years. During this time much had been accomplished. The society had
built a pleasant house of worship. The membership had advanced from
thirty-two to two hundred and seventy-five. What was considered a
doubtful enterprise, inaugurated as it had been amidst many prophecies
of failure, had risen to an enviable position, not only in the capital
but in the State. The attachment between pastor and people had become
peculiarly strong. Mutual toils and sufferings and successes had bound
them fast together. Only the demands of a wider field, making duty
plain, divided them, and a recent letter proves that the pastor's early
charge still keeps its hold upon his heart. It is not to be wondered
at that the few of his flock who yet remain among us always speak of
'Henry' with beaming eyes and mellowed voices."
One expression in this extract will show a peculiarity which strongly
recalls the artless, unconventional freshness of Western life in those
days. The young pastor, though deeply and truly respected by all his
elders and church members, was always addressed as "Henry," by them
with a sort of family intimacy and familiarity. It was partly due to
the simple, half woodland habits of the people, and partly to that
quality in the pastor that made every elderly man love him as a son and
every younger one as a brother.
Henry's tastes, enthusiasms, and fancies, his darling garden, with
its prize vegetables and choice roses, whence came bouquets for the
æsthetic, and more solid presents of prize onions or squashes for the
more literal--all these seemed to be part and parcel of the family
stock of his church. His brother Charles, who from intellectual
difficulties had abandoned the ministry, and devoted himself to a
musical life as a profession, inhabited, with his wife and young
family, a little cottage in the same grounds with his own, and shared
his garden labors, and led the music of his church. "Henry and Charles"
were as familiarly spoken of and known in Indianapolis circles as
Castor and Pollux among the astronomers. In one of the revivals in
Indianapolis, Charles, like his brother before him, found in an uplift
of his moral faculties a tide to carry him over the sunken rocks of
his logic. By his brother's advice, he took a Bible class, and began
the story of the life of Christ, and the result was that after a while
he saw his way clear to offer himself for ordination, and was settled
in the ministry in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Thus that simple narrative had
power to allay the speculative doubts of both brothers, and to give
them an opening into the ministry.
Mr. Beecher has always looked back with peculiar tenderness to that
Western life, in the glow of his youthful days, and in that glorious,
rich, abundant, unworn Western country. The West, with its wide, rich,
exuberant spaces of land, its rolling prairies, garlanded with rainbows
of ever-springing flowers, teeming with abundance of food for man, and
opening in every direction avenues for youthful enterprise and hope,
was to him a morning land. To carry Christ's spotless banner in high
triumph through such a land, was a thing worth living for, and as he
rode on horseback alone, from day to day, along the rolling prairie
lands, sometimes up to his horse's head in grass and waving flowers,
he felt himself kindled with a sort of ecstacy. The prairies rolled
and blossomed in his sermons, and his style at this time had a tangled
luxuriance of poetic imagery, a rush and abundance of words, a sort
of rich and heavy involution, that resembled the growth of a tropical
forest.
"What sort of a style _am_ I forming?" he said to a critical friend,
who had come to hear him preach.
"Well, I should call it the 'tropical style,'" was the reply.
The Western people, simple and strong, shrewd as Yankees, and excitable
and fervent as Southerners, full of quaint images and peculiar turns
of expression derived from a recent experience of back-woods life,
were an open page in his great book of human nature, where character
revealed itself with an artless freshness. All the habits of society
had an unconventional simplicity. People met with the salutation, "How
are ye, stranger?" and had no thought of any formal law of society, why
one human being might not address another on equal terms, and speak out
his mind on all subjects fully. When invited to supper at a thrifty
farmer's, the supper board was spread in the best bed-room, the master
and mistress stood behind the chairs of their guests and waited on
them during the meal, and the table groaned with such an abundance of
provision as an eastern imagination fails to conceive of. Every kind
of fowl, choicely cooked, noble hams, sausages, cheese, bread, butter,
biscuit, corn cakes in every variety, sweet cakes and confections,
preserved fruits of every name, with steaming tea and coffee, were all
indispensable to a good supper.
Of poverty, properly so called, there was very little. There were none
of those distressing, unsolvable social problems which perplex the mind
and burden the heart of a pastor in older states of society.
Mr. Beecher's ecclesiastical brethren were companions of whom he never
fails to speak with tender respect and enthusiastic regard. Some of
them, like Father Dickey, were men who approached as near the apostolic
ideal, in poverty, simplicity, childlike sincerity, and unconquerable,
persevering labor, as it is possible to do. They were all strong,
fearless anti-slavery men, and the resolutions of the Indiana Synod
were always a loud, unsparing and never-failing testimony against any
complicity with slavery in the Presbyterian church.
As to the great theological controversy that divided the old and new
school church, Mr. Beecher dropped it at once and forthwith, being in
his whole nature essentially uncontroversial. It came to pass that some
of his warmest personal friends were members of the Old School church
in Indianapolis, and offspring of the very fiercest combatants who had
fought his father in Cincinnati.
Mr. Beecher was on terms of good fellowship with all denominations.
There were in Indianapolis, Baptists, Methodists, and an Episcopal
minister, but he stood on kindly social terms with all. The spirit of
Western society was liberal, and it was deemed edifying by the common
sense masses that the clergy of different denominations should meet as
equals and brothers. Mr. Beecher's humorous faculty gave to him a sort
of universal coin which passed current in all sorts of circles, making
every one at ease with him. Human nature longs to laugh, and a laugh,
as Shakspeare says, "done in the testimony of a good conscience,"
will often do more to bring together wrangling theologians than a
controversy.
There was a store in Indianapolis, where the ministers of all
denominations often dropped in to hear the news, and where the free
western nature made it always in rule to try each others metal with a
joke. No matter how sharp the joke, it was considered to be all fair
and friendly.
On one occasion, Mr. Beecher, riding to one of the stations of his
mission, was thrown over his horse's head in crossing the Miami,
pitched into the water, and crept out thoroughly immersed. The incident
of course furnished occasion for talk in the circles the next day, and
his good friend the Baptist minister proceeded to attack him the moment
he made his appearance.
