Fifty Notable Years

"He knew for a good while that the end was approaching, and he was ready. Death was to him only the door that opened into the new immortal life, which was almost as presently real to him as the life he was living here. And when, at the last, his life-long friend, Rev. James Shrigley, said good-bye to him, he exclaimed, 'Why say good-bye, when we shall meet again to-morrow?'"

Of all the worthies in this company of church leaders of which we are speaking, not one of them is entitled to a higher place than Hosea Ballou, D. D., or "2d," as he was called before the doctorate was conferred upon him. A rare man was he, a clear-headed and closely logical thinker, an untiring student, one of the soundest of preachers, and humblest and noblest of men. We have no fear of using language too strong in our statement of his character, its pre-eminence and worth. An editor of a volume of his discourses has given it, on the title-page, from Laman Blanchard: —

"His thoughts were as a pyramid up-piled,On whose far top an angel sat and smiled,Yet in his heart was he a simple child."

He was of Guilford, Vt., born there in 1796. His parents were Baptists, but the thoughtful and studious boy, before the age of nineteen, had embraced Universalism. He began early the study of Latin and Greek, and gave much attention in later days to ecclesiastical history. He was pastor in Stafford, Conn., and in Roxbury and Medford, Mass. He was for some years one of the editors of the "Universalist Magazine," and afterwards of the "Quarterly," a publication which under his supervision was a most creditable addition to the literature of the Christian Church. His most valuable contribution to this literature is his "Ancient History of Universalism," the result of long and patient research in a new field of inquiry, and which proved to be a work of acknowledged merit. It settled at once and for all time the loose statement that Universalism was a new doctrine, not known to any extent in olden times. Some of the brightest lights in the Christian Church are recognized as its early advocates. Harvard University, of which he was for some years a trustee, conferred upon him its honorary degree of D. D.; and Tufts College, for which he had anxiously pleaded and diligently labored, elected him her first president. "His scholarship," writes another, "was not only general and varied, but exact in details, and frequently astonishing by its minute acquaintance with things and events out of the ordinary channels of information; and his knowledge was so unostentatiously held, and kindly and modestly imparted, that it required special inquiry to elicit it, and seemed but natural to him. His gentle manners and readiness to impart information, and his mild and loving spirit, won for him the esteem of all who became acquainted with him, so that their admiration of the scholar and teacher were often lost in their affection for the friend."

Two brothers of Dr. Ballou, Levi and William S., were for years preachers and pastors in New England. William resided in the West for a time, where he died in 1865. Levi was pastor of the Universalist Church in North Orange, Mass., for nineteen years. Clear-minded, gentle, and yet forcible men were they, making good proof of their ministry.

Rev. Edward Turner was for years one of the ablest ministers in the Universalist Church. He was born in Medfield, Mass., July 28, 1776, and was in early life sent to the school of the celebrated Hannah Adams and her sister. In 1786 his family removed to Sturbridge, Mass., and in his seventeenth year he was at Leicester Academy. He was educated under "orthodox" influence, and used to say that he "held the minister in such fearful reverence that he would jump over the wall to hide himself if he saw that he must meet him on the road." The towns in the section of Worcester County in which he lived were among those where Universalism was first preached. Oxford, especially, was one of its strongholds, the first Convention having met there when he was ten years old. In such a neighborhood he could not have lived long without hearing something of the "strange doctrine," but all that is known is, that he is said to have been a Universalist as early as his sixteenth or seventeenth year. He began to preach in 1798, when, at the age of twenty-two, he preached his first sermon at Bennington, Vt. He first appears in the public records of the Universalists in 1800, when it is stated that a Letter of License was given him by the General Convention. From this time until 1824 his name appears in the records nearly every year. He is mentioned in the records of the Convention for 1803 as of Sturbridge and also of Charlton, from which it is inferred that both these towns had societies of which he was pastor. In 1809 he removed to Salem, Mass. Here he remained till June, 1814, when he accepted a call to Charlestown, Mass. In March, 1824, he accepted an invitation to Portsmouth, N. H., where he continued till the spring of 1828. He was afterwards minister in Charlton, his old home, and at Fishkill Landing, N. Y. In 1841 he removed to Jamaica Plain, to a home left by a son-in-law, where he passed the remainder of his days. He was twice married. He occasionally preached up to the last. He was present as one of the bearers at the funeral of his old friend and co-worker, Mr. Ballou, June 9, 1852, and departed this life Jan. 24, 1853.

