"Eloquence, to be profitable, must come from the heart," says Mr. Ballou; "none other will prove effectual. I have heard men speak in public, yea, in the sacred pulpit, with an apparent effect that was evinced in every hearer; but when I turned away from the temple whither we had come up to worship the living God, and was led to review the word as spoken to that people, I could only recall the minister's excellent oratory, his faultless gesticulation, his admirable _performance_. Alas! what great truth had he illustrated, whom had he glorified save himself, whom enlightened as to the unbounded grace and goodness of God? And then I have prayed that Heaven would turn the noble endowments with which it had blessed that brother to a more worthy use, and fill his heart with that meekness and self-sacrificing spirit that is as a sweet and acceptable incense before the throne of Jehovah." Ministers who follow this style of rhetorical and flowery preaching are not unfrequently pronounced very eloquent, and indeed are able to fix the attention, and much to interest an audience. But it is unprofitable eloquence; like the cypress, which is great and tall, yet bears no fruit. Pope has truthfully said,--"Flowers of rhetoric in serious discourses are like the blue and red flowers in corn, pleasing to the eye, but prejudicial to the harvest!" Keeping at the greatest distance from such errors, Mr. Ballou looked upon man as an intellectual and responsible being; believing that truth is the food for that intellect to thrive upon, and keeping the whole range of man's natural duties before him, his discourses were weighty, not in decorations for the fancy, but in sound reasoning upon the holy text, and in impressive and useful practical sentiment. This was his principle of theology, and, moved by such feelings, he never wasted time "In sorting flowers to suit a fickle taste." Or, as the editor of the Christian Freeman says, relative to this trait of his character:--"It was not so much his concern to be a man-pleaser, as to be a teacher and benefactor of men. Hence he would grapple with the errors of men, and take them out of the way; he would explain and elucidate the Scriptures; he would appeal to the reason and the moral sense of the people; and all in the most kind and magnanimous spirit. Thus he excited the active opposition of the conservative and creed-bound, elicited the earnest inquiry of multitudes of the people, and 'filled the world with his doctrine.'" "He lived faithful to his own convictions of truth," says Rev. W. A. Drew, of the Gospel Banner, "never sacrificed a principle to the love of popularity, stood by his integrity as resolutely as ever martyr stood at the stake, brought no reproach upon his cause, but lived in the adornment of his profession, and died consistently with his life."