"Oh, ho, Beecher, glad to see you! I thought you'd have to come into
our ways at last! You've been immersed at last; you are as good as any
of us now." A general laugh followed this sally.
"Poh, poh," was the ready response, "my immersion was a different thing
from that of your converts. You see, I was immersed by a _horse_, not
by an ass."
A chorus of laughter proclaimed that Beecher had got the better of the
joke for this time.
A Methodist brother once said to him, "Well now, really, Brother
Beecher, what have you against Methodist doctrines?"
"Nothing, only that your converts will practice them."
"Practice them?"
"Yes, you preach falling from grace, and your converts practice it with
a vengeance."
One morning as he was sitting at table, word was brought in that his
friend, the Episcopal minister, was at the gate, wanting to borrow his
horse.
"Stop, stop," said he, with a face of great gravity, "there's something
to be attended to first," and rising from table, he ran out to him
and took his arm with the air of a man who is about to make a serious
proposition.
"Now brother G----, you want my horse for a day? Well, you see, it lies
on my mind greatly that you don't admit my ordination. I don't think
it's fair. Now if you'll admit that I'm a genuinely ordained minister,
you shall have my horse, but if not, I don't know about it."
Mr. Beecher took ground from the first that the pulpit is the place
not only for the presentation of those views which tend to unite man's
spiritual nature directly with God, but also for the consideration of
all those specific reforms which grow out of the doctrine of Christ
in society. He preached openly and boldly on specific sins prevailing
in society, and dangerous practices which he thought would corrupt or
injure.
There was a strong feeling in Indianapolis against introducing slavery
into the discussions of the pulpit. Some of his principal men had made
vehement declarations that the subject never should be named in the
pulpit of any church with which they were connected. Mr. Beecher, among
his earliest motions in Synod, however, introduced a resolution that
every minister should preach a thorough exposition and condemnation of
slavery. He fulfilled his part very characteristically, by preaching
three sermons on the life of Moses, the bondage of the children of
Israel under Pharaoh and their deliverance. Under this cover he gained
the ear of the people, for it has always been held both orthodox and
edifying to bombard the vices and crimes of old Testament sinners,
and to show no mercy to their iniquities. Before they were aware of
it however, his hearers found themselves listening to a hot and heavy
attack on the existing system of American slavery, which he exposed
in a most thorough, searching manner, and although the oppressor was
called Pharaoh and the scene was Egypt, and so nobody could find fault
with the matter of the discourse, the end and aim was very manifest.
Nobody was offended, but many were convinced, and from that time, Mr.
Beecher preached Anti-Slavery sermons in his church just as often as he
thought best, and his church became an efficient bulwark of the cause.
The Western states at this time were the scenes of much open vice.
Gambling, drinking, licentiousness were all rife in the community, and
against each of these, Mr. Beecher lifted up his testimony. A course
of sermons on those subjects preached in Indianapolis and afterwards
published under the title of "Lectures to Young Men," excited in the
day of their delivery a great sensation. The style is that of fervid,
almost tropical fullness, which characterized his Western life. It
differs from the sermons of most clergymen to young men, in that free
and perfect knowledge it shows of all the details of the evil ways
which he names. Mr. Beecher's peculiar social talent, his convivial
powers, and his habits of close Shaksperian observation, gave him the
key of human nature. Many a gambler or drunkard, in their better hours
were attracted towards a man who met them as a brother, and seemed to
value and aim for the better parts of their nature. When Mr. Beecher
left Indianapolis some of his most touching interviews and parting
gifts were from men of this class, whom he had followed in their
wanderings and tried to save. Some he could save and some were too far
in the whirlpool for his arm to pull them out. One of them said when
he heard of his leaving, "Before any thing or any body on earth, I do
love Beecher. I know he would have saved me if he could."
Mr. Beecher was so devoted to the West, and so identified with it,
that he never would have left what he was wont to call his bishopric
of Indiana, for the older and more set and conventional circles of New
York, had not the health of his family made a removal indispensable.
He was invited to Brooklyn to take charge of a new enterprise. Plymouth
Church was founded by some fifteen or twenty gentlemen as a new
Congregational Church.
Mr. Beecher was to be installed there and had to pass an examination
before Eastern theologians. He had been, as has been shown, not a bit
of a controversialist, and he had been so busy preaching Christ, and
trying to save sinners, that he was rather rusty in all the little
ins and outs of New England theology. On many points he was forced to
answer "I do not know," and sometimes his answer had a whimsical turn
that drew a smile.
"Do you believe in the Perseverance of the Saints?" said good Dr.
Humphrey, his college father, who thought his son was not doing himself
much credit in the theological line, and hoped to put a question where
he could not fail to answer right.
"I was brought up to believe that doctrine," said Mr. Beecher, "and
I did believe it till I went out West and saw how Eastern Christians
lived when they went out there. I confess since then I have had my
doubts."
On the whole, as Mr. Beecher's record was clear from the testimony of
Western brothers, with whom he had been in labors more abundant, it
was thought not on the whole dangerous to let him into the eastern
sheep-fold.
Mr. Beecher immediately announced in Plymouth Pulpit the same
principles that he had in Indianapolis; namely, his determination to
preach Christ among them not as an absolute system of doctrines, not as
a by-gone historical personage, but as the living Lord and God, and to
bring all the ways and usages of society to the test of his standards.
He announced to all whom it might concern, that he considered
temperance and anti-slavery a part of the gospel of Christ, and should
preach them accordingly.
During the battle inaugurated by Mr. Webster's speech of the 7th of
March, and the fugitive slave law, Mr. Beecher labored with his whole
soul.
There was, as people will remember, a great Union Saving Committee
at Castle Garden, New York, and black lists were made out of
merchants, who, if they did not give up their principles, were to be
crushed financially, and many were afraid. Mr. Beecher preached, and
visited from store to store, holding up the courage of his people to
resistance. The advertisement of Bowen & McNamee that they would "sell
their silks but not their principles," went all through the country,
and as every heroic sentiment does, brought back an instant response.
