APPENDIX.*

THE POWER OF DIVINE GRACE ILLUSTRATED IN THE SURPRISING CONVERSION OF A PROFESSED UNIVERSALIST.

THE death of Mr. NATHAN DYER is one of those striking instances of mortality which we record with more than ordinary interest. The grief which this bereavement has inflicted upon a numerous circle of surviving friends, is greatly mitigated, as it clearly illustrates the efficacious power of divine grace in fitting the soul for a happy transition from its state of probation to its eternal destiny.

Mr. Dyer was born in Steuben, Washington County, Maine, in 1808. He was a young gentleman of respectable connexions, good natural judgment and disposition, and a more than ordinary thirst for mental improvement. His advantages for literary culture were quite limited; but having a disposition to improve by those he enjoyed, he acquired a respectable common education. He was the subject of early religious impressions. But these impressions of childhood and youth soon wore away, in consequence of his becoming associsted with those evil men who corrupt and destroy the young by thrusting into their hands books and newspapers which are artfully designed to unhinge their moral and religious principles,

* While delivering the preceding Lectures, the subject of this narrative was called to exchange worlds. The circumstances of his last painful illness were peculiarly interesting, as they illustrate the power of sovereign grace in the conversion of the sinner. These circumstances I related in the sermon which I preached at his funeral, and also in the delivery of these Lectures. I have now thrown the remarks then made into this appendix, hoping they may prove interesting to the friends of religion.--W. C. RIDER.

and by assailing the great truths of religion with sophistry and ridicule. At twenty-one he became a confirmed sceptic. He now put away the subject of religion with entire thoughtlessness and with fixed aversion; and exhausted all the resources of his wit, ridicule, and argument to disprove the validity and divine authenticity of portions of the holy scriptures. And by endeavoring to bring into contempt a part of the Bible, he aimed to destroy the authority of the whole. How long he persisted in questioning the sacred character of the scriptures, I am not able to state with precision. On reflection, however, he came to the conclusion that the Bible, which contained the very best system of morals, and the most excellent institutions, and bore so many signatures of divinity, must be of divine authenticity and inspiration.

But he foresaw that if he received the Bible as the word of God, he must admit the doctrine of eternal rewards and punishments. To the reception of this truth his heart was barred. And owing to the stratagems of Satan, the spiritual adversary; the want of a real hold of Christianity in its substantial blessings; the pride of reason the fruit of man's corrupt and depraved nature; and the strength of youthful passions, he was led to enquire if he could not be a believer in Christianity, and yet deny all that he deemed offensive in ita doctrines and uncomfortable in its restraints.

That modification of Christianity of recent date which existed under the name of Universalism, was at this time preached in the place of his residence. He listened to the pleasing sound of "peace, peace," for a few sabbaths, and became prepossessed in favor of this new-fangled divinity. It announced to him that eternal felicity was sure to him and to the whole human family, though they should walk in the imaginations of their own hearts to add drunkenness to thirst.

The scheme appeared exactly suited to the prevailing inclination of his heart, and coincided with his reigning views and pursuits. It promised him impunity in the paths of vice, and confirmed his wavering hopes and feeble prospects of future happiness. After listening to the principles and preaching of Universalists for a few weeks,

he declared himself fully established in their doctrine. He soon became a firm and decided advocate for Universalism, anxious to banish the scruples of more cautious minds, and to carry them at all lengths with his own. And he was too successful. Yet he was at times led to ponder the paths of his feet, and to examine the foundation of his hope for eternity. Conscience, awakened from her lethargy, would condemn him for his impiety and immorality, and lash him with her scorpion stings. She would at times prevent him from entirely believing his own lie. When he was the most confident in his belief of the final salvation of all men, he was afraid to read any author who treated the doctrine of future punishment in a calm and searching manner. And he did not like to read those passages of scripture which seemed to imply or express that doctrine. They made him uneasy. Conscience would reprove him, and he found it difficult to silence her remonstrances.

