UC-NRLF LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA DAVIS S. A. IJTICA, NOTES FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT NOTES FROM PLYMOUTH PULPIT: Calletttim si tcnwraW* FROM THE DISCOURSES OF HENEY WARD BEECHER, BY AUGUSTA MOORE. NEW YORK : DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU STREET. 1859. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ENTERED according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by DERBY & JACKSON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of Nw York- W. H. TINSON, Stereotypor. GKO. RUSSELL & Co., Printers. rUBLISHEKS' NOTICE. THIS volume is published not only without prepa ration or revision by Mr. Beecher, but he is ignorant of its entire contents, he having seen neither the copy or the proof. In withdrawing his objections to the publication of it, Mr. Beecher was influenced by the same generous motives which prompted him to give to others than himself the benefit of his previous published works. It is believed that the editor has faithfully caught the spirit of the living, breathing words, as uttered by the pastor of Plymouth Church ; and that her work will be received with acceptance by the public. INTKODUCTOKY, THE Notes contained in this volume are chiefly from memory. The most of them were written during the years of 1856-t and were committed to paper simply because it was impossible to think of, or to write, any thing else with a mind so fully possessed by the memory of the sermons from which they were taken. Mr. Beecher is not responsible for the contents of this volume. There is no pretension that the Notes are verbatim. Whether they are, in tone and spirit, like him, the public will judge. But, because a thing is writ ten here, it must not be said to Mr. Beecher, " You said that thing," unless he chooses to own it. In repeat ing from memory the sayings of another, it is very likely that errors may occur. Meanings may be modified or colored by the mind through which they pass. And yet the writer has tried faithfully to give the true sense, and, as far as memory would assist, the exact expressions of Mr. Beecher. It is not the beauty of Mr. Beecher's expressions, nor zi Xll INTRODUCTORY. the startling and resplendent flashes of his thought that this book will show, so much as his presentation of simple and holy truth, in such guise as never fails to interest and instruct all whose notice is gained. And thousands who cannot be induced to peruse long sermons, will cheerfully read, and undoubtedly remember the vital truths illus trated and enforced in the following pages. The volume is a testimony to the power with which the mind from whence it sprung influences other minds, and of the nature of that influence. A. M. CONTENTS A ~v PAQB A Sketch of Henry Ward Beecher xxiii A Christian like bread 266 Acorns and young ministers 61 Actions based on feelings 46 A fool's part 187 A general question 228 A grave for trouble 287 A great contrast 106 Ahab and Naboth 262 All Christians should be preachers 284 All men writing books , 51 All truths not to be spoken in one age 99 Always carnival with the passions 177 A man better than a king 176 A man of war 229 Answered prayers 224 Anxiety for friends 147 Applying the knife 192 A prophecy of the future 165 Aristocracy destructive to piety - 273 A singing church ^ . ^ 148 A sound life the best theology 276 Asps and butterflies 35 Assurance of faith 256 18 XIV CONTENTS. B PAGE Balm in nature for sick hearts 100 Battlefields of the world 53 Bear your weight on God 40 Best way to teach truth 277 Be sure of the path 260 Betraying Christ to rhetoric 181 Be true to virtue, honesty, and piety. . . 286 Boys in the limbo of vanity 42 Blue sky in Wall street 250 Bright days and dark ones 276 Brown, Brothers & Co 189 Calvinism the safeguard of freedom 83 Camping on the edges of sin , 105 Carrion natures 39 Casting one's care on Christ 26 Change of motive and purpose instantaneous 291 Christian graces not in the Bible 283 Christians not required to give up the pleasures of this life ... 77 Christians must learn to bear prosperity 92 Christianity should rule in politics 226 Christianity too shallow in churches 73 Christ and the woman of Samaria 71 Christ pardons before rebuking 30 Christ spoke most to the poor 71 Christ the foundation of Christianity 180 Christ the standard of perfection 239 Christ to have all 26 Climbing hills 285 Come up hither 148 Commentators 170 Common things dearest to Christ 73 Conscience rotting 45 Creation's centre jewel 186 D Dark lighthouses 114 Deacon's office . 186 CONTENTS. XV PAGE Dead 270 Death God's call 274 Declaring God's whole counsel 52 Descendants of the Jewish bigots 278 Difference between a Christian and a worldling 220 Discontent 66 Doctrines 177 Doing evil by proxy 267 Don't expect other people's experiences 222 Don't fret 56 Duty of rejoicing 157 Dyspepsia of books 41 a Earnestness confounded with solemnity 280 Easy working better than much working 172 Election and reprobation 238 Emasculating religion 203 Encouragement to young Christians 280 Escapeless gaze of the Almighty 235 Equal evidence of design for pain as for pleasure in this world 151 Extremes meet in a common blunder 198 Excitements in religion right and desirable 214 \ F Faces 162 Fall of bad men final 113 Falsehood in love 271 Fiddles, men not 154 Fighting faults 154 Figure of the wheat 64 First love not best 41 Flies of humanity 160 Flower stores of Paris 145 Frozen ship and the Spirit of God 103 G Giving one's self for another 210 God willing to give good gifts 28 XVI CONTENTS. PAGB God, honor towards 29 God feels our conduct 30 God works by means 198 God the servant of man 230 God's glory his goodness 219 and 234 God's hatred of slavery 85 Godship of Christ 26 Good advice 195 Good and bad women 261 Gospel, two views of the 25 Grace must be burnt in 172 Grace, nature blossomed out 166 Graces growing ripe , 168 Gradual growth of Christian character 212 Grain at the end of harvest 34 Greed and covetousness 268 Greedy for wealth 83 H Happiness not the end of life 159 Hatred man's strongest capacity 183 Hardness good for men ' 277 Head faith and h,eart faith different 274 Hell in the heart 235 Hell real and necessary 104 Heroic women 188 Hidden troubles worst. . 