BECOMES A SETTLED MINISTER.
The first place in which Mr. Ballou engaged permanently as a settled
minister was in the town of Dana, Mass., in 1794-5. The society here,
not feeling able to pay for an engagement which should occupy him the
whole time, engaged him for a portion, leaving him to supply the
societies in Oxford and Charlton, Mass., also, a portion of the time.
Having now become located, and his residence known, large numbers of
people from a distance gathered to hear him, not only on the Sabbath,
but frequently for several consecutive days of the week besides. Many
there were who held his doctrine to be such damning heresy that they
counted it a sin even to listen to it; while others of his religious
opponents, holding that "there is no error so crooked but it hath in it
some lines of truth," came and listened, and the seed not unfrequently
fell into good soil, bringing forth a hundred fold.
"Often was I greeted at this time," says Mr. Ballou, "by people who
would say, 'Sir, I heard you preach a sermon, a few weeks since, from
such a text,' naming it, 'and I have been uneasy and anxious in my mind
ever since. If your doctrine is true, I must understand and believe it.
But, alas! I fear it is too good to be true; it is so different from
what I have been brought up to believe that I cannot divest my mind of
early prejudices sufficiently to receive it, though Heaven knows how
gladly I could do so.' Then the individual would quote some passages of
scripture which seemed to him to be insuperable objections to the
doctrine I professed, and I would do all in my power to explain these
passages to his mind, in the way I had myself already learned to
interpret them. Usually, with the blessing of Divine Providence, I was
successful, at least in a large degree, and on the following Sabbath I
was pretty sure to find the honest seeker after truth among my
congregation, and the following Sabbath he would be there again,
attentively listening to the word, until, finally, he came forth and
openly espoused the blessed doctrine of God's impartial grace. Thus
encouraged with the growth of the seed that I strewed by the way-side,
my task was a grateful one to my soul, and I was constantly gladdened by
the visible fruits of my efforts in disenthralling men's minds of the
dogmas and blind creeds that early prejudice and the schools had
inculcated."
Let it be borne in mind that at this period he was preaching
Universalism on the principle of the final restoration of the whole
human family, not having satisfied himself yet that there would be no
punishment in a future state of existence, or, indeed, ever thought upon
this subject to any great extent. Owing to the very trifling amount of
his remuneration from the society in Dana, while he resided there,
besides tilling a small portion of land, he was obliged to keep school
during the week, and this engagement was often broken into for lecture
purposes. His keeping and teaching school was a benefit to him beyond
the pecuniary consideration he received, inasmuch as it familiarized him
with many branches of an English education which he would perhaps
otherwise never have acquired, or at least not nearly so thoroughly as
he did by this means.
Uninfluenced by the sneers of his opposers, and the poor remuneration he
received for the preaching of his belief, he never for one moment
wavered in a steadfast purpose, even at this early period, to preach
Christ and him crucified, and the unsearchable riches of God's goodness.
In this connection we are reminded of the remarks of the editor of the
New Covenant, Chicago, Ill., who, in his obituary notice of the decease
of Mr. Ballou, says:--
"But now we are called to mourn the departure of one who, when our cause
had scarcely a name to live,--when it was the subject of the sneer of
the bigot, as well as of the profane curse of the irreligious, and even
its warmest friends scarcely dared to hope for its resurrection to honor
and respect,--bent the energy of a giant mind to a life-long defence and
promulgation of the truth,--by his unanswerable arguments turned the
sneer of bigotry into a smile of hope, and the curses of the profane
into blessings,--of one who has done more in this age for the
liberalizing of religious sentiment than all his contemporaries
combined. Strong in the faith he preached, and steadfastly believing it
must at last triumph, from early youth to mature old age he has kept on
his armor and fought the good fight of faith, and death even found him
at his post as a faithful sentinel, and in the midnight hour he could
answer, 'All is well!'"
At the age of twenty-five, and while resident in the town of Dana, he
became acquainted with the family of Stephen Washburn, in the town of
Williamsburg, Mass., and, after an intimate acquaintance of about a
year, he married their youngest daughter, Ruth Washburn, who was some
eight years younger than himself. His wife, like her husband, had been
brought up to habits of industry and economy; she proved a kind,
constant, and devoted help-mate through his entire life, sharing with
him every joy and every burthen, and, by the influence of a naturally
strong and well balanced mind, a cheerful and gentle disposition,
exercising a most goodly influence upon his life and labors. She became
the careful and prudent mother of a large family, nine of whom lived to
rear families themselves during the life of their parents. Through their
whole lives there was a remarkable oneness of feeling, and a depth of
affection evinced by each for the other, that years served only to
increase, and old age to cement the more closely. But of this matter we
may yet speak more fully.
