From Lowell Mr. Thayer removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1845. His six years in this city were years of great usefulness to his church and beyond its limits. He connected himself with the Odd Fellows, and became editor of the "Golden Rule," a paper published in the interest of the fraternity. In 1847 he gave a series of lectures on "Social Progress," which were reported in part for the N. Y. "Tribune," as also a series of lectures on the "Dangers of City Life," especially in reference to young men. He was active in advocating social reform, the efforts for juvenile vagrants, and for the moral elevation of the poor.
Dr. Thayer has remarkable qualifications for a Christian minister, teacher, pastor, and writer. His sermons are always alive with thought, easily and earnestly delivered, doctrinally strong and clear, practically pointed, and plain; a mixture often of forcible preaching (not reading) from manuscript, and freest extemporaneous outpouring, sweet and fresh with the heavenly fragrance of the Gospel. In his Scripture readings at the opening of the church service, he is usually very acceptable to the hearers, interspersing the reading with explanatory words and brief practical inferences.
Dr. Thayer is well known as an author. In the early days of his ministry he published a volume entitled "Christianity against Infidelity," an able and a timely offering to the public,—a strong and candid appeal to the reader in behalf of the Christian Gospel from the Universalist standpoint. The work was some years afterwards enlarged, embracing the objections to historical Christianity by Strauss and Renan, and replies to them. A republication of this work would be timely now, in this season of theological thought, of religious drifting and doubt, of indifference and scepticism. His "Theology of Universalism" is a work of great merit, as also his admirable volume "Over the River." They deserve a place in the library of every minister, and should find a home in every Universalist family.
His most valuable work, however, has been done as editor of the "Universalist Quarterly." His qualifications for this service are striking. In addition to the able discussions in the publications from the pens of other authors, the department containing the editor's outlook into the religious world, his notes and comments on the times, and his discriminating notices of new publications, is of itself a rich and welcome entertainment to all who are familiar with the pages of the Quarterly, a review reflecting great honor upon the Universalist Church, and which the Universalist fraternity cannot afford to lose or neglect.
After closing his ministry in Brooklyn, Dr. Thayer had a second pastorate in Lowell with his old society, during which a severe calamity came to him. He was thrown from a carriage by a frightened horse, and so badly injured that for some time his survival seemed very doubtful. His many friends were deeply anxious, and the strain upon his physical system was intense. But through all this terrible sorrow his faith and hope sustained and inspired him, and the lessons of his sickness and Christian endurance were to many souls more impressive than any they had ever received from his pulpit ministrations. It was a cheering event to hosts of friends that he was gradually restored to the calling he so much loved, though with the effects of the accident upon him which must go with him through life. He afterwards removed to Boston, and was for a few years the much-esteemed pastor of the Shawmut Universalist Church in this city. Since his resignation there he has frequently supplied pulpits in the vicinity of Boston, always to great acceptance. At the present time he is engaged principally in his work with the pen.
Notwithstanding the unquestionable qualifications of Dr. Thayer as a public speaker, he is usually inclined to distrust himself, but no one of our ministers, when called upon to present any question of importance at the public assemblings of the church, is more acceptable than he. His lively musical notes of Christian truth and earnestness are sure to awaken a response in the souls of the listeners.
Rev. William Stevens Balch, of Elgin, Ill., is one of the oldest of the Universalist ministers now in active service. He was born in Andover, Vt., April 13, 1806. He received fellowship as a minister, of the General Convention at Saratoga, N. Y., in September, 1827, and ordination in Claremont, N. H., in June, 1828. His first location was in Windham County, Vt., boarding in Dummerston, preaching in neighboring towns one Sunday in each month, travelling on foot to the several stations, and receiving the payment of five dollars per Sunday. He remained there preaching in nearly every town in that region, until invited to his first settlement in Albany, N. Y., January, 1831. Being after a time worn down with over-exertion, he felt obliged to leave, and was settled next in Watertown, Mass., to which place he had been invited before going to Albany. His health soon improved, and he found himself in the receipt of a salary of $450. But again his health failed, and he was induced to remove to Claremont, N. H., in April, 1832. He preached there half the time, and supplied in Hartland and Springfield, Vt., and Newport, N. H., until a new church in Claremont was finished. Here he was very actively employed, not only as a pastor, but in doing missionary work in every direction.
In September, 1835, at the General Convention held in Hartford, Conn., he was recommended by Rev. Dolphus Skinner to a committee of the society in Providence, R. I., which was there to find a preacher "not committed to Restorationism or Ultra-Universalism," in reference to which isms the parish was quite divided. Mr. Balch consented to supply three Sundays, not as a candidate, for he desired to live in the country. He was, however, invited and urged to settle there, which he did, after some hesitancy, in March, 1836. His ministry proved a successful one. In two years the large church was crowded, and a second society was formed in the city. In 1842 he was invited to go as a candidate to the church in Bleecker St., N. Y. He declined, but soon after received a call to become the pastor there. Having become interested in what was known as the "Dorr" movement, and freely expressing his wish to have a "Republican form of government" by a Constitution, and seeing a political storm brewing, he accepted the call from New York, and settled there in November, 1842.
In 1848 he visited Europe, intending to go to Palestine. The troubles of that year made it difficult to go further than Rome. In 1852 he was asked by two men, not of his church, with whom a third joined, to go abroad if he wished, with full permission and means to journey as far and stay as long as he pleased. He was wise enough to accept the generous offer, and travelled extensively in Europe, extending his journey to Palestine, across the Desert, and through Egypt to Nubia.
After seventeen years' hard work in preaching, lecturing, and writing on religious and moral reform topics, he became quite worn down, and resolved to take life a little more leisurely for his body's sake, an exceedingly difficult course for him. He went to Ludlow, Vt., in 1859, preaching there half the time, and supplying other places, lecturing, and really working as hard as when in New York city. He then had another removal, to Galesburg, Ill., where he preached five years, and again resolved to retire, and removed to Hinsdale in 1870. But he still preached. In 1871 he was urged to come to Elgin, Ill., where the minister's work was still before him. In 1877 he entered the plea of old age and resigned, purposing a visit to California. Meantime he was invited to preach a Sunday in Dubuque, Iowa. The result was another pastorate. He refused to "settle," but consented to supply a few Sundays until the society could obtain a pastor. He continued three years and three months, not removing his family, but staying there. His ministry gave great encouragement to the church in Dubuque.