At this time Mr. Beecher carried this subject through New England and
New York, in Lyceum lectures, and began a course of articles in the
Independent, under the star signature, which were widely read. It is
said that when Calhoun was in his last illness, his secretary was
reading him extracts from Northern papers, and among others, one of Mr.
Beecher's, entitled "Shall we compromise?" in which he fully set forth
the utter impossibility of reconciling the two conflicting powers of
freedom and slavery.
"Read that again!" said the old statesman, his eye lighting up. "That
fellow understands his subject; he has gone to the bottom of it."
Calhoun as well as Garrison understood the utter impossibility of
uniting in one nation two states of society founded on exactly opposite
social principles.
Through all the warfare of principles, Plymouth Church steadily grew
larger. It was an enterprise dependent for support entirely on the
sale of the seats, and Mr. Beecher was particularly solicitous to
make it understood that the buying of a seat in Plymouth Church would
necessitate the holder to hear the gospel of Christ unflinchingly
applied to the practical issues of the present hour. Always, as the
year came round, when the renting of the pews approached, Mr. Beecher
took occasion to preach a sermon in which he swept the whole field of
modern reform with particular reference to every disputed and unpopular
doctrine, and warned all who were thinking of taking their seats what
they must expect for the coming year.
When the battle of the settlement of Kansas was going on, and the East
was sending forth her colonies as lambs among wolves, Mr. Beecher
fearlessly advocated the necessity of their going out armed, and a
subscription was raised in Plymouth Church to supply every family
with a Bible and a rifle. A great commotion was then raised and the
inconsistency of such a gift from a professedly Christian church was
much insisted on. Since then, more than one church in New England has
fitted out soldiers and prepared munitions of war, and more than one
clergyman has preached warlike sermons. The great battle had even then
begun in Kansas. John Brown was our first great commander, who fought
single handed for his _country_, when traitors held Washington and
used the United States army only as a means to crush and persecute her
free citizens and help on the slavery conspiracy. During the war Mr.
Beecher's labors were incessant. Plymouth Church took the charge of
raising and equipping one regiment, the First Long Island, and many
of its young men went out in it. Mr. Beecher often visited their camp
during the time of their organization and preached to them. His eldest
son was an officer in it, and was afterwards transferred from it to the
artillery service of the regular army.
At this time Mr. Beecher took the editorship of the Independent, a
paper in which he had long been a contributor. He wished this chance to
speak from time to time his views and opinions to the whole country.
He was in constant communication with Washington and intimate with
the Secretary of War, in whose patriotism, sagacity and wonderful
efficiency he had the greatest reliance.
The burden of the war upon his spirit, his multiplied labors in
writing, speaking, editorship, and above all in caring for his country,
bore down his health. His voice began to fail, and he went to Europe
for a temporary respite. On his arrival he was met on the steamer by
parties who wished to make arrangements for his speaking in England.
He told them that he had come with no such intention, but wholly for
purposes of relaxation, and that he must entirely decline speaking in
England.
In a private letter to his sister at this time, he said, "This contest
is neither more nor less than the conflict between democratic and
aristocratic institutions, in which success to one must be defeat to
the other. The aristocratic party in England, see this plainly enough,
and I do not propose to endeavor to pull the wool over their eyes. I do
not expect sympathy from them. No order yet ever had any sympathy with
what must prove their own downfall. We have got to settle this question
_by our armies_ and the opinions of mankind will follow."
He spent but a short time in England, enjoying the hospitality of an
American friend and former parishioner, Mr. C. C. Duncan. After a
fortnight spent in Wales, he went into Switzerland through Northern
Italy and Germany.
Mr. Beecher always had side tracks to his mind, on which his thoughts
and interests ran in the intervals of graver duties. When he came
to the life of a city, and left his beloved garden and the blooming
prairies of the West behind, he began the study of the arts as a
recreation, and prosecuted it, as he did every thing else, with that
enthusiasm which is the parent of industry. He bought for himself quite
an art library, consisting of all the standard English works on the
subject, and while up and down the country on his anti-slavery lyceum
crusade, usually traveled with some of these works in his pocket, and
read them in the cars. He also made collections of pictures and choice
engravings, with all the ardor with which before he collected specimen
roses. At intervals he had lectured on these subjects. His lecture on
the Uses of the Beautiful, was much called for throughout the country.
He was therefore in training to enjoy the art treasures of Europe.
He had a period of great enjoyment at Berlin, where, in the Berlin
Museum, under the instructions of Waagen the director of arts, he
examined that historical collection, said to be the richest and most
scientifically arranged series to mark the history of art which can be
found in Europe. The scenery of Switzerland and the art galleries of
Northern Italy also helped to refresh his mind and divert him from the
great national affliction that weighed on his spirit.
At Paris, he met the news of the battle of Gettysburg and the taking
of Vicksburg, and recognized in them the only style of argument which
could carry the cause through Europe. Grant was a logician after his
own heart.
Mr. Beecher, on his return to England, was again solicited to speak in
public, and again declined. So immutable was his idea that this was a
battle that Americans must fight out, and which could not be talked out.
He was at last, however, made to see his duty to that small staunch
liberal party who had been maintaining the cause of America against
heavy odds in England, and he felt that if they wished him to speak, he
owed himself to them; that they were brave defenders hard beset; and
that their cause and ours was one. Such men as Baptist Noel, Newman
Hall, Francis Newman and others of that class, were applicants not to
be resisted.
He therefore prepared himself for what he always has felt to have
been the greatest effort and severest labor of his life, to plead the
cause of his country at the bar of the civilized world. A series of
engagements was formed for him to speak in the principal cities of
England and Scotland.
He opened Friday, October 9th, in the Free Trade Hall, in Manchester,
to a crowded audience of 6,000 people. The emissaries of the South had
made every preparation to excite popular tumult, to drown his voice and
prevent his being heard. Here he treated the subject on its merits, as
being the great question of the rights of working men, and brought out
and exposed the nature of the Southern confederacy as founded in the
right of the superior to oppress the inferior race. Notwithstanding the
roar and fury and interruptions he persevered and said his say, and the
London Times next day, printed it all with a column or two of abuse by
way of condiment.