Mr. Ballou resided in the town of Dana for about seven years, devoting
every spare hour to careful study of the Scriptures, systematizing his
time by a careful division of the hours of the day, and permitting
himself but a very brief portion of time for sleep.
When we say that he devoted his time so assiduously to study, we do not
mean that he occupied himself in the perusal of books alone. He
_thought_ much, communed with himself alone, and even at that period
accustomed himself to a degree of inward or mental communion with
himself, that would seem to exclude the world about him, for the time
being, from his sense of seeing or hearing. This was more observable in
later years, when he often sat long in his study thus, sometimes with
his eyes closed, sometimes with their pupils directed to the floor or
the ceiling of the room, his lips moving, and at last, having seemingly
weighed well some important matter, he would rouse again as if from a
trance, and look about him with apparent satisfaction at the result he
seemed to have accomplished. Sometimes these moments were followed by
the use of the pen for records in his note-book of texts and sermon
heads, sometimes by a reference to the Scriptures, and sometimes by a
walk in the open air; then his lips would be seen to move, and he would
be quite oblivious to all outward circumstances. He studied thus,
carefully and deeply. At times he would walk in the fields or the woods
while thus occupied; and the family never disturbed him by any remarks,
or by calling his attention, while he was thus mentally absorbed. In
another part of this biography, reference will be found concerning this
peculiarity, as exhibited at a later period of his life, and observed by
one who was an inmate of his family, and a student of divinity with him.
The family were accustomed to his mood in these matters, but it usually
affected a stranger, or one not familiar with him, in quite an
impressive and solemn manner; it seemed so much as though he was
communing with unseen spirits, and a power that was invisible to those
about him or to himself, save through the powers of his mental vision.
It would seem that the little bodily rest which he allowed himself at
this period must have induced physical debility; and yet it did not
appear to do so. In travelling, a large portion of his short journeyings
were made in the evening; sometimes at midnight even, and often before
the break of day, in order to fulfil necessary appointments without
encroaching upon his arrangements at home. When stopping for his horse
to take rest and food, himself much fatigued, he would take his watch
from his pocket, and, laying it upon a table near some place where he
could find a recumbent position, he would carefully mark the time, and
say distinctly to himself, "I will sleep now for just one hour, when I
must awake and go on." Singular as this may seem, he has told us that he
never failed to awake at the expiration of the hour, and, much
refreshed, he would mount his horse and press on to fill some
professional engagement, perhaps twenty or thirty miles from the
stopping-place. At other times, while his horse was eating, he would
deliver a sermon, and, having completed it, would, without stopping for
any physical refreshment for himself, start off once more on his
mission.
"In searching the Scriptures," he says, "to enable myself to preach as
the divine oracles taught, I became satisfied that those who were then
called Universalists had founded their doctrine on wrong principles, as
well as other denominations. The doctrine of man's native depravity, of
original sin, of the deserts of eternal misery, of the vicarious
sufferings of Christ, by which he endured, in man's stead, the divine
penalty of God's law, whereby man could escape the punishment due to his
sins, was believed by those who called themselves Universalists, as well
as by Calvinists: also, the doctrine of the Trinity, holding that Christ
is equal to God, or, in other words, is God, being the second person in
the holy Trinity. All these notions, as it appeared to me, were
essential errors, constituting a mass of confusion. I soon renounced all
these views, and preached only God, and one mediator between God and
man, the man Christ Jesus. All my brethren in the ministry, and all our
friends, stood on the old platform, and I found that I had to contend
with Universalists as well as with partialists. But I went to my work in
earnest, laboring, with all my skill and with all my limited talents, to
convince my brethren in the ministry, and all who heard me preach, that
the doctrines of the Trinity, of depravity, of eternal penalty, etc.,
were neither the doctrines of the Scriptures nor of reason. The
opposition to my sentiments fast gave way among Universalists, though
even among them I met with as bitter opposition, in some instances, as
from other denominations. The first time I preached in Bro. Murray's
church, in Boston, was during his absence in Philadelphia, and I then
came out fully with my Unitarian views, which produced great
disturbance. Some were violent in their opposition, while others, and
not a few, fell in with my manner of explaining the Scriptures. I was
then twenty-eight years of age."