With the opinions of the elder Ballou in regard to future (or no-future) punishment he had no sympathy; and an estrangement somehow grew up, which led him to connect himself, later in life, with the Unitarians, instead of remaining with those in the Universalist ministry, such as H. Ballou, 2d., the Streeters and Skinners, Rev. L. Willis, Thomas F. King, and others, whose opinions coincided with his own. A severe illness in 1811 wrought a marked change in him. Before this he was quite robust and erect, afterwards he appeared more feeble. Previous to this sickness, like Mr. Ballou, he had been exclusively an extemporaneous preacher, and is said to have been one of the "rousing" sort, – live, vehement, electric; but from this period his whole manner changed, and his ordinary preaching became subdued, languid, what is called "moderate," at times, perhaps, even heavy. Dr. E. G. Brooks, in an excellent biographical notice of him, says: —

"He had immense latent power. At times, when kindled by some great occasion, or stirred by opposition or some peculiar circumstance, this came out. Then he preached with all his old fire, and sometimes rose into impassioned and commanding eloquence. 'All the fountains of the great deep' within him 'were broken up,' and thought and feeling came in a flood. Rev. Russell Streeter writes me, 'On Convention occasions he was, on the whole, second to no one.' My parents tell me that he was 'sometimes very animated.' They speak particularly of one sermon in Portsmouth, called forth by some bitter outbreak of opposition, when he preached with surpassing effect. Others report similar instances. Doctrinal sermons in abundance he preached, but even those most argumentative and most sharply controversial were flavored with a religious meaning and reasoned to practical ends. He never preached a sermon that was merely doctrinal, but always made dogmatic discussion subordinate to moral impression. Though in a mistaken estimate of duty, as we believe, he separated from us, his name can never be taken out of our records as one of the worthiest of our early heroes, nor his work cease to be an occasion of gratitude and honorable pride to us, nor his reverent and saintly character fail to be one of the most precious portions of our denominational inheritance."38

The Streeter brothers are to be numbered in this "company of the preachers." Sebastian was for more than thirty years pastor of the First Universalist Church, on Hanover Street, Boston. He was a minister of marked character, light-framed, nervous, dark-eyed, of quick movement, clear and strong-minded, voluble in speech, affable, at home everywhere, especially in the pulpit.

Under many disadvantages, he laid for himself the foundation of a professional education. He intended to qualify himself for the law, but a superior wisdom and will called him to the Christian pulpit. At the age of eighteen, while a school-teacher in New Hampshire, he was a talented advocate of Christian Universalism. At twenty-two he preached his first discourse. He travelled extensively as a missionary in Maine, encountering the reproach which awaited the advocacy of his faith in those days in many parts of New England, and having the honor of being stoned once while preaching in a Christian house of worship, and by a zealous member of a church. With him, however, opposition was an incentive to new earnestness in his work. He was singularly gifted as a preacher. He despised all garishness and affectation, and was usually full of his theme. There was in him a latent fire of eloquence, which when kindled stirred his audience to the depths of their souls. The writer calls to mind occasions of his preaching: one, while the hearer was standing in the doorway of a church at a meeting of the General Convention in Vermont. The pulpit was between the doors that opened upon the faces of the congregation. The preacher was in the heat of his discoursing on the words of Jesus, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." There were no indifferent listeners, and but few dry eyes to be seen. The remembrance has often been an inspiration. The other was at the session of the Rockingham Association, in Nottingham, N. H., in 1833. Mr. Streeter delivered the occasional discourse, an able and a timely one. He was speaking of reforms and reformers, and was all aglow with his theme. He thus came to a climax: —

"We know of a revivalist and reformer infinitely superior in skill and power to those of all sects combined; one who will continue to move onward, 'conquering and to conquer,' till he has 'renewed a right spirit' in every heart, till he has reformed fully and forever the countless millions of our race. Yes, blessed be God, we know his name. It is Jesus of Nazareth; the Lion of the Tribe of Judah; the Son of God; the Saviour of the world!" ["Amen!" from a brother minister.]39 The preacher responded: "Hallelujah! Glory to God in the highest! Jesus will make all things new. Let heaven proclaim his honor; let earth echo and re-echo his praises; and let eternity respond them through the long and lofty roll of its interminable ages!"

