IMAGE EVALUATION 
 TEST TARGET (MT-3) 
 
 M/n 
 
 SSib. 
 
 k 
 
 
 .^^. 
 
 
 J 
 
 
 l/. 
 
 ^ 
 
 .<9 
 
 i/. 
 
 1.0 
 
 i!l !.l 
 
 l^|2^ 12.5 
 
 |50 ■^■" !■£ 
 
 •« 13* 111112.2 
 
 
 IL25 i u 
 
 — 6" 
 
 1.6 
 
 ^ 
 
 V] 
 
 (? 
 
 /] 
 
 ^l 
 
 
 m 
 
 Photographic 
 
 ^Sciences 
 
 Corporation 
 
 33 WIST MAIN STRUT 
 
 WIUTIR, N.Y. 1 tSSO 
 
 (716) ■72-4S03 
 
 
 V 
 
 4' 
 
 '\ 
 
 i\ 
 
 /\ «■ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
CIHM/ICMH 
 
 Microfiche 
 
 Series. 
 
 CIHM/ICMH 
 Collection de 
 microfiches. 
 
 Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions / Institut Canadian de microreproductions historiquas 
 
 r^\ 
 
 1981 
 
 wm 
 
Technical and Bibliographic Notes/Notes techniques et bibliographiques 
 
 T 
 t( 
 
 The Institute has utten^pted to obtain the best 
 original copy available for filming. Features oi this 
 copy which may be bibliographicatiy unfque, 
 which may alter any of the images in the 
 reproduction, or which may signlflsantiy change 
 the usual method of filming, are checiced below. 
 
 n 
 
 
 n 
 
 Coloured covers/ 
 Couvertura de couleur 
 
 I I Covers damaged/ 
 
 Couverture endommagde 
 
 Covers restored and/or laminated/ 
 Couverture restaur^e et/ou pellicul6e 
 
 Cover title .nissing/ 
 
 Le titre de couverture manque 
 
 Coloured maps/ 
 
 Cartes giographiques en couleur 
 
 Coloured tr.k (i.e. other than blue or blacl<)/ 
 Encre de couleur (i.e. autre que bleue ou noire) 
 
 I I Coloured plates and/or illustrations/ 
 
 D 
 
 Planches et/ou illustrations en couleur 
 
 Bound with other material/ 
 Relii avec d>utres d cumentc 
 
 Tight binding may cause shadows or distortion 
 along iniarior margin/ 
 
 La raliure serr^e pout causer de I'ombre ou de la 
 distortion le long de la marge intirieuro 
 
 Blank leaves added during restoration may 
 appear within the text. Whenever possible, these 
 have been omitted from filming/ 
 II se peut qu3 certainas pages blanches ajouties 
 lors dune rcntauration apparaissent dans le textiv, 
 mals, lorsque tela Atait possible, ces pages n'ont 
 pas 6tA filmies. 
 
 Additional comments:/ 
 Commentaires supplAmnntaires; 
 
 L'Institut a microfilm^ le meilleur exemplaire 
 qu'il lui a dt6 possible de se procurer. Las details 
 de cet exemp!alre qui sont peut-Atre uniques du 
 point de vue bibliographlque, qui peuvent modifier 
 une image reprodulte, ou qui peuvent exJger une 
 modification dans la m6thode normale de fllmage 
 sont indiquds ci-dessous. 
 
 □ Coloured pages/ 
 Pages de couleur 
 
 □ Pages damaged/ 
 Pages endommag^es 
 
 n Pages restored and/or laminated/ 
 Pages restaur^es et/ou pellicul6es 
 
 I 1 Pages discoloured, stained or foxed/ 
 
 D 
 
 Pages d6coior4es, tacheties ou piqu6es 
 
 Pages detached/ 
 Pages d6tachies 
 
 Showthrough/ 
 Transparence 
 
 Quality of prir 
 
 Qualiti i^rigale de I'impresslon 
 
 Includes supplementary materii 
 Comprend du materiel supplimentaire 
 
 Only edition available/ 
 Seule Edition disponible 
 
 rn Pages detached/ 
 
 I I Showthrough/ 
 
 rn Quality of print varies/ 
 
 I j Includes supplementary material/ 
 
 I I Only edition available/ 
 
 T 
 
 P 
 o 
 
 C 
 b 
 tl 
 
 si 
 o 
 fi 
 si 
 o 
 
 T 
 si 
 
 T 
 
 VI 
 
 IV 
 
 dl 
 ei 
 b( 
 ri< 
 re 
 m 
 
 Pages wholly or partially obscured by errata 
 sllips, tissues, etc., have been refilmed to 
 ensure the best possibEe image/ 
 Les pages totalement oii partiellernent 
 obscurcies par un feulllet d'errata, une pelure, 
 etc., ont M filmAes A nouveau de fapon A 
 obtenir la meilleure image possible. 
 
 This item Is filmed at the reduction ratio checked below/ 
 
 Ce document est filmA au taux de reduction indiquik ci-dessous. 
 
 10X 14X 18X 22X 
 
 28X 
 
 30X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 y 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 12X 
 
 16X 
 
 20X 
 
 24X 
 
 28X 
 
 32X 
 
tails 
 
 du 
 
 )difier 
 
 une 
 
 nage 
 
 The copy filmed here has been reproduced thanks 
 to the generosity of: 
 
 Library of the Public 
 Archives of Canada 
 
 The images appeasing here are the best quality 
 possible considering the condition and legibility 
 of the original copy and in keeping with the 
 ifilming contract specifications. 
 
 Original copies in printed paper covers are filmed 
 beginning with the front cover and ending on 
 the last page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, or the back cover when appropriate. All 
 other original copies are filmed beginning on the 
 first page with a printed or illustrated impres- 
 sion, and ending on the last page with a printed 
 or illustrated impression. 
 
 The last recorded frame on each microfiche 
 shall contain the symbol — ^»> (meaning "CON- 
 TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "SND "), 
 whichever applies. 
 
 L'exemplaire film6 fut reproduit grdce d la 
 gAniSrositi de: 
 
 La bibliothdque des Archives 
 publiques du Canada 
 
 Les images suivantes ont 6t6 reproduites avec le 
 plus grand soin, compte tenu de la condition et 
 de la nottetd de l'exemplaire filmd, et en 
 conformity avec les conditions du contrat de 
 fiimage. 
 
 Les exemplaires originaux dont la couverture en 
 papier est imprim6e sont filmds en commenpcmt 
 par le premier plat et en terminant soit par la 
 dernidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration, soit par le second 
 plat, selon le cas. Tous les autres exemplaires 
 originaux sont filmds en comntenpant par la 
 premidre page qui comporte une empreinte 
 d'impression ou d'illustration et en terminant par 
 ia dernidre pag? qui comporte une telle 
 empreinte. 
 
 Un des symboles suivants apparaftra sur la 
 dernlAre imaqe de cheque microfiche, selon le 
 casr le symbole — «» signifie "A SUiVRE ", le 
 symbols V signifie "FIN". 
 
 Maps, plates, charts, etc., may be filmed at 
 different reduction ratios. Those too large to be 
 entirely included in one expo ure are filmed 
 beginning in the uppnir left hand corner, left to 
 right and top to bottom, as many frames as 
 required. The following dfagrems illustrate the 
 method: 
 
 Les cartes, planches, tableaux, etc., peuvent dtre 
 film^s d des taux de reduction diff6rants. 
 Lorsque le document est trop grand pour dtre 
 reproduit en un seul cllchi. il est film6 A partir 
 de Tangle sup^rieur gauche, de gauche it droite, 
 et de haut en has, en prenant le nombre 
 d'in-iages ndcessaire. Les diagrammes suivants 
 illustrent la mdthode. 
 
 rata 
 
 
 
 teiure. 
 
 J 
 
 32X 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 
 4 
 
 5 
 
 6 
 

 A 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 1 1 
 
 Personal Reminiscences 
 
 or 
 
 LYMAN BEECHER, 
 
 BY 
 
 RET. JAMES 0. WHITE, M.A., 
 
 iUTUOB 01" "RILIOION AS IT SHOULD BE."' 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 FUNK & WAGNALLS, 
 
 10 & 12 Dry Sthrkt. 
 1883. 
 
IT;^ 
 
 C 
 
 
 I) 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Prefatory, 3. 
 
 Hanover St. Church, 3, 
 
 First Glimpse of Lyman Beecher,4. 
 
 Boston in 1825, 5. 
 
 Revival Fruits, 6. 
 
 Church Extension, 7. 
 
 Young Men's Associations, 8. 
 
 Boston Common, 8. 
 
 A Move Uptown, 9. 
 
 A Call to the West, 10. 
 
 Apostolic Eloquenoo, 11. 
 
 Dr. Beecher's Struggles, 11. 
 
 Beecher's Oil Jug, 12. 
 
 A Fight with Lotteries, 13. 
 
 A Fast-Day Discourse, 15. 
 
 An Escape from the Pulpit, 15. 
 
 Passion for Work, 17. 
 
 Pulpit Explosions, 17. 
 
 Street Scenes, 18. 
 
 The Woodsawyer, 19. 
 
 Absent-mindedness, 20, 
 
 Love of Fun, 21. 
 
 The Lost Hnnk-Notes, 21. 
 
 Dr. Lyman Beecher in the West, 24. 
 
 A New Recruit, 24. 
 
 A Sudden Change, 35. 
 
 The Professors at Lane, 26. 
 A Theological WildernesE, 28. 
 Seminary Life, 29. 
 Dr. Beecher as a Pastor, 29. 
 The Class of "43, 31. 
 Idiosyncrasies of Dr. Beecher, 81. 
 The Lost Horse, 33. 
 The Missing Money, 33. 
 The Repeated Lecture, 34. 
 Caught in a Snare, 35. 
 The Dutchman's Chase, 35. 
 Vehement Declamation, 86. 
 A Missionary Speecli, 37. 
 Care for Students. 38. 
 ! The Violin, 39. 
 Beecher's Handkerchiefs, 39. 
 His Spectacles, 40. 
 Qoodnaturedness, 41. 
 In Search of a Wife, 41. 
 Upset in the Dark, 43. 
 An Alleged Heretic, 48. 
 A Royal Preacber, 44. 
 A Conservative Reformer, 44. 
 Many-sided, 46. 
 In Private Life, 46. 
 His Closing Days, 46. 
 
 . \\ 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 LYMAN BEECHEE. 
 
 PART FIRST. 
 
 PREFATORY. 
 
 These personal reminiscences of Lyman Beecher,D.D., 
 refer, first to his life in Boston, Mass., from 1825 to 
 1832, and, secondly, to his residence at Lane Seminary, 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, from 1840 to 1850. The author was a 
 convert under Dr. Beecher's preaching in Boston, and is 
 an Alumnus of Lane Theological Seminary. So far as he 
 knows, these incidents are not to be found in any publica- 
 tion of the present day. They were presented in an ad- 
 dress before the '' Cincinnati Club" of the Alumni and 
 Faculty of Lane, at the Seminary, March 1880. 
 
 They are now written out for publication by the author, 
 and completed on his seventy-sixth birthday, October 
 12th, 1882. 
 
 HANOVER STREET CHURCH. 
 