Mr. Ballou says that his declaring his views on this occasion was the
cause of "great disturbance." This disturbance was so earnest that some
few of the audience, more bitter than the rest, rose in their seats and
declared that the sentiments which had been uttered were not in
accordance with Mr. Murray's views, etc. Whereupon Mr. Ballou simply
informed them that he had been invited, without solicitation on his own
part, to preach in that desk; that he came there to preach no one's
convictions but his own; that he never had consulted, and never should
consult, the taste of his audience as to the doctrine he preached to
them; but that he should proclaim the truth, as, by the help of Heaven,
he had been enabled to learn it from the Bible, and the truth only!
On the subsequent day Mr. Ballou was formally waited upon by a committee
from the Society, who thanked him for the discourse, and a majority
coincided also in his peculiar views.
The conclusions as to doctrine at which he arrived were based upon
severe study and profound reflection; and when we consider the age at
which he had elaborated and enunciated a creed of such vast importance,
a creed so entirely in advance of his contemporaries, we cannot fail to
be most forcibly impressed with the extraordinary originality and
remarkable precocity of his intellect. Such early vigor and maturity
would have been astonishing in one who had enjoyed all the advantages of
early training, all the aids afforded by the best theological
institutions and instructors; but in one who had passed through so many
hardships, overcome so many difficulties, and was so emphatically
self-taught and self-made, they can only be regarded as evidences of the
highest genius, and the immediate favorable interposition of Divine
Providence.
His unshaken faith and inflexibility of conviction are evinced by the
fact that he stood firm, not only against the opposing sects, but
against the disciples of the improved doctrine which he first preached.
It requires not a little energy to confront declared foes; but to
contend with friends, to risk the loss of their favor and support, is a
trial which few have the boldness to sustain. But the subject of this
biography knew not what temporizing meant; his whole life, his whole
intellect, all his energies, were devoted to the discovery of truth, and
the enunciation of the truth he discovered. Had he stood entirely alone,
without one single friend, without one single proselyte, he would have
spoken as he did, boldly, earnestly, candidly, the apostle and defender
of his faith. The inspiration of his mission was from on high; neither
applause nor opposition changed his views, or in the least affected his
serene and constant equanimity.
The patient and unruffled manner in which he always held a controversy
has been often remarked of him; himself the mark for all manner of
personalities and low reflections, he never descended to such a mode of
warfare, being fully content in the justice and power of his cause, and
considering that as more than equal to low cunning, or, indeed, any
trickery of those who opposed him so bitterly. Flattery would have been
equally powerless in effect upon him, for he looked not to man for
approval, but to his own conscience and his God. Love of applause is a
most natural trait in our dispositions. The hero of a hundred battles
feels his heart glow afresh at the grateful meed of praise; the
politician reads the glowing accounts of his own eloquence with secret
gratification; and who is there so humble that is not susceptible of
flattery, who so high in worldly honors that they do not acknowledge the
potency of applause? And yet we shall be sustained in the remark by all
who knew the subject of these memoirs intimately, when we say, that
neither ridicule nor flattery moved him in the least, the single purpose
of his life being his Master's business; and he ever acknowledged
himself, that he really endeavored to be (and beyond which he aspired
not) the servant of all men. Few persons, with his power over the
masses, and holding the position that was universally accorded to him,
but that would have often brought themselves as _individuals_, with
their _personal_ interests and desires, before the public;
self-aggrandizement will almost always discover itself more or less in
prominent public men. But he knew no such incentive; he had one grand
object in view, one which he never lost sight of, and which was more
than paramount to everything else combined;--it was to inculcate the
religion of God's impartial goodness and eternal grace.
In the thirtieth year of his age, he was induced to accept of the
invitation of the towns of Woodstock, Hartland, Bethel, and Barnard,
Vt., making the latter place his home. While resident here he devoted
himself to ardent and constant study, and in the year 1804 produced his
"_Notes on the Parables_," one of the most popular and useful books,
even to the present day, in the Universalist library. It has passed
through numerous large editions, and a new one, at this present writing,
is about to be put to press. It is a book containing nearly the same
amount of matter as the present memoir in the reader's hand. This book
was written and published at a time when Mr. Ballou's health was really
suffering from the effects of his unremitting labors, both mental and
physical.