October 13th, he spoke in the city hall at Glasgow, discussing slavery
and free labor as comparative systems. The next day, October 14th,
he spoke in Edinburgh in a great public meeting in the Free Church
Assembly Hall, where he discussed the existing American conflict from
the historical point of view.
This was by far the most quiet and uninterrupted meeting of any. But
the greatest struggle of all was of course at Liverpool. At Liverpool,
where Clarkson was mobbed, and came near being thrown off the wharf
and drowned, there was still an abundance of that brutal noisy
population which slavery always finds it useful to stir up to bay and
bark when she is attacked.
Mr. Beecher has a firmly knit vigorous physical frame, come down from
back generations of yeomen, renowned for strength, and it stood him in
good service now. In giving an account afterwards, he said, "I had to
speak extempore on subjects the most delicate and difficult as between
our two nations, where even the shading of my words was of importance,
and yet I had to outscream a mob and drown the roar of a multitude. It
was like driving a team of runaway horses and making love to a lady at
the same time."
The printed record of this speech, as it came from England, has
constant parentheses of wild uproars, hootings, howls, cat calls,
clamorous denials and interruptions; but by cheerfulness, perfect
fearless good humor, intense perseverance, and a powerful voice, Mr.
Beecher said all he had to say in spite of the uproar.
Two letters, written about this time, show the state of his mind during
this emergency:
SUNDAY, Oct. 18, 1863. LONDON.
MY DEAR FRIEND:
You know why I have not written you from England. I have been so
full of work that I could not. God has been with me and prospered
me. I have had health, and strength, and courage, and what is of
unspeakably more importance, I have had the sweetest experience of
love to God and to man, of all my life. I have been enabled _to love
our enemies_. All the needless ignorance, the party perversions,
the wilful misrepresentations of many newspapers, the arrogance
and obstinacy too often experienced, and yet more the coolness
of brethren of our faith and order, and the poisoned prejudices
that have been arrayed against me by the propagation of untruths
or distorted reports, have not prevented my having a love for old
England, an appreciation of the good that is here, and a hearty
desire for her whole welfare. This I count a great blessing. God
awakened in my breast a desire to be a full and true Christian
towards England, the moment I put my foot on her shores, and he has
answered the prayers which he inspired. I have spoken at Manchester,
Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, and am now in London, preparing
for Exeter Hall, Tuesday next. I have been buoyant and happy. The
streets of Manchester and Liverpool have been filled with placards,
in black and white letters, full of all lies and bitterness, but
they have seemed to me only the tracery of dreams. For hours I
have striven to speak amid interruptions of every kind--yellings,
hootings, cat calls, derisive yells, impertinent and insulting
questions, and every conceivable annoyance--some personal violence.
But God has kept me in perfect peace. I stood in Liverpool and looked
on the demoniac scene, almost without a thought that it was _me_
that was present. It seemed rather like a storm raging in the trees
of the forests, that roared and impeded my progress, but yet had
matters personal or wilful in it, against me. You know, dear friend,
how, when we are lifted by the inspiration of a great subject, and
by the almost visible presence and vivid sympathy with Christ, the
mind forgets the sediment and dregs of trouble, and sails serenely
in an upper realm of peace, as untouched by the noise below, as is
a bird that flies across a battlefield. Just so I had at Liverpool
and Glasgow, as sweet an inward peace as ever I did in the loving
meetings of dear old Plymouth Church. And again and again, when the
uproar raged, and I could not speak, my heart seemed to be taking
of the infinite fullness of the Saviour's pity, and breathing it
out upon those poor, troubled men. I never had so much the spirit
of continuing and unconscious prayer, or rather, of communion with
Christ. I felt that I was his dear child, and that his arms were
about me continually, and at times that peace that passeth all
understanding has descended upon me that I could not keep tears of
gratitude from falling for so much tender goodness of my God. For
what are outward prosperities compared with these interior intimacies
of God? It is not the path _to_ the temple, but the _interior_ of
the temple that shows the goodness and glory of God. And I have
been able to commit all to him, myself, my family, my friends, and
in an especial manner the cause of my country. Oh, my friend, I
have felt an inexpressible wonder that God should give it to me to
do something for the dear land. When sometimes the idea of being
clothed with power to stand up in this great kingdom, against an
inconceivable violence of prejudice and mistake, and clear the name
of my dishonored country, and let her brow shine forth, crowned with
liberty, glowing with love to man, O, I have seemed unable to live,
almost. It almost took my breath away!
"I have not in a single instance gone to the speaking halls without
all the way breathing to God unutterable desires for inspiration,
guidance, success; and I have had no disturbance of _personality_.
I have been willing, yea, with eagerness, to be myself contemptible
in men's sight if only my disgrace might be to the honor of that
cause which is entrusted to our own thrice dear country. I have asked
of God nothing but this--and this with uninterrupted heart-flow of
yearning request--"Make me worthy to speak for God and man." I never
felt my ignorance so painfully, nor the great want of moral purity
and nobility of soul, as when approaching my tasks of _defending
liberty_ in this her hour of trial. I have an ideal of what a man
should be that labors for such a cause, that constantly rebukes my
real condition, and makes me feel painfully how little I am. Yet
_that_ is hardly painful. There passes before me a view of God's
glory, so pure, so serene, uplifted, filling the ages, and more and
more to be revealed, that I almost wish to lose my own identity, to
be like a drop of dew that falls into the sea, and becomes a part
of the sublime whole that glows under every line of latitude, and
sounds on every shore! '_That God may be all in all_,'--that is not
a prayer only, but a personal _experience_. And in all this time I
have not had one unkind feeling toward a single human being. Even
those who are opposers, I have pitied with undying compassion, and
enemies around me have seemed harmless, and objects of charity rather
than potent foes to be destroyed. God be thanked, who giveth us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
"My dear friend, when I sat down to write, I did it under this
impulse--that I wanted somebody to know the secret of my life. I am
in a noisy spectacle, and seem to thousands as one employing merely
worldly implements, and acting under secular motives. But should I
die, on sea or land, I wanted to say to you, who have been so near
and dear to me, that as God's own very truth, 'the life that I have
lived in the flesh, I have lived by faith of the Son of God.' I
wanted to leave it with some one to say for me that it was not in
natural gifts, nor in great opportunities, nor in personal ambition,
that I have been able to endure and labor, but that the secret
and spring of my outward life has been an inward, complete, and
all-possessing faith of God's truth, and God's own self working in me
to will and to do of his own good pleasure!