 My first acquaintance with Lyman Beecher was in the 
 year 1825, in Boston. A new and spacious church edifice 
 of stone had been erected on Hanover Street. In the base- 
 
PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 ment story were the headquarters of the American Board 
 and of the American Tract Society. I was then a clerk 
 in a dry goods store near by, and also resided jn that 
 part of the city. A church had been organized in 1822, 
 with but thirty-seven members, and had not at this time 
 a settled pastor. 
 
 I was a meml>er of the society when Dr. Beecher was 
 first invited to preach to this church for two Sabbaths, 
 as a candidate for our pulpit. He was then settled in 
 Litchfield, Conn., but looking for some opening where he 
 could better provide for his family^ for he was in strait- 
 ened financial circumstances. Well known as he was as a 
 preacher of pre-eminent ability, his salary of eight hun- 
 dred dollars was insufficient for the support of his family. 
 His only other pastoral change at East Hampton, L. I., 
 had been made for the same reason. Dr. Beecher accept- 
 ed the invitation of the Hanover Street Church and society 
 for two Sabbaths, and improved the occasion to make a 
 visit to Portland, Me., with his second wife, who was a 
 Miss Porter, formerly of that city. The arrangement 
 was made for them to come in their own conveyance by 
 land, and for him to preach in Boston one Sabbath, both 
 going and coming on their Journey. 
 
 FIRST GLIMPSE OF LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 My first glimpse of the noted preacher, whose fame 
 had reached our ears, was had one autumnal Sabbath 
 morning as he rode up to the door of our new and ele- 
 gant church, with his wife, in a poor country chaise 
 covered with white cotton cloth. The horse and the 
 minister were both alike very unattractive as well as the 
 chaise. 
 
 We lads were watc^hing for his coming in front of the 
 church, where also stood the Committee of Reception 
 prepared to extend their welcome and to introduce him 
 to the people and the pulpit. I can now vividly remem- 
 ber my own feelings at tlie time, and the looks of those 
 
 t. 
 
 K 
 
LYMAX BEECHER. 
 
 V 
 
 fi 
 
 in waiting, which seemed to say : " Well, we are sold 
 this time!" We took our places in church with 
 an unmistakable air of grim disappointment. Dr. 
 Beecher opened the exercises and went into his work 
 with a will and with such an unceremonious freedom 
 that our Boston sense of propriety stood abashed! 
 Soon, however, the fire began to burn, the truth began to 
 pinch, and the audience began to rally from their de- 
 spondent wonderment, and to look around as if saying, 
 "What's the matter?" We all saw then and there 
 that the new candidate for Boston honors was master 
 of the situation. The old horse and chaise were forgot- 
 ten, and the three sermons of that day were the topic 
 of conversation for the week, and prepared the way for 
 the second Sabbath on his return from Portland. The 
 same cut-and thrust style of preaching was repeated, 
 which, v.hile it shocked all our notions of pulpit etiquette, 
 made it a foregone conclusion that this was the roan for 
 the new enterprise. It must be remembered that he had 
 now reached the so-called dead line of fifty. 
 
 BOSTON IX 1825, 
 
 The orthodox Congregational churches of Boston at 
 this time were Just entering a new era of spiritual life, 
 and in their devotion and enthusiasm, great anxiety was 
 manifest in regard to the new minister for the new 
 Hanover Street Church. 
 
 From the very beginning of Lyman Beecher's labors in 
 Boston a most remarkable revival of religion commenced 
 in this church, which continued almost without interrup- 
 tion for four years, and until the church building was 
 burned down in 18B0. This house was the headquarters 
 of a new phase of a living and aggressive orthodoxy and 
 also of missionary and tnict operations. When it caught 
 fire, publi<! sentiment showed itself by a marked indiffer- 
 ence among the fi remen t o subdue the flames. The 
 destruction was complete. 
 
6 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 i 
 
 The characteristics of this revival under Mr. Beecher's 
 preaching are worthy of note. We had the ordinary 
 preaching services of the Sabbath, morning, afternoon, 
 and evening ; the weekly lecture on Tuesday evening, 
 regular Friday evening prayer-meeting, regular inquiry 
 meeting, and special meetings for prayer. There was no 
 outside aid of an evangelist or layman, but an ine ased 
 and more earnest effort on the part of the membership in 
 closest sympathy with theu* pastor. He often said, 
 '' Brethren, it is my business to draw the bow, yours to 
 see where the arrow strikes and to bring in the wounded. ' ' 
 In addition to the services I have mentioned, we had two 
 regular sessions of Sunday-school each Sabbath, which 
 the pastor seldom attended. 
 
 The church was very small at first, but every member 
 was a prayerful v/orker, and they carried their pastor as 
 really as he carried them. Their co-operation was perfect. 
 
 REVIVAL B'RUITS. 
 
 I united witli the (;hurch by profession of faith Septem- 
 ber 1826, during the first year of Dr. Beecher's labors, 
 together with a company of about sixty. At the previous 
 communion there were about seventy-five received. These 
 new recruits were mainly young men and maidens, the 
 majority being young men. They were a superior class, 
 and they all entered at once with enthusiasm upon the 
 work of the church. So far as my knowledge goes, they 
 never turned back or became idlers in the vineyard. 
 There were fifteen present at the pastor's first inquiry 
 meeting. He was unwilling to call siicli a meeting with- 
 out assurance of there being at least fifteen who would 
 attend. At the second meeting the number was twenty, 
 at the third thirty-five, and at the fourth three hundred I 
 Beacon Laml)ert thought that the people had mistaken 
 the notice for a. preaching service. But the pastor was 
 enthusiastic and replied, " No they haven't, it's the finger 
 of Clod I" And so it was found to be. 
 
 (■ 
 
LYMAN BEECITER. 
 
 Soon after this, in the second year of his ministry, two 
 new churches, colonies from Hanover Street, organized 
 Salem Church at the North End, on Salem Street, and 
 Pine Street Church at the South End of Boston. This 
 movement marked a new era of great interest in the 
 orthodox movement in Boston. Dr. Beecher was 
 aroused to an unusual degree of spiritual power. He 
 appeared as one of the old Puritan fathers risen from the 
 dead. His residence was on Copp's Hill, No. 18 Sheafe 
 Street, and near by his house reposed the dust of " The 
 Mathers.^' Oftentimes as he came to the weekly prayer- 
 meeting and lecture there was in him a mighty uplifting 
 of passionate emotion, both in his prayers and sermons, a 
 tender but grand upheaval and on-moving power which 
 was like the rolling of a tidal wave on the beach of the 
 sea. Sometimes in his prayers I have heard him say, 
 " Come, Lord Jesus ! her(3 are the bones of the fathers, 
 here the crown was torn from thy brow, here behold thy 
 scattered flock upon the mountains ! Come, O good 
 Shepherd, gather them to thy fold, for they stumble in 
 the darkness of en-or !" 
 
 \ 
 
 CIIUECJI EXTENSIOX. 
 
 One of the fundamental ideas of Lyman P.eecher for 
 extending the kingdom of Christ, was that of church colo- 
 nization. He would often compare an overgrown church 
 to a large hive of bees, that consumed all the honey, 
 leaving none for a new colony. " So then, swarm early 
 and qften^^'' he woidd say, " and thus keep the old bees 
 a-working !" 
 
 I well remember the original meeting which had refer- 
 ence to the question of fornung a new church from the 
 new Hanover Street (me. The pastor was all ablaze. A 
 vote was about to be taken on the question. Mounting 
 a chair he cried out in clarion tones, " I move we organize 
 TWO, one for the North End and one for the South End I" 
 The motion was seconded and carried with enthusiasm. 
 
8 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 1/ 
 
 and $30,000 were subscribed on the spot with which to 
 commence. 
 
 YOUNG men's associations. 
 
 It was this year, 1827, that the first " Young Men's 
 Christian Association' ' was formed in the Hanover Street 
 Church. The next year one was organized in Salem 
 Church, one of the new colonies from Hanover Street. 
 Being one of the ninety-six original members, drafted 
 from the Hanover Street association, I joined that in Salem 
 Church. These asi sociations in each church were a gi'eat 
 power, and in their combined efforts were not equalled 
 by any organization of the kind from tha^j day to the 
 present. Our meetings were never open to any but the 
 working members. Our councils and our efforts were 
 known only to ourselves ; but we worked for the public 
 good, and through all public channels. There was in 
 Lyman Beecher the most enthusiastic sympathy with 
 young men in all their efforts for personal or public im- 
 provement. In our meetings he was always an inspiring 
 power, " Young gentlemen," he would say, " anything 
 can be done that ought to be done." One incident only 
 would I note as the result of our efforts. 
 
 ^ 
 
 BOSTON COMMON. 
 
 Booths and tables for the sale of intoxicating drinks 
 and small wares were allowed from time immemorial on 
 Boston Common. On all public days old Boston Com- 
 mon was as free as Faneuil Hall to the first comer. It 
 was the public playground long before the " Boston 
 boys" of the Revolution used it for sliding down hill on 
 their sleds. Wheii the English troops interfered with 
 this boyish sport, young America remonstrated with 
 emphasis against this invasion of immemorial rights. This 
 almost defiant protest prevailed, and led the commander 
 to report to the English Government that it would be a 
 difficult matter to subdue such a people, for the very 
 
 ^ 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 9 
 
 boys breathed in the air of freedom and stood up ooldly 
 for their rights ! 
 
 This preiimptive right of the people to the old Com- 
 mon for any purpose which they might choose had thus 
 far been unquestioned till we of the Y. M. C. A., under 
 Dr. Beecher as our captain, assaulted the stronghold of 
 intemperance in these liquor booths. It was a mighty 
 struggle — first, with the municipal authorities ; second, 
 with the judiciary ; and lastly, with public sentiment. 
 But we won the victory almost in the dark, for no one 
 knew from whence came the power that triumphed. 
 Those ancient privileges of liquor-selling and of riotous 
 revelry on- Boston Common on public days,, have never 
 been restored in the least degree to this day. 
 
 This was one of the grand results of the preaching of 
 those everlastingly famous " six sermons on intem- 
 .»ERANCE," by Lyman Beecher, which I heard him deliver 
 in the Hanover Street Church. A greater, grander, more 
 difficult, or more useful victory for ihe goor' of the Com- 
 monwealth of America or the Commonwealth of Israel 
 hr.3, perhaps, never been effected than was seen in this 
 utter overthrow of liquor-selling booths on Boston Com- 
 mon a half century ago. 
 
 A MOVE UPTOWN. 
 
 After the burning of the stone church on Hanover 
 Street in 1830, Dr. Beecher came with many of his people 
 to worship temporarily in our new Salem Church, at that 
 time without a pastor. His first sermon was from the 
 text, Isaiah 64 : 11 : " Our holy and our beautiful house, 
 where our fathers praised thee, is burned with fire ; and 
 all our pleasant things are laid waste." It was the cul- 
 minating hour of Dr. Beecher's greatness in Boston. The 
 sennon was great and tender, sublimely heroic and 
 sublimely submissive, to the highest point of human con- 
 ception ! 
 
 A new house of worship was erected on Bowdoin Street 
 
^mi 
 
 • 
 
 10 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 for the Hanover Street Church. It was move " uptown," 
 in 'I more aristocratic neighborhood, but, alas ! the spell 
 was broken ! The hero of a thousand battlefields never 
 recovered his mighty power or felt at home as before. 
 
 1 
 
 A CALL TO THE WEST. 
 
