His words fell on my ear with power. My difficulties returned with sevenfold force. And with them came the consciousness that my associates had not so much confidence in Universalism, as they gave their hearers reason to believe they had. And when, a few years afterwards, I heard this preacher use the same argument in defence of Universalism which he had pronounced sophistical, I had great difficulty in believing him to be sincere in the defence of his avowed faith.

REMOVAL TO HARTFORD, CONN.

In the year 1832, I accepted an invitation to remove to Hartford, Connecticut, and take charge of the Universalist society in that place. My labors were successful, so far as securing a large congregation was concerned. For me my society professed a great regard; and in pecuniary matters, they did all that I could desire. But no good moral results attended my ministry. Though I expected, and fondly hoped, to see in the state of Connecticut another class of men

espouse my cause, and different fruits spring from my labors, than those I saw in Vermont, I was disappointed. The leading men in the Universalist society were avowed infidels. And of such the society had ever been composed. Its founders, those who built the meeting-house, and who, from the beginning of the society's existence, had sustained it, were open infidels. The first minister who preached in the Universalist meeting-house, found great trouble from this source; and finally was dismissed because

he preached against infidelity, and would not desist when told that he must. A very large number of the active men in the society under my charge, avowed to me their disbelief in the inspiration of the Bible. A majority of my committee, the clerk of the society, with seven eighths of the pew-holders, were possessed of the same opinions. My warmest personal friends, those the most regular in their attendance on preaching, the most liberal in their support of Universalism, women as well as men, were frank enough to tell me, in my parochial visits, that they had no more faith in the Bible than they had in the Koran. Some few, perhaps, read the Bible to find proof texts of Universalism; but, for the most part, few opened it at all; and in no case that I ever knew, was it read in the family as an act of religious duty.

If you ask, why such persons attended meeting at all, if they were unbelievers in the Bible, I will give you the reason they assigned to me when I proposed the same question. They thought that superstition, as they used to call religion, should be checked; that something must be done to keep their wives and children from being Orthodox; - the world, they thought, was not yet quite prepared for a full advocacy of truth, and Universalism came so near their idea of truth, that it was the best thing the world at present would bear. Hence they supported its

ministry.

But the absence of good moral results was not the only evil with which I was called to contend. I not only turned no sinner from the error of his ways; called back no soul from the road of death; but I saw

His words fell on my ear with power. My difficulties returned with sevenfold force. And with them came the consciousness that my associates had not so much confidence in Universalism, as they gave their hearers reason to believe they had. And when, a few years afterwards, I heard this preacher use the same argument in defence of Universalism which he had pronounced sophistical, I had great difficulty in believing him to be sincere in the defence of his avowed faith.

REMOVAL TO HARTFORD, CONN.

In the year 1832, I accepted an invitation to remove to Hartford, Connecticut, and take charge of the Universalist society in that place. My labors were successful, so far as securing a large congregation was concerned. For me my society professed a great regard; and in pecuniary matters, they did all that I could desire. But no good moral results attended my ministry. Though I expected, and fondly hoped, to see in the state of Connecticut another class of men espouse my cause, and different fruits spring from my labors, than those 1 saw in Vermont, I was disappointed. The leading men in the Universalist society were avowed infidels. And of such the society had ever been composed. Its founders, those who built the meeting-house, and who, from the beginning of the society's existence, had sustained it, were open infidels. The first minister who preached in the Universalist meeting-house, found great trouble from this source; and finally was dismissed because

he preached against infidelity, and would not desist when told that he must. A very large number of the active men in the society under my charge, avowed to me their disbelief in the inspiration of the Bible. A majority of my committee, the clerk of the society, with seven eighths of the pew-holders, were possessed of the same opinions. My warmest personal friends, those the most regular in their attendance on preaching, the most liberal in their support of Universalism, women as well as men, were frank enough to tell me, in my parochial visits, that they had no more faith in the Bible than they had in the Koran. Some few, perhaps, read the Bible to find proof texts of Universalism; but, for the most part, few opened it at all; and in no case that I ever knew, was it read in the family as an act of religious duty.

If you ask, why such persons attended meeting at all, if they were unbelievers in the Bible, I will give you the reason they assigned to me when I proposed the same question. They thought that superstition, as they used to call religion, should be checked; – that something must be done to keep their wives and children from being Orthodox; - the world, they thought, was not yet quite prepared for a full advocacy of truth, and Universalism came so near their idea of truth, that it was the best thing the world at present would bear. Hence they supported its

ministry.

But the absence of good moral results was not the only evil with which I was called to contend. I not only turned no sinner from the error of his ways; called back no soul from the road of death; but I saw

positive evils attending my labors. Many who attended my ministry were grossly immoral, and more were waxing worse and worse.

One fact that transpired among others, made me very unhappy. On Sabbath evenings my church was usually crowded with young men. Many of these would leave the bar-rooms and dram-shops in the vicinity of my meeting-house, attend my lecture, and then retire again, at its close, to those places of infamy, and there pass nearly the whole night. They would drink my health, and praise me and my sermons in the awful words of profaneness and blasphemy.

Though I did not allow that my preaching encouraged licentiousness, I could not, if I would, disguise from myself the fact, that those young men thought that my doctrine strengthened their hands, and promised life to the wicked, though they turned not from their wicked ways. Else, why should they pause in their career of sin, enter my congregation, and, at the close of my service, return again to their licentious ways, and praise me according to my works, in the fearful terms to which I have already alluded?

The influence of these things upon my mind was disastrous in the extreme. I was oppressed beyond measure. I was not satisfied with the tendency of my faith; yet I thought my system was not an error. I did not wish to do my fellow-men an injury; still I knew that many could justly accuse me as being the author of their ruin.

When I removed to Hartford, I was a young man, just passed twenty-one years; zealous and full of hope. I had taken my opinions on religion, second