But that did happen back in September of 1873 when the Rev. Peter Russell, of Des Moines, representing the Disciples of Christ (Christian), and the Rev. Benjamin F. Snook, of Marion, representing the Universalists, squared off at First Christian Church, then located on South Main Street.
I've not found out anything about the Rev. Mr. Russell, but the Rev. Mr. Snook (1835-1902), left, was well known in Chariton as a missionary for his denomination and preached with some regularity on Sundays at the courthouse during the early 1870s. He was a convert from the Seventh-day Adventist school of thought.
The Disciples still are with us, as are the Adventists, but the Universalists --- once with congregations scattered across Iowa --- merged with Unitarians to form the Unitarian Universalist Association of America in 1961.
Here's The Chariton Patriot's report on the series of debates which began on a Tuesday evening and continued through Friday. If the more complete report promised at the end of the story ever were written, I failed to find it.
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The theological Discussion between Rev. Snook, Universalist, and Russell, Christian, on the question of the Endlessness of Future Punishment, of which notice was given in the Patriot, closed on Friday night last; and as far as we can judge from hearing a portion of the debate, and from others, it resulted in a pretty complete victory for Mr. Snook. There may be a few of the members of the Christian church who did not come to this conclusion, but we have not heard a single individual who could properly be considered an impartial hearer, but concedes this fact. The arguments were confined to the teachings of the Scriptures; the question being substantially, "Do, or do not, the Scriptures teach that all men who die in their sins suffer endless punishment?"
The discussion began on Tuesday evening, and lasted until Friday evening, there being a part of the time three sessions each day, and was attended by a large audience of attentive listeners; but the only wonder to us was that there should have been any empty seats at the time. We are no theologian, but taking a kind of practical view of the matter it seems to us that this is a question of considerable interest to everybody. The Scriptures being generally believed to be the word of God, it occurs to us that it is a matter of very great importance to know pretty definitely what they do teach on this subject.
But least we trespass upon the province of the pulpit, we will not enlarge upon this thought, but will say that both of the disputants in the discussion showed themselves well posted in regard to their respective doctrines and are able debaters. Many sharp points were made on both sides, and although the discussion was conducted in a very gentlemanly manner, yet sufficient repartee was indulged into make it very interesting, saying nothing of the gravity of the subject. Mr. Russell thought probably that Mr. Snook taught as he did because he was personally very much interested in the matter while Mr. Snook did not know but that the position of his opponent might be accounted for on the principle that "a man generally preaches just about as much hell as he has in him."
Mr. Snook's strong points were based on the attributes of God,, such as goodness, love, etc., taught in the bible, and on the nature and object of punishment; claiming that endless punishment was an absurdity, from the fact that punishment was always a means and not an end and therefore could not be unlimited in its duration.
On the other hand, Russell relied on certain texts as teaching clearly to his mind the endless nature of the doom of the wicked, and felt very sure that his proofs were unanswerable in this respect. But not having heard the whole of the discussion, we are unable to give anything like a synopsis of the points made, but a gentleman who did has promised to prepare something of this kind, and if he does so we will give it for the benefit of those who were not able to be present and hear for themselves. Mr. Russell lives at Des Moines and Mr. Snook, at Marion, in this state and are representative men of their sects.
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