"There, now I feel better!
"Monday, 19th. I do not know as you will understand the feeling which
led to the above outburst. I had spoken four times in seven days to
immense audiences, under great excitement, and with every effort of
Southern sympathizers, the newspapers, street placards, and in every
other way to prevent my being heard. I thought I had been through
furnaces before, but this ordeal surpassed all others. I was quite
alone in England. I had no one to consult with. I felt the burden of
having to stand for my country, in a half hostile land; and yet I
never flinched for a moment, nor lost heart. But after resting twenty
weeks, to begin so suddenly such a tremendous strain upon my voice,
has very much affected it. To-day I am somewhat fearful I shall be
unable to speak to-morrow night in Exeter Hall. I _want_ to speak
there, if the Lord will only let me. I shall be willing to give up
all the other openings in the kingdom. I cannot stop to give you any
sort of insight into affairs here. One more good victory, and England
will be immovable. The best _thinkers_ of England will be at any rate.
"I hope my people will feel that I have done my duty. I know that I
have tried. I should be glad to feel that my countrymen approved,
but above all others I should prize the knowledge that the people of
Plymouth Church were satisfied with me.
"I am as ever, yours,
H. W. BEECHER."
"OCT. 21, 1863. LONDON.
"MY DEAR FRIEND:
Last night was the culmination of my labor, in Exeter Hall. It was
a very fit close to a series of meetings that have produced a great
sensation in England. Even an American would be impressed with
the enthusiasm of so much of England as the people of last night
represented for the North. It was more than willing, than hearty,
than even eager, it was almost wild and fanatical. I was like to have
been killed with people pressing to shake my hand; men, women, and
children crowded up the platform, and ten and twenty hands held over
and stuck through like so many pronged spears. I was shaken, pinched,
squeezed, in every way an affectionate enthusiasm could devise,
until the police actually came to my rescue, and forced a way, and
dragged me down into the retiring room, where a like scene began,
from which an inner room gave me refuge, but no relief, for only with
more deliberation, the gentlemen brought wives, daughters, sons,
and selves for a God bless you! And when Englishmen that had lived
in America, or had sons in our army, or had married American wives,
took me to witness their devotion to our cause, the chairman of the
meeting, Mr. Scott, the Chamberlain of London, said that a few more
meetings, and in some other parts of England, and the question would
be settled! You will have sent to you abundant accounts, I presume.
"Lastly; England will be enthusiastically right, provided we hold on,
and _gain victories_. But England has an intense and yearning sense
of _the value of success_.
"Yours, ever lovingly."
Mr. Beecher returned from England much exhausted by the effort. All the
strength that he had accumulated he poured out in that battle.
Events after that swept on rapidly, and not long after Mr. Beecher, in
company with Lloyd Garrison, and a great party of others, went down to
Fort Sumter to raise again the national flag, when Richmond had fallen,
and the conflict was over. During his stay at the South, he had some
exciting experiences. One of the most touching was his preaching in one
of the largest churches in South Carolina to a great congregation of
liberated slaves. The sermon, which is in a recently printed volume of
sermons, is full of emotion and records of thankfulness.
Returning, he was met by the news of the President's death, at which,
like all the land, he bowed as a mourner. Not long after, he felt it
his duty to strike another key in his church. The war was over, the
victory won. Mr. Beecher came out with a sermon on forgiveness of
injuries, expounding the present crisis as a great and rare OPPORTUNITY.
The sermon was not a popular one. The community could not at once
change the attitude of war for that of peace; there were heart-burnings
that could not at once be assuaged. But whatever may be thought of Mr.
Beecher's opinions in the matter of political policy, there is no doubt
that the immediate and strong impulse to _forgive_, which came to him
at once when his party was triumphant, was from that source in his
higher nature whence have come all the best inspirations of his life.
Mr. Beecher's views, hopes, wishes, and the policy he would have wished
to have pursued, were very similar to those of Governor Andrew, and
the more moderate of the republicans, and he did not hesitate at once
to imperil his popularity with his own party, by the free expression
of his opinions. Those who have been most offended by him cannot but
feel that the man who defied the slaveholder when he was rich, haughty
and powerful, had a right to speak a kind word for him now when he is
poor, and weak, and defeated. The instinct to defend the weaker side is
strongest in generous natures.
Mr. Beecher has met and borne the criticisms of his own party with that
tolerance and equanimity with which he once bore rebuke for defending
the cause of the slave. In all the objects sought by the most radical
republicans, he is a firm believer. He holds to the equal political
rights of every human being--men and women, the white man and the
negro. He hopes to see this result yet established in the Union, and if
it be attained by means different from those he counseled, still _if it
be attained_, he will sincerely rejoice.
Though Mr. Beecher has from time to time entered largely into politics,
yet he has always contemplated them from the moral and ministerial
stand-point. His public and political labors, though they have been
widely known, are mere offshoots from his steady and habitual pastoral
work in his own parish.
Plymouth Church is to a considerable degree a realization externally
of Mr. Beecher's ideal of what a protestant church ought to be--a
congregation of faithful men and women, bound together by a mutual
covenant of Christian love, to apply the principles of Christianity to
society. It has always been _per se_, a temperance and an anti-slavery
society. The large revenue raised by the yearly sale of pews, has come
in time to afford a generous yearly income. This year it amounts to
fifty thousand dollars. This revenue has, besides the pastor's salary
and current expenses, been appropriated to extinguishing the debt
upon the church, which being at last done, the church will devote its
surplus to missionary operations in its vicinity. Two missions have
been largely supported by the funds derived from Plymouth Church, and
the time and personal labors of its members. A mechanics' reading-room
is connected with one of these. No church in the country furnishes
a larger body of lay teachers, exhorters, and missionaries in every
department of human and Christian labor. A large-minded, tolerant,
genial spirit, a cheerful and buoyant style of piety, is characteristic
of the men and women to whose support and efficient aid in religious
works, Mr. Beecher is largely indebted for his success.
