Chapter XIX: SKETCHES OF MINISTERS.--continued (2)

Among the published works of Dr. Sawyer are his Letters to Dr. W. C. Brownlee and to Rev. Stephen Remington in review of their Lectures against Universalism; the Occasional Sermon delivered before the United States Convention of Universalists in New York, September, 1841; "Endless Punishment, its Origin and Grounds Examined, with other discourses," 1845; Review of Rev. E. F. Hatfield's "Universalism as it is," 1841; Two Discussions with Rev. Isaac Wescott on Universal Salvation; "Who is Our God? The Son or the Father?" a Review of Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, 1859; a preface to the Philadelphia edition of Petitpierre on "Divine Goodness," in 1843; "Endless Punishment in the Very Words of Its Advocates," Boston, 1879; an article in the North American Review, one of a series on the subject of Endless Punishment, in the March and April numbers of 1878. Besides the Occasional Sermon already noted, he has preached two others before the United States Convention, one in Middletown, Conn., and the other at Rochester, N. Y., in 1876. From the beginning Dr. Sawyer has taken a deep interest in the literature of Universalism. He has written much for the "Quarterly" and for the other church periodicals. He was instrumental in originating the Universalist Historical Society, which has now a very valuable library at Tufts College.

Dr. Sawyer has been an incessant and faithful toiler; and in all his work, whether as preacher or teacher, has sought the promotion of the Gospel of Universal Grace. His adherence to the work and advancement of the Universalist Church has been steady and unfaltering, and his defence of the Christian Revelation as an authoritative dispensation from Heaven through Jesus Christ, clear and unequivocal, in admirable contrast with the flippant rationalism and scepticism which have in too many instances found expression under the names of "Liberal Christianity" and "Free Religion."

There is a church edifice in New York city in 127th Street, near Lexington Avenue, which represents the Second Universalist Society of New York, organized in 1828. It was completed two years ago, and is called the "Sawyer Memorial Church."

Among the older living ministers who have made themselves specially and constantly useful in the Universalist Church during the last half-century, no one is deserving of more grateful notice than Rev. THOMAS BALDWIN THAYER, D. D. He was born in Boston, Sept. 10, 1812. Having received the usual rudimentary training and experience of boyhood, he successively passed through the grammar schools of his native city, and at an early period in youth he entered the Latin school under the direction of Mr. B. A. Gould. The young student had testimonials that his diligence was observed with marked approval. He entered college at Cambridge, where by permission he was to pursue his studies for the first year, without college rooms, under the tutorship of Mr. F. P. Leverett, the distinguished author of the Latin lexicon. For certain reasons he was induced at the end of his first year to abandon a collegiate course, and from the duties of a college student he very soon entered the Hawes Grammar-school in the capacity of an assistant. Soon after this, Mr. Leverett, resigning his position as principal of the Latin School in Boston, opened a private institution, mainly with a view to prepare students for college, and invited his former pupil to become his assistant, which invitation Mr. Thayer accepted. It was while connected with this school that his purpose to devote himself to the work of the ministry was formed.

His first engagement to preach was with the Universalist Society in South Dedham (now Norwood), where he supplied the pulpit for several months. This made his work quite arduous. His duties in his school and those in the growing parish kept him constantly and closely employed. In June, 1832, Mr. Thayer received Letters of Fellowship from the Boston Association, and was ordained by the same body in the following December. In April, 1833, he accepted an invitation from the First Universalist Society in Lowell, and entered upon a pastorate there, which he kept for twelve years. While in this city, as another has written:--