233 Horror of death 194 Hours like sponges 104 How to think of heaven 54 How conviction sometimes comes 146 How to test the truth of Christianity 58 How men glory 244 How they should glory 244 How men are prepared for usefulness 279 Human nature should shun dangerous passes 274 I Impoverishing the soul for the sake of gain 238 In danger men call on God 168 Infidels are working for God , 209 CONTENTS. XV11 PAGB Infidels and fixed laws 206 Influence on social intercourse of a belief in the immortality of man 41 Is conscience our punisher ? 252 J Journals the devil's vanity trap 38 Journal of God 95 Judge not by appearances 237 Judging of Christians 60 L Lecture room, the xxxix. Life a concatenation 41 Lightning rods 234 Living in Gethsemane ; 46 Living altogether in the affections unsafe 51 Longing for life 156 Look out along the banks of life 154 Loving God in Christ studying a picture 31 Loving men makes them ours 47 Love to God the only right motive of action 106 Love the only ground of perfect union 178 Love's labor basket making 82 if Make God to suit your need 205 Making a dead letter of the Bible 243 Man not required to understand God's mysteries 174 Mean conversions 269 Measuring by God 33 Meeting in heaven 217 Men not to be judged by Sunday conduct 250 Men must be more than indexes 73 Men too refined for God 51 Men of one idea 44 Ministers should mingle with the masses 76 Mirth the wine of life 222 Monday versus Sunday 112 Morality a short cable 173 XVlii CONTENTS. PAGB Morality compared to a ship 219 Most dangerous sins 37 Most expected from those who have most 291 Motives not always required to be unselfish 27 Mourning garments 47 N Natural faculties blossomed 52 No creature so impotent as man 276 No defining classes of feelings , 41 No happiness apart from God 36 No man can do another's work 79 No man can live unto himself 177 No quiet for the soul of man 273 No religion in the Bible 167 Not afraid of a laugh , 270 Not good to see too much of men 99 O One virtue 154 Only the hopeless may hope 235 Opposing ideas of Christianity 256 Oregon pines 66 Our actions affect God's happiness 29 Our churches growing pure 228 Our faculties interpret God 283 Our hour of rest , 230 Outward and occasional morality 85 P Pain purifying 162 Passages from prayers 296 Paul's conversion 50 People not apt to confess besetting sins 189 Perfect love 34 Persecuted, but not forsaken 160 Phonographic report of a prayer 302 Pictures for eternity 213 Planting seeds by singing 148 CONTENTS. XIX PAGB Poor and rich saints contrasted 94 Prayer 67 Praying into nothing 114 Praying tone 296 Praying too long 295 Preparation for prayer 296 Prodigality of God 183 Pushing the rock the wrong way 110 R Raphael's transfiguration 249 Reality of God's love 231 Reason like a telescope 42 Reckoned with the children of God 225 Refined, yet unchristian 43 Reformation not religion 105 Religion, a need of the soul 37 Religion the bread of life 275 Religion the warp and woof of life 168 Religious and family affection compared 100 Religious controversies , 277 Remarks respecting a new church 243 Rest on the promises 26 Revelations 35 Ridicule, men impervious to 30 Right between the right persons 233 Right doing should be involuntary ". 251 Right living more than abstaining from sin 115 Right sort of prayer-meeting 93 8 Security of trusting spirits 285 Self-will prevents conversion 107 Sentimental goodness 278 Scruples of good men in regard to the indulgence of taste for the fine arts 95 Short of provisions 113 Sight of a rifle 291 Sins like undermining worms 39 XX CONTENTS. PAGE Slaveholder's letter 165 Some doubts never settled 40 Sorrows like clouds 53 Sowing seed on a windy day 227 Strength equal to your day 163 Submissive in the affections, but rebellious in business affairs, when troubled 241 Suffering rightly borne 42 Summer meeting in the store-house of Autumn 255 Sweetest natures soonest soured 97 T Taking up the cross 91 Tear ringing in heaven 28 Tears often telescopes . 52 Test of a good institution 279 The church not God's only instrument 278 The devil's cloak 187 The family the most important institution 97 The grave a window into heaven 44 The law a battery Ill The leaf in a whirlpool. 57 The man of your counsel 282 The moral pirate 232 The preacher's a painful business 63 The prosperous voyage 218 The question in the air 165 The slave and the diamond 223 The sportsman 226 The theatre ... 157 The vanished years 191 Things that money cannot buy 261 Thin souls 113 Thoughts and reasonings of children Satan catching wicked boys Andy Chandler, the old Negro servant, etc 199 Time a beleaguering army 274 Tormenting one's self with the memory of repented sins 188 Truth equilibriated 114 Truth that leaves false impressions 288 CONTENTS. XXI PAGB Truths that take hold ... 277 Turning the helm 109 U Uncurrent coin 248 Undermined towers 231 Unkind words like pins and needles 90 Unselfishness the surest way to happiness. 46 V Virtues of the moralist 71 Volcanic natures.. 39 W Waiting for conviction of sin 146 Warning against Plymouth Church 286 Water-logged by fear 113 Weak love 275 We shall know of the doctrine 242 We want to be converted 227 What is the testimony of your life ? 