would die out all over the country, as it has at the North. He cherished with great veneration the words referred to: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." So sensible was he, however, that slavery was perhaps the most difficult matter on which the people could be called to act, that he would not, for a moment, have approved anything like rashness, or, above all, an attempt to incite the people to a civil war.

SECTION XVII.

INSTALLATION OF REV. E. W. COFFIN.

In April, 1846, the meeting-house erected by the Universalists at the south section of Boston was dedicated; and in the evening Rev. E. W. Coffin was installed to the pastoral care of the society in that place. Father Ballou was present at the latter service. Reading of Scriptures, by Rev. A. Hichborn, of East Boston; Introductory Prayer, by Rev. E. H. Chapin; Sermon, by father Ballou, from 2 Tim. 4: 2,-"Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine;" Installing Prayer, by Rev. T. B. Thayer, of Brooklyn, N. Y.; Charge, by Rev. C. H. Fay, of Roxbury; Fellowship, by Rev. T. D. Cook, of South Boston; Address to the Society, by Rev. O. A. Skinner. The society, thus happily begun, was destined to meet great reverses. It happened, unfortunately, that one of their pastors became so deeply involved in spirit-rappings, and matters of that kind, that everything else was secondary in his sight. The society was

neglected; the spiritual wants of the people were not met; and, after a miserable existence of some length, they felt it better to close their doors than to maintain the mere forms of worship any longer.

SECTION XVIII.

SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST.

Father Ballou had clear and very correct views concerning the sufferings of Christ. He held that they were designed for the benefit of mankind, and that one important class of these benefits was the example set us by him for our imitation. On the latter point, he said:

"If the doctrine which has been taught by the doctors of the church, and which is now believed by those who style themselves orthodox, be true, that Christ suffered, in room and stead of sinners, an infinite penalty of the divine law, of course his sufferings could not constitute an example for our imitation. Christians are not required to suffer an infinite penalty in room and stead of their wicked neighbors; but they are under obligation to follow the steps of the divine Master, and suffer the just for the unjust, in any way which may lead the unjust to God. There are many instances in which good men may suffer much for the benefit of the wicked; and if all who profess to be disciples of Christ were faithful in such service, sinners would be converted by thousands and tens of thousands, and converts would be as numerous as the drops of morning dew. There is a fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, of which Paul thus speaks: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.'-Phil. 3: 10. The apostle has the same subject in view when he says: Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church.' Col. 1: 24. If Paul had believed that Christ had suffered an infinite penalty in room and stead of sinners, should we have read in his writings anything like this?”. Universalist Miscellany, III., 251, 252.

CHAPTER XXVI.

LABORS FOR TWO YEARS; REFORM FESTIVALS BEGIN; NEW PHASE OF INFIDELITY; CHANGES IN THE DENOMINATION, ETC. ETC.

FROM JUNE 1846 TO JUNE 1848.

SECTION I. CONSEQUENCES OF HUMAN ACTIONS.

It was in the month of June of this year that father Ballou gave a distinct consideration to the question, "Do the consequences of men's actions in the present life extend into eternity?" He had thought much on this matter. He had studied divine revelation carefully, and for a very long time, to see what light might therein be found. He sought diligently for the truth on this point. While he had no mere system to defend - - while he was devoted solely to what he believed in his very soul to be the truth - he rose above all the speculations and mere fancies of men, and sought something more solid, more clearly scriptural, and more consonant to the eternal nature of God, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever. He expressed his thoughts in the following manner :

"It is no new thing for people to be told their actions in this world, both good and bad, will, in their consequences, attend them into the future state. And it has been generally believed for ages, in the Christian church and community, that people who are righteous in this world will be happy hereafter, as a consequence growing out of their well-doing; and that those who are wicked, and who practise vice here, will suffer for the same

in the world to come. And it has also been the general belief that the good effects of doing right, and the bad effects of doing wrong, will both be endless.

"It must be allowed that this doctrine involves some questions of difficult solution, one of which grows out of the well-known fact that all men are more or less wicked, and that all do some things which are right. And, moreover, according to Scripture and history, some of the best of men have been some of the worst, sustaining these two contrary characters at different periods of their lives. If the good consequences of their virtues, and the bad consequences of their vices, attend them in the future state, it seems to refute the fact that the bliss of the future state will be free from the evil consequences resulting from wrong doing in this. It is true, our Christian doctors teach that it is the moral state or character in which men go out of this world, which will decide their happy or unhappy state hereafter. But, if this be granted, it must be hazardous to say, without reserve, that the evil consequences of sin reach into the future state, or that the good consequences of doing right reach into that state. If we say that the consequences of sin reach into the future state, and say this without reserve, we surely thereby may be supposed to mean that all sin, committed in this mortal state, will, in its consequences, reach into the future.

"If we reason from what we know, which seems to be the most safe way to reason, another important fact claims our consideration. We see, in this life, that bad consequences result from virtuous causes, and that good consequences follow from causes which are bad. No one will doubt the fact that all the good and the evil in our world may be traced back to its creation, and the creation of man in it. We read (Gen. 1: 31), And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.' There is no necessity, in this case, of debating the question, whether the Creator designed that man should ever do that which is evil, or not; nor need we ask whether it was possible for man, being such as the Creator made him, to have avoided doing all that he has done; it is enough for our present purpose that the fact be allowed, that whatever man has done could not have been

done if God had not created him. Moreover, it must be allowed that man could not have sinned, if he had not been constituted liable so to do. It is evidently safe to argue that man's liability to sin was not only good in the sight of him who made him thus, but an indispensable cause of the sin which followed. If the reader should say that this reasoning takes away all blame from wrong-doing, he is reminded that his inference involves a question which is not now under consideration. What we now are endeavoring to have seen is that evil or bad consequences may follow causes which are good."-Universalist Miscellany, vol. III., pp. 445, 446.

"The sinful conduct of the Jews in persecuting Jesus, the promised Messiah, whom they finally caused to be crucified, appears to be of the most atrocious character; and the immediate, and even remote consequences, to that people, which evidently followed, correspond with the heinousness of the sin. But, collateral with these evil consequences, we see others which are good, and for which the Christian world is rendering daily thanks to the Father of that mercy which is extended to mankind by means of the sufferings and death of the crucified. The Jews, by their wickedness, fulfilled some of the most important prophecies concerning the Messiah, which to us is one of the strongest proofs of divine revelation. And even the precautions which they employed to prevent the disciples of Jesus from taking away the body of their Master from the sepulchre, which were but a continuance of their wicked malice, furnished some of the best proofs of the fact of the resurrection.

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By the light into which our reasoning has brought us, we see that, if we allow that sin in its consequences extends into man's future state, it does not determine whether these consequences will be good or bad, whether they will be attended with happiness or misery.

"If we reason on the general principle of cause and effect, and if we reason philosophically, we shall find that whatever event takes place is attended with consequences which extend beyond all our means of tracing them. We shall also find that whatever event takes place, though we may be able to trace back, to some