 It was under these circumstances, that the call from 
 Lane Seminary reached him, accompanied by the offer of 
 Arthur Tappan, of New York City, of $20,000 to the insti- 
 tution on condition of Dr. Beecher's acceptance. The 
 question for him to decide was one of deep and far-reach- 
 ing interest both to himself and the churches of New 
 England. His heart had always been wann for the West. 
 His well-known "Plea for the West " is sufTicient evi- 
 dence of this. The great battle of Grog and Magog was to 
 be fought in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. He longed 
 to have a perso""l part in it. But it was a fearful thing 
 to pull up a N England oak by the roots at a ripened 
 age and transplant it to the soil of the West. The point 
 that seemed at last to turn the scales was the munificent 
 offer of Mr, Tappan. Dr. Beecher said at last, ' ' I shall 
 never bring so much again/' and accepted. The Bo&ton 
 churches yielded with great reluctance. It was a sacri- 
 fice of no ordinary character. And to myself a,s well as 
 others, it appeared to be the great mistake of his life ; for 
 he was not a systematic or careful theologian, nor was he 
 a disciplinarian, but a prea(;her, preeminently ; and was 
 never at his best, even in the pulpit, after leaving Boston. 
 Still, I gladly recognizt- his great and good work for the 
 Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati, while its pas- 
 tor, in connection with the Seminary. It is cldmed by 
 many that he rescued that church and made it what it is 
 to day, a power in this city. Beside this, the spirit of 
 devoted enthusiasm with which he inspired the students 
 of Lane, and which lingers with us to this day was of 
 i^riceless value. 
 
 i 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 11 
 
 * 
 
 H 
 
 APOSTOLIC ELOQUENCE. 
 
 For learned dulness he had no compassion. Tinsel 
 and glitter, moonshine and icicles he abhorred ! He 
 would say to us, " Better animated noise than lukewarm 
 knowledge ! Tear passion to tatters, rather than carry a 
 dull piety and a graveyard S(jlemnity ! Theological stu- 
 dents need a mustard plaster all over the body to wake 
 them up, and to stimulate them to intense animation ! 
 We need true apostolic eloquence, or we shall have the 
 theatrical, artiticial declamation, the flash and start and 
 stare eloquence !" 
 
 It was in the '^ast valleys of the West that Dr. Beecher 
 confidently expected the last great conflict would be 
 fought. He never presented a grander militant figure 
 than when he stood sounding an alarm all along the line 
 and calling for troops for the West. " Young men fou 
 THE West !" was a more stirring battle-cry by Lyman 
 Beecher when in Boston than was ever Horace Greeley's 
 favorite exhortation f"om New York. 
 
 I)U. BEEClIEll S STllUGGLES. 
 
 The four years' v/ork in Boston by Mr. Beecher from 
 1826 to 18:30, gave new and permanent life to questions of 
 reform, and also to new institutions, by the unparalleled 
 quickening of the public puke, and the rallying of young 
 men to the conflict, whose love for the cau.e knew no 
 danger, and who shrank from iiO service or sacrifice. 
 
 It was ono intense, protracted struggle. Sometimes the 
 great preacher was down in the dr pest, darkest valley 
 of humiliation and despondency. Physical causes lielped 
 to depress. Dyspepsia was a constant attendant, and he 
 found it a desperate foe. Sometimes he would turn down 
 a chair upon tlie floor before a l)risk fire, and lying with 
 his head upon it, toiust liis feet. Then rolling over upon 
 the floor with constant groaninga, he would say, " Well, 
 I'm done for. It's all over with me now ! I shall no 
 
12 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 ' 
 
 \ 
 
 more see good I It is hard to see such an open door and 
 not be able to enter !" 
 
 At times it did seem to others as well as himself that 
 he would really die. But as soon as the disease yielded, 
 he was up and at work again with all his mind and 
 might. 
 
 Shovelling sand back and forth from one side of his 
 cellar to the other, and sawing wood, formed Ms constant 
 exercise. His violin and his children were never- failing 
 sources of amusement. His peculiarities were marked, 
 and most noticeable in his preaching, his prayers, and in 
 the inquiry-meeting. His prayers were original, compre- 
 hensive, sho.'t and sharply defined. In the inquiry- 
 meeting he was always at home, and on the alert. 
 
 He always seemed filled with fresh unction from on 
 high,, and was eminently judicious and successful. The 
 intense emotion with which he entered upon his minis- 
 terial services, whether of prayer or preaching, seemed fit- 
 ly pictured in the magnificent incoming of the ocean surge 
 on the beach. 
 
 beeciier's oil jug. 
 
 To show the wid'^-spread and abiding power of his in- 
 fluence after he had left Boston, I give a single incident : 
 Four or five years after he had removed to Ohio and seven 
 years after his great " Stone Fort," the church on 
 Hanover Street, was burned, I occupied a store on the old 
 site. I employed two Irishmen to dig a cellar at the rear 
 end of my store. They cut a trap door througli the floor, 
 down which they worked in a dim twilight. I was 
 standing one day on the floor of the store watching them 
 work. 
 
 One of the Irishmen was picking at one of the stones of 
 the old ch zrch building, which had been left with other 
 rubbish from the fire to fill up the rear of the former base- 
 ment and cellar. After picking ot it for some time, the 
 other Irishman said, " Mike, what have you got there ?" 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 13 
 
 The man replied, " An' faith, I don't know, unless it be 
 Beecher's He jug r'' The point to this reply lies here. 
 Our pastor's temperance practice was always ridiculed by 
 the liquor men in order to break the force of his preaching. 
 One of the current storit^s was that a grocery porter, in 
 taking to Dr. Beecher's house some oil in a jug, thought 
 he " smelt a rat," and taking out the stopper found that 
 the jug was filled with Ncao England rum ! Now these 
 Irishmen knew that they were on the site where stood 
 the church seven years before, and about under the place 
 where the high pulpit was from which stairs led down 
 into the basement. So, while no word had been said to 
 suggest the aubject, when the Irishman found the round 
 stone in the dimly -lighted hole, his reply to his comrade 
 showed that Mr. Beecher and his temperance preaching 
 were memories running in his mind, though the bold 
 
 reformer had been in Ohio for 
 lieve it is Beecher's ile jug !" 
 
 years. " Faith, an' I be- 
 
 A FIGHT WITH LOTTERIES. 
 
 < 
 
 The circumstances of his ministry in Boston were in- 
 tensely exciting. The great Unitarian controversy was 
 in progress. The subjects of temperance, slavery, infi- 
 delity, Romanism and lotteries were hotly discussed. It 
 was Lyman Beecher who stamped indelibly the brand 
 of infamy on lotteries as well as inteniperancse. I saw 
 and heard him do it, and remember it as though but yes- 
 terday. 
 
 Tlie Legislature of Massachusetts was in session. A 
 bill was before it in behalf of Bunker Hill Monument, 
 which then stood a monument of reproa(!h to New Eng- 
 land enterprise ; for it was but half finished, and had re- 
 mained thus for many years. It seemed that tlie only 
 way to secure funds for its completion was by a State 
 lottery. The final vote on i,he bill was to be taken on 
 Monday. Burii)'; the previous week Dr. Beecher pre- 
 pared a special seiiuon in opposition, and had a personal 
 
••■ 
 
 14 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 invitation given to the members of the general court to 
 attend its delivery on Sunday evening. All the body 
 pews of the church were reserved for them. There were 
 galleries on three sides. 
 
 The house was filled to its utmost capacity. The atten- 
 tion given was most absorbing. The discourse was 
 intensely dramatic and personal. The public and private 
 effects of lottery gambling were portrayed with simplicity 
 and honesty of description, but with startling and terrific 
 coloring. Youth, morals, business interests, social order, 
 widowed mothers and orphaned children, the wreck of 
 homes and character, the blight, the ruin, the remorse of 
 conscience and the woes of the lost in hell through the 
 direct or indirect influence of lotteries, were worked up 
 with marvellous vividness and power from the first stroke 
 of the master s pencil to the close. There was an intensity 
 of momentum that was almost painful till the matchless 
 climax came. Then the passionate preacher stopped as 
 suddenly as did the wliite horse and his rider in the 
 apocalyptic vision. His spectacles were taken off. His 
 manner became subdued and solemn. Leaning ovor the 
 pulpit, with his right hand and index finger thrown 
 sharply forward, with a fiery penetration of eye, and a 
 marvellous inflection of voice, with a most adroit 
 assumption of the pf 4onal chai-acter and feelings of the 
 petitioners themselvej, as if tliey themselves stood before 
 the court, willing to assume the undertaking, he exclaim- 
 ed : " Gentlemen and honorable members of the General 
 Court of Massachusetts assembled, all these things will 
 we do for you if you will vote for our hill to-morrow ! 
 and toe willfiriisJi Bunker Uill Monument into the bar- 
 gain! Will you do it? Will you no it ?" 
 
 He stood waiting as if in anxious silence for an answer. 
 And there seemed to go up a long-drawn, silent vote of 
 relief. "No more lotteries !" It must have been 
 registered in heaven. It was, at least, reiterated and con- 
 firmed in the Legislative Hall at the State House the next 
 
T 
 
 LYMAN BEECHEK. 
 
 15 
 
 day, and entered upon the public records, never more to 
 be called in question. 
 
 A FAST-DAY DISCOURSE. 
 
 The personal characteristics of Dr. Beecher, both in his 
 private relations and in his public work, were many and 
 original. They were, of course, interesting and instruc- 
 tive. He was a bundle of eccentricities, but of them he 
 seemed entirely unconscious. The good pastor was once 
 preaching on the subject of Atheism and Deism on a Fast 
 day. He was sarcastic, humorous and witty in his de- 
 scriptions of a supposed fortuitous concourse of atoms in 
 their wanderings and assimilations until this beautiful 
 earth was the result, and then the more wonderful and 
 beautiful man was built up and finished off with heart and 
 lungs, and eyes and ears, together with a marvellous 
 thinking machine on top, and all covered with a most 
 delicate and wonderful membraneous tissue. And ull 
 this by chance ! The audience saw the absurdity of the 
 assumptions of unbelief so ludicrously sketched in detail 
 by the preacher and were wrought up to an uncontrol - 
 lable spirit of laughter all over the house. Suddenly Dr. 
 Beecher stopped, stood silent, took off his spectacles, 
 twirled them with his fingers a moment, and then with 
 most provoking seriousness said, " Well, Fm glad Fast 
 day comes once a year, and I mean to improve it !" 
 
 Some time after this it was suggested to him by some 
 of his official board that it was unwise to give so promi- 
 nent attention to a mere handful of obscure and uninfiu- 
 ential objectors to Cliristianity, when he replied with in- 
 imitable naivete^ " I tell you, my friend, that a small 
 drove qf hogs will root up a great field of corn /" 
 
 AN ESCAPE FKOM THE PULPIT. 
 
 At another time, during a (bourse of Sunday evening 
 lectures on Mormt lism, his morning and afternoon ser- 
 mons h."ving got complete possession of his mind, he 
 
IG 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 found it necessary to break the connection by some des- 
 jtorate effort. So lie gave out a long hymn for the choir to 
 sing, took his hat and slipped down tht inside pulpit 
 stairs into the vestry and out on to the street quite unob- 
 served by the congregation, except those in the gallery. 
 A friend of mine met him headed for Boston Common, 
 half a mile away and on the full run ! It was then a time 
 of great excitement among the Roman Catholics, who were 
 violently against him, and my friend assumed that he was 
 running away from a mob at the church. He therefore 
 raised an alarm and ran down t(» Hanover Street. There 
 he found the congregation all quiet, but waiting for the 
 preacher. When the choir had sung the long liynm no 
 preacher's head appeared above the high pulpit. As Dr. 
 Beecher sometimes was so lost in improving and altering 
 his sermon while the choir was singing, it was thought 
 that he might now be thus employed. So one of the 
 deacons went up the pulpit stairs, as often before, to re- 
 mind him to go on with the services. But he found that 
 the pulpit was vacant. 
 