262 What repentance is 253 Which crimes ruin most 40 Whittling out prayers 43 Who is wise 173 Whose are the sheep ? 259 Who should pray 292 Why the world was made what it was 279 Wickedness worse in God than in man 222 Wisdom and modesty to be used in expressing even our right opinions 179 Wolf-like sin 30 Woman's yearning for love 82 Woman more godlike than man 46 Words are bubbles 187 Words of Christ., , 81 CONTENTS. PAGE Work out your own salvation ..... . ....................... 110 Worst spectacle of this country ......... ................. 204 Y Ye would take away ray Lord ................... . ......... 11*7 Z Zigzagging to heaven ................ > .................. 269 HENRY WARD BEECHER. WHEN Henry Ward Beecher is dead, there will be made a great effort to learn just how he looked and acted, as well as just what he said. And perhaps it will fall out, in his case, as it has in regard to many others of renown, that with much labor and with heavy cost, men shall succeed in discovering nothing very definite or reliable. It is easy to enumerate the points in a man's personal appearance, if that were all. Mr. Beecher is of medium height, is full in flesh, has a strong, well developed frame ; every organ is active and healthy. He has full command of his limbs, which are pliant and supple as a child's ; his body is as elastic as an india-rubber ball, and handled by him with about as much ease as he would toss about a ball. His face is full and fresh ; his eyes large, expres sive, atfd blue sometimes grey ; his forehead is square and broad, his hair brown, and worn long ; his glance quick, keen, and discerning ; his smile humorous and pleasant, Who, now, that has not seen the man, can tell how he appears to the eye that actually beholds him ? and who can ever gather from such points the endless variety in a man's appearance ? xxiii XXIV HENRY WARD BEKCHER. To describe Mr. Beecher's mind, there are not half a dozen writers in the country who could be trusted ; and only the pen or the brush of a master could do anything like justice to his mere physical man. Would that there might arise, betimes, some efficient limner. Like the mountains of which Mr. Beecher delights to talk, he has numberless diverse moods and aspects. Like them, he is sometimes cloudy and obscured ; and some times, like them, he stands out bold and clear, in the full light of noon. Never was human face more variable ; of no one that ever lived could it more emphatically be said, " On differ ent days he looks a different man." At one time, and in one mood, his face is red, his eyes dull and half covered with the swollen flesh of the heavy lids. There is no brightness to be seen about him ; no briskness of motion, no erectness or strength of posi tion. The animal nature has gained temporary ascend ency over the spiritual, and an enemy might be expected to describe Mr. Beecher as an unrefined ploughboy, or a butcher in a minister's clothes, or rather, in a minister's desk, for Mr. Beecher's clothes are not minis terial. But let the enemy wait until he sees our mountain in its more usual aspect. Let him wait until the strong, and perhaps somewhat rough and rugged intellect has stirred itself, and arisen for action, till the torpedo-like heart is on fire, till the fervid words burst forth, and the face, but now so dull, begins to shine with the interior glory. HENRY WAJBD BEECHEE. XXV Then comes the transfiguration ! The material shrinks from sight, and the spiritual beams forth, causing in his countenance a change almost inconceivable. His face assumes all the rich softness of a mezzotint engraving round, fair, and dimpled you now perceive it to be j and its whole expression becomes pure and elevated, almost like the angels' faces that we have seen in dreams. His forehead is white and high, and shines like the brow of a sun-touched mountain ; his eyes beam clear and mild, now with the strength of the man, again with love and innocence, like the eyes of a babe ; his close-shaven chin, and the lower part of his cheeks are shaded, as if by the brush of an artist ; there is no longer a rugged line, or a rough look about him, his aspect is altogether noble, beautiful, serene. This, until he stands forth as Boanerges, and then he is the mountain in a winter storm. Mingling in his tones, are heard reminders of the cataract, and of the crash of thunder j while his flashing eyes and changing features have upon you the effect of lightning, and his gestures represent the rushing wind. Then, while you are yet thrilling to the sweep of the storm, you are melted to tears by some sorrow, or some longing, started into new life by the magic tenderness of tones silvery sweet. Mr. Beecher's voice alone is a wonderful power. It mingles in its various utterances, all loud, and wild, and awful tones, with the sound of fairy harpstrings, and the chime of bells. It has the high battle-call of the trurn- XXVI HENBY WARD BEECHER. pet or the clarion, and all the touching gentleness of a mother's cradle hymn. A man whose voice combines the three sorts of power with which the three following sentences were spoken, has in his possession an engine fitted to move the world : "When they come forth from their graves when from mountain, from valley, and from the dark waves of the sea, they lift up their blanched faces to their Judge they will be speechless." " Butterflies, the interior spirit of rainbows, sent down to salute those kisses of the seasons on the ground- flowers." "Women, who have such need of love, ought not to find it hard to come to Jesus Christ, and put their arms about his neck, and tell him, with gushing love, that they give themselves, body and soul, into his keeping." What has been said and written of