"My health," he says, "in those years which I passed in Vermont, was
generally very good. I had some time, previous to removing from Dana,
been gaining health and growing more corpulent, so that my uniform
weight for several years was about two hundred pounds." But at the time
when he wrote the "Notes," for a considerable period he had been
over-tasked, and so much so as to materially affect his health. The
roads about the country were of a very poor character, and being unable
to use a vehicle on many of the routes over which he passed, he was
frequently obliged to accomplish his journeys on horseback, which was a
severe draft upon his strength. In his first preface to the edition of
Notes on the Parables, the author thus refers to the subject of the
book:--
"In my travels through the country in discharge of duties enjoined by
the ministry of the Saviour of sinners, I have met with more opposition
to the gospel preached to Abraham from false notions of the parables of
the New Testament, than from any other source. Often, after travelling
many miles and preaching _several_ sermons in a day, I have found it
necessary to explain various parables to some inquiring hearer, when my
strength seemed almost exhausted. At such times I have thought a volume,
such as the reader has in hand, might save me much labor, and I have
often said to myself, If God will give me a few weeks' leisure, I will,
with his assistance, employ them in writing 'Notes on the Parables.'
This favor has at length been granted, though it was by depriving me of
that degree of health that was necessary to the performance of the
journeys which I had already appointed, yet preserving so much as to
render me composed in my study."
This is undoubtedly one of the most valuable books in the Universalist
library; particularly valuable from the fact of its treating, in the
clearest and most forcible manner, upon those peculiar doctrinal points
which, more than all others, have been the theme of contention among
professed Christians. At the time when Mr. Ballou published this work,
his mind was not fully made up as to the subject of punishment after
death; but the matter had already resolved itself to this in his mind;
that if any suffer in the future state it would be because they would be
sinful there. It was not long subsequent, however, that he came to the
full knowledge and conviction that the doctrine of future punishment was
nowhere taught in the Bible, and this creed he thenceforth ever most
assiduously preached on all occasions.
In his preface to the fifth edition the author says:--"On account of so
many of the parables being used by believers in endless punishment to
support and enforce that sentiment, the author of the Notes was induced
to study them with special reference to the question whether they might
not, with more propriety, be applied in a different manner. Of this fact
he became fully satisfied; even as much so as he is now. But, though he
entertained no scruples on that point, he was not so happy as to be
fully satisfied, in every case, as to the true intent of the parable. In
this situation he cautiously endeavored not to apply any parable to a
subject which was not found to be embraced in the system of truth which
the Scriptures clearly and evidently support. Little harm is done by
applying a parable to a subject to which it was not intended by the
author to apply, provided the subject to which it is misapplied be a
truth clearly supported by either Scripture or man's experience; but to
misconstrue any passage of the divine testimony so as to give support to
what is not true, is unquestionably no small damage; and if the error be
of magnitude, whereby our Heavenly Father is represented in an unlovely
character, or our confidence in his goodness diminished, such
misconstruction is not only a reprehensible violence on the Scriptures,
but a dishonor to their divine Author. I am persuaded that a just
knowledge of the parables is almost indispensably necessary to a
knowledge of the doctrine preached by Christ, as much of his public
communication was in this way. It is in the parables of Christ that we
learn the nature of the two dispensations or covenants; the situation of
man by reason of sin; the character of the Saviour as the seeker and
savior of that which was lost; the power of the gospel as a sovereign
remedy for the moral maladies of man, and its divine efficacy in
reconciling and assimilating the sinner to God. It is by the parables
that we learn the unprofitableness of legal righteousness in point of
justification to eternal life; the absolute necessity of becoming new
creatures, in order to enter the kingdom of God; the true character of
the Saviour as the Lord our Righteousness, and his divine power to make
all things new."
The "_Notes on the Parables_" have unquestionably led thousands of minds
to valuable improvement in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and
converted many a longing soul to the precious and joyful belief of
universal salvation. At the time when these Notes were written, the
light which has now become so general and evident to nearly every candid
seeker after truth,--the true light of the gospel of Christ,--seemed to
be but just dawning; the warm and genial sun of the true faith but
faintly tinged the east; but ere long it rose steadily and majestically,
until it radiated its noon-day warmth, in meridian splendor and beauty.