 The deacon signified to the organist, Lowell Mason, to 
 play a voluntary until they could find the preacher. I 
 well remember the runaway's return. He came up the 
 same private stairway to the pulpit. He now was him- 
 self. He had broken the connection with his previous 
 discourses that day and at once took up an entirely new 
 subject, and in a new train of thought, with all the fiery 
 earnestness of old John Knox. 
 
 There was the most remarkable vitality, energy, and 
 passion in his sx^eech both in the pulpit and on the plat- 
 form, and yet it was wholly free from the least taint of 
 sensational clap-trap from any mannerisms. The West 
 never knew Lyman Beecher in the fulness of his pulpit 
 power. I am persuaded that in his new relations here in 
 Cincinnati he was not entirely at home. Like a mighty 
 locomotive engine, he had leaped his track in coming 
 West. 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 PASSION FOR WORK. 
 
 His passion for work, especiaUy for preaching, was 
 boundless and tireless. He often remarked, "I wish 
 there were two Sundays in a week." The pulpit was his 
 grand arena of conflict. " Mr. Organist," he would say, 
 " when you see me enter the church door, lire up ! fire 
 up! I don't want to march up the broad aisle to the 
 slow and solemn measures of a funeral dirge." 
 ^ To us, the students in Lane Seminary, he would say, 
 '' I'd rather you would tear your subject all to tatters 
 than to reel it off so mechanically." He had no patience 
 with lukewarmness. It was as repugnant to him as to 
 our Saviour. 
 
 PULPIT EXPLOSIONS. 
 
 Dr. Beecher used to pin together the leaves of his ser- 
 mon. In his Boston pulpit he would sometimes knock 
 his manuscript to pieces by some sudden, impassioned 
 gesture. The leaves would fly down among the people 
 m every direction, like snowflakes in a wintry tempest. 
 Then the deacons would have to gather up the leaves and 
 carry them to him in the pulpit. 
 
 Once I saw him strike a prism-pendant which hung 
 around the pulpit light, and send it whizzing half way 
 across the church. At another time with a side blow he 
 struck the globe tliat shaded the gaslight. Fortunately 
 It was not broken. At once he adfusted it as best he 
 could without the least pause in the rapid run of his 
 thoughts and utterance. The gas was something new in 
 those days. The people were afraid of it, and anticipated 
 danger at the slightest disaster. 
 
 The coolness of the preacher on this occasion, and his 
 undisturbed interest in his discourse, actually convinced 
 one of his hearers that Dr. Beecher was a true and honest 
 man of God. From that time he became a regular 
 attendant, and at last a true and honest man of God him- 
 self. 
 
•'*, 
 
 18 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 . STREET SCENES. 
 
 One Monday morning he took his market basket on his 
 arm and went to Faneuil Hall Market to get provisions 
 for dinner. He was followed and watched, as he often 
 was, by a young man who was the chorister of the Uni- 
 versalist Charch. The minister soon came to the fish 
 market. Here Dr. Beecher picked up a fine-looking fish 
 and asked the fisherman if it was fresh and sweet. 
 "Certainly," replied the man, "for I caught it myself 
 yesterday," which was the Sabbath. Dr. Beecher at once 
 dropped the fish, saying, "Then I don't want it," and 
 went on without another word. The young man who was 
 watching him was instantly convinced of the minister's 
 honesty and sincerity in practising the principles which 
 he preached, became a regular attendant and a true con- 
 vert, and for more than a quarter of a century was known 
 as Deacon Thomas Hollis, the druggist. He was a promi- 
 nent official in the Orthodox Church, and a valued di- 
 rector in the benevolent and charitable institutions of the 
 city until his death. 
 
 I have myself watched Dr. Beecher on the streets of 
 Boston while he was following, watching, stopping, and 
 listening to a sailor who was ' ' half seas over' ' with drink. 
 Never did a cat watch a mouse with more eager interest. 
 I have also watched nim as he plunged along the street 
 eating an orange as he would eat an apple, unpealed. He 
 did not seem to know what he was eating. It only 
 seemed good to eat it. He would bite from it full mouth- 
 fuls, rind and all, making the juice of the orange fly in 
 all directions over his coat, vest, and shirt-bosom. 
 
 His gait was always quick and nervous, his left arm 
 crooked at the elbow and swinging with a jerk. He never 
 seemed to know that any one saw him, or that anybody 
 was about who could see him. He was oblivious to all 
 appearances and to all persons when on the street. 
 
 The store in which I was employed was on his direct 
 
LYMAN BEECIIER. 
 
 19 
 
 ' 
 
 way to the post-office, the market, and his church. Thus 
 it was I saw him daily. Once he passed the store carry- 
 ing one end of a piece of timber on his shoulder, fearfully 
 crushing one side of his hat. At another time he might 
 be seen carrying one side of a heavy basket, to the utmost 
 dismay i id pain of the one who carried the opposite side, 
 for he seemed never to know when he was tired, or that 
 any one with him could be. 
 
 THE WOOD-SAWYER. 
 
 His wood-saw was a constant com.panion. When liis 
 own wood was sawed he would go out on the street for 
 work.* One day he took his saw, shouldered his buck, 
 and went out in search of a job. Soon he met with a man 
 at work on a large pile. " Halloo !" said the Doctor, 
 " you have a big job on hand, I guess I'll give you a 
 lift, as I have nothing else to do." And at it he went 
 with a will. His saw was always keen, and it was always 
 worked as if by steam power. " Why ! what a jolly saw 
 you have," said the wood-sawyer, " Yes," replied his 
 unknown helper, " I always keep my tools sharp for 
 quick work." 
 
 The conversation was soon turned to the one great topic 
 of the day, namely, the new preacher. " Have you ever 
 heard old Dr. Beecher preach V ' said the wood-sawyer. 
 " Oh, yes, frequently," rejilied the sti-anger, putting still 
 more vigor into his work. " Well, what do you think 
 of him ?" " Oh, I don't think so much of him as some 
 do," was the reply. The conversation at length came so 
 close home. Dr. Beecher stopped work and said, " I guess 
 I must be going." " But where did you get that saw ?" 
 inquired the old man ; " I wish I had one like it." 
 " Well, if you wish, I'll swap ^vith you." And so they 
 swapped saws, and the Doctor shouldering his buck start- 
 
 * Another version of this story, I learn, has been published, which is 
 adorned with adjuncts somewhat apocryphal. 
 

 ;20 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 .' 
 
 » 
 
 'i 
 
 ed back on a trot through the alley behind his own house. 
 The old sawyer began to cogitate. A new idea loomed 
 up before him. He followed at a safe distance, noted the 
 back gate at which he entered, went round to the front 
 and noted the number, and soon learned that it was no 
 other than Dr. Beecher himself with whom he had been 
 sawliig and chatting. From that time that old wood- 
 sawyer was one of the pastor's attendants and adherents. 
 I knew him well, and have often seen him at church, sit- 
 ting in the front row of the gallery, on the right-hand side 
 near the pulpit. 
 
 ABSENT-MINDEDNESS. 
 
 y^ On one occasion, after an evening' s service at church, Dr. 
 
 ( ^ Beecher, in his usual brown study, went into i;he wrong 
 house of the block in which was his own. Every house 
 in the block was of one and the same pattern. The house 
 which he mistook for his own was occupied by a well- 
 known hatter by the name of Rhoades, a Unitarian. The 
 Doctor put his hat on the stand in the hall, went into the 
 back parlor, where Mrs. Rhoades and the family were 
 gathered, drew a chair up to the fire, put his feet on the 
 mantel over the grate to warm, turned back his chair, and 
 / leaned back his head simply thinking. 
 "^N^ In this attitude he noticed a French clock under glass 
 upon the mantel. " Wife," he exclaimed, " wherein the 
 world did you get that clocks" No answer. No one 
 (^ould answer, they were so full of merriment over the 
 good minister s absence of mind. " I say, wife, where 
 did you get that clock?" Mrs. Rhoades was a lady. 
 She put her hand gently upon his shoulder, and in her 
 sweetest tone said, " Dr. Beecher, you have made a mis- 
 take, and got into the wrong house." The surprised in- 
 truder cast a quick glance around upon the family circle, 
 sprung from his chah', and ^ith a bound was out of the 
 house, without a word of explanation or excuse. 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 21 
 
 
 LOVE OF FUN. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was fond of amusements and of real fun, as 
 well as of hard work and preaching. His violin was as 
 often beard as his saw, and heard not only in his study, 
 which was in the upper story of his house, but also in the 
 family circle and at family prayers. 
 
 At times, he was so absorbed in writing his sermon 
 when called to family worship, that he would call for his 
 violin, and with its lively notes break the connection and 
 free his thoughts for the service in hand. 
 
 There was a perennial fountain of boyish spirits in the 
 heart of Lyman Beecher. 1 once called at his house with 
 a young friend to see his children, soon after his arrival 
 in Boston. One of the daughters responded to the call. 
 After an introduction she said, " \Ve are having fun with 
 father in the dining-room. Come out and see us." So 
 we both went out to see the fun. And, sure enough, 
 ihere was Dr. Beecher on •' all fours," with two children 
 on his back playing "riding horse." He would run 
 horse fashion, trot, gallop, stop, run back, kick up, throw 
 the riders, and then run away, with all ^he children after 
 him screaming with delight. 
 
 THE LOST BANK-NOTES. 
 
 When Dr. Beecher moved his family from Litchfield to 
 Boston, he took a house with double parlors, dining-room 
 and kitchen on the first floor.* The parlors remained 
 unfurnished, and the ladies of his congregation waiting 
 some time for opportunity to call, learned from Mrs. 
 Beecher that they had neither suitable furniture nor 
 money with which to purchase. The ladies soon made up 
 a purse of one hundred dollars, and gave it to the pastor, 
 with the remark that it was expressly designed for fur- 
 nishing the parlors. 
 
 * This incident is very briefly alluded to in the "Autobiography," by 
 Charles Beecher. 2 vols., Harper Brothers, 1865, page 227. 
 
 X 
 
%i 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 After proper waiting they called again, but no parlor 
 furniture appeared. Yet again, but the parlors still re- 
 mained unfurnished, Mrs. Beecher was kindly informed 
 that a sum of money had been given to her husband to pur- 
 chase furniture. She, however, had known nothing of the 
 matter. He was therefore called to an account. The for- 
 getful man was in a maze. He said that he rather 
 thought they had given him something, but could not 
 remember what he did with it. It must be in his pockets 
 somewhere, he thought. Having searched his vest 
 pockets, his pantaloons, and his coat, he found no money 
 anywhere. Thus Mrs. Beecher reported to the ladies, 
 under great mortification. 
 