Dr. Chalmers' pul pit appearance, manners, and diction, reminds one very forcibly of Mr. Beecher. As plain " in dress and gait " as was that celebrated preacher, and as impressive in discourse as he, is the subject of this sketch. Alike in plainness of speech, in intense earnestness, in quick and deep emotion, in apt and striking imagery and illustration, are the sermons of these two men Men. Alike, in the sermons of each, when at full flood, deep calls unto deep, spirit speaks to spirit, and the hearer almost forgets that he yet wears the veil, and dwells amid the false and deceptive scenes of the flesh. Often it seems as if the judgment were already set, and the hearer there. Few, HENBY WAED BEECHEE. XXVU indeed, are the preachers who have power to strike di rectly to the heart, to lay hold with such forcible and tenacious grasp upon the moral sense, as does Henry Ward Beecher. Every man's soul may be reached in some way, and Mr. Beecher knows the open path. Let that man who does not wish his conscience roused, his nerves thrilled, and his tears started, keep away from the genuine and impassioned power of truth, as presented as "thrust in upon men's souls, by Henry Ward Beecher. A cold, polished, cynical man of the world, going one evening, at the invitation of a lady, to Plymouth Church, remarked upon his way, "I go to hear Henry Ward Beecher with the same feelings that I go to witness the performances of Burton." The sermon that night, though not one of Mr. Beecher*s greatest efforts, was a powerful one, appealing to man's own consciousness of sin and ill desert ; every word told. There was no escape. It was extempore, only the heads thoroughly analyzed and accurately worded, being written out. The speaker's logic, at which the visitor had seemed inclined to sneer, was perfect ; and his presentation of the truth was truly appalling to all out of Christ. The face of the gentleman who thought he was going to be amused that evening, belied his feelings if he was amused. The aptness of Mr. Beecher's comparisons ; the acute- ness with which he lays the knife to what needs cutting ; the unexpected descents which he makes upon errors of thought and conduct, frequently excite irresistible laugh- XXV111 HENEY WAED BEECHEE. 4L ter. From this fact, those that lie in wait seeking how they may harm him, have represented him in the light of a clerical buffoon. Nothing can be more entirely or malignantly false. He is as far from levity and irrever ence as those who purposely malign him are from noble ness and honesty. Gravity sits upon him with a native grace. But his imagination is so rich and strong, his flow of language is so great, and the heart that beats like a great hammer in his breast, is such a volcanic heart, so impetu ous, so prone to overflow, that he does sometimes lose the reins of prudence. He is occasionally like a man who has struck his foot so hard against a stone, that, to save himself from falling on his face, he needs must run awhile, though every step be upon vipers. The temperament which God gave a man must be considered in judging of him ; and considering that of Mr. Beecher, also the mul titude of things that he has said, and is forever saying ; and the pressure of the various extreme excitements which are upon him ; it is a proof that he possesses a remark able share of discretion and common sense that he has said so few imprudent things as he has said. Mr. Beecher is frequently humorous, both in tone and expression, when he is altogether unaware that he is so. It is conceded that, great as is this orator, and nobly as truth and earnestness are stamped on all that he says and does, that master as he is of gesture and expression, there still is hovering about him somewhat of the ludicrous. Certain notions he has which always incline one to HENRY WARD BEECHER. XXIX smile. The wag of Ms head when he is about to clinch an argument ; the shake of his elbows and his knees, when he knows that he has you penned ; the eager ness with which he seizes upon that devoted handkerchief, when he is about to " charge ;" the strength with which, as he commences his tilt, he squeezes it (turning his hand- palm towards his chair and back towards the desk, leaning on knuckles and thumb, one foot crossed over the other, and supported upon its toe) ; the force with which he throws it from him, as he comes forward to close in the conflict he has waged ; are all manoeuvres certain to be repeated, almost constantly; and one cannot avoid being amused by seeing them so unconsciously, yet energetically, per formed. Although Mr. Beecher himself seldom appears to be in much haste, there is always an air of being in a hurry about his clothes and his hair. They manifest inten tions of going forward, whether he goes or remains standing still. His neck is so short that he never ven tures a standing-up collar. This, probably, in considera tion for his ears. One very remarkable singularity in his face is the utter incongruity between its .front and its side views. Upon being told that he resembled Henry Ward Beecher, a relative of that clergyman replied, laughingly, " I know that I am said to look like him ; but 'tis such resemblance as a sheep bears to a lion." Now the fact is, were that humble- minded relative of the famed "Lion" a great deal more XXX HENRY WARD BEECHER. like a " sheep n than he considers himself to be, he might still bear striking resemblance to his cousin ; for though when he turns full towards you, in the heat of discourse, Mr. Beecher frequently does present the appearance of a lion, it is next to impossible for a person of an imaginative turn of mind to view his profile without being strongly reminded of ovine faces, seen and perhaps loved, in the days and the