"Encouraged by the large congregations which regularly attended on
his preaching, he was moved to consider whether it were not possible
to meet the inquiring spirit of the people by a course of sermons
under circumstances which would give opportunity to present the
leading doctrines of Universalism to a larger number of persons than
could be accommodated in a church. This thought was communicated to
some of the leading members of the society, and after due
consultation, followed by prompt action, it led to the experiment of
a series of sermons in the capacious City Hall. The immense room was
filled with attentive hearers throughout the entire course. He then
proposed that, in conjunction with his own labors in the church,
regular preaching should be held four or five Sundays in the City
Hall, and that a subscription of fifty cents from each person
friendly to the project should defray the expenses incident thereto.
Rev. J. G. Adams was engaged to supply the specified time. The
result was that to this day the meetings have never been
discontinued. The germ was originated, which, under the ministry of
Rev. Zenas Thompson, developed into the Second Society, now
worshipping in the beautiful edifice on Lowell Street."[54]

From Lowell Mr. Thayer removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1845. His six years in this city were years of great usefulness to his church and beyond its limits. He connected himself with the Odd Fellows, and became editor of the "Golden Rule," a paper published in the interest of the fraternity. In 1847 he gave a series of lectures on "Social Progress," which were reported in part for the N. Y. "Tribune," as also a series of lectures on the "Dangers of City Life," especially in reference to young men. He was active in advocating social reform, the efforts for juvenile vagrants, and for the moral elevation of the poor.

Dr. Thayer has remarkable qualifications for a Christian minister, teacher, pastor, and writer. His sermons are always alive with thought, easily and earnestly delivered, doctrinally strong and clear, practically pointed, and plain; a mixture often of forcible _preaching_ (not reading) from manuscript, and freest extemporaneous outpouring, sweet and fresh with the heavenly fragrance of the Gospel. In his Scripture readings at the opening of the church service, he is usually very acceptable to the hearers, interspersing the reading with explanatory words and brief practical inferences.

Dr. Thayer is well known as an author. In the early days of his ministry he published a volume entitled "Christianity against Infidelity," an able and a timely offering to the public,--a strong and candid appeal to the reader in behalf of the Christian Gospel from the Universalist standpoint. The work was some years afterwards enlarged, embracing the objections to historical Christianity by Strauss and Renan, and replies to them. A republication of this work would be timely now, in this season of theological thought, of religious drifting and doubt, of indifference and scepticism. His "Theology of Universalism" is a work of great merit, as also his admirable volume "Over the River." They deserve a place in the library of every minister, and should find a home in every Universalist family.

His most valuable work, however, has been done as editor of the "Universalist Quarterly." His qualifications for this service are striking. In addition to the able discussions in the publications from the pens of other authors, the department containing the editor's outlook into the religious world, his notes and comments on the times, and his discriminating notices of new publications, is of itself a rich and welcome entertainment to all who are familiar with the pages of the Quarterly, a review reflecting great honor upon the Universalist Church, and which the Universalist fraternity cannot afford to lose or neglect.

After closing his ministry in Brooklyn, Dr. Thayer had a second pastorate in Lowell with his old society, during which a severe calamity came to him. He was thrown from a carriage by a frightened horse, and so badly injured that for some time his survival seemed very doubtful. His many friends were deeply anxious, and the strain upon his physical system was intense. But through all this terrible sorrow his faith and hope sustained and inspired him, and the lessons of his sickness and Christian endurance were to many souls more impressive than any they had ever received from his pulpit ministrations. It was a cheering event to hosts of friends that he was gradually restored to the calling he so much loved, though with the effects of the accident upon him which must go with him through life. He afterwards removed to Boston, and was for a few years the much-esteemed pastor of the Shawmut Universalist Church in this city. Since his resignation there he has frequently supplied pulpits in the vicinity of Boston, always to great acceptance. At the present time he is engaged principally in his work with the pen.

Notwithstanding the unquestionable qualifications of Dr. Thayer as a public speaker, he is usually inclined to distrust himself, but no one of our ministers, when called upon to present any question of importance at the public assemblings of the church, is more acceptable than he. His lively musical notes of Christian truth and earnestness are sure to awaken a response in the souls of the listeners.