 There was no way left but to collect another hundred 
 dollars, which in those days was quite a sum, and then, 
 as they had learned a new lesson, to purchase the furni- 
 ture themselves. They did so and saw it put in its proper 
 place with their own hands. This done, the next step was 
 an "investigation" for the missing money. Little by 
 little, they found, not the money, but where it went to. 
 Of course the minister had neither spent nor lost it, but 
 he had tucked the 'roll of bills hard down in his vest 
 pocket, and remembered no more about them. Now all 
 this happened at a time of great excitement about a six 
 days' line of stage coaches from Albany, N. Y., to the 
 West, in opposition to the old Sabbath-breaking line, in 
 which a Mr. Bissell had a great interest. Public meet- 
 ings were held, speeches made and collections taken in 
 aid of the new enterprise. Dr. Beecher was prompt and 
 prominent at these meetinp-s. As the contribution -box 
 came round on the platform* he felt for a dollar, almost 
 vnth the feeling of a man dead broke ! When lo ! his 
 fingers clutched the pressed roll of bank-bills in his vest 
 pocket, and without a single look or thought, put them 
 all in. 
 
 The persistent investigation of the ladies brought out 
 the fact that a wonderful contribution had beeu made by 
 
LYMAN BEECHEU. 
 
 23 
 
 ' 
 
 some rich unknown banker as was supposed. They little 
 dreamed that the money came thoughtlessly from the 
 pocket of -d poor, improvident parson. His wife there- 
 after was the keeper. of the treasury. 
 
 Such then, in his greatness and weakness, was Dr. 
 Lyman Beecher, and such was his work m Boston, be- 
 fore he ca.ne to Lane, a work and a man the like of 
 which had never been seen in those days. 
 
■»sr 
 
 1 
 
 M 
 
 ^ 
 
 I 
 
 PABT SECOND. 
 
 DR. LYMAN BEECHER IN THE WEST. 
 
 ( 
 
 It was in 1839 that I met Dr. Beecher for the first time 
 in the West. He was at a public hotel on the Ohio River, 
 near its junction with the Mississippi River. I was on a 
 collecting tour through the West connected with my own 
 mere utile business in Boston. 
 
 Never was the country in a more disastrous and demor- 
 alized condition, financially, than at that period. Dr. 
 Beecher was then on a visit to his son, Edward, at Gales- 
 burg, Illinois. In those days we " Beecher boys" never 
 travelled on the Sabbath, not even on a river steamboat, 
 though we might be a thousand miles from home. Nor 
 did our teacher. We were on different boats, but left 
 them on Saturday evening at the same place. We spent 
 our first Sabbath together most unexpectedly, after a 
 separation of seven years. It was, indeed, a very unex- 
 pected but happy meeting, and we made the most of it. 
 After a rattling talk over Hanover Street and Boston 
 nffairs, my old pastor plunged into the discussion of 
 " Lane Seminary" \yith a will. The early pre fessors of 
 that institution were full of enthusiasm for their work. 
 They were always beating up recruits for Lane, ov forag- 
 ing the country for provisions for its students. 
 
 A NEW RECRUIT. 
 
 *' Now is the time for you to wheel into line," said Dr. 
 Beecher to m.e, with all bis characteristic energy and pas- 
 sion lor winning young men. " Now do what you ought 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 25 
 
 ( 
 
 to have done long ago, enter the ministry and help ns 
 fight the battle here in the West." 
 
 " Why, sir, I may not have a dollar left when this fear- 
 ful commercial panic is over !*' " Don't c ire a copper," 
 said he. " The Lord will provide." And he shouted, 
 
 " Jehovah Jireii ! 
 " But I have an invalid 
 
 don't forget Abraham." 
 
 wife and a young child, and 
 they are travelling with me for their health." " That's 
 just the thing ! You won' t have to go back to Boston 
 for them. I see God's hand in it already. It's all provi- 
 dential, you now can go right into the work." " Yes, 
 my good pastor, but you forget that I am thirty-three 
 years old, the full life-time of the Saviour, I'm too old to 
 begin now." " Not a bit of it," he replied, " you have 
 already learned human natur'''' (as he always pronounced 
 the word) " and you know how to manage it, which the 
 other students have to learn after they leave the Seminary. 
 Why, you'll be ahead of them, you have been practising 
 ten or fifteen years. Now just come up to Lane for six 
 months, attend lectures, read up theology n little, and 
 you'll be all right ! Take a short cut, and we will see to 
 it that you have a place to work and enough to do. Make 
 a place for yourself. Will you come f "But, Doctor, 
 don't push so. You don't see how I am situated. There 
 is my business in Boston, all unsettled. I am expecting 
 to return at once, and — then — if—" '" No ifs about it," 
 he exclaimed, " don't you go back ! There are Lambert & 
 Slade" (old merchants connected with his church), " dear 
 old friends, they will settle up your business for you. 
 Come, begin at once. Get Alexander's ' Evidences,' and 
 — and — read as you go around collecting, then recite tv) 
 Dr. Humphrey of Louisville when you arrive there to see 
 your family at lieadquarters, and then come to Lane and 
 top off." 
 
 A SUDDEN CITANOE. 
 
 It was done. There was an end of argument. His 
 well-known enthusiasm and t ngnetic influence over 
 
ac 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 young men prevailed. I know it will appear to others 
 Quixotic and ill-considered, but outsiders know nothing 
 of the importunity of that old professor of Lane. I felt 
 then and there in that strange place where we chanced to 
 meet at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivera, 
 as though God had sent his good evai ^el with a special 
 message to me. He came just where I could not consult 
 with flesh and blood. So I was not disobedient to the 
 heavenly vision, but followed Avithout questioning and 
 without delay. 
 
 Complying with the urgent advice of my spiritual father 
 and my former pastor, I procured books, read, studied, 
 aud recited to Dr. Humphrey of Louisville six months 
 with no small degree of interest. In the following March, 
 forty years ago, I found myself a student at Lane, on a 
 "shortcut!" 
 
 THE PROFESSORS AT LANE. 
 
 There was at that time only Beecher and Stowe for 
 instructors at Lane. At the opening of the succeeding 
 fall term Allen was added. More whole-hearted and 
 devoutly consecrated men it would be diflBcult to And. 
 After a six months' course with Dr. Humphrey and bix 
 months' " topping off" at Lane, I became convinced of 
 the necessity of a full course, and entered upon the regu- 
 lar cuniculum. I pursued uninterruptedly my studies 
 for the next three years. Nor did I return tc Boston for 
 seven years from the time I left it in 1838. 
 
 I have thus dwelt upon my own case in order to give a 
 single, practice,! example of Dr. Beecher' s influence over 
 young men. It was not Lane Seminary that drew me on, 
 but Dr. Beecher ; for all the radical tendencies and pref- 
 erences of my mind at that time would have led me to 
 Oberlin. 
 
 Dr. Beecher and his most efficient and practical wife at 
 on(!e secured for me the position of a city missionary at 
 large at Cincinnati, also the appointment of chaplain at 
 the count/ jail and at the Commercial Hospital. These I 
 
( 
 
 LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 27 
 
 believe were the first appointments of the kind in this 
 city. The position of missionary was given me by the 
 Ladies' City Missionary Society of the Second Presbyte- 
 rian Church, of whom Mrs. Beecher was the president. I 
 received my first commission to preach the Gospel from 
 that society, and also my first ministerial salary. It was 
 through Dr. Mussey, senior, that I received my appoint- 
 ment as chaplain to the jail and hospital. 
 
 I entered at once upon my work in Cincinnati and 
 preached in each institution every Sabbath. For two 
 years I continued my labors thus, without interruption ; 
 also as Bible distributor, employed by the American 
 Bible Society. At the end of that time I resigned these 
 appointments to take charge of the Tabernacle Presby- 
 terian Church, which I had meantime gathered and or- 
 ganized on Betts Street, Cincinnati ; Rev. Horace Bushnell 
 was appointed in mj^ place, which position he holds to 
 this day. It is a position for life with good support, to 
 the honor and praise of this same Ladies' City Missionary 
 of the Second Church. Nor should it iiere be overlooked 
 that Horace Bushnell was one of the first students and 
 one of the first teachers in the Idterary Department of 
 Lane from 1829 to 1832. 
 
 To show the sj mpathetic and co-operative spirit of 
 Lane in those early days, not only did Beecher, Stowe, 
 and Allen give me a helping hand in my pioneer labors 
 in the city, but their wives were also hearty coadjutors. 
 T shall never forget, too, the labor of seminary students 
 at the Tabernacle, for I greatly needed them and was 
 greatly cheered by their brotherly assistance, coming as 
 they did from Walnut Hills, more than two miles away, 
 and afoot. Nor can I fail to record such names as Albert 
 Bushnell, missionary at Sierra Leone ; Campbell, who also 
 died in Africa; Chandler, Mussey, Walton, Pyle, Hicks, 
 and others of sainted memories, true yoke-fellows, noble 
 men as were ever gathered within the walls of a theological 
 sominnry. 
 
28 
 
 PERSONAL KEMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I have already referred to the change in ray plans, and 
 those of the Doctor at the close of my " short cut " tenn 
 of study. This "short cut" had brought me into a 
 theological wilderness, and I could not seo my way out. 
 
 A THEOLOGICAL WILPERNESS. 
 
 Dr. Beecher and myself now held another consultation. 
 " You're in for it," said he. " Well, I think I am, and I 
 can't see my way out," I replied. " All right. You have 
 got all you can do, and you are doing it. well. You have 
 a permanent situation and a fair support. / told you so ! 
 Now just hold on contented. Let up a little in your hard 
 study, join the grand new class that' s coming in, and go 
 for a three years' course. We're going to have a glorious 
 time here the next three years. Come, join us. The 
 Lord will provide." It was done. 1 joined that noble 
 band of thirty-eight wuicli composed the class of '40-43. 
 And while 1 worked hard for my own support and my 
 invalid family, without one dollar from any board or in- 
 stitution, I studied hard 11 all departments with my class, 
 and with jirivate teachers in Greek, German, and musJc. 
 I did not lose more than three lessons in Hebrew in three 
 years. With all this I kept up city work and country 
 preaching, gave temperance and anti-slavery lectures, 
 labors at that time most intensely exciting, and 1 have 
 never regretted the three last years, especially the last 
 one, though they cost much travel of foot and no less 
 travail of soul. 
 
 For two and a half years I preached twice a week 
 without a license from Presbytery, but with its entire ap- 
 proval, footing it to the city nearly every dny in the 
 week. I was also busy planting, digging, and market* 
 ing a hundred bushels of potatoes. Removing my 
 lamily to the west end of Cincinnati, I rode on horseback 
 three miles to my daily recitations. The neW Tabernacle 
 church enterprise also was all this time on my hands. 
 
 J<; 
 
LYMAX BEECHER. 
 
 30 
 
 SEMITfAEY LIFE. 
 
 At the opening of the term of 1840 we had three pro- 
 fessors, all from New England. All honor, most tender 
 and reverent, to their memory. They were poor, the in- 
 stitution was poor, and we were oil poor, but we were true 
 and loyal to the core. We were as Presbyterians, " true 
 blue, but not too blue," 
 
 Beecher, Stowe, and Allen were each as unlike the 
 other as could well be imagined, yet- they were a threefold 
 cord that was never brol:en. Their personal peculiarities 
 were specially adapted to the worii of each. Allen, was 
 the most lovable, Beecher the most inspiring, and Stowe 
 was appreciated the more we knew him, especially the 
 third year. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was never weaned from New England and 
 Boston, although here he was on the great battle-field 
 which his younger days had pictured with heroic deliglit 
 as the X)lace of all others for a great cai)tain. 
 