years gone by. The timidity of the sheep is not there ; but its long favoredness, its serenity, its gentleness, and modesty of expression, most certainly are. His face is mobile to the last degree : to the play of his features there appears to be no limit. There is not a feeling of the heart that he cannot strongly express without the utterance of a word. And his strong, well-knit and flexible frame is an engine for action than which no mortal never need desire a better. The question is sometimes asked, is Henry Ward Beecher a handsome man ? Don't you ask it, reader. It is a question that cannot be answered. Can any one think those heavy eyes, that indescribable nose, those pouting, I-don't-care sort of lips, that tumbled hair, that boyish face, handsome ? Not very easily. But, can we call that glowing eye, that soul-lit face, those eloquent lips, and that royal brow, ugly homely ? Impossible ! Let the question rest. When not in " a brown study," Mr. Beecher's manners are the most free and genial that can be imagined ; but HENBY WARD BEEOHEE. XXXI every year seems to render him more and more abstracted. People are sometimes hurt and offended by his indifference and forgetfalness of them, when he is utterly unconscious of all outward things, intent upon his next sermon or lec ture ; for he makes his sermons in the streets, in stores, in lumber yards, on ferry-boats, or wherever he may chance to be. And it is plain to be seen, that a man in the midst of sermon-making, cannot be very thoughtful of his man ners to those who chance to pass or to pause beside him. It is said that a polished and courteous brother cler gyman one day called on Mr. Beecher ; and on being shown into his study, found him stretched upon the floor, from which he made no haste to rise. " I am study ing my sermon," said Mr. Beecher, looking steadily and gravely into the fire which burned before him. On one occasion it was thought needful that Mr. Beecher should be waited on by a committee of ministers, in order that they might reassure themselves and the churches of his sound orthodoxy. When the object of their visit was stated " Let us pray," said Mr. Beecher instantly "let us pray ;" and the prayer, if we mistake not, settled the matter satisfactorily. The children like Mr. Beecher that shows what his nature is. They all love to speak to him, to play with him, to hand him flowers. They crowd his pulpit stairs ; the boys gather almost . about his feet. After meet ing one spring evening, while Mr. Beecher was talking with several gentlemen, upon some apparently important XXX11 HENRY WAED BEECHEK. business, a little rosy-faced girl stepped on to the plat form, and holding out a bunch of white and red clover, said : " Here, Mr. Beecher." He instantly bent towards the child, and taking the flowers, said in a pleased tone, and with a kind smile : " Thank you ; these smell like the country." The child looked perfectly delighted as she darted away. The mystery and secret of Henry Ward Beecher's wonderful success as a preacher, may be ex plained in his own words, which he applied to another : " He preaches life-truths in life-forms, with the power of his life in their utterance." He is not a greater man, not a more learned man, not a better man, than many other ministers who never can keep people awake. But he is more alive. Why ; there is intense life in all that, in desk or pulpit, he does or says. What wonder that he who is so vivid there should sometimes sog and smolder, when the excitement of his work is over. Many excellent Christian people, growing anxious lest the preaching of a man whose influence must necessarily be so great and wide should be pernicious, take long jour neys for the object of satisfying themselves of the truth of the matter. Hardly a Sabbath passes in which several of these intent and anxious faces cannot be seen, narrowly regarding the minister, as, all unconscious of them, he delivers his message for the day. Although every now and then, such good people get some remark which causes them to look a little doubtful, their faces clear before the sermon is over ; and when the ... HEXRY WARD BEEOHEK. XXX111 final prayer is ended, and the final hymn sung, they go away praising God for the good that he is accomplishing through the instrumentality of the man whose influence they had feared. The whole country knows that the singing of Plymouth Church is Congregational. It knows also that some of the hymns sung there are those that are forbidden to many orthodox and dignified churches. But too great a price is often paid for dignity. Not- all the dignity on earth is worth the feelings with which the thousands of that great congregation, standing up together, sing joy fully the hymn commencing " Amazing grace ! how sweet the sound," etc. and its chorus (in which even the children join) of " Oh ! that will be joyful to meet to part no more." and then listen to the parting blessing of their pastor " And until that blessed day, to which he is bringing us on, may the blessing of God be with us ; and the glory shall be given to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, Amen." No man can be truly great whose central life-purpose is to be great. Selfish ambition is certain death to those principles which give men immortality. Love to God, or love to man, or both of these, must lie at the foundations of all true fame. For the sake of preaching the Gospel the Gospel of redemption and of freedom Henry Ward Beecher lives; for this sake he would die. This is his pur- B* XXXIV HENKY WARD BEECHER. pose; and into this work he throws all that there is in him, and all that he, by seeking throughout the height and depth of life, can obtain. That he has stood that he is standing where the