Said Mr. Streeter to a friend, one Monday morning: —

"I had something tender to put into my sermon yesterday morning. As I was going to church, a poor woman came to me to borrow a dollar to get bread for her children, and, as I handed it to her, she offered me a small locket containing a braid of hair from the head of a little child she had buried a week ago. 'Take back the locket,' said I; 'it is too sacred for my hands; but keep the dollar, you are welcome to that. It does me more good to give it than you to receive it, and you can have more if you need.' Then she wept, and said she was a poor widow, living in such a street near by, and her poor children had not had a mouthful since yesterday noon, and she had nothing to buy them bread. I knew by her looks that she told me the truth, but to satisfy her I went and saw where she lived, and saw her children, and gave her more money, and told her I would look to her wants again to-morrow. Then I went into the pulpit, and put the incident into a sermon, and I haven't preached so well, nor enjoyed the service so much, for many a day."

His heart was often overflowing with such charities as this, through all his ministry.

He was the life of a conference meeting, and his Friday evening conferences in the Hanover Street vestry were never forgotten by those who attended them. As a pastor, he was always welcomed in the homes of his parishioners, sharing as he did their joys and sorrows with the sympathy of a brother and friend. As an officiating attendant at weddings, he was exceedingly popular, and his yearly marriage list, for a long time, exceeded in numbers that of any other clergyman in Boston. On funeral occasions, he was eminently a "son of consolation." There was such an unction in his usual manner of preaching – a manner so peculiarly adapted to the services of the Sabbath – that a brother minister who highly respected him, quaintly suggested that Sabbathstrain, rather than Sebastian, might properly be used as his name. As another has written of him: "He was an intensely magnetic man. It was not simply what he said, but the spiritual unction with which he uttered the truth, that won and held you."40

Mr. Streeter lived to the age of eighty-four. In his last days he suffered intensely from asthma, which had long afflicted him. He has left the example of a true and noble life to the churches.

Rev. Russell Streeter was a younger brother of Sebastian, and a man of much mental vigor, – sharp, witty, and logical. He had quite a number of ministerial settlements in New England, and in them all was noted for his ability as a preacher, for his peculiarities of character, and his good qualities as a neighbor and citizen. He was the first editor of the "Christian Intelligencer," a Universalist weekly paper, published at Portland, Me.; was minister in that city for some years, and afterwards, much later in life, went to pay the society a long pastorate visit of six and a half years, which proved very agreeable to pastor and people. He died at Woodstock, Vt., Feb. 15, 1880.

Mr. Streeter was a subject of impulses. When in the happy mood, no one, it seemed to us, could preach a more acceptable sermon than he. When not in this favorable frame of mind, he would not always do justice to himself. We can never forget a discourse (the closing one) at a Conference in Orford, N. H., from the text, "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." The sermons previously delivered were timely, and had been well received, and he was fully in the spirit of them all, and felt that he had the strong sympathies of his hearers. His words "dropped like the rain, and distilled as the dew." Doctrine, illustration, exhortation, application, all were excellent, and there was an unction in the whole discourse that left upon the audience impressions most highly favorable to the faith he was setting forth. On another occasion, at the closing of a session of the New Hampshire Convention, at Lebanon, he was the last preacher of the occasion. Very able and impressive discourses had been delivered by five other ministers. Mr. Streeter, in an apparently extemporaneous effort, took special notice of the matter and manner of them all, and of the characters of the speakers; and when he alluded to the sermon of the young and beloved Hanscom, as "an eloquent appeal from one whose hollow and sepulchral tones seemed to indicate that the youthful and faithful speaker was nearing the tomb," the effect was exceedingly impressive.