He appears, however, to have taken no small pains to rid himself of his scruples. His very fears and misgivings, with regard to the truth of his system, led him to cling to it with greater tenacity. His wicked life threw his mind under a bias towards the hope that though he should rejoice in his youth, and let his heart cheer him in the days of his youth, and walk in the ways of his heart and in the sight of his eyes, yet for these things God would not bring him into judgment. And then his belief confirmed its dominion in the hope which it imparted to his impenitent life. And as his confidence in Universalism increased, his hatred and opposition to experimental religion appeared the more virulent. He considered holiness and piety as empty names, and repentance, faith, humility and devotion as hypocricy, pride, and self-righteousness. He habitually treated vital religion with scorn, ridicule and blasphemy, and called its professors bigots, fanatics, and hypocrites. Nor did he stop here. As his principles had a tendency to destroy all moral distinction between virtue and vice, so did his practice. He advocated that all would be happy after death whose life had been one continual development of a depraved heart, evil dispositions, and impure conversation; and he acted upon his principles. The whole of his conduct

illustrates the depravity of fallen creatures. Ye advocates of human innocence and purity, behold your doctrine exemplified in the subject of this narrative!-conceived in sin; shapen in iniquity; every imagination of the thoughts of the heart, only evil, continually; and the whole life one descending progress in wickedness! And such would all the posterity of the first parents of our race be, if left to themselves, and deprived of the restraints of divine providence. But the disease which terminated his life accomplishing its work by a very gradual process, gave him an opportunity to investigate the subject of his actual preparation for the solemnities of a dying hour. Yet he remained firm and unmoved in his opinion that he had nothing to fear from the approach of death. His mind was perfectly at rest. He had nothing on his conscience. Having lived in the constant neglect of God and his worship, he was now drawing near the borders of the grave carelessly indifferent to the concerns of his immortal soul.

He had at this time no intercourse with persons who publicly professed experimental religion, nor did he request it. He manifested a strong unwillingness to have any pious person enter his room and converse with him on experimental religion. By the request of a pious relative of his, the Rev. Mr. S. was called to converse and pray with him; but he would not suffer this minister to enter his sick bed-room. His reply, when asked if he was willing that Mr. S. should visit and converse with him, was, "Tell him I don't want to see him nor have him say any thing to me. My mind is composed-I don't want to have it disturbed."

The stupid insensibility and impenitency of his mind seemed to keep pace with the rapidity of his decline. Though rapidly drawing near the verge of death and eternity, yet he retained his confidence and seemed about to expire in the full belief of his favorite delusion. But at the near approach of death, his delusion vanished as a dream when one awaketh. The opening scenes of eternity revealed to him the unsubstantial character of his foundation, and annihilated his fallacious hope. He saw that he had erected the fabric of his hope upon the sand of error instead of the rock of

truth, and that it would not bear the trial. He became alarmed in view of his condition. A conviction of his sinfulness and an apprehension of "sudden destruction without remedy," swept away all the proofs which he had sedulously collected in favor of Universalism. He became fully convinced that the doctrine of endless punishment was no fiction, but a truth of momentous import, whether he believed it to be so or not; and that by shutting his eyes against it, would by no means diminish but greatly augment his danger.

About this time, a Mr. P. visited him and made some enquiries respecting his views and feelings in prospect of the near approach of death. He replied, "I am conscious that I must soon die, and I feel that I am not prepared for death." Mr. P. knowing what had been his former belief, remarked that his former associates in sin and in error who had witnessed his confidence in his delusion, would now say that he had been frightened by the selfish and revengeful principles of the Orthodox. To this he replied, "No person has said any thing to me about the concerns of my soul, or the subject of religion. The reflections of my own mind have convinced me that I am a sinner, undone, and that dying in my sins, an eternal hell is my portion."

Sensible that he could not live, and that he was unprepared to die, he sent an earnest and express message to me to come over and see him. I hastened to the chamber of the sick man, and found him in an agony of terror, deepening every moment with death in immediate view, and an awful eternity before him. As soon as I had seated myself by his bedside, he began to express his views and feelings. With a countenance that spoke more forcibly than even his own words, he looked upon me and said, "How glad I am you have taken pains to come over and see me I was afraid that I should not see you before I should die. I have been quite anxious for some time, to see you; for it has appeared to me that you could tell me what I must do to be saved. I have in years past based my hope of heaven and happiness upon the doctrine of universal salvation; and I have been entirely bljaded in my delusion till of late. But I now find that it is a scheme of the most licentious and danger

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