temptation to pride and self-conceit is strong, he knows well; and with all his heart he has besought the Lord to keep him clothed in the garments of humility. Year after year the multitudes throng him; they press around him, till the place that holds him is too strait for them. They hang upon his words, they love him, they revere him. The man is not deaf nor blind; his heart is not a stone, and it needs no philosopher to say that in his posi tion only the grace of God can keep a man humble, and without any affectations of vanity. The Lord has heard the prayer of his servant. The " Mountain " knows that it is high; the " Lion " knows that he is strong. It would be mere affectation to deny that ; but though he has pro per self-respect, it is well proportioned and justly com bined with self-abnegation. No man forgets himself more, or regards himself more soberly, than does Henry Ward Beecher. This is the opposite of what was feared in the beginning of his course. Ten eleven years ago, when first people began to talk of the great numbers Henry Ward Beecher was drawing, there were remarks like the following made : " It's a new thing; people will run after novelties." " It won't last long, depend on that. These young guns burst suddenly vanity charges them too heavily." HENBY WARD BEEOHER. XXXV " Oh it's more the name of Beecher than anything else." " He is the tail end of the heap ; he never would study." " Any man that has tact and boldness, and that knows how to swell, can draw a crowd for a while." And Rev. Dr. -Shepard, of the Theological Seminary in Bangor, Maine, remarked, " If Mr. Beecher continues to draw so large a congregation for six years, he will prove himself a remarkable man." And now, having seen how the matter turned, that heroic divine (heroic in the fullest sense of the word, for men who would not fear to die in battle, or to risk life in other ways, often lack hero ism to stick to their post when money beckons them away), who excels as scholar, preacher, and critic, has become a hearty approver and admirer of Mr. Beecher. It needs no more than this to show that the feet of the pastor of Plymouth Church stand on firm and solid ground. He has his faults, and they are numerous, and not too small to be seen with the naked eye. Perhaps the very reason why he so admires gentleness, is because he has not in his own disposition overmuch of that quality. But of his faults there are sufficient who are ready to speak, and to rejoice in them. Well, as he says, " There always will be persons who have in them the carrion nature." Such as their pastor is, with all his glorious powers, or with reactive dullness, with all his virtues, and with all his faults, his people love him. They have, however, one cause of regret in regard to XXXVI HENRY WARD BEECHER. him. Mr. Beech er is a sound and vigorous man, physi cally ; but he cannot last always he, as well as others, must die ; and where is the material that shall live after him ? that shall show to the future world what a man once lived and died ? He is now forty-six years olfl, and not yet are prepared the witnesses which shall speak for him after he has gone hence. Full measure, pressed down, running over, has his life ever given ; but will he be of their number whose dying is but an endless multiplying of their life ? His sermons, matchless as they are, are sel dom fully written out ; and no mortal hand but his own can properly retouch them. Hitherto, he has not, except in one or two instances, given to the world proof of what he is. In his pulpit on his own platform he is seen and known known to such as have listened to him often for no man can judge of Henry Ward Beecher from one or two sermons. No crystal was ever so many sided as he; all sides so bright and pure ; but abroad, where he goes to lecture, they neither see nor hear him. Oh ! that his platform had a tongue ! or better, that it knew to use the pen ; then would be manifested, before all the world, the splendor and the power ; the yearning love, the crushing wrath, the thunderous denunciations, the resistless appeals, the originality, the logic, the analysis, the heroism, the phi losophy, which render this man unsurpassed in setting forth the truths of the Religion of Christ. Henry Ward Beecher came of a goodly stock ; Welsh blood, with its poetry and music, flows in his veins. He is indeed a poet ; though it is not known that ever in HENBY WABD BEECHEB. XXXV11 his life he made one line to rhyme with another. But get him before a fine painting, and see the poetic frenzy that comes mightily upon him there. He is not much gifted with prudence in the use of mo ney ; and is so generous towards those that have need of his aid, that, as a gentleman of his congregation remarked, when there was talk in regard to raising his salary ; " Three thousand dollars a year is, as far as his own inte rest is concerned, just as good as ten thousand ; for he has nothing, now, when the end of the year comes ; and he would have no more then." Nor are all his gifts public ones. To the unknown pool he does good ; they who have sat in great darkness, and whom he knew but little more of than this, that they were in trouble and want, have known his ready generosity. Such persons know that it is from the impulse of his heart, and not to gain a name for benevolence, that Henry Ward Beecher does good with his money. THE LECTURE-ROOM. THE Lecture-room of Plymouth Church is entered from both ends, and is capable of seating about four hundred persons. Mr. Beecher's desk stands directly before the door at which he always enters. Between the desk and the door is a high and wide white screen of boards. Towards this screen all eyes are directed, from the time the people are assembled