A CLOUD OF WITNESSES CONTAINING Selections from the Writings of Poets and Other Literary and Celebrated Persons, Expressive of the Universal Triumph of Good Over Evil. By J. W. HANSON, A. M., D. D. One far-off divine event, To which the whole creation moves. TENNYSON. Out of the Strong came forth Sweetness. BIBLE. CHICAGO: THE STAR AND COVENANT OFFICE. 1880. Poets and philosophers, writers and thinkers, those who have weighed the problem of human destiny, whatever may have been their educational bias, or religious proclivities, have often risen to a more or less distinct conception of the thought that evil is transient and good eternal, and that the Author of man will ultimately perfect his chief work. The deliverance of the whole human family from sin and sorrow, its final holiness and happiness, has been the thought of multitudes, even when the prevailing doctrines around them were wholly hostile; and, in and out of Christendom, the great thought has scarcely ever been without witnesses among men. It was distinctly revealed by Jesus, in his Gospel, and forms the burthen of prophet and apostle, bard and seer, from Genesis to Revelation, and it has also brightened the pages of literature in every age of the world, since man possessed a literature. Twenty-five years ago the compiler of this volume published a little work entitled "Witnesses to the Truth, containing Passages from Distinguished Authors, developing the great Truth of Universal Salvation." The subsequent quarter-century has added immensely to the testimony that men of genius have given in attestation to the sublimest fact in human history that has ever come to ✦ human knowledge, and the further reading of the compiler has enabled him to adduce authors whose words were then unknown to him, some of whom are among the best who have ever written. Such men as COLERIDGE, SOUTHEY, THOMPSON, and TENNYSON are in accord with DAVID, JOHN, PAUL, and that OTHER, who "spake as never man spake." The Compiler will be under obligations to any reader of these pages who shall direct him to authors not named in this volume, and their testimony will be added in subsequent editions. CHICAGO, NOVEMBER, 1880. |