Rev. WILLIAM STEVENS BALCH, of Elgin, Ill., is one of the oldest of the Universalist ministers now in active service. He was born in Andover, Vt., April 13, 1806. He received fellowship as a minister, of the General Convention at Saratoga, N. Y., in September, 1827, and ordination in Claremont, N. H., in June, 1828. His first location was in Windham County, Vt., boarding in Dummerston, preaching in neighboring towns one Sunday in each month, travelling on foot to the several stations, and receiving the payment of five dollars per Sunday. He remained there preaching in nearly every town in that region, until invited to his first settlement in Albany, N. Y., January, 1831. Being after a time worn down with over-exertion, he felt obliged to leave, and was settled next in Watertown, Mass., to which place he had been invited before going to Albany. His health soon improved, and he found himself in the receipt of a salary of $450. But again his health failed, and he was induced to remove to Claremont, N. H., in April, 1832. He preached there half the time, and supplied in Hartland and Springfield, Vt., and Newport, N. H., until a new church in Claremont was finished. Here he was very actively employed, not only as a pastor, but in doing missionary work in every direction.

In September, 1835, at the General Convention held in Hartford, Conn., he was recommended by Rev. Dolphus Skinner to a committee of the society in Providence, R. I., which was there to find a preacher "not committed to Restorationism or Ultra-Universalism," in reference to which _isms_ the parish was quite divided. Mr. Balch consented to supply three Sundays, not as a candidate, for he desired to live in the country. He was, however, invited and urged to settle there, which he did, after some hesitancy, in March, 1836. His ministry proved a successful one. In two years the large church was crowded, and a second society was formed in the city. In 1842 he was invited to go as a candidate to the church in Bleecker St., N. Y. He declined, but soon after received a call to become the pastor there. Having become interested in what was known as the "Dorr" movement, and freely expressing his wish to have a "Republican form of government" by a Constitution, and seeing a political storm brewing, he accepted the call from New York, and settled there in November, 1842.

In 1848 he visited Europe, intending to go to Palestine. The troubles of that year made it difficult to go further than Rome. In 1852 he was asked by two men, not of his church, with whom a third joined, to go abroad if he wished, with full permission and means to journey as far and stay as long as he pleased. He was wise enough to accept the generous offer, and travelled extensively in Europe, extending his journey to Palestine, across the Desert, and through Egypt to Nubia.

After seventeen years' hard work in preaching, lecturing, and writing on religious and moral reform topics, he became quite worn down, and resolved to take life a little more leisurely for his body's sake, an exceedingly difficult course for him. He went to Ludlow, Vt., in 1859, preaching there half the time, and supplying other places, lecturing, and really working as hard as when in New York city. He then had another removal, to Galesburg, Ill., where he preached five years, and again resolved to retire, and removed to Hinsdale in 1870. But he still preached. In 1871 he was urged to come to Elgin, Ill., where the minister's work was still before him. In 1877 he entered the plea of old age and resigned, purposing a visit to California. Meantime he was invited to preach a Sunday in Dubuque, Iowa. The result was another pastorate. He refused to "settle," but consented to supply a few Sundays until the society could obtain a pastor. He continued three years and three months, not removing his family, but _staying_ there. His ministry gave great encouragement to the church in Dubuque.

In 1880 Mr. Balch visited California; in 1882 the City of Mexico; and last winter Florida. At the present time his health is quite firm. As he writes of himself, "I am comfortably situated, use no glasses except in dim light; and am fairly content in contemplating the past, still busy with the present, and hopeful of a happy and immortal future."

When in Providence, R. I., Mr. Balch gave a course of "Lectures on Language," which were published in 1838. He also wrote a "Grammar of the English Language, explained according to the Principles of Truth and Common Sense," published by B. B. Mussey, Boston, and passing through four editions. In 1849 his volume "Ireland as I saw it" was issued, and in 1881 "A Peculiar People," the first edition of which sold in eight weeks. He is the author of a "Sunday-School Manual," published in 1837.