The weekly prayer-meeting of the church is like the reunion of a
large family. The pastor, seated in the midst, seems only as an elder
brother. The various practical questions of Christian morals are freely
discussed, and every member is invited to express an opinion.
In one of these meetings, Mr. Beecher gave an autobiographical account
of the growth of his own mind in religious feeling and opinion, which
was taken down by a reporter. We shall give it as the fitting close of
this sketch.
"If there is any one thing in which I feel that my own Christian
experience has developed more than in another, I think it is the
all-sided use of the love and worship which I have toward the Lord
Jesus Christ. Every man's mind, that acts for itself, has to go through
its periods of development and evolution. In the earlier part of my
Christian career and ministry, I had but glimpses of Christ, and was
eagerly seeking to develop in my own mind, and for my people, a full
view of his character, particularly with reference to the conversion
of men; to start them, in other words, in the Christian life. And for
a great many years I think it was Christ as the wisdom of God unto
salvation that filled my mind very much; and I preached Christ _as a
power_, not at all too much, perhaps, but almost exclusively.
"Well, I think there has been going on in me, steadily and gradually, a
growing _appropriation_ of Christ to all needs; to every side and phase
of experience; so that at no period of my life was I ever so conscious
of a personal need, so definite, and at so many points of my nature, as
now. I do not know that I experience such enthusiasm as I have at some
former periods of my life; but I think that at no other period did I
ever have such a sense of the fulness of God in Christ, or such a sense
of the special point at which this divine all-supply touches the human
want.
"A few points I will mention, that are much in my mind.
"The love of Christ, as I recollect it in my childhood, was taught
almost entirely from the work of redemption. That work of redemption
was itself a historical fact, and it was sought to stir up the heart
and the affections by a continual review and iteration of the great
facts of Christ's earthly mission, passion, atonement and love. I
became conscious, very early in my ministry, that I did not derive--nor
could I see that Christians generally derived--from the mere continued
presentation of that circle of facts, a perpetual help, to anything
like the extent that life needs. There would come to me, as there come
to the church, times in which all these facts seemed to be fused and
kindled, and to afford great light and consolation; but these were
alternative and occasional, whereas the need was perpetual. And it
was not until I went beyond these--not disdaining them, but using
them rather as a torch, as a means of interpreting Christ in a higher
relation--that I entered into a train of thought that revealed to
me the intrinsic nature of God. I had an idea that he loved me on
account of Calvary and Gethsemane, on account of certain historical
facts; but I came, little by little, through glimpses and occasional
appreciations, to that which is now a continuous, unbroken certainty,
namely, a sense of the EVERLASTING NEED OF GOD, IN CHRIST, TO LOVE.
I began to interpret the meaning of love, not by contemplating a few
historical facts, but by running through my mind human faculties,
exalting them, and imagining them to have infinite scope in the divine
mind. I began to apply our ideas of infinity and almightiness to the
attributes of God, and to form some conception of what affection must
be in a Being who had created, who had sustained in the past, and who
was to sustain throughout the endless future, a race of intelligent
creatures such as peopled the earth. In that direction my mind grew,
and in that direction it grows. And from the inward and everlasting
nature of God to love, I have derived the greatest stimulus, the
greatest consolation, and the greatest comfort in preaching to others.
I find many persons that speak of loving Christ; but it is only now
and then that I meet those who seem to be penetrated deeply with a
consciousness of CHRIST'S LOVE TO THEM, or of its boundlessness, its
wealth, its fineness, its exceeding delicacy, its transcendency in
every line and lineament of possible conception. Once in a while,
people have this view break upon them in meeting, or in some sick
hour, or in some revival moment. That is a blessed visitation which
brings to the soul a realization of the capacity of God to love
imperfect beings with infinite love, and which enables a man to adapt
this truth to his shame-hours, his sorrow-hours, his love-hours and his
selfish hours, and to find all the time that there is in the revelation
of the love of God in Christ Jesus all-sufficient food for the soul.
It is, indeed, almost to have the gate of heaven opened to you. The
treasure is inexhaustible.
Out of that has grown something besides: for it is impossible for me
to feel that Christ loves me with such an all-surrounding love, and
to feel, as I do every day of my life, that he has to love me with
imperfections, that he never loves me because I am symmetrical, never
because I am good, never because I deserve his love, never because
I am lovely, but always because he has the power of loving erring
creatures--it is impossible for me to feel thus, and not get some
insight into divine charity. Being conscious that he takes me with
all my faults, I cannot but believe that he takes others with their
faults--Roman Catholics, Swedenborgians, Unitarians, Universalists,
and Christians of all sects and denominations; and of these, not only
such as are least exceptionable, but such as are narrow-minded, such as
are bigoted, such as are pugnacious, such as are unlovely. I believe
that Christ finds much in them that he loves, but whether he finds much
in them that he loves or not, he finds much _in himself of capacity
to love them_. And so I have the feeling that in all churches, in all
denominations, there is an elect, and Christ sees of the travail of
his soul, and is satisfied.
That is not all. Aside from this catholicity of love of Christians in
all sects and denominations, I have a sense of _ownership_ in other
people. It may seem rather fanciful, but it has been a source of
abiding comfort to me for many years, that I _owned_ everybody that was
good for anything in life.