 Sitting at my own fireside one day with a visitor from 
 Boston, who was a member of the Hanover Street Church, 
 Dr. Beecher came in. The conversation soon turned to 
 scenes of other days. " Well, Doctor," said the visitor, 
 " I suppose you often look back to the good times 
 when you were with us in Boston." " No, I don't," he 
 quickly replied, with that sharp, incisive tone which was 
 peculiar to him when touched in a sore or tender spot. 
 '''Twouldn't do! It would entirely unfit me for my 
 present duties, I have deferred all that until I get to 
 heaven, "here I shall meet my old comrades, and then 
 we will have a good time, sure." 
 
 DR. BEECHER AS A PASTOR. 
 
 His position as pastor of the Second Presbyterian 
 Church of this city was never of great inspimtion to him, 
 nor fully satisfactory. This probably arose, in part, from 
 the contrasting and divided relations which he sustained 
 
30 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OP 
 
 ,.._i| 
 
 
 to the cliurcli and the seminary. He could not v/ork 
 easily in double harness. It was with him as with Paul. 
 "This one t7dng I do." And then the habits, mannera, 
 and esprit de cceur of the church were so different from his 
 own temperament, and so different from his former pas- 
 toral relations, that it was but natural that he would feel 
 the contrast sharply. Beside, he sought radical changes 
 w^hich resulted in serious disappointment. His first 
 effort was to secure a change in the session by a flanking 
 movement of military device. But he was no tactician, 
 and he was a coward wlien he was called to a square, 
 stand-up fight with his friends. He was no match for 
 them in sharp i^ractice. He had six elders in his session 
 who can hardly be said to have entered with spirit into 
 his revival views and his impetuous plans of churcl^ work. 
 Dr. Beecher, therefore, secured the election of six addi- 
 tional elders, young men, full of youthful enterprise, but, 
 as he told me with an air of sadness and despair, " It was 
 no go ; I was worse off Mian before, for, like Pharaoh's 
 kine, the six lean ones swallowed up the six fat ones." In 
 Boston he did not have to carj-y the church, the church 
 carried him. He did not have to plan or manage for its 
 usefulness ; it rather preceded him, and j^repared the 
 way for the master-mover of the field to cut a clean swath 
 ol' giant width, swiftness and x>ower. 
 
 It has seemed to me, that it would have been better both 
 for Dr. Beecher and the Second Cliurch had he never 
 assumed its pastorate. He could not be the preacher 
 here which he was in New England. In some way he was 
 shorn of his power. In some respects this failure was a 
 benefit, for it threw him back with all the more intensity 
 ui)on his work in connection with the seminary. This 
 personal opinion is freely expressed with the most kindly 
 and brotherly regards for the church as well as for the 
 pastor. In it I do not overlook the fact that Dr. Beecher 
 accomplished a great and good work for the Second 
 Church. The times were troublous and exciting. He 
 
LYxMAN BEECHER. 
 
 31 
 
 carried his people through a perilous period of formality 
 and theological strife. By those to whom I bow with def- 
 erence, it is claimed that the Second Church owes its sal- 
 vation to Dr. Beecher. I rejoice to know that the church 
 holds his memory embalmed with most affectionate 
 regard. 
 
 THE CLASS OF '43. 
 
 The class of '40-' 43 was the largest which ever gradu- 
 ated at Lane ; and, if I may be pardoned, it was the best, 
 and in some respects the most remarkable. It was a unit, 
 a compact whole, intensely practical, revival and mission- 
 ary in its spirit. The Doctor used to aay of one class 
 which seceded before its graduation, that it aggregated 
 more talent and brains than could be found congregated 
 in any class of theologues in the land. 
 
 But the class of '43 had more practical good sense, and 
 a larwr heart for the kingdom of Christ. Its incoming 
 with the advent of Professor Allen gave a wonderful im- 
 pulse of inspiration, and of new hopes for the future of 
 the institution. Dr. Beecher had then somewhat recov- 
 ered from the influences ^unfortunately connected with 
 Lane in its earlier days, growing out of the slavery ques- 
 tion ; also from the divisions in the Presbyterian Church 
 and General Assembly, and from the effects of his own 
 trials for heresy in the church courts. 
 
 IDIOSYNCRASIES OF DR. BEECHER. 
 
 Personally, intellectually, and spiritually, Dr. Beecher 
 was sui generis. He scarcely weighed three pounds 
 when born, and was so feeble in vitality as to lead his 
 deceased mother's sister, vvho took charge of the family, 
 to say, "he is hardly worth trying to raise." All 
 thi^ugh his life his health was far from being robust or 
 resilient, for dyspepsia was his constant enemy. Yet he 
 battled manfully and persistently with his ailments and 
 endured hardships of self -discipline that he might have 
 strength for work. He seldom wore an overcoat or gloves 
 
32 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 or carried an umbrella, except in extreme cases. It was 
 his love of work and play, intense and earnest, that saved 
 him. His large and most peculiar family, especially the 
 boys, gave him great aid and such as he needed. 
 
 I have already spoken of his absent-mindedness. This 
 showed itself in amusing ways. When on horseback his 
 mind was so absorbed in some object ahead, that it caused 
 an earnest, forward leaning of his body, as if intent on 
 reaching the end of his ride in advance of his horse. 
 When he reached the terminus, he would sometimes leavo 
 his horse to take care of itself as he leaped from the sad- 
 dle and pushed for the pulpit. Indeed, I have known 
 him to spring from the carriage when he had arrived at 
 the church door, leaving his wife as well as his horse 
 Avithout a thought. He would rush into the church, and 
 then, when near the pulpit, he would rush back again, 
 seeming to remember that he had forgotten something 
 and hastened to lind out what it was. 
 
 — I 
 
 SI 
 
 THE LOST IIOKSK. 
 
 He once rode on horseback to New Carlisle, near 
 Springfield, Ohio, some seventy-five or eighty miles, to 
 attend a camp-meeting. Those were days of Presby- 
 terian camp-meetings. In riding into the grove he left 
 his horse in an out-of-the-way hollow. He fastened him 
 with the bridle to a low limb of a tree before dismount- 
 ing. He then pushed for headquarters, and went to work 
 without another thought of his horse until he was wanted 
 for a return home, some two days after. 
 
 No one knew how Dr. Beecher came, and no one had 
 cared for the poor horse. Another horse had to be pro- 
 vided. His own was finally found and kept till it recov- 
 ered strength from its two "fast days." It was not an 
 act of intentional cruelty to animals, but simply the result 
 of his habitual absent-mindedness. The good man was 
 never entirely safe without an attendant who knew him 
 well. 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 33 
 
 'I) 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 THE MISSING MONET. 
 
 A great convention of churches was once called to con- 
 fer on evangelical work for the West at the Second Church 
 of Cincinnati, of which he was then pastor. In this con- 
 vention he expected to take a prominent part. His good 
 wife felt that he must have a new suit of clothes, so she 
 went with him to Luken's on Main Street, near the present 
 Court House, and had him measured. The contract was lio 
 be filled the day before the convention. The price was 
 $25. On the day named Mrs. Beecher called for the new 
 suit. It was not ready, but would be ready the next 
 morning in season for the opening of ^he convention. As 
 the Doctor started for the city in the morning, his wife 
 gave him the money, with strict injunctions to call for his 
 clothes on his way down to meeting and pay for them 
 and put them on. He must " be "^are not to forget," as 
 those he had on were quite seedy, and he would not be 
 presentable on the platform in such a rusty attire. 
 
 It was an all- day meeting. Mrs. Beecher did not see 
 him again until night. When evening came, and he re- 
 turned, behold, he was still wearing his old clothes, for he 
 had forgotten all about the new ones. His wife gently 
 chided him for his remistmess and asked for the $25, saying, 
 "I'll go down early in the morning and ge. them, and see 
 that you have them on before you go to the convention. 
 Just give me the money." Money ! He knew nothing 
 about the money. Search was made all over and through 
 him wherever money could be hidden, but no money 
 could be found. " Now, husband," with no little tremor 
 of anxiety, '"'^ what Tiwae you done witlh that money f 
 It was a great sum in those days for a Lane Seminary 
 professor's wife to have. The Doctor was innocent as a 
 lamb. He had no recollection, he said, of having had any 
 money. And there they stood; both were alike con- 
 founded. 
 
 No new clothes and no money, what could be done ? 
 
34 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 i 
 
 A great western convention of ministers and laymen in 
 session at his own church, and he in seedy i^rments ! 
 Luken trusted them for the new suit, but the raoney was 
 gone. A long search and much inquiry brouglit to light 
 the fact that a collection had been taken in the conven- 
 tion, and Dr. Beecher finding something in his vest pocket 
 as the box passed him put it in without a moment's 
 thought of how much it was or how it came there ! It 
 had gone on its errand of love and mercy like tlie hundred 
 dollars to Bissell and his stages. It never mor(3 '"»turned. 
 
 THE REPEATED LECTURE. 
 
 On one occasion Dr. Beecher came into our class-room 
 with the same lecture which he had delivered the previ- 
 ous day. It was some time after he commenced its deliv- 
 ery before any of the class could muster courage to re- 
 mind him of his mistake. When he was at last spoken 
 to he stopped suddenly, took off his glasses, tv,rirled them 
 in his peculiar way, silently, and then, with a queer twin- 
 kle in his eye, said, " Yes, yes, I know it, but as you 
 paid such poor attention to it before, and as I thought it 
 was so good a lecture, I am in hopes it will do you good 
 to hear it over again." On he went with its delivery 
 with more than usual enthusiasm. 
 
 Among his best thoughts were those which (;ame on the 
 spur of the moment, in the heat of a free debate after 
 the lecture was finished. I think one of the highest 
 qualifications of Lyman Beeclier as a preaclier was his 
 matchless power in answering the objections of a supposed 
 opponent. The freedom he gave to the class to ask ques- 
 tions or to state objections, drew from him a marvellous 
 amount of information treasured in his heart and mind 
 from experience, observation, and study. The richest 
 mines of wisdom and of love were thus opened to us his 
 students and made applicable to many practical purposes. 
 As I have already said. Dr. Beecher had no dovetailed, 
 invulnerable system of theology, and the class would at 
 
 fl' 
 
LYMAN 3EECHER. 
 
 35 
 
 i I \ 
 
 imj 
 
 times drive him into a comer, and the end would some- 
 times be a harmless and ludicrous comedy. 
 
 CAUGHT m A SNAKE. 
 
 At the close of his usual lecture one day we " went into 
 him" with a will. Of course we were entirely respectful 
 and loving, if a little audacious. Leading questions and 
 well-put difficulties brought our teacher with unguarded 
 concessions iaio a snare. He soon became inextricably en- 
 tangled in a web of metaphysical subtleties. He was 
 adroitly and completely cornered. Standing at bay for a 
 moment or two in silence, as if cogitating an answer, every 
 one of the class on tip-toe with excitement to see which 
 way our good professor would jump, he suddenly ex- 
 claimed ;vith an air of ludicrous assurance, " Young gen- 
 tlemen, I too would ask you one question. What would 
 have become of Elijah if the Lord had happened to drop 
 him just before he'd got him safely into heaven ?" 
 