until the pastor appears. The meetings are always well attended generally they are crowded ; and better or more interesting prayer and conference meetings there are not. People flock to them with a real, living pleasure, which is printed upon their features. A sensation of glad ness is always experienced when the pastor's face appears. Taking his seat, Mr. Beecher gives out a hymn, and then calls upon some brother to pray. This is three times repeated. The hymns are not read, unless one happens to strike with peculiar force the X THE LECTURE-ROOM. pastor or some brother ; or unless it set to ringing some "silver bell" in Mr. Beecher's heart; in which case he reads it, in his own touching man ner. After the third prayer the meeting is open for remarks; and speakers are heard from various parts of the room. The brethren make known an experience, a want, or they ask a question.' Anything practical the pastor -is glad to hear. " Anything," as he says, " that has life in it." And when one takes into consideration the transcendent prayer and conference-meeting apti tude of the pastor, it is really astonishing with what freedom the most halting and uneducated persons rise up, and unabashed before him, express their minds, and open their feelings. Strangers attending the meetings are prone to think that, after hearing the pastor talk, no one else would dare to open his mouth. But Mr. Beecher's aim is to encourage and draw out the humble and stammering disciple, and in this he suc ceeds to admiration. The minister sits smiling in his seat, like a loved teacher ; and to him both old and young submit any question of duty or of doc trine by which they are exercised. He is faithful to warn, exhort, check, or encourage; and his power of applying cures to right places seems, sometimes, well-nigh miraculous. It is a strange THE LECTTTRE-ROOM. thing to see old, grey-headed men arise and ask that comparatively young one, of things too deep for their understanding ; and stranger still is it to hear how, without a moment's hesitation, the young one pours light upon the whole subject, while the inquirer sinks to his seat silent and satisfied. "When a man stands up and begins, after a dead and formal manner, to make a long, set exhortation upon generalities, he is very liable to be requested to alter the tone of his remarks, or to make them brief. That brother will be liable to be asked if he thinks his religion renders him any more amiable than he was; if he is any more agreeable and patient in his family, any moje merciful and just with his clerks, any more upright and humble in every part of his life. Such home thrusts are useful in bringing people down from that convenient generality that we "are all great sinners," from reflections and remarks that hit no one, and help no one, and they fasten attention on particular points where attention is needed. But while canting exhortations and heartless prayers are thus discouraged, the most trembling lisper who really has a thing to say, and don't un dertake to speak or pray merely from " a sense of duty," is kindly heard. If a timid beginner in the prayers and the language of Zion, break down in the midst of his utterance, instead of the dead Xlii THE LECTURE-ROOM. and awkward, the half killing silence, made appal ling to the stammerer by exchanged glances and nods, perhaps, also, by smiles from those present, the word is instantly taken up by the pastor, or by some brother, and the distress of the young convert is covered and cured. Any one who has ever witnessed such scenes as have taken place within the last year, in some con ference meetings, will know how fully to appreciate the delicacy and skill of management like this. People accustomed but to solemn faces in prayer- meetings, are frequently shocked at seeing a smile, or hearing a sound as of subdued laughter, go round the lecture-room of Plymouth Church. Well ; the charge that people laugh there cannot be de nied ; they do. But the laughter of levity, or of trifling with things sacred, is not that which Mr. Beecher's re marks excite, and he holds the strange belief that man was made to laugh, when he feels like it, even in the presence of God himself. And if there is a man or woman with a face so stiff as not to smile, or laugh outright, at the sudden and skillful hits made by Mr. Beecher at various faults and errors, surely it is not one that would be welcomed every where with love and joy. Laughter thus caused has oftentimes more power to send an evil into annihilation than twenty THE LECTURE-KOOM. years of grim and solemn argumentation would have. A nickname well applied can paint a man better than any brush of artist. " Go tell that Fox? says Jesus, and what labored . description could set He rod more vividly before us ? It is a fact that Mr. Beecher cannot keep his face to that devout measure and expression which those who gravely censure him, so holily wear. The people smile at their pastor, and at each other, and he smiles at them. Thus there is sunshine at evening there. Anon they look at him with falling tears, and his own eyes fill, and the tears roll down as he speaks of Christ's love and pity, or of man's ingratitude. Certainly, if it is better to suppress all such signs of feeling, it is more painful, and those who sit side by side un moved, while are poured the prayer, the song, the entreaty, cannot love each other as they do who have, in their meetings, looked through smiles and tears, through sorrow and laughter, into each other's very hearts. Since the coming hither of Dr. Lyman Beecher the meetings have often been more interesting than ever. He stands like a glorious old ruin, speaking of the good days of the past. And he utters a few words more of love and