The business capacity of Mr. Balch was evinced in his raising funds for the Theological School at Canton, N. Y., taking charge of the location, plan, and rearing of the buildings, and selection of a principal. He afterwards completed the raising of a large fund for the institution, obtaining also $10,000 for the library, and securing the valuable libraries of Dr. Credner, and Rev. S. C. Loveland. He devoted much time to the business of making the "Christian Ambassador" of New York a denominational paper, and placing it on a sound financial basis. His work in these particulars was well and faithfully done.

Mr. Balch has always been a very ready and popular speaker with the masses. The graces of oratory he has not sought, but his talking power seems inexhaustible. Although in favor of fraternal organization for the good of the cause, yet his ideas in reference to creeds and to centralized authority are not accordant with those of many others of his brethren, who hold in high estimation the work he has done in the spirit and in the truth of the Gospel.

Among the long and successful pastorates in the great city of the West,--Chicago,--we may note that of Rev. WILLIAM HENRY RYDER. He is a New England man, having been born in Provincetown, Mass. (the son of Capt. Godfrey Ryder), July 18, 1822. During the early life of the son it was supposed that he would become one of the fraternity of seamen, as his worthy father had been. But this seems not to have been the Providential intent. The parent did his part in sending the lad to sea in a vessel bearing his own name, "William Henry," but the experience of a shipwreck cured the young sailor of what nautical tastes he might have possessed, and turned his attention in another direction. He became anxious for the life of a student, and in his eighteenth year entered Pembroke, N. H., Academy. He was a diligent and progressive scholar, and while at this institution decided as to the profession upon which he afterwards entered. At the age of nineteen he preached his first sermon in Manchester, N. H., and during the year following he preached frequently in Concord, in the same State.

Leaving the school in Pembroke, he entered Clinton Liberal Institute (Clinton, N. Y.), then in care of a learned and efficient teacher, Dr. Clowes. He preached frequently during his stay there. In the autumn of 1843, soon after he was twenty-one, he was invited to take charge of the Universalist Society in Concord, N. H., to which place he removed, and in November of that year was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Frances Adams, who has proved a worthy and faithful helper to him in all the experiences connected with his profession. His ordination took place in December, 1843. His ministry here was successful. The society had been formed under the ministry of Rev. J. G. Adams while doing missionary work in New Hampshire, in 1834. Faithful men and women had kept it alive through changes and vicissitudes until it realized a new prosperity under Mr. Ryder, which has continued to the present time.

After two and a half years of successful labor here, he accepted a call to the neighboring city of Nashua, a larger and more promising field, which he occupied to good effect. While giving great satisfaction to his people, he became deeply impressed with the conviction that his ability to serve the church in the capacity of a Christian teacher according to his own ideal would be made greater by a more thorough course of study than he had yet been able to take, or than he could take with the cares of a pastor upon him. He therefore determined to spend a year and a half abroad in study and observation. Resigning his charge in Nashua, he sailed from New York to England. Landing at Kinsale, Ireland, and exploring the lake region of Killarney, he passed on to Dublin, and crossed the channel into England, where he tarried awhile, visiting places of historic interest, and making the acquaintance of several persons who were specially interested in his own faith and profession. While in London and vicinity, he was cordially greeted by the Unitarian ministers there, and preached in two of their churches. He soon crossed to the Continent and came to Berlin, where he applied himself diligently in a course of study under German instructors for seven months. He next extended his travels to Palestine, visiting Jerusalem and many other noted places there. He also visited Athens, Constantinople, Cairo, the Pyramids, Malta, Naples, Rome, Florence, Geneva, and Paris, from which last-named place he went again to Berlin. He was absent a year and a half.