We should remember that the author of the "Notes" enjoyed the use of no
other book than the Bible in forming and promulgating his own opinions,
which have since become the general belief of the Universalist order.
The book is especially lucid and original in its style, and bears in its
pages constant evidence of deep and careful research.
In an excellent book lately issued by the publisher of this biography,
entitled a Memoir of Rev. S. R. Smith, written by Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer,
D. D., of Clinton, N. Y., we find the following incident related,
referring to this period of Mr. Ballou's life. It is from the pen of the
subject of the memoir, Rev. Stephen R. Smith, concerning whose Christian
excellence too much cannot be said.
"By what means the intelligence that Hosea Ballou would preach on the
following Sunday, in a place fifteen miles distant, could have been
conveyed to a very young man, who did not then know a single
Universalist in the world, is not remembered. He went, however, and
heard a discourse in the morning, from Zech. 6:13; and, for the first
time in his life, felt that he had listened to a sermon that neither
involved an absurdity nor a contradiction. The congregation was not
large, and occupied a school-house in the present city of Utica, then a
meagre and muddy village. A larger congregation was anticipated in the
afternoon, and arrangements were made for the service in the open air,
under some trees, on the bank of the Mohawk river. There, in due time, a
large auditory assembled, and listened to one of Mr. Ballou's best
discourses, from Deut. 33: part of the 16th with the 17th verse. It was
a glorious day, early in June. The silence of Sunday was around us; the
bright blue heavens above us, partly veiled by the branches of a few
scattering oaks; the clear, quiet river at our side; the ruddy and
healthy preacher, in all the vigor of manhood, before us, and pleading
the cause of God and humanity with a group of most attentive hearers.
Such a scene is not to be forgotten; and, altogether, it was one, in
every respect, calculated to make the most lasting impression. And such
certainly were its effects upon the mind of the writer. For, while it
left him without any pretension to the knowledge or belief of
Universalism, as a system of religious truth, it certainly satisfied him
that it was consistent with itself, and with all that we see and know of
the Deity and his moral government. It is scarcely to be doubted that
similar impressions were made on many persons in that congregation."
While resident in Barnard, he wrote also his "_Treatise on Atonement_."
This book, though written so many years since, is still as popular as
when first issued from the press, and has passed, like the "Notes,"
through several large editions. It is contained in a volume of between
two and three hundred pages, and is justly esteemed as one of the
soundest productions that has ever emanated from the author's pen, and
we may, perhaps, add without apparent arrogance, one of the most
thoroughly philosophical and argumentative works of the age. In the
Modern History of Universalism, the author, in speaking of the change of
opinion generally from the ideas preached by John Murray, Winchester,
and other early ministers, says that the belief in the Trinity,
atonement, and kindred notions, was discarded through the influence of
this book.
"The labors of Hosea Ballou, of this city," says the author, "may be
regarded as one of the principal means of the change. In the '_Treatise
on Atonement_,' he has treated the subject at length, maintaining the
subordination of the Son to the Father, the eternal and impartial love
of God to all creatures, and holding forth the death of Christ not as
the cause, but as the effect of this eternal principle of the divine
nature. The very wide circulation of this work evinces the high
estimation in which it has been held by the American Universalists."
We subjoin also the following notice of the "Treatise," because we think
it a most truthful critique relative to the book, which we desire to
have the readers of this biography to understand. In this review, which
appeared not long since in the Evangelical Magazine, the editor says:--
"The decided manner in which the doctrine of vicarious atonement is
rejected, the prominence given to the belief that Jesus was a dependent
being, dependent like ourselves on a common Father and God, and that he
was sent to preach the truth and illustrate its requirements, and by his
exclusive influence to reconcile man to his Maker, were subjects so new,
so startling, that for a time the work appears not to have been very
well received. But the important object was attained. The public
attention, and especially that of Universalists, was drawn to the
consideration of these fundamental and momentous doctrines. The author's
views were very generally adopted by the order, and the book obtained
unbounded popularity. It deserves this distinction, for it doubtless
wrought the great revolution that transformed Universalism from the
Unitarian hypothesis, with all its concomitants, into the simple and
intelligible system formed in the doctrine of the indivisible oneness of
God. It is, perhaps, impossible to estimate the influence which this
work has had upon the so-called Unitarian controversy in New England.