I came here, you know, under peculiar circumstances. I came just at
the critical period of the anti-slavery movement; and I came without
such endorsement as is usually considered necessary in city churches
in the East. Owing to those independent personal habits that belonged
to me, and that I acquired from my Western training, I never consulted
brethren in the ministry as to what course I should pursue, but carried
on my work as fast and as far as I could according to the enlightenment
of my conscience. For years, as you will recollect, it excited remark,
and various states of feeling. And so, I felt, always, as though I was
not particularly acceptable to Christians beyond my own flock, with the
exception of single individuals here and there in other churches. But
I have felt, not resentful, and hardly regretful; for I have always
had a sort of minor under-feeling, that when I was at home I was
strong and all right, though I was conscious that outside of my own
affectionate congregation I was looked upon with suspicion. This acting
upon a nature proud enough, and sensitive enough, has wrought a kind of
feeling that I never would intrude upon anybody, and never would ask
any favor of anybody--as I never have had occasion to do; and I stood
very much by myself. But I never felt any bitterness towards those
who regarded me with disfavor. And I speak the truth, when I declare
that I do not remember to have had towards any minister a feeling that
I would have been afraid to have God review in the judgment day, and
that I do not remember to have had towards any church or denomination
a feeling that Christ would not approve. On the other hand, I have
had positively and springing from my sense of the wonderful love with
which I am loved, and with which the whole church is loved, the feeling
that these very men who did not accept me or my work, were beloved of
Christ, and were brethren to me; and I have said to them mentally,
"I am your brother. _You do not know it, but I am, and though you do
not own me, I own you._ All that is good in you is mine, and I am in
sympathy with it. And you cannot keep me out of your church." I belong
to the Presbyterian church. I belong to the Methodist church. I belong
to the Baptist church. I belong to the Episcopal church. I belong to
_any_ church that has Christ in it. I go where he goes, and love what
he loves. And I insist upon it that though those churches exclude me,
they cannot keep me out. All those I have reason to believe Christ
loves, I _claim_ by virtue of the love that Christ has for me. Hence, I
have a great sense of richness. I rejoice in everything that is good in
all these denominations, and sorrow for everything that is bad, or that
hinders the work of Christ in their hands. And I look, and wait, and
long for that day when all Christians shall recognize each other.
I think that people in the church are like persons riding in a stage
at night. For hours they sit side by side, and shoulder to shoulder,
not being able in the darkness to distinguish one another; but at last,
when day breaks, and they look at each other, behold, they discover
that they are friends and brothers.
So we are riding, I think, through the night of this earthly state, and
do not know that we are brethren, though we sit shoulder to shoulder;
but as the millennial dawn comes on, we shall find it out and all will
be clear."
THE END.
Agents Wanted Everywhere to sell Prof. Stowe's
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE,
BOTH THE
CANONICAL AND THE APOCRYPHAL,
SHOWING WHAT THE BIBLE IS NOT, WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO USE IT.
(NEW TESTAMENT,)
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
BY PROF. CALVIN E. STOWE, D. D.,
FOR MORE THAN THIRTY YEARS BIBLICAL PROFESSOR AT ANDOVER,
CINCINNATI, AND OTHER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARIES,
AND ACKNOWLEDGED TO BE ONE OF THE
BEST INFORMED BIBLE STUDENTS OF THE AGE.
THIS WORK IS ONE OF PATIENT RESEARCH, DILIGENT STUDY,
AND RIPE EXPERIENCE,
BEING IN FACT
THE LIFE WORK OF THE AUTHOR.
IT TREATS OF
The common popular objections to the Bible at the present day.
The evidences upon which we receive the _Sacred Books_, and description
of the Ancient Manuscripts of the New Testament, with fac-simile
illustrations.
Brief Biographies of _One Hundred Ancient Witnesses_ to the New
Testament, whose testimony is most important, much of it cited in this
work.
The testimony for the _Historical Books_, and a full examination,
separately, of the four Gospels.
The Apocryphal Gospels, and fragments of Gospels supposed to be lost.
Modern substitutes for the Gospel History, with an examination of the
works of Strauss, Weisse, Gfroerer, Bruno Bauer, F. C. Baur, Renan and
Schenckel, intended to meet the undermining process with regard to the
authority of Scripture, so prevalent at the present day.
Acts of the Apostles, the Apocryphal Acts, and the fourteen Epistles of
Paul. The Catholic and the Apocryphal Epistles. Revelation of St. John,
and the Apocryphal Revelations.
The Bible Prophets and the Classical Oracles, contrasted.
The Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, and the reason for their
exclusion from the Canon.
It is a work of real value, not sectarian at all, not even Theological,
but is just what it purports to be, a _History of the Books of the
Bible_, sufficiently critical to meet the wants of the Professor,
the Clergyman and the Student, and yet so simplified as to be the
book needed by EVERY FAMILY AND EVERY SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER, AS THE
COMPANION OF THE BIBLE.
This book is new and fresh from the pen of the author, who has long
been urged to its preparation by Presidents of Colleges, and leading
Ministers and Scholars of the various Christian denominations, and has
given his best energies to its completion.
It contains about 600 pages Octavo, printed from new and beautiful
clear type, selected expressly for this work, illustrated with a fine
steel portrait of the Author, fac-similes of the early manuscripts
on which the Bible was written, very curious and interesting, and
other full page illustrative engravings, all in the highest style of
engraving, by the best artists in the country. It is one of the most
popular books ever published.
Over 25,000 copies of this work were sold within the first six months,
and the sales are constantly increasing. A similar volume, on the Old
Testament, by Prof. STOWE, will be issued during the present year.
Clergymen, Experienced Agents, and Ladies, will find Prof. STOWE'S book
the very best of its kind to solicit for. For agency, terms, etc.,
apply or address
HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO., Hartford, Conn.
PROFESSOR STOWE'S
"HISTORY OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE."
IS FULLY APPROVED BY HUNDREDS OF THE CLERGYMEN OF
ALL DENOMINATIONS.
THUS, FOR INSTANCE,
Rev. T. J. CONANT, D. D., (Baptist,) says:
It is an honest book: dealing fairly with the unlearned reader, and
laying before him without concealment or disguise, what is patent to
the Scholar, in the just belief that what is SAFE for the one is SAFE
for the other.
