We have enlarged somewhat upon this doctrine of divine love, and trust that our readers will bear with us in our desultory career, since this principle is the fundamental basis of Universalism,--the starting-point and the goal, the Alpha and the Omega, of Mr. Ballou's spiritual experience and teaching. By it he reconciled the impulses of his heart and the promptings of his intellect. The principle of God's perfect, unchanging and eternal love of man, was the great discovery of his earliest manhood, the object of his self-imposed mission, the inspiration and solace of his labors, the spirit and joy of his existence. His adamantine belief in this great idea, daily strengthening by the study of God's works and word, was his shield and spear. It touched his lips with living fire, as he stood in the pulpit, or beneath the blue canopy of heaven, where he often preached; in the solitude of his study, in the busy haunts of men, it fed the flickering lamp of life when it waned with severe exertion, and it shone like the brightest star of heaven on his dying bed. It was no solitary joy; the treasure he had found he journeyed through the land to share with others. From his lips the glad tidings rang through every nook and corner; and he lived, as we have seen, long enough to hear the accents caught up by the willing and faithful watchmen of the gospel, and the cry of "All's well!" echo from port to port, from battlement to battlement, on the castles of Zion, through the vast circumference of his native land. He saw his denominational congregation swollen from a little band of eager listeners to an auditory numbering hundreds of thousands. He saw the shadows of unbelief flying from the face of truth, as the mist of morning disappears before the rising sun. And he felt joyful, but not proud or elated, in the consciousness that his sacred mission had been crowned with such complete success, and that multitudes recognized the truth which he first enunciated, that _the law of God was the law of love_. But let us give place here to his own words, beautifully expressed, and illustrating his belief, and the _spirit_ of his doctrine, as appears in a poem he wrote upon this theme, some years since. It is entitled GOD IS LOVE. "When lovely Spring, with flowery wreaths, Comes on young Zephyr's wing, And every bird soft music breathes, 'Tis love that makes them sing. Love blossoms on the forest trees, And paints each garden flower, Gives honey to the laboring bees In every sylvan bower. Love breathes in every wind that blows, And fragrance fills the air; Meanders in each stream that flows, Inviting pleasures there. Love brings the golden harvest in, And fills her stores with food; It moves ten thousand tongues to sing Of universal good."