But this much is quite certain, the 'Treatise' was one of the earliest
publications that openly and distinctly rejected the doctrine of the
Trinity, and manfully met the prevailing prejudices respecting that
subject. But aside from these matters, there is not another book in the
country, on the same subject, that has been read by half the number of
persons, or wrought conviction of the truth of the doctrine of the
Divine unity in one half so many minds, as this '_Treatise on
Atonement_.'"
These notices, as we have just intimated, are introduced here to give
the reader, who may not be otherwise acquainted with the "Treatise," a
correct and clear idea of the work. Though among the earliest of Mr.
Ballou's publications, this book is far from being deficient in any
point, either as to sound logical reasoning, or in force and earnestness
of style. Simple, yet profound, it is within the capacity of the
humblest to comprehend and fully understand, while it cannot fail to
challenge the admiration of the scholar and philosopher. It is written
in the plain, straightforward manner which so distinguished his after
productions, and which never failed to carry conviction with it. "The
'Treatise' has been pronounced by one of the strongest minds of the
age," says the publisher of the sixth edition, "to be one of the
soundest arguments in the English language." Were the author's
reputation to rest solely upon this work, we should feel satisfied at
the manner in which his memory must be handed down to posterity.
In his preface to the first edition of the book, he says:--"Many
circumstances might be mentioned, which, in their associations, have
induced me to write and publish the following treatise; but I can say
with propriety, that the principal object was that in which I always
find the greatest happiness, namely, to do what I find most necessary in
order to render myself useful to mankind."
At the time of the publication of this "Treatise," Mr. Ballou had by no
means arrived at such a degree of understanding and belief upon the
subject of the Scriptures as was the case in after years, and, with wise
fore-thought, he thus speaks his mind in the preface to the first
edition:--
"I have often been solicited to write and publish my general views on
the gospel, but have commonly observed to my friends that it might be
attended with disagreeable consequences, as it is impossible to
determine whether the ideas we entertain at the present time are
agreeable to those which we shall be under the necessity of adopting
after we have had more experience; and knowing, to my satisfaction, that
authors are very apt to feel such an attachment to sentiments which have
been openly avowed to the world, that their prejudice frequently
obstructs their further acquisition in the knowledge of the truth, and
even in cases of conviction their own self-importance will keep them
from acknowledging their mistake."
Though he was thus cautious (and what judgment, prudence, and cool
reasoning are evinced in this paragraph), the only change that
experience did bring about, in the author's mind, was, that he became
even more fully convinced, as the experience of years ripened the
harvest of his wisdom, of the truths of his former belief, and made
still further _progress_ (a word that he loved and lived up to), in
addition to certain points that are but lightly touched upon in the
work.
The following letter, relating to this and other works, was elicited by
the presentation to Mr. Ballou of a set, in a new and uniform edition
with some of his subsequent publications; the constant call for these
books, even after several large editions had been exhausted, and a long
period of years had elapsed since their first being issued, requiring
this fresh publication of them. Mr. Ballou having parted with the
copyright at the time of publication, they were of course in the hands
of the trade. This letter is introduced here as illustrative of the
humble estimate he put upon his own important labors and discoveries,
and is also in style very like him. It bears date 1844, and was written,
consequently, when he was seventy-three years of age. It was addressed
to the editor of the Trumpet, and appeared in the editorial columns of
that paper.
"BR. WHITTEMORE: Please permit me to acknowledge with gratitude a
favor I have received from Br. Abel Tompkins, consisting of four
volumes of my writings: my Notes on the Parables of the New
Testament; my Treatise on Atonement; my course of Lecture Sermons,
and my Select Sermons. It gives me much pleasure to learn that
these works have been so favorably regarded by the denomination
with which I have had the happiness to hold an unbroken and
uninterrupted connection for more than half a century, as to
warrant this new edition. The improved style in which these volumes
now appear cannot fail to give entire satisfaction to all who have
a good taste, and will doubtless facilitate their sale.
"When, more than forty years ago, I wrote my 'Notes' and
'Treatise,' I had never seen any work in defence of the doctrine of
the Divine unity, and the dependency of the Son upon the Father.
