Antiquarian Anabaptist

A Universalist preacher, who believed that no one would be excluded from heaven, held a series of meetings in a rural town. He was a gifted speaker and many people came to hear him. At the close of the meetings he announced, ” Now if you would desire, I would like to come each Sabbath evening and preach to you. I would like a response from this audience.”

No one responded. Finally he asked anyone who objected to speak.

Again there was a long silence. Finally an aged Quaker arose and said, “Friend, I have been listening to thee and thought I would say nothing, but thou hast insisted that someone speak. We don’t want thee because, if thy theory is correct, we have no need of preaching for all will be saved. And if thy theory is not correct we don’t want thee, because it is then a lie and we don’t want thee to preach lies to us.”

-Source unknown