Biography of Rev. Hosea BallouBallou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Religion
Biography of Rev. Hosea Ballou
Ballou, Maturin M. (Maturin Murray)
Ballou, Hosea, 1771-1852; Clergy -- United States -- Biography; Universalists -- United States -- Biography
"He then rose and remarked on various points of my arguments, allowing
their justness and propriety. 'But,' said he, 'as the conclusions which
have been drawn in favor of the salvation of all men rest entirely on
the will of God, if we can prove that God's will is not done, in many
instances which may be named, it follows necessarily that the doctrine
contended for may not be true.' This he then labored to make out. Now,
feeling confident that he had shaken my foundation in the minds of our
hearers, he proceeded to quote passages upon which he relied to prove
the endless misery of the wicked. When he had got through and sat down,
I arose and told the people that I knew no better way to answer to what
our brother had urged, than to allow that he had refuted the doctrine of
the salvation of all men by proving the failure of God's will in many
instances; and this being granted, it also must be granted that God's
will in regard to the endless misery of sinners might fail of being
accomplished also! This reply came so suddenly on the minds of the
congregation that it brought them on their feet, and the aspect which
they presented was so peculiar as to abash our brother, and induce him
to say something more, which the people did not stop to hear. He then
turned to me, and said that he did not mean what I had stated to the
audience. I told him in reply that what I had to do with, was what he
had said."
This is but an example of the various incidents, controversies, and
adventures that he was constantly encountering on his frequent missions
into the country; vicissitudes that taught him much of human nature,
and rendered him ever prompt and ready in reply, familiarized him with
various temperaments, dispositions, and phases of character, and thus
enabling him to speak and act more understandingly when again assailed
in a like manner, as well as to put his experience to other available
use.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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