Soon after his return to his native land he was called to the pastorate in Roxbury, Mass. Here he had a successful ministry of ten years, not only fully sustaining the high reputation which the church had long enjoyed, but giving it new inspiration and vigor by the high and truly evangelical tone of his ministry. In 1860 he was called to that great city of the West, Chicago, then twenty-seven years old, and containing 150,000 people. He took charge of St. Paul's Church at a time when just such a helper and director as he proved to be was needed. His discriminating mind and firm will and patience and steadiness of action, worked effectively in building up the cause of Universalism in his own church, and giving it an honorable reputation in that great and growing city. And out of the city and through the State and the whole West the influence of his teaching and work as a representative of the Universalist Church has been justly acknowledged. He has done work for the Christian cause that deserves to be kept in perpetual remembrance. In the pulpit, as a pastor, as an earnest worker in all matters affecting education, reform, and the public weal, he has been found constant and faithful.

In 1860 Harvard conferred upon him the degree of A. M., and in 1863 Lombard University the degree of Doctor of Divinity. In 1868 he made a second visit to Europe, and brought home many treasures of art which were subsequently destroyed by fire in the two great conflagrations with which Chicago was visited. The fire that destroyed St. Paul's and his own beautiful residence on an adjoining lot imposed great responsibilities upon him, which he assumed and discharged with admirable skill. He visited New England and returned with $40,000 with which to repair the shattered fortunes of St. Paul's Church; and such has been his administrative skill, that, notwithstanding the heavy financial reverses to which the parish was subsequently subjected, their grand church, worth $200,000, is now without an incumbrance. Dr. Ryder himself suffered great loss by the fires, but it is pleasant to record what one who knows says of him, that he is still "in possession of 'enough and to spare.'"

Dr. Ryder's life has been crowded with duties. As a preacher and pastor and man of business he has made his mark on public opinion and human life during the forty years just closing. He has thoroughly identified himself with the faith and work of the Universalist Church. As an expositor of its faith he has always been clear and positive, and as an advocate of its work unmistakably emphatic. Organized church work, State work, national work, mission work--home and foreign, he has continually urged. The zealous and faithful women-workers of the church have always found in him a warm, hearty, and outspoken advocate on all occasions when and where his word of good cheer has been asked. As a preacher, another has thus truthfully spoken of him:--

"He has rare power. A model pulpit voice, deep, sonorous; a manner
of wonderful impressiveness; a personality behind his words that
makes every word tell; and long years of sagacious work without
mistakes re-enforcing what he says, so that it is safe to say that
no man's word in any Chicago pulpit, on any question before the
people, goes as far as his in impressing the public mind."[55]

Dr. Ryder has what another has termed "an impressive presence," not in bodily size, but in a pleasant dignity which is attractive rather than imposing. An indication of cool self-confidence is in every word and action. He is thoroughly in earnest as a public speaker, and as thoroughly sincere and fearless in maintaining what he believes to be the right of the subject under consideration. A capital instance of this quality in him was given in the discussion of a topic that came up at the United States Convention during its session in Lynn in 1875. He had been invited to speak of "The Needs and Methods of Spiritual Awakening," and used great plainness and force of speech in reference to what he deemed some of the spiritual failures of professed Universalists which needed amendment. His matter was well considered, and his words were stirring and strong. An attempt was made to pass a vote of censure. He had discharged a duty laid upon him, and deserved the thanks of his hearers, even though they had not assented to a word he uttered, if they were convinced--as doubtless all were--that he honestly believed what he said and discharged a conscientious duty. His defence and vindication of himself were admirable. The attempt to censure so significantly failed that the author of the resolution very readily withdrew it. A chronicler of the occasion wrote that it was worth a long journey to listen to that "outpouring."

During the war Dr. Ryder was a strong helper of the Union cause, active, eloquent, and untiring in his support of the government in manifold ways.

In addition to his other agreeable personal characteristics, Dr. Ryder is well known to those most intimate with him as a genial, courteous, and warm-hearted friend and companion. All his pastorates bear testimony to the love which the children and youth bore him, because of the interest in their welfare which he so constantly manifested.

