical scholar and a deep reasoner, the editor of a French paper, has written several tracts and many telling articles upon the subject. The following, among many other Seventh-day Adventist ministers, have publicly preached this doctrine through the length and breadth of the United States: Elders James White, J. H. Waggoner, J. N. Loughborough, Geo. I. Butler, S. N. Haskell, W. H. Littlejohn, and M. E. Cornell. Of the other bodies of Adventists who have preached the same doctrine, Elders John Couch, O. R. Fassett, J. V. Himes, Edwin Burnham, Albion Ross, A. A. Phelps, H. F. Carpenter, Geo. R. Kramer, and C. R. Hendricks, are among the most noted.

The Seventh-day Adventists have twenty organized Conferences, extending from Maine on the East to Washington Territory on the West, and from Minnesota on the North to Texas on the South. They have about 275 preachers, 600 churches, and about 20,000 believers. They publish nine periodicals. Of these, one is in French, one in Swedish, and two are in Danish. Their list of publications now runs up to about two hundred, embracing those from a volume of 500 pages down to a penny tract. They have foreign missions in England, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Egypt. They have a fine college at Battle Creek, Mich., with an attendance of over 300 students. At the same place they have the largest and best conducted Sanitarium in America. Their publishing facilities are very great, their house at Battle Creek having a capital of over $100,000. Some weeks they send out over 300 bushels of printed matter, which is scattered to all parts of the world.

The great body of the Adventists having zealously embraced these views about 1844, as above stated, they immediately began to publish them with great energy. Numerous small tracts, many pamphlets, and finally bound volumes, were soon scattered all over the country, like leaves in autumn. Believers were raised up everywhere, and among them many able speakers and writers. This subject was preached upon, debated both orally and through the papers, and numerous churches were raised up in all parts of the United States largely upon this one issue.

In this country alone there are now issued about a dozen periodicals which advocate this doctrine. The leading ones are: REVIEW AND HERALD, Battle Creek, Mich.; The Signs of the Times, Oakland, Cal.; The World’s Crisis, Boston, Mass.; The Bible Banner, 506 Minor St., Philadelphia, Penn.; The Restitution, Chicago, Ill.; the Herald of Life, New York; Bible Examiner, New York; The Pictorial, (Danish) Battle Creek, Mich.; The Herald, (Swedish), same place. Nor is this question confined to the Adventists; but some in every denomination are receiving these views. On this point, the Methodist Home Journal, for March 26, 1870, says: “There are many candid minds in the churches that are more or less unsettled, and honestly and eagerly seeking for new measures of light upon the question.” In 1862, Prof. Hudson reported over forty evangelical clergymen of the great denominations, among his personal acquaintances, who held these views.

For fourteen years the author has traveled and preached upon this subject, from Maine to California, and from Minnesota to Alabama. In every community he has found persons, both in the church and out, who say that they have never been able to believe the popular doctrine on this question.

But, as might be expected, these attacks upon the old doctrine of an immortal soul and an endless hell have brought out numerous publications on the opposite side, advocating the “orthodox” theory of the immortality of the soul, and eternal misery of the wicked. Evidently this is becoming a leading theological question of the times. Bare assertions will no longer be taken as satisfactory upon it: the people demand proof and investigation. Debates upon it between different ministers are of almost weekly occurrence. The horrid descriptions of hell and the eternal torments of the damned, which were once so shockingly common, are now seldom heard from any pulpit.

During the last ten years it has become no uncommon thing to hear of ministers in the different orthodox denominations who have espoused these views, and have come out boldly to advocate them. Indeed, scarcely a month passes without our attention being called to some case like this. Hundreds of cases among the laity are noted every year. Probably no less than one hundred churches have been raised up within the last year of those who have accepted these views. Among the believers in this doctrine in the United States there are able scholars, professors in colleges, principals in academies, and other influential men. From these, critical and learned books are sent forth answering all the objections that can be raised to the doctrine both from Scripture and philosophy.

In the fall and winter of 1877, this doctrine was brought very prominently before the religious world. A couple of orthodox ministers in different places in New England came out and publicly rejected the doctrine of the immortality of the soul and eternal torment. This created great excitement in certain circles. Both the religious and the secular press took it up and commented upon it, which called universal attention to the subject. Then ministers of all denominations in nearly every city in the United States almost simultaneously preached upon the subject of “Hell.” The New York Herald stated that on one Sunday, in New York City alone, one hundred ministers preached upon that subject.

On the whole, it seems evident that, in the providence of God, the time has fully come for the fables and errors connected with this important question to be exposed, and for the glorious truth of the Bible once more to shine out.

This age of free thought, of general intelligence, and of careful scientific inquiry, is certain death to the old heathen dogma of an eternal hell of burning fire and tortures for the wicked, which flourished so triumphantly during the Dark Ages. Even those who still claim to hold to the old theory of an endless hell have so modified it that its old friends of two centuries ago would not recognize it; Of late years the popular ministry say but little about hell torments any way, and when

they do, it is more to explain them away than to advocate them. In most of the orthodox churches members are no longer expelled for renouncing the doctrine of eternal torment.

With all the foregoing facts before us, it is evident that a great theological revolution upon this doctrine has already begun. May the providence of a merciful God speed it on to a rapid and happy consummation.