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1811 Universalist Hymn Book
New Hymn-Book for the Use of the Free Church
By Abel Morgan Sarjent
Printed in New York in 1811, this Universalist hymn-book (point 9 explicitly says “the salvation from this death is an universal salvation”) begins with eight pages of sermonizing, including “Theology vs. Mythology: In Vindication of Genuine Christianity,” and “Of Slavish and Free Worship.”
The New Hymn-Book has at least four textual touchpoints with the Book of Mormon:
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No hell, no devil, no immortal death: “We firmly believe that the doctrine of an immortal hell, of an immortal devil, and an immortal death is absurd in the extreme, and that Eternity is the habitation of God and upright ones only.” See “There is no hell … I am no devil, for there is none.” See also Alma 54:22 where the wicked Ammoron seemingly believes the same thing.
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“He that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil.” (3 Ne. 29:11) Sarjent writes “all enmity is of the devil, and contrary to the nature of God.”
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“All enmity is of the devil and contrary to the nature of God. ” Alma 41:11 uses this language in an anti-Universalist context, as well as “contrary to the nature of happiness” (Alma 41:11). Sarjent also writes “8. That misery and death, present or future, being contrary to the nature of divine love and friendship. … did not … proceed from God.”
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Hymn #13, p. 17, has the title and first line “Redeeming love invites a song,” compare Sing redeeming love.
If one begins researching any of these phrases or ideas, one eventually ends up discovering the same 1811 work. This doesn’t prove anything definitively, but it makes coincidence much more difficult and a connection much more plausible, especially since Joseph Smith Sr. (Joseph’s father) was a Universalist in the 1810’s when Joseph was a child.
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