 The question had not the slightest connection with the 
 subject under discussion. But it was pr.t so suddenly 
 and put so sharply, that we in turn were for the moment 
 taken by surprise and utterly confounded. The peculiar 
 intonation of his voice and the appearance of reality in 
 his manner of putting the question to us actiiallv set us 
 a wondering what would become of Elijah if there had 
 been a slip ! We seemed to be in a kind of stupid horror 
 watrhmg the final catastrophe when the aged prophet 
 should reach the ground. Before a word could be said 
 the Doctor had snatched his hat and disappeared. 
 
 THE Dutchman's chase. 
 While at work in his garden with a hoe one day, in 
 company with a stolid Dutchman-who was a big boy of 
 all work in the family-the Doctor suddenly gave his hoe 
 a tremendous fling, and exclaimed, "Now Fve got it 
 I ve got It now, sure !" He started upon the run for the 
 house, with the alarmed Dutchman at his heels. The 
 
36 
 
 PERSONAL RESrTINISCENCES OP 
 
 Doctor plunged for the end door next to the garden, which 
 opened into his study, but it was fastened inside. He 
 then sprang for the frf nt door. That also was fastened. 
 He turned and went through the l^ack porch and through 
 the front hall, with the " flying Dutchman" puflSng close 
 behind him. The delighted philo^^opher shouting his 
 " Eureka," entered his study by the ntudy door from the 
 hall, dropped down into that old, green chair which to 
 this day stands in an adjoining room, snatched up a quill 
 and began to scribble. The inquisitive Teuton stood 
 peering over his shoulder to see what curious or precious 
 thing it was which the Doctor was so overjoyed to find ! 
 Se had found an idea^ and had hastened thus to put it 
 on paper before it should escape his treacherous memory. 
 While digging the earth with his hoe, a rift had opened 
 in the metaphysical 1 cloud which had enveloped him. 
 Suddenly a truth was revealed, which made him shout, 
 "I've got it, I've got it !" and gave speed to his steps as 
 he ran to make it fast on paper. 
 
 
 I 
 
 '^1^ 
 
 VEHEMENT DECLAMATION. 
 
 The Doctor was always impatient of indifference or 
 tpmeness. in our speaking on exhibition or recitation 
 da /s. " Have something to say, and say it as though 
 you meant it ; I would rather have you tear your subject 
 all to pieces with passion than to treat it so gingeriy. 
 Fire up ! fire up ! until you get all ablaze !" He prac- 
 tised what he taught. 
 
 Once on a time when the subject of temperance was 
 " all ablaze" in this community, an anti-temperance 
 meeting was called at the old Court House, and the stu- 
 dents went down to see and hear. Dr. Beecher was there 
 to see also. He sat back in the audience watching the 
 proceedings with the eagerness of a hound waiting for its 
 prey. 
 
 One of the speakers cited Massachusetts as having re- 
 treated from its former position on the subject of temper- 
 
^YMAX BEECHER. 
 
 37 
 
 le 
 
 L- 
 
 •e 
 
 le 
 bs 
 
 3- 
 
 r- 
 
 ance, and as having "let go" from some of its funda- 
 mental principles. 
 
 The old hero of the temperance battlefield could hold 
 in his war-horse no longer. Starting for the platform 
 almost upon the run, he turned not right or lef*^ ^o go up 
 the side steps, but putting his hands on the et^^- ^f the 
 platform he leaped upon it with the agility of an athlote, 
 and landed in the midst of a crowd of distillers, saloon- 
 keepers, and topers. Withoiit a word of apology he 
 shouted, " Old Massachusetts ' let go ! ' old Massachusetts 
 ' let go ! ' I tell you she has only let go to spit on her 
 hands r And then he poured forth a tremendous tem- 
 pest of thunder and lightning, roaring, blazing, scorching, 
 ^rackling and burning, hurling hot thunderbolts crash- 
 ing through and throiigh all the mighty breastworks 
 which the liquor army had thrown up for the defence of 
 their business. 
 
 We, the students, were greatly excited. We stamped 
 and clapped and cheered our valiant captain all the 
 while, as he was carrying the fort of the enemy in glori- 
 ous triumph. At the close of his speech the meeting 
 closed, and closed without a >vord in reply. Keply ! 
 They might as well have replied to a tornado. And as we 
 returned we went ahoutiiig home with triumphant song, 
 " Glorious eld Lane on the Hill." 
 
 A MISSIONARY SPEECH. 
 
 Br. Beecher was one of the earliest, most faithful, en- 
 thusiastic, and unceasing friends of the A. B. C. F. Mis- 
 sions. I attended the annual meeting of the Board in the 
 old Broadway Tabernacle, I>iew York City, about the 
 year 1845. Dr. Beecher was present ; he always expected 
 to speak, I think, at its annual meetings, and the people 
 expected him no less. 
 
 He had corie from the *' Par West," as it was then 
 called. He was a little seedy outside, perhaps, but bright 
 as a new dollar within. For some reason, known only to 
 

 88 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 the managers of the meeting, he was pushed aside, and 
 another speaker substituted without consultation or 
 apology. The substitute in his opening began with an 
 expression of regret that, owing to the infirmities of age 
 or fatigue of ti-avel, the celebrated Dr. Beecher was ex- 
 cused, and he, the speaker, was called " most unexpect- 
 edly and regretfully" to take his place. Dr. Beecher 
 was on the platform, wholly ignorant of this change of 
 programme. He looked on with amazement, and then 
 sprang to his feet and cried out, " Mr. Moderator, Mr. 
 Moderator ! there is some mistake here. Infirmity ! 
 Why, sir, I was never better in my life. I don' t under- 
 stand it, sir!" 
 
 There stood the substitute in silence, as though he had 
 been struck and paralyzed. The audience, too, were full 
 of anxious surprise. Before any one could recover from 
 the sudden interruption or liave courage to speak in ex- 
 planation. Dr. Beecher was oif at full speed. He electri- 
 fied the audience with u missionary speech such as had 
 seldom been heard even on such an occasion. It was 
 spontaneous, and simply grand and magnificent. It was 
 full of fire, impulse, and Beecherism. The unfortunate 
 substitute, meantime, had retired to a back seat, feeling 
 " regrets" for his own unfortunate venture quite as poig- 
 nant, evidently, as those which he had expressed for Dr. 
 Beecher' 3 supposed " infirmities" of age. 
 
 CARE FOR r^TUDENTS. 
 
 Our president and professor always manifested a royal 
 pride in the students of the seminary, and this without 
 partiality ; for his interest in our behalf was of the most 
 fatherly character. These traits were also characteristic 
 of the faculty and their wives. Poor students we were, 
 most of us, and tlie hard work which kept the board bill 
 of the " commons" table nt eijhty -seven and a half cents 
 per week, and good at that, was cheerfully shared by the 
 faculty. They went with the students into the surround- 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 39 
 
 ing country in a truck wagon, soliciting donations from 
 the farmers for the students' table. And even this small 
 sum for board was more than some of them could afford, 
 and therefore they boarded themselves at the cost of 
 forty-live or fifty cents i)er week, and earned the money 
 by sawing wood, keeping stable, and other chores for the 
 neighbors, rather than call on the Education Society. 
 This, to my personal knowledge, was true of the late Dr. 
 Albert Bushnell, the honored missionary of African mem- v 
 ory, my classmate and kinsman. 
 
 THE VIOLIN. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was as fond of innocent diversions as of 
 hard work and preaching. His violin was a source of 
 relief ancl recuperation to the very close of his life. 
 
 A gentleman, an entire stranger, called upon Dr« 
 Beecher in his last days, while residing in Brooklyn, N. Y., 
 to make his acquaintance. Before leaving he ventured 
 to suggest to him that he had often neard of his skill in 
 the use of the violin, and asked him if he would be pleased 
 to give him a specimen of playing. The violin was sent 
 for, and the stranger was entertained by a stirring and 
 skilful ptrformance, which showed the ability of the aged 
 musician in the use oi his favorite instrument. At family 
 worship in the evening, when h:'.s inind was tired, jaded, 
 and uncontrollable from the mighty current of the day's 
 thoughts and labors, he would, after fruitless efforts at 
 proper concentration for worship, call for his violin. 
 And David, the sweet singer of Israel, never scattered the 
 evil spirits, or the blues that come from over-study, more 
 suroly than did Dr. Beecher. 
 
 HEECIIEU'S ITANDKEUCHIEF8. 
 
 Lyman Beecher was not spoiled in the making, either at 
 school or college. He was always himself, pure and sim- 
 ple, without feeling the restraint of company or etiquette 
 anywhere. 
 
r. 
 
 i\ 
 
 40 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Mrs. Beecher would sometimes provide her husband 
 with two handkerchiefs for his pocket. One was a red 
 bandana of large dimensions for the protection of his 
 neck and for ordinary service. The other was a white 
 cambric handkerchief intended for public duty. But he 
 never could remember to keep them in different pockets 
 or for different uses. So, in the heat and momentum of 
 his discourse, one would come out, ar i then the other ; 
 now the delicate white linen one, now the big red ban- 
 dana ! Then both would be lying on the pulpit cushion, 
 one on each side of his notes, or ViUd i *he lid of the Bible. 
 He brought out for use first the ori«j, and then the other. 
 He took the white, the red and blew, much to the discom- 
 fort of Mrs. Beecher and the amusement of his hearers. 
 This went on until, in the fervor of his emotions and the 
 pungency of his thoughts, both speaker and hearers were 
 carried above all surroundings, quite beyond the possi- 
 bility of any injurious distraction on account of any of 
 his oddities. These idiosyncrasies were harmless, his 
 whole bearing being so characteristic, natural, and earnest. 
 
 ins SPECTACLES. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was so forgetful, it was ner . iiry to have 
 him supplied with two or three pairs of s • n* J.es, or he 
 would find himself without any. On une < i'^' sion the 
 discussions of Presbytery were absorbingly aniii.a*;ed. In- 
 stead of twitching his steel-bowed glasses from his nose 
 and twirling them between his thumb and forefinger, as 
 was his wont, he threw them back upon his head and 
 quite too far over. Soon he wanted them and reached up 
 his hand to bring them down to their xiroper position. 
 Failing to reach them he supposed that lie had put them 
 in his pocket. So, he jerked out another pair and put 
 them in proper place. And there he stood, doubly pre- 
 pared for duty, with two pairs of spectacles on his head, 
 eyes in front, and eyes in the back of his head. One of 
 the members of Presbytery shouted, " Now, look out, 
 
 ) 
 
LYMAN BEECHER 
 
 41 
 
 ) 
 
 brethren, for now Dr. Beecher is sharp hotJi ways for an 
 argument." , 
 
 GOOD-NATUREDNESS. 
 
 Dr. Beecher never took notice of a joke, much less did 
 he ever show resentment. He used to say to the stu- 
 dents, " Never wash yourselves in a mud-puddle." 
 
 As for personal controversy, he had no taste for it what- 
 ever, although he had the reputation of a great polemic. 
 He said that he was cured of all love for contention and 
 strife many years before on this wise. Returning from a 
 V alk in tlo suburbs of the town with text-books under 
 his arm, he saw an animal creeping slowly across the road 
 just ahead of him. He thoughtlessly went for the ani- 
 mal, and let drive at him a whole body of divinity. In 
 reply to this volume, the skunk— for such it proved to be— 
 let fly at him a shower of that aroma which is his own 
 peculiar weapon of defence. It could hardly be regarded 
 " the odor of sanctity." Dr. Beecher remarked that he 
 got the worst of it in that controversy. It was an en- 
 counter which taught him a lesson for life. 
 
