Joshua Flagg, who had succeeded Mr. Ballou at Salem, offered the concluding prayer. "Thus was Mr. Ballou duly installed as pastor. The congregations that attended on his ministry were exceedingly large. He soon became widely known for his eloquence and boldness, and the novel nature of the subjects discussed by him. His preaching was of a controversial and doctrinal character. He explained, in his discourses, those texts which had been supposed to teach the doctrine of a judgment in the future state, and endless torment. He was repeatedly called on, by letter, from inquirers after truth, to preach from particular texts of this character; and, as he gave public notice of the time when he would explain such passages, his audiences were immensely large. It was usual, from Sabbath to Sabbath, to see the meeting-house filled, in the forenoon, so that it was difficult to obtain a seat. In the afternoon, many would be obliged to stand, especially in the galleries, and around the head of the stairs; and in the evening the aisles would be crowded, above and below. "For the last six or eight years preceding the rise of the Second Universalist Society, Universalism had produced little or no excitement in Boston. The First Society remained stationary. Mr. Dean, its pastor, preached little on those subjects on which he differed from other sects. In the vicinity of Boston there was no movement in favor of Universalism. There were scarcely ten Universalist pastors in Massachusetts. The cause was evidently languid. The rise of the Second Universalist Society in Boston, and the removal of Mr. Ballou thither, produced a new state of things. There arose a commotion among the elements; but the effect was to purify the atmosphere, and give men a clearer and more extended vision. New societies, holding Mr. Ballou's sentiments, soon began to arise around Boston." On settling in Boston, he at once found a host of true and solicitous friends, whose interest in his ministry, respect for his character, and attention to his general welfare, enlisted in their behalf his warmest feelings of regard; sentiments which were ever cherished by him to the last, and frequently recurred to at his own fireside, and in the quiet of his family circle. Exercised by a realizing sense of this fact, the more keenly when he remembers that his father can give oral form to these feelings no longer, the author of this humble biography has at its commencement dedicated it to the subject's cherished friends.