In April, 1882, Dr. Ryder resigned his position as pastor in Chicago, and has since, with his companion, made a voyage to Europe. It is not his intention to take upon him the duties of another pastorate, but he will doubtless be always in readiness to aid as he may the interests of the church to whose prosperity his life thus far has been so constantly devoted.

_The Birthplace of Hosea Ballou._

In concluding the accounts of ministers here given, it seems appropriate to add a brief reference to an event of recent occurrence, to which the attention of the Universalist public had been specially called. We refer to the meetings held under the direction of the "Cheshire Association," on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 18th, 19th, and 20th of August, 1882, in Richmond, N. H., the birthplace of Rev. Hosea Ballou, and in honor of this distinguished and venerated man. During these days, discourses were preached by Rev. Quincy Whitney, Rev. S. S. Fletcher, Rev. Dr. S. H. McCollester, Rev. Dr. A. A. Miner, and Rev. Dr. G. H. Emerson. Multitudes were in attendance, and the occasion was deeply impressive, and is significantly historical. Appended to a special account of the great gathering, Dr. Emerson, editor of the "Christian Leader," presents the following description of the birthplace of Mr. Ballou. We are glad to give it a place in this volume:--

"Stratford-upon-Avon has its one interest for the great world in the
happy fortune of giving to every age the Bard who, in the faculty
for putting an almost inspired wisdom into verse that is not simply
matchless, but at a vast altitude above that of every other poet who
has spoken the Saxon tongue,--William Shakespeare. The little town
of Ayr would be nothing but a Scottish post-village but for the
circumstance that Robert Burns first breathed within its borders.
But first Stratford and then Ayr, for the English-speaking world,
rise to an importance simply unique, above every hamlet upon the
British Isles, London and Edinburgh hardly excepted.

"Those who with us fully believe that the future is to honor Hosea
Ballou with a niche in the temple of fame, as the peer of the elder
Edwards, and as hardly the second of Franklin, who find in the
'Treatise on the Atonement' the quarry where Bushnell has polished a
few boulders, will further agree with us that the gazetteer of the
coming century will put into conspicuous type, and honor with some
detail of description, the New Hampshire farming town where Hosea
Ballou was born. The compiler of Lippincott's did not know its claim
to distinction, when he summarily disposed of Richmond, N. H., as 'a
post-township in Cheshire Co., 53 miles S. W. of Concord.'

"In a recent attendance upon the grove meeting, not the least among
the inducements to make the journey was the opportunity to see the
homestead where Hosea Ballou first took the breath of life, and to
explore some of the vales and hills his boy feet must have trod more
than a century ago.... As we enter this little village, a church at
our right, half a century old, is the Universalist church,--the
members of which have nearly all left, to be good parishioners at
Winchester, Keene, and other more thriving and distant neighborhoods.

"A little farther on, at our left, is a 'meeting-house,'--it is true
to that classic cognomen. It is black with age. It seems hardly
strong enough to keep timber, board, and shingle together. It cannot
be less than a century and a half old. The very sight of it takes us
back to a former and very primitive age. The glass is held to the
sash by bits of tin,--the putty got tired long ago and 'let go.' We
cannot enter, but we can look through the windows. On the north side
is the great, square pine pulpit, possibly one that never knew the
smell of paint. The square pews have high seats from which only
tolerably long limbs can touch the knotty floor. There is no grace
of form, no cunning device of architect, nothing to woo a trained
fancy. In and of itself, it is a hulk that only cumbers the ground.

"Why, then, did we look often, long, and spell-bound upon this
wretched old rookery, and see therein a fascination not to be noted
in the Capitol at Albany or the mammoth and costly post-offices of
New York and Boston? The answer is in the history. More than a
century ago, Rev. Maturin Ballou preached regularly from that pine
pulpit. Among the regular auditors, possibly the most thoughtful of
them all, his little legs dangling from the rough benches, sat his
little son--Hosea.

