the Saviour as the Lord our Righteousness, and his divine power to make all things new." The "_Notes on the Parables_" have unquestionably led thousands of minds to valuable improvement in the knowledge of the Scriptures, and converted many a longing soul to the precious and joyful belief of universal salvation. At the time when these Notes were written, the light which has now become so general and evident to nearly every candid seeker after truth,--the true light of the gospel of Christ,--seemed to be but just dawning; the warm and genial sun of the true faith but faintly tinged the east; but ere long it rose steadily and majestically, until it radiated its noon-day warmth, in meridian splendor and beauty. We should remember that the author of the "Notes" enjoyed the use of no other book than the Bible in forming and promulgating his own opinions, which have since become the general belief of the Universalist order. The book is especially lucid and original in its style, and bears in its pages constant evidence of deep and careful research. In an excellent book lately issued by the publisher of this biography, entitled a Memoir of Rev. S. R. Smith, written by Rev. Thomas J. Sawyer, D. D., of Clinton, N. Y., we find the following incident related, referring to this period of Mr. Ballou's life. It is from the pen of the subject of the memoir, Rev. Stephen R. Smith, concerning whose Christian excellence too much cannot be said. "By what means the intelligence that Hosea Ballou would preach on the following Sunday, in a place fifteen miles distant, could have been conveyed to a very young man, who did not then know a single Universalist in the world, is not remembered. He went, however, and heard a discourse in the morning, from Zech. 6:13; and, for the first time in his life, felt that he had listened to a sermon that neither involved an absurdity nor a contradiction. The congregation was not large, and occupied a school-house in the present city of Utica, then a meagre and muddy village. A larger congregation was anticipated in the afternoon, and arrangements were made for the service in the open air, under some trees, on the bank of the Mohawk river. There, in due time, a large auditory assembled, and listened to one of Mr. Ballou's best discourses, from Deut. 33: part of the 16th with the 17th verse. It was a glorious day, early in June. The silence of Sunday was around us; the bright blue heavens above us, partly veiled by the branches of a few scattering oaks; the clear, quiet river at our side; the ruddy and healthy preacher, in all the vigor of manhood, before us, and pleading the cause of God and humanity with a group of most attentive hearers. Such a scene is not to be forgotten; and, altogether, it was one, in every respect, calculated to make the most lasting impression. And such certainly were its effects upon the mind of the writer. For, while it left him without any pretension to the knowledge or belief of