During the editorial career of Mr. Streeter with the "Christian Intelligencer," he proved himself an able and effective writer, and did much to call attention to the religious principles which he advocated. While in Portland, he was neighbor to Dr. Edward Payson, of distinguished memory in the Congregational Churches; a very zealous advocate of Christianity, as he understood it, and who regarded the Gospel as promulgated by Mr. Streeter as a pernicious and deadly heresy. Mr. Streeter was somewhat fond of looking after him, and noting what he considered to be some of his errors in doctrine. One evening the two happened to greet each other at a meeting where Dr. Payson presided and which Mr. Streeter attended. Soon theological questioning and cross questioning took place, and some very strong denunciatory words were used by the Doctor, who was evidently much excited. Mr. Streeter was cool and keen in his replies, and soon pushed the Doctor into a very close corner, causing him to contradict himself, and to appear to his friends and all present to great disadvantage. It was a triumph of temper as well as of theological ability. The Doctor, saintly man as he surely was, evidently felt the force of his neighbor's replies to him.

Mr. Streeter was an able writer. His "Familiar Conversations" have been much read. They were adapted to the time in which they were written, and so were some of his works on the revival movements of the Orthodox Churches in New England and elsewhere, thirty or forty years ago. His little volume entitled, "The Latest News from Three Worlds, – Heaven, Earth, and Hell," was a scorching satire upon the extravagances connected with these movements. Scriptural argument and strong logic are mixed with keenest wit, mirthfulness, tenderness, and rhetoric most glowing and redundant. The ministers and churches to whom these reviews were addressed must have seen themselves in no very commendable light in that glass. Those who have once read the book attentively are not likely to forget it. While engaged in the "Burchard War" in Vermont, he published a pamphlet entitled, "Mirror of Calvinistic Fanaticism; or, Jedediah Burchard & Co., During a Protracted Meeting of Twenty-six Days in Woodstock, Vt." It was an effective issue.

During most of his ministry, Mr. Streeter was a zealous and successful advocate of the temperance reform. His addresses were always lively and interesting, full of anecdote, ludicrous hits, and quaint sayings. He was popular in all places and with all sects in this work, and many who would hardly consent to hear him advocate his religious sentiments realized much enjoyment in listening to his defence of temperance principles. On one occasion he was in the pulpit with a clergyman whose sense of self-dignity was "above the ordinary," and who evidently had no strong inclination to be the subject of a joke. While Mr. Streeter was addressing the meeting, he took occasion to describe the different mixtures of strong drink which were in use almost everywhere previous to the temperance reformation. "The last article of all," said he, "added to perfect the dram, was – was – really, strange to say, but I have just now lost the name! Will some one please to mention it?" "Nutmeg!" exclaimed the dignified clergyman near him. "That's it!" responded Mr. Streeter. "He's well informed in these matters, I'll warrant you."

We have heard an account of his attendance, in Western New York, at a meeting where a Methodist and a Universalist were to preach in the same meeting-house one Sunday. The Universalist was to speak in the morning, and the Methodist in the afternoon. In the last sermon the preacher was very severe in his treatment of Universalists and their doctrine. Mr. Streeter, seeing that there would be no opportunity for a rejoinder to his statements, asked his ministering brother the privilege of taking his place in offering the closing prayer, in which, in the most reverential, solemn, and emphatic manner, he briefly noted what he considered the misrepresentations of the last speaker, and left upon the audience an impression decidedly favorable to his own faith. The whole exercise, quaint as it was, was so remarkably able and timely, that all criticism of it seemed to be silenced.

Rev. Thomas Jones was a successor of Rev. John Murray, at Gloucester, Mass. He came from the Methodists in England, and once belonged to the Lady Huntington connection. He was a veritable Welshman, honest, kind-hearted, blunt in speech, and unique in his method and style of sermonizing. His discourses were most positive statements of Universalism, and abounded in Scriptural quotations. Some one wittily said of Father Balfour, that so great was his reliance on the authority of the Bible, that he would go to it to find out whether a suspected bank-note were counterfeit or not. A parishioner of Father Jones remarked of him, that he could hardly get through saying grace, even at a Fourth of July festival, without repeating the passage, "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." He had a long settlement in Gloucester, and died there at a ripe old age (eighty-three), Aug. 20, 1846. The discourse at the funeral was delivered by Rev. A. D. Mayo, the officiating minister and pastor at the time. He paid a just tribute to the honored old Christian soldier, and to the early defenders of our faith in America.

