“I Guess You Can Come”

– We heard a good story a day or two ago, which we tell, mauger the risk of its being second-handed; and it is too good a story to offend even those whose sect it hits. Some good lady, at the outset of Universalism, conceived a holy horror at the blasphemy of its bold supporters in pretending that all would be saved. It is preposterous, outrageous; in the spirit that filled her, she wouldn’t have a man in her house who believed in the abominable doctrine. She kept a boarding house and applied a test of belief to all who sought to obtain board. The first who offered was a sea captain, and she began with –

• “Do you believe that all the world will be saved?”

• “No, madam,” said he.

• “How many do you think will be damned?” continued she.

• “Oh!” said he, “I don’t know – perhaps a million.”

• “Well,” the old lady remarked, in tone of content, “well that’s better than none at all; I guess you can come.” –

Lynn’s Reporter.