 Dr. Beecher had no personal animosities to sour him. 
 He nursed no ill-will toward any one, and carried no 
 burden of weapons for secret attack or for defence. He 
 always was in light marching order, and marched on the 
 double-quick ! He always cut corners and crossed lots, 
 sometimes very unwisely, in order to reach his antago- 
 nist, or his post of duty, most expeditiously. He never 
 wasted time, strength, or ammunition in beating around 
 the bush. 
 
 IN SEARCH OF A WIFE. 
 
 After the death of his second wife at Lane Seminary, 
 he went to Nev^ England in search of another. Never 
 wfis Providence more manifest than in this important 
 matter. His attention was directed to a Mrs. Jackson, who 
 was keeping a kind of ministerial boardiiig-liouse in Bos- 
 ton, not a full square from where I was then boarding. 
 
42 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OP 
 
 > i9 
 
 She was formerly a member of Bowdoin Street Churcli 
 when Dr. Beecher w^s its pastor, and therefore not an 
 entire stranger to him. 
 
 To her house he soon made his way, and, as the story 
 goes in Boston, and I never heard it called in question, 
 asked of hei a private conference, in which he proposed 
 marriage with almost desperate earnestness, and with not 
 a little bluntness. 
 
 Mrs. Jackson was pre-eminently a practical business 
 woman, and no less a Christian lady. But now she was 
 taken by surprise, and could only reply, " Doctor, this 
 is wholly unexpected. I can give you no answer at pres- 
 ent. It is a very serious question. I will think of it, 
 and make it a subject of prayer, and—" " Yes, yes, 
 all right," said Doctor Beecher. " It ought to be made a 
 subject of prayer. Let us pray over it now !" So down 
 went the Doctor on his knees before the good Father in 
 Heaven, and pleaded his own cause as few could plead 
 in prayer ; and he pleaded not in vain ! 
 
 A more efficient or more suitable wife for a helpmeet 
 than was Mrs. Jackson, no man ever needed or received. 
 She was to be the mother of a large family of most 
 peculiar and indejjendent boys and girls, or rather young 
 men and maidens. 
 
 But she was equal to the occasion. And not only 
 those children and their father, but Lane Seminary and 
 the Church of Christ, ought to give God thanks for his 
 special guidaxice in the time of Dr. Beecher' s great need. 
 She was a rare v.-^oman, an elect lady of God's choosing. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was no Pharisee, no pietist, no ascetic, 
 yet he was pre-eminently pious, prayerful, and submissive 
 to the providence of God. "He walked with God in a 
 peculiar spirit of tenderness, independence and power. 
 He rendered God service with a loyalty of devotion and 
 a royalty of munificent consecration almost without a 
 parallel ! It was with a single eye and a whole heart ! 
 
 His public prayers were unapproachable in their direct 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 43 
 
 ness, terseness, comprehensiveness, importunity and as- 
 surance. There was never the slightest savor of cant or 
 insincerity in any of his devotions, public or private. 
 The following incident illustrates that fact. 
 
 UPSET IN THE DARK. 
 
 In coming up from the city one dark night, after even- 
 ing service, with Mr,« Beecher and Mrs. Stowe with him in 
 the carriage, he allowed his horse to go too near the edge 
 of a high embankment. Just at the foot of the hill, as we 
 then came out of Butcher's Valley at the right. The car- 
 riage was upset and rolled over and over with its precious 
 trio some fifteen feet to the foot of the bank. 
 
 On finding themselves but little hurt, the pious ladies 
 united at once in thanks to the Lord for their providen- 
 tial deliverance. . 
 
 It v/as too dark to see each other readily, or to deter- 
 mine where they were exactly, but the bewildered Doc- 
 tor found himse]* in a pitiful plight. Having shaken 
 himself from the dust and dirt in which he had rolled, 
 and taking cognizance of sundry bruises received, he 
 called out to his companions, whom he just then heard 
 giving thanks, saying tartly, *' Ladies, speak for your- 
 selves : for I find myself pretty badly damaged !" 
 
 Now, there was not the least irreverence or ingratitude 
 in this remark, but a natural outburst of sincerity, and 
 an exhibition of practical caution and independence in 
 ascertaining the full extent of personal injuries before 
 reporting the case to headquarters. 
 
 AN ALLEGED HERETIC. 
 
 Dr. Beecher had little love or respect for metaphysi- 
 cal subtleties, ecclesiastical formulas, or legal precedents. 
 His mind was intensely practical, catholic, and progres- 
 sive ; yet he could fight for the defence of the "faith 
 once delivered to the saints," with all the boldness and 
 persistency of tlie Apostle Paul. 
 
m 
 
 f 1*! 
 
 hi 
 
 44 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 In his trialr-. for heresy and disloyalty to the Presby- 
 terian standards before the ecclesiastical courts, Dr. 
 Joshua L. Wilson prosecutor, Dr. Beecher rested his case 
 mainly on this curt declaration: "I accept the Presby- 
 terian standards as containing the system of doctrines 
 revealed in the sacred Scriptures, as I understand those 
 standards of the Presbyterian Church ;" adding, " Don't 
 you, Dr. Wilson, and you brethren of the court 1" 
 The Presbytery, Synod, and General Assembly sustained 
 him throughout. How could they do otherwise and be 
 true to themselves and the right of private Judgment ? 
 
 ir^p 
 
 t 
 III 
 
 A ROYAL PREACHER. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was no pessimist, but an optimist, good 
 and true. As a preacher we may say of him — as many 
 others have said — that he was a Royal Preacher. But 
 we prefer to say that he was pre-eminently honest, earnest 
 and direct. His practical preaching was doctrinal and 
 his doctrinal preaching was eminently practical. He was 
 not embarrassed and encumbered by any metaphysical, 
 theological, or philosophical niceties. P.e ha '. a rare 
 faculty of stating his points, putting hi? questions, and 
 answering objections. I have seen him as he stood on a 
 meat-block in the old Fifth-street market, precisely 
 where now stands the Tyler-Davidson Fountain, do this 
 work of a debater with the most admirable tact and pun- 
 gency. His lectures on atheism in the dim light and 
 sooty atmosphere of a Cincinnati iron foundry and 
 boiler manufactory were a remarkable exhibition of ^his 
 power of argumentative eloquence. Not even Moody at 
 his best could have better held, interested, or more per- 
 manently impressed such an audience as was then 
 gathered around him in that cave of the Vulcans. 
 
 A conservative reformer. 
 
 In his preaching, Dr. Beecher was a reformer only to 
 a limiied extent ; but in his heart he was abreast with the 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 45 
 
 foremost. This fact sometimes gave Mm tlie appeal ance 
 of great inconsistency. He was for "colonization'' on 
 the one hand, and for immediate abolition of slavery on 
 the other. He was liberal and progressive in practical 
 doctrine and duty, yet conservative in his standing fast 
 by the old paths and sound words. 
 
 He was naturally fearful of radical measures, and yet 
 he was at the head of his column, a plumed knight with 
 a Damascus blade, and who knew no fear amid the roar 
 and carnage of battle ! At the same time I have heard 
 men tell of his feelings of utter despondency when 
 voters in the parish were permitted by law to pay their 
 church tax to any other than the regular, orthodox town 
 meeting Parish Church. And when next he saw them 
 permitted by the Legislature to pay it to an out-of-town 
 church, and bring a. receipt from the proper officer, or 
 when finally permitted by law to go anywhere, or not go 
 to meeting at all or pay church tax, except by personal 
 choice, his heart utterly failed within him as he thought 
 the bottom of the religious tub had entirely fallen out ! 
 All the while the Doctor was a leader in the Gospel team, 
 while he was trying to be a steady shaft-horse in the 
 hills. He never broke a hold-back strap, but was ever 
 ready to break a hame-string at a hard pull at any fme. 
 
 MANY-SIDED. 
 
 Dr. Beecher was a masterpiece of divers colors. He 
 was looked upon not only as eccentric but inconsistent by 
 those who did not know him. The red, white and blue 
 mingled in wonderful combination, but the true blue al- * 
 ways predominated. In fishing, he never missed a bite, 
 nor waited for a second one. In hunting, he never rested 
 his gun an a post or fence, but took his game always on 
 the wing. This was characteristic of him both m the 
 material and intellectual world. In his day he was as 
 popular as his son Henry Ward has since been, and he 
 drew as large ' audiences, even greater, comparing the 
 
46 
 
 PERSONAL REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 i nf{ 
 
 ' J 
 
 H', 
 
 iX 
 
 ^ 
 
 times in which they each have lived. Tlie father was 
 not as learned as is his son Edward, nor as poetical and 
 imaginative as his daughter Harriet, but I venture the 
 opinion that the father will be remembered when all his 
 children are forgotten. 
 
 IN PRIVATE LIFE. 
 
 Lyman Beecher had no ambitions, no jealousies, no 
 rivalries, no resentments Nor had he any tiaws, stains, 
 taints, nor serious inconsistencies of private or public 
 character to mend, defend, or conceal, during a long life 
 of the most intense and radical service in the Church of 
 Christ. He retired from the battle-field of life, on which 
 he had been a captain of renown for more than half a 
 century, with clean hands and a pure heart. He retired 
 manfully, and with cheerful acquiescence. He was con- 
 scious that his work was done — and well done. He 
 passed away to the better land, where, I doubt not, he 
 was welcomed with the joyous greeting, " Well done, good 
 and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord !" 
 
 Property he never had, never sought, and never could 
 keep, if he had it. Nor did he ever seek name, fame, or 
 leisure. I once heard him affirm that, after forty years 
 of intense and incessant labors in the ministry, he had 
 never, at any one time, laid up money enough to have 
 met his funeral expenses, had he died. 
 
 Less than one thousand dollars a year for his half-cen- 
 tury services in some of the most conspicuous stations, 
 would be a fair average of his yearly income, notwith- 
 standing the support and educntion of an unusually 
 large family of sons and daughters. 
 
 HIS CLOSING DAYS. 
 
 Dr. Beecher left Lane in 1851. He and Professor Stovra 
 had given eighteen years of hardest work in laying 
 foundation-stones. They had also imbued the people 
 with a new inspiration with which to build a glorious 
 
 > 
 
LYMAN BEECHER. 
 
 47 
 
 ; 
 
 superstructure of education and religion in the ereat 
 
 West ! ^ 
 
 Dr. Beecher's work was done. He retired to dear old 
 Boston on a small annuity from his former parishioners 
 and friends, and then in 1856 to Brooklyn, where, Janu- 
 ary 10th, 1863, he closed his long career of eighty -eight 
 years in peace. 
 
 He was very dear to me. I loved him as my spiritual 
 father. He led me to the Saviour. He received me into 
 the Church and brought me into the ministry. He was 
 my theological instructor, encouraged and aided me in 
 my pastorate at Cincinnati, where we toiled side by side 
 for ten eventful years. I anticipate a meeting with him 
 ere many days, where our fellowship will be eternal. 
 The sunset soon will give the signal that releases me 
 from the harvest field. 
 As Horatius Bonar sayh 
 
 " From tins right hand its cunning is departing. 
 This wrinkled palm proclaims its work is done, 
 Death in these pulses daily groweth stronger, ' 
 
 Life's ruby drops arc oozing one by one." 
 
 We shall not long be separated. I wait to greet him 
 in the Heavenly Home ! I wait in the patience of hope ! 
 I wait in the love of that ministry which he inspired me 
 to undertake, in that love which knows no burden, and 
 in that hope which has no fear I