When this circumstance is duly considered, the reader will be
satisfied that the writer must have exerted the limited powers of
his mind to their utmost capacity. This is all the credit he
claims.
"HOSEA BALLOU."
Mr. Ballou has long been allowed the credit, which is also most justly
due to him, of having been the first Unitarian writer in this country;
for, as he says above, he had never seen any book in defence of the
doctrine of the Divine unity when he wrote in favor of those principles
in the works referred to. Another evidence of the fact is, that Mr.
Ballou's sentiments at that time were considered most strange and novel
by all.
"In this Treatise," says Rev. Thomas Whittemore, "Mr. Ballou took the
ground that God was never unreconciled to man; that man was the party
who needed reconciliation, for God is love from eternity to eternity,
and that God's love to sinners was the cause of Christ's being sent by
the Father to redeem them. He held that Christ was not God himself, but
the Son of God; a distinct being from the Father,--a _created_ being;--a
doctrine which he had believed and preached for ten years, having
commenced to preach it as early as 1795. He must therefore be regarded
as the earliest defender of Unitarianism the country has produced."
Mr. Ballou says, relative to the doctrine of the Trinity:--"I had
preached but a short time before my mind was entirely freed from all the
perplexities of the doctrine of the Trinity, and the common notion of
atonement. But in making these advances, as I am disposed to call them,
I had the assistance of no author or writer. As fast as these old
doctrines were, by any means, rendered the subject of inquiry in my
mind, they became exploded. But it would be difficult for me now to
recall the particular incidents which suggested queries in my mind
respecting them."
The reader will at once be prepared to admit that Mr. Ballou must have
expended much time and labor in the research and study of the
Scriptures, necessary to enable him to write and publish these works, in
a cause, and upon a theme, wherein he was a pioneer. He steered his
barque into new waters, and was obliged himself to stand ever with the
"lead" in his hand, to ascertain the true soundings, and keep thus in
the narrow channel of truth. Concerning this matter, he has said, in an
article furnished for a work entitled "Modern History of
Universalism:"--
"I never read anything on the doctrine of universal salvation before I
believed it, the Bible excepted; nor did I know, that I can now
recollect, that there was anything published in its vindication in the
world. Nor had I ever heard a sermon on the subject, except in boyhood I
once heard Brother Rich, but concerning that sermon I realized nothing."
In speaking of his advance towards the knowledge of the truth, after his
conversion, he says, in a published article:--
"It may be proper for me to state one circumstance which had no small
tendency to bring me over to the ground on which I have for so many
years felt established. It was by reading some deistical writings. By
this means I was led to see that it was utterly impossible to maintain
Christianity as it had been generally believed in the church. This led
me of course to examine the Scriptures, that I might determine the
question, whether they did really teach that Jesus Christ died to
reconcile an unchangeable God to his own children. You cannot suppose I
was long in finding that, so far from teaching such absurdities, the
Scriptures teach that 'God was in Christ, reconciling the world to
himself.' The question concerning the Trinity was by the same means as
speedily settled."
It is an interesting and curious fact that he should have been aided, as
it were, by the darkness of error to find the light of truth. The
obvious inconsistency in his former belief, made evident by the deist,
did not win him to the faith of the latter, but rather led him to
investigate for himself, and to find a religion more congenial with the
native promptings of his own heart and the evidences of the Bible. His
was an exploring mind; he was not content to receive this faith, or that
position, because others believed it, or because it had remained so long
the unchallenged and unquestioned creed of the church. He must look into
the matter and understand for himself, and make all parts of a doctrine
to harmonize with each other, before he could reconcile it with his own
reason and convictions.
This was a trait of character not alone observable in him as it related
to the subject of religion; he applied the same rule to the affairs of
every-day life, to political economy and business arrangements. He was
always open to conviction, to reason and evidence, but could never
embrace blindly any proposition whatever. Because the political party
which the nearest assimilated to his views of the proper mode of
government adopted this or that policy, he did not by any means consider
it his duty to coincide with them, against his sober conviction, and he
never did so; on the contrary, as often criticising the measures of one
political party as another, and frequently finding much excellence, and
principles worthy of commendation in the national policy of both. For
this reason he could not be a politician, had he experienced an
inclination that way. He was too honest.