Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical SketchesAdams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Religion
Fifty Notable Years: Views of the Ministry of Christian Universalism During the Last Half-Century; with Biographical Sketches
Adams, John G. (John Greenleaf)
Universalism; Universalist Church -- Biography; Universalists -- Biography; Universalists -- United States -- History
His son, Rev. MOSES BALLOU, held a prominent place in our church as
one of its talented ministers, and as a writer of more than ordinary
ability. He was born in Munroe, Mass., March 24, 1811. Educated at the
academy at Brattleboro, Vt., he began preaching at the age of
twenty-two. One of his earliest charges was at Bath, N. H. He was
subsequently settled at Portsmouth, where he had pastorates twice. He
had charge of the churches at Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven,
Conn., and in later years removed to New York city, where he was
pastor of the Bleecker Street Church. He then came to Philadelphia,
and took charge of the Church of the Restoration. Failing in health,
he gave up his work in that city, and removed to Atco, N. J. His
friends there erected for him a small church edifice, where he held
service when able so to do. He died in Philadelphia, May 19, 1879.
He was the author of two books,--one the "Memorial of Rev. Merritt
Sanford;" the other, "The Divine Character Vindicated," a review of
Rev. Edward Beecher's work, entitled "The Conflict of Ages." This
last-named volume indicates the masterly mental strength of the man.
Dr. Beecher himself, we are informed, acknowledged it to have been the
ablest of any reply made to his work. It has never yet been read by
Universalists as it deserves to be. Mr. Ballou was not only a strong
and logical writer, but an earnest and eloquent preacher. Dr. T. B.
Thayer writes of him:--
"In his best days, when in the vigor of his manhood, physically and
mentally, few men could hold a thoughtful and intellectual audience
to closer attention than he; and even those who differed from him
theologically acknowledged the ability with which he maintained his
positions, and were little disposed to enter the lists of
controversial argument against them. And at times when the great
truths of the Gospel seemed, in the midst of his speaking, to dawn
upon him in new and larger revelation, he would break into speech
that thrilled his hearers, and lifted them for a space into the
fellowship of the angels.
"He knew for a good while that the end was approaching, and he was
ready. Death was to him only the door that opened into the new
immortal life, which was almost as presently real to him as the life
he was living here. And when, at the last, his life-long friend,
Rev. James Shrigley, said good-bye to him, he exclaimed, 'Why say
good-bye, when we shall meet again to-morrow?'"
[Illustration: H. Ballou 2d.
From a Dag.
H. W. Smith Sc.
J. H. Daniels Pr.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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