“Go out into the highways and by-ways of America, your new country. Give the people, blanketed with a decaying and crumbling Calvinism, something of your new vision. 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. Do not push them deeper into their theological despair, but preach the kindness and everlasting love of God.” John Murray (attributed, see comments)
John Murray died on this day in 1815 at the age of 73. Murray is considered the founder of North American Universalism, at least as an organized religion. I’ve found much attractive about this nineteenth century spiritual leader, not the least for his wonderful autobiography which includes his personal account of his conversion to Universalism when he was a Methodist leader in England. He recounts in excruciating detail being bested in theological debate by a very young woman, how toward the end of that debate, he pulls out his watch, discovers he has a pressing engagement elsewhere, and departs. However as he tells us, slowly the seed planted in that debate germinates, and grows in his heart.
He would go on to become an eloquent and persuasive advocate for universal salvation, the claim that all will be reconciled to the divine.
Here I want to recount the miracle story associated with the founding of Universalism in America. Unitarian Universalists are short on miracle stories, as one might imagine. Rare as they are, I’m inclined to treasure the few that present. And Murray is the center of one of them.
At the time of the miracle he had suffered a number of reverses in his life. Murray’s wife and child had died. He ended up in debtor’s prison. Finally he decided to abandon preaching and sail to America to make a new life. Due to bad weather the ship he was on was stranded at Good Hope, New Jersey. While on land seeking provisions Murray encountered local farmer Thomas Potter who inquired whether Murray was the preacher of universal salvation he’d been praying that God would send? After denying briefly he was a preacher and a Universalist preacher, as well, Murray admitted it but said he can’t stay and preach as the boat needed to sail for New York. Potter replied Murray needed to occupy the pulpit of the small chapel on Potter’s farm, and that the wind would not allow him to sail until he did.
It didn’t.
He did.
And that was the first formal Universalist sermon preached on American shores.
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