Everett Emmett Guild

Everett Emmett Guild, born in 1811 in Delhi, New York, was a Universalist minister and controversialist. He prepared for the ministry under Stephen R. Smith, a prominent Universalist preacher in central New York, and gained a reputation as a fair-minded public debater on the question of universal salvation. His principal work, The Universalist's Book of Reference, first issued in 1844, gathered the standard arguments and scripture texts on both sides of the dispute between Universalists and "limitarians" and passed through many editions as a handbook for preachers and debaters.

A one-volume arsenal for the Universalist in argument: 'all the principal facts and arguments' of the controversy, systematically arranged — the proof-texts on both sides with their explanations, the stock objections with their answers, the history and statistics of the denomination. Guild designed it for the layperson confronted by a hostile neighbor or minister, and its long publishing life (it was still being reprinted fifty years later) testifies to how often it was needed.

(Note: this summary was automatically generated and may be inaccurate.)