cut, or in Rhode Island, the scenes of his earliest labors. In the winter he would take a district school, and in this manner obtain his board, and add five or six dollars per month to his resources. He had prepared himself for the performance of such a duty by the little learning which he had picked up at home, and by spending a short term at an academy, not far from the time when he commenced to preach. Such were the duties of the first five years. His great desire was to preach the gospel. This absorbed every other wish or hope; it was a part of his very being. He felt that a dispensation of divine truth had been committed to him; but he took no glory to himself; he did not become proud and vain; he was thankful when the people came to listen to his words. He met them in any place where it was most convenient for them to assemble,- seldom in a meeting-house, but more frequently in school-houses, court-houses, dwellinghouses, barns, and, if need be, in the open air, beneath the shade of some grove or orchard. It was not an uncommon thing to hold a meeting in some country house, which the good husband, sometimes aided willingly by his wife, would set in order for the occasion, by arranging benches and chairs upon the entire area of the floors. The preacher would take his position at the head of the long kitchen, with a small table and Bible before him, to which a hymn-book was added, if any persons were present who were accustomed to sing. Some preachers would lead off the singing themselves; but this Mr. Ballou never could do. The table was always placed as near as possible the door that led into the other rooms; and in this way the speaker addressed the people in the

different apartments as one congregation. Around the outside of the house would be a large gathering of horses and carriages, the animals being safely tied to the fences and trees; and clusters of heads, glistening with eager eyes, were seen at the windows, which in the summer-time were thrown open. These were often seasons of profitable religious instruction and high spiritual joy. Thus were spent the years of Mr. Ballou's ministry, until his removal to Dana; but it must be confessed that several of the characteristics here described marked his course almost as long as he lived. When he became a settled clergyman in Dana, and afterwards in other places, he did not wholly give up his itinerant habits, but pursued them so far as the practice was consistent with the engagements to the people of his charge. Like Mr. Murray, he believed it was his duty to meet the calls made upon him from different parts of the country, so far as other duties would allow; and this he continued to do to the last year, and we might almost say to the last week, of his life. He felt truly the spirit which actuated the apostle, when he said, "Though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory of; for necessity is laid upon me; yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel."-1 Cor. 9:16.

CHAPTER VI.

MR. BALLOU S MINISTRY AND LABORS IN VERMONT.

SECTION I.- · A CLUSTER OF UNIVERSALISTS.

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EVER after Mr. Ballou had attended the Convention at Woodstock, Vt., in 1799, the fathers of our cause in that region had been exceedingly desirous to have him remove thither. It was not because they wished to deprive the brethren in Dana and vicinity of his services; but because they believed that, having sowed the seed so widely in that region, he might now well be spared to remove to another place, a field equally large, perhaps larger, which was in great need of cultivation. His ear was open to their application. These brethren resided in Barnard, Bethel, Bridgewater, Woodstock, and Hartland, a cluster of fine towns, that lay between the range of the Green Mountains on the west, Connecticut river on the east, the White river upon the north, and Black river upon the south. The state of religion in these towns was much like what it was in other parts of New England at this time. Calvinistic Congregationalists were by far the most numerous. Calvinism was the prevailing form of theology; and God seems to have raised up the Universalists to make the first inroads upon it. The Baptists, who had begun to spread in this state,

were all of the Calvinistic class; Methodists, and other Arminian sects, were, at that time, little known there. Barnard was fixed upon as Mr. Ballou's location, which had Bethel upon the north-west, Bridgewater upon the South, and Woodstock and Hartland within convenient distance. Of the individual Universalists in these towns at the day of which we speak, no distinct accounts have come down to us. Our late venerable Father Caleb Keith resided in Barnard. Capt. George Simmons (we know not in which of the towns he lived) was both active and liberal in sustaining the cause of Universalism.* In the society at Woodstock, Dr. Stephen Powers (father of Dr. John Powers), Deacon Benjamin Emmons, and William Perry, of Pomfret, were the leading men and original members. The elder Dr. Powers was once a Calvinist; but, when he emerged from the darkness of that religion into the broad light of Universalism, it seemed to him he had entered a new world. He felt it his duty to

*Capt. George Simmons died at Stow, Vt., on March 26th, 1825, in the seventy-ninth year of his age. He was composed and reconciled to the will of God, patiently enduring all his pains through his sickness. About forty-eight hours before his death he said, “O that I could fall asleep in Jesus!" He was asked if he felt confident that it would be well with him after death; and his answer was, "Yes; to be gone and to be with Christ would be far better than to stay here." He held out unshaken in his former opinion concerning the goodness of God; that his tender mercies are over all his works; that the promise made to Abraham will be fulfilled; that the whole human family will be made ultimately holy and happy. See the epistle written by his widow to Rev. Hosea Ballou, at the time of his death, Universalist Magazine, vol. vii. p. 3, June 25, 1825. She gave full expression to the desolateness of her feelings at the beginning of the letter:- -" Rev. Sir, I am left alone - I am desolate and afflicted. It has pleased God, in infinite wisdom, to take from me my companion in life. My bosom friend is removed by death."

avow his new faith, and do what he could to build it up; and when he left the Congregational society, of which he was a pillar, it greatly weakened it. He was grandfather to the celebrated Hiram Powers, the sculptor.

SECTION II. PREACHERS IN VERMONT IN 1803.

Without the mention of others, the reader will judge, from what has been said, of the character of the men who invited Mr. Ballou to settle in Vermont. He moved to Barnard in February, 1803. Of the Universalist preachers that were in that state at the time of his removal, let us here speak. Rev. Joab Young was at Strafford,— a man of some influence in his early life. Rev. Walter Ferris had charge of the Universalist societies in Charlotte, Hinesburg and Monkton, three towns near Lake Champlain, a few miles south of Burlington. Rev. C. G. Parsons was residing at Windsor; Rev. Wm. Farewell was about to remove to Barre; and Rev. J. Babbitt was appointed to be ordained at Jericho. Such was the number of Universalist clergymen in Vermont when Mr. Ballou removed there. Universalism had spread somewhat; as much, perhaps, from the effect of its own reasonableness, and agreement with nature and Scripture, as from the talents and labors of the early preachers whom we have here named. Mr. Ferris was a good man, and a man of talents; but he lived only a few years after the time of which we here speak. Mr. Young was a man of specious appearance, and a somewhat popular preacher; but he impaired his influence by indiscretion. Mr. Farewell was a truly amiable and excellent man; but he was