Rev. Paul Dean received fellowship as a Universalist minister in 1805. He afterwards preached extensively in Vermont and New Hampshire, and moved to Whitestown, N. Y., in 1810. He traversed frequently large portions of Central and Western New York, and held several successful discussions, – two, particularly, with Rev. Mr. Lacy, then a Methodist, afterwards an Episcopalian Bishop. He removed to Boston in 1813, and in 1823 his friends left the First Church, and built for him the church in Bulfinch Street, now Unitarian. About 1828, he withdrew from the fellowship of the Universalists, and, with a few others, formed the "Massachusetts Restorationist Association." On its decline he left Boston, and settled in Framingham, in 1840. He was an eloquent and popular preacher, and was for many years an active Freemason, holding, during the greater part of his manhood, the highest offices of that Order in the United States. He died in Framingham, of paralysis, Oct. 5, 1860, aged seventy-seven years.

In his early ministry, Mr. Dean, while in Central New York, was subject to the oppositions which others of his fraternity sometimes encountered. On one occasion, an over-zealous woman was so highly incensed at the expectation of his coming to the house where she resided, that she had in preparation a kettle of hot water with which to greet him, but was prevented by others from effecting her evil design.

An honest and clear-minded man was Rev. Walter Balfour, who came from his native Scotland to Charlestown, Mass. He was first a Congregationalist, and afterwards a Baptist, and an acceptable preacher with both sects; a Greek and Hebrew scholar, and well instructed in sacred literature. A most conscientious believer was he in the old theology of Scottish orthodoxy. He had never dreamed that Universalism could be true. But he was a reader and thinker, and especially inclined to the good use of his logical powers. He read the works of American orthodox authors, among whom was Professor Stuart of Andover, for whose opinions he had profound respect. The Professor became engaged in a controversy with the eminent Unitarian, Dr. Channing, and Mr. Balfour followed up the discussion with deep interest. In his attempts to set forth Christ as equal with God, the Professor cited the words of the Revelator (Rev. v. 13), where "things in heaven, in earth, and under the earth" (a periphrasis for the universe), are said to bow the knee to Jesus, and ascribe blessing, honor, glory, and power to him. "If this be not spiritual worship," says the Professor, "and if Christ be not the object of it here, I am unable to produce a case where worship can be called spiritual and divine." Mr. Balfour read and pondered. He had not doubted the Trinity, the equality of Christ with the Father. But what is the import of this statement, that the universe is offering spiritual worship to Christ? Is this the Professor's meaning? Would he thus avow the truth of Universalism? He becomes anxious on the subject; addresses a respectful but earnest letter to the Andover teacher, asking an explanation of this statement; awaits patiently an answer, but none comes. Writes again and again, still receiving no reply. After nearly a year and a half, his last appeal is made. An equivocal answer came, expressing unwillingness to reply to anonymous newspaper writers! Frivolous pretension, and in discreditable contrast with the honesty and sincerity of the inquirer. Bound to oppose Universalism, as the creed of the Institution compelled him to, why would not the Professor seek to save this inquirer from its fatal enticements? But the Professor's neglect was the inquirer's opportunity. He continued his inquiries, and the result was his conversion to the Universalist faith, his life interest in it afterwards, and the writing of volumes in its defence, which aided in disseminating a knowledge of it widely throughout the land. Thus Andover inadvertently, through the unwillingness of this its teacher to save the honest inquirer from error, gave to the Universalist Church one of its ablest, most devoted, and worthy ministers and defenders. That is a part of its history henceforth.

A minister of marked character, and of much service to the Universalist Church, was Rev. John Bisbe. He was a Massachusetts man, and graduated at Brown University, in 1814. He was a student of law for a short time in Taunton, and while employed as a teacher in New Hampshire, became acquainted with Universalism, and subsequently a preacher of it. His reading was extensive, and his knowledge of the English language quite thorough. In ordinary conversation he expressed himself with a striking precision. He preached first in Connecticut and Western Massachusetts, and was settled in Hartford, Conn., from 1824 to 1827, when he became pastor of the Universalist Church in Portland, Me. He was an impressive preacher, with no attempt at the sensational. His personal appearance was notable: a thin man, of stiff, perpendicular carriage and measured walk; with light hair, pale face, and very dark eyes, almost a glittering black. The distinguished literary author, John Neal, said of him: —