age of eighty-two. He had heard his son Hosea preach frequently, sometimes in the old Baptist pulpit at Richmond (for Hosea, although a Universalist, was admitted there), and sometimes in other places. When listening, tears were seen to run down his furrowed cheeks, and he would express his admiration of his son's sagacity and logical powers. Towards the close of his life his sentiments were thought to be much modified; but he made no profession of a change of opinion, and died in the communion of a Baptist church. The son invariably spoke of the father with affectionate respect. He had reason to love him; for the deportment of the parent to the child was always tender. Though differing in faith and profession, they treated each other as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of the anecdotes were true in which the father was represented as making his son's visits to his house unpleasant by his hostility to the son's doctrine. The father had the disposition of a Christian and a gentleman; and he had too much dignity in his own nature, too much good sense, too much affection for his children, to embitter his intercourse with them by any petty tricks of bigotry. As a preacher the father was not eminent. He was to be valued more for his sound sense, for the solid qualities of a clergyman, than for a winning or exciting manner of speech. He was what the world would call a good rather than a great preacher, calculated to instruct, more than to arouse.

His sons, Benjamin and Maturin, of whom we shall speak more fully in another place, both preached as Baptists, the latter much more than the former. Maturin, the son, held a higher rank, as a speaker, than the

father. He was fervid, earnest; and being also a good man, his labors were likely to draw more hearers than those of the father.*

The personal appearance of the father was not greatly unlike that of the son in the decline of his days. He was tall, erect, the muscles had a good covering, but there was not a great tendency to obesity.

SECTION V. HIS BROTHERS AND SISTERS.

Hosea, being the youngest of the eleven children, we shall introduce in this place a slight account of his brothers and sisters. The oldest sister, Mary, became the wife of Mr. David Bulloch, and died in leaving

two sons.

Benjamin, the oldest brother, was the father of nine children, of whom the first-born was Asahel, the father of Rev. Hosea Ballou, 2d, D.D. It will thus be seen that our distinguished preacher and author, whom we have here named, was a grandson of the oldest brother of Rev. Hosea Ballou. Benjamin was a man of good sense, but not of great activity. He, like his father, was a Baptist, a member of the church, and he did sometimes officiate as a preacher. He was never, however, a

*This account of Maturin, the father of Hosea, except on those points on which I have given my authority, has been made up from statements drawn, in the course of repeated conversations, from the venerable Hosea himself and his aged and amiable consort, with whom I was on terms of the greatest intimacy and confidence from the year 1820. I ought also to mention that I have had opportunities of conversing with other aged persons, who remembered the father of Hosea. These conversations it was my custom to commit to writing, for their better preservation, and they have proved of much use to me.

settled pastor. In the course of his life he renounced the doctrine of endless sin and torture as dishonorable to God, and embraced that of the final holiness and happiness of all men as a scriptural doctrine. He died in Monroe, Mass., Feb. 16th, 1834, in his eighty-seventh year. The following effusion will show the thoughts he entertained in regard to the Saviour. If it be not valuable for its poetical beauty, it certainly is for its sentiments.

"THOUGHTS ON THE SUN.

*For a brief account of him, see Trumpet, vol. vi. p. 143. A slight attention to this account of Benjamin Ballou, will show the inaccuracy of the following passage from a sermon against Universalism, delivered a few years since at Winchester, Ill., by the Rev. Mr. Davis :

"The doctrine of endless punishment had been believed and taught ever since before the Christian Era, while Universalism was modern in the extreme, never having been taught in the world till Hosea Ballou taught it in America; and he did not teach it in its present form, but taught Restorationism. After his death, Hosea Ballou, Second, came out, and made the grand discovery that his father-Hosea the First - had been mistaken all his life, that in fact there was no punishment after death at all. So Hosea, Second, son of Hosea, First, after the death of his father, was the father of Universalism in its present form; and he could not parse a sentence in his mother tongue," &c.

"Is there not goodness in the Lord
Enough to overcome?

Is there not power enough in God
To bring the strangers home?

“Why not my Saviour victory gain
O'er every hardened heart,
And reconcile the whole to him,
And never leave a part?

"Was not an ancient promise made,
When God created man?

And what can ever be displayed
To overthrow His plan ?

"When everything shall hear His voice,
He makes an end of sin

Will not the angels more rejoice
When all are gathered in?

"The lum'nous sun extends his light
To all the human race;

Will not my Saviour make as bright
The kingdom of his grace?

The second sister, Amey, died in Rhode Island, when about six years old.

The third sister, Lydia, lived to be upwards of eighty. She married Samuel Moses, of Warwick, and died, leaving a large family of children.

The second brother, Maturin, was, as we have before said, a Baptist preacher; and having been born in

* This article may be found in Ballou's" Voice to Universalists," pp. 281, 282, where it is erroneously attributed to Rev. Hosea Ballou.

July, 1755, he was over sixteen years of age at the birth of Hosea; and, dying at the age of thirty-five, he never could have known Hosea as a Universalist. His death took place not far from the time that Hosea united himself with the Baptist church in Richmond.

David, the third son, and sixth child, was nearly thirteen years older than Hosea. He was a preacher of universal grace and salvation for many years, and followed that vocation, whenever his circumstances would permit, as long as he lived. A further account of him may be found below.

Nathan, the fourth son, was remarkable for industry. He was at first a Baptist, but afterwards became a Universalist, and for many years adorned the doctrine he professed, with a sober, Christian life, being faithful in the discharge of all his duties. He had a large family, to whom he greatly endeared himself by his kindness. He was beloved as a neighbor, and respected as a citizen. He closed his peaceful life in Monroe, Mass., where he resided for many years, on 4th August, 1838, aged seventy-eight. The present Rev. R. A. Ballou is his grandson.

Sarah, the fourth sister, became the wife of Moses Wheaton, of Richmond. She lived to be over sixty. Asa Wheaton, for a short time a preacher among the Universalists, was her son. He died a young man. She also had a son who was a Methodist preacher.

Phoebe, the fifth sister, died a young woman.

Stephen, the fifth son, moved in early life to the State of New York, where he lived for many years a very upright life. A reference to him, in a communication