"On the morning of Sunday, our friend and host, Mr. L. Martin, says
to his pastor of many years, the Rev. E. Davis: 'Take my horse and
carriage, and show these people where Hosea Ballou was born.' 'These
people' include Dr. Miner, Rev. Mr. Stone, of Canton, Rev. Q.
Whitney, and the editor of the 'Christian Leader.' Mr. Davis knows
the way, but in Mr. Bowen, who owns the farm contiguous to the once
Ballou territory, he finds and calls a pilot and village
antiquarian. Perhaps a mile east of the Keene and Richmond road, a
mile and a half from the Universalist church on the hill, right at
the foot of 'Grassy Hill,' we find a strictly modern house, and a
very old barn, and a much older corn-house,--less now by a good
sample than it was before we saw it. It is a one-story house, with
modern windows, and three small chimneys. Mr. Bowen explains: 'That
house contains the frame within which Hosea Ballou was born, and the
form of the interior is substantially the same.' He was confident
that the three chimneys were the same in material as the one big
chimney of the old structure. Of the corn-house near by, Mr. Bowen
says: 'That is just the same, only it is older and is now going to
decay.' Knoll, stream, valley, plain, and high hill to the east,--in
the woods of which run the fence or wall that bounded the Ballou
farm: upon these time can have wrought but little change. We saw
them upon that Sunday morning as Hosea Ballou saw them,--as child,
as boy, as youth, as man. From that quiet spot, so rural, so out of
the way, so completely in the backwoods, almost hidden by precipice
and hill, came the acorn, the oak whereof is now strong and
vigorous,--we trust with healing in its leaves. The little boy
entering that corn-barn to get fodder for his father's horse, cows,
and oxen,--is that the same whose stalwart form first rose before us
in the School Street pulpit forty years ago; whose eloquent tongue
set the blood thrilling in our youthful veins; whose majestic
bearing seemed to us--what it was--that of an Apostle? "It has been
our good fortune to look upon the Forum where Cicero declaimed in
orations that yet thrill; to traverse the Colosseum where Trajan had
a private box; to walk the streets of Pompeii whose pavements were
trodden by resident Greeks and strangers centuries before the advent
of Jesus.

"But there is an ample niche in our memory left. We place therein,
to recall reverently, gratefully, and with weird association, our
visit, on the morning of August 20, 1882, to the birthplace of Hosea
Ballou, Richmond, N. H., 'twelve miles from Keene, due south.' The
town of hill, vale, and forest is largely deserted by man. Farms
that once waved with corn are now covered with forests of pine. The
locomotive has never been seen--hardly heard--within its borders.
But its history is precious. For what it was, for what it
bequeathed, it shall live in history and in song."

[49] "Our Woman Workers," p. 353.

[50] The first Universalist woman who appeared in the pulpit as a preacher of the Gospel was Miss Maria Cook, who preached before the Western Association in Bainbridge, N. Y., in June, 1811. She is spoken of by Rev. Stephen R. Smith, in his "Historical Sketches" (Vol. I. pp. 31, 32). Notwithstanding the good impressions made by her as a speaker, there were those who deemed "so extraordinary an undertaking as an evidence of mental alienation!" A more enlightened and candid judgment in reference to this subject has since prevailed.

[51] Rev. Thomas G. Farnsworth of Waltham, Mass., ordained in 1822, and Rev. Alvin Dinsmore of Woodland, Cal., ordained in 1823.

[52] "Argument on the Right and Duty of Prohibition." By A. A. Miner, April 2, 1867.

[53] Boston Transcript of May 1, 1882.

[54] Rev. G. H. Emerson, D. D., Ed. in "Christian Leader."

[55] Rev. J. W. Hanson, D. D.