invitation to the world before he leaves its shores forever. THE LECTURE-ROOM. < t How ardently he loved his work! how he loves it now ! One night the subject of remark during con ference was " Looking unto Jesus." Mr. Beecher, with his usual power, had illustrated this looking, by the looking of a child towards its parents, a soldier to his officer, etc., and had then proceeded to show how much greater encouragement one would take by looking unto Christ. Said he, " 'Tis hard to make people habitually do this, but far harder to cause them to realize that Jesus is actu ally always looking upon them. I think that more Christians, and the same one for a greater number of times, take comfort by what they do towards the Lord, than by what the Lord does towards them. "We know that we do, sometimes at least, look upwards, lovingly, confidingly ; but that he looks down on us with real, throbbing love, we can't seem to believe that. There are many rea sons why this seems impossible. Our own con sciousness of ill desert, our meanness, our coldness, our entire unloveliness, all appear to stand in the way of our being objects of love to him. Yet it was against this very feeling that he aimed his dis course in the chapter where he asks if an earthly parent will give his child a stone for bread, or a serpent for a fish, etc. "We say, " Oh, of course, an earthly parent would not deal so ; he must love his THE LECTUKE-ROOM. offspring, but God is different ; he is so far off, so much above us ; there may be reasons why he cannot regard us." Nay, but Christ twists the argument the other way. " If ye, BEING EVIL, know how to give good gifts, etc. Is it because your child is good, and does all things to please you, that you give of your fullness to him ? Or is it because he is your own, and you love him ? Now you reach it, that is the manner of feeling which God has for all who once and heartily have given themselves to him. But don't you think that your poor, un steady and imperfect love is more true and endur ing than his. Out of his infinite goodness his love flows to us ; the reasons for it are in his own nature, not in ours." Here the venerable Dr. Beecher rose and said : u I want to say one thing about this looking of God. There must always be something to look at." He sat down. It was plain that the watchful Father in Zion feared that, from some omission in his son's remarks, the ignorant and foolish might take occasion to think, " We will do evil that love may abound." Mr. Beecher had been sitting in his chair, as his manner is when he speaks often, and but a few moments at a time, in the meetings ; but now he rose and moved aside his table. Bending forward THE LECTUBE-BOOM. over the edge of his platform, he said, "I should like to know what He saw to look at when he so loved the world that he gave himself to die for it. When a man's back is towards God, and he is hat ing him, I don't think that God ever sees that man's face. -Even for such persons God's love is compas sionate, though it cannot be the peculiar affection one feels for his own child ; but the moment that the man's face is turned towards God, the love of a father to his son is but a feeble sign of the infinite tenderness with which the Almighty Father regards him. It is the world that needs to be reconciled, not God." "That is just what I meant," said old Mr. Beecher. " I knew you did, father ; but I wanted them to understand it in my words too." At another time, Dr. Beecher hearing a blind brother, who rather inclined to the doctrine of per fection, make some remarks to the effect that the way of perfection was the way of peace, remarked : "If we are to have no peace, and no sense of justi fication, until ^we do love the Lord with all our heart, and soul, and strength, and until we are conscious that we are free from offences, no man who knows his own heart can ever have them. The love of God is with his children the paramount love, but never, till they get to heaven, will it be THE LECTUBE-BOOM. all that the command requires. Measuring our selves by the law of absolute perfection, every man falls short every day. There are two sorts of per fection by which God's creatures stand : one, the perfection of absolute obedience ; the other, the perfection of faith. By the first the angels stand, by the last stands man. Faith is counted to us for righteousness. Faith is shown by love and good works, but both of these are imperfect, and accepted only for Jesus' sake." " My father," said Henry "Ward, " is like an old war-horse. They say that he has served his time, and they shut him into a rich pasture to take his ease for the rest of his days. But he won't take his ease ; he scorns it. When the trumpet sounds the pasture cannot hold him ; he leaps the fence, and takes his old place in the ranks, marching with the rest until the parade is over. And you cannot keep father away from the work to which his life was so freely and earnestly giverr." Again he said : " My father has made his journey and reached the shore ; but he is waiting for a little time before he crosses, to call back to those that are still upon the way, and to tell them of the things that shall make their journeying less toilsome and dangerous. He will go over soon." " I waited to see one more revival" exclaimed the old gentleman in a lively tone. " I have seen THE LECTUBE-ROOM. it a glorious one. It is the beginning of the end. God will show you greater things than these. In the four churches over which I was pastor there were four years of revival. Revivals never ought to stop. I am willing to wait twenty more years If I can be permitted to work in a revival." The glad times during the great revival of L857-8 seemed to renew the youth of Dr. Beecher.