Rev. W. CROSWELL DOANE, (Episcopal,) says:
While he (Prof. Stowe) disposes of some so-called difficulties in an
off-hand and popular way, one feels that he is amply able to meet them
upon a level of more accurate arguing.... FREE ENTIRELY FROM THE LEVITY
OF IRREVERENCE.
Rev. JOEL HAWES, D. D., (Congregationalist, a venerable Clergyman now
deceased,) said:
I am prepared to give it my hearty commendation.
Rev. E. N. KIRK, D. D., (the eminent revivalist,) says:
It is the best adapted to make the canon intelligible to our people, of
any [book] I have read.
President JOSEPH CUMMINGS, D. D., of Wesleyan University, (Methodist,)
says:
I recommend, without hesitation or reserve, Rev. Dr. Stowe's work.... I
am fully persuaded it will accomplish much good.
Prof. AUSTIN PHELPS, of Andover Theological Seminary, says:
I have seldom or ever read a volume which seemed to me to settle so
many things in so simple and straightforward a way. The learning and
philosophy of it are equally conspicuous.
Rev. C. P. SHELDON, (Baptist,) says:
IT CANNOT BUT PROVE MOST VALUABLE IN CHECKING THE SKEPTICAL TENDENCIES
OF THE TIMES.
Prof. J. HAVEN, D. D., of Chicago Theological Seminary, says:
It will be a chief benefit to the popular mind. It is thorough and
complete in its handling of the main questions discussed.
Rev. Dr. EVERTS, of Chicago, (Baptist,) says:
IT MEETS ALL THE LATEST AND MORE POPULAR OBJECTIONS TO THE WORD OF GOD,
enabling even the unlearned believer to give the reason for his belief
to the caviling skeptic or honest enquirer.
Rev. B. F. RAWLINS, Evansville, Ind., (Methodist,) says:
IT IS CERTAINLY THE GREATEST ANTIDOTE FOR THE INFIDELITY OF THE TIMES
that I have yet met with.
Rev. T. W. J. WYLIE, Prof. of Exegetical Theology in the Reformed
Presbyterian Church, says:
SKEPTICAL OBJECTIONS ... ARE FULLY MET. IT IS PERVADED with an
evangelical spirit throughout. It is just what is wanted for general
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INFIDELITY.
Rev. H. A. NELSON, of St. Louis, (Presbyterian,) says:
I know of no book better calculated to help ordinary, intelligent and
candid minds to understand and appreciate the Bible.
From the NEW YORK INDEPENDENT:
Prof. Stowe's book ought to have wings, wherewith it shall fly to every
minister's study-table, and perch in every Sunday School library.
Henry Ward Beecher, in his pulpit, said of Stowe's History of the Books
of the Bible: "I hope every person who comes to Plymouth Church will
put that excellent book into his library."
From HENRY M. STORRS, Congregational Church, Cincinnati, Ohio:
Prof. Stowe's book is of exceeding value; what is more, is of exceeding
value to the masses, not of Christians only, but of all our people.
From President WALLACE, of Monmouth College, Monmouth, Ill.:
Prof. Stowe's History of the Books of the Bible contains a mass of
information--a volume of great value to the common reader as well as
the Scholar.
AGENTS WANTED
FOR THE SALE OF THE
HISTORY OF
RECONSTRUCTION MEASURES IN CONGRESS,
BY SENATOR WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS.
This volume contains nineteen chapters, giving brief sketches of
the various measures of reconstruction--The Civil Rights Bill--The
Freedmen's Bureau--Negro Suffrage in the District of Columbia--The
Constitutional Amendment--The Admission of Tennessee--Negro Suffrage in
the Territories--The several Reconstruction Acts and other measures.
SENATOR WILSON has sought, in this volume, to give a brief and
impartial narrative of the legislation in Congress since the close of
the war, relating to the Reconstruction and restoration of the rebel
States to their practical relations. In tracing the record of the
actors in the introduction and discussion of these great measures of
legislation, he has given their ideas or quoted their words, so as to
give the reader a clear conception of their position, feelings and
opinions. The sketches of these measures, so comprehensive in their
scope and character, cannot fail to be of interest to the general
reader.
This work will be printed on beautiful white paper, from new type,
which has been expressly selected for this book. It will be bound in a
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HARTFORD PUBLISHING CO.,
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Transcribers' Notes:
Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Simple typographical errors were silently corrected.
This book contains many unmatched quotation marks. They are not noted
here, and with two exceptions noted below, have not been remedied.
Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.
Most illustrations originally were printed just before the beginning of
a chapter. In this eBook, the ones that were printed mid-chapter have
been moved to just before their chapters.
The illustrations included specimen signatures, which have been used as
captions in this eBook.
Most of the illustrations included the names of the engravers. To avoid
confusion with the specimen signatures, the engravers' names are given
here:
By H. W. Smith, Boston:
John A. Andrew, Henry Ward Beecher, Wm. A. Buckingham, Schuyler
Colfax, Wm. Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, Charles Sumner.
By A. H. Ritchie:
S. P. Chase, Frederick Douglass, D. E. Farragut, Harriet Beecher
Stowe, Horace Greeley, O. O. Howard, A. Lincoln, Phil. H. Sheridan,
W. T. Sherman, Edwin M. Stanton, N. Wilson.
The illustration of U S Grant did not include an engraver's name.
Text sometimes uses "borne" where modern spelling is "born." It also
uses "borne" in the modern sense.
Page 42: Transcriber added quotation mark in 'parallel is taken, "Mr.
Webster added' to match the one following '88."'
Page 56: Transcriber added closing quotation mark at the end of the
paragraph beginning "At the close of the speech", to match the one
preceding "One of three".
Page 185: Transcriber added quotation mark preceding 'You shall not
say', to match the one following 'purposes or schemes."'
Page 316: "a chip of the old block" was printed that way.
Page 332: "perspicasity" was printed that way.
Page 443: "It was, a preparation" was printed with the comma.
Page 471: "arriving about 9 1-2 P. M." was printed with a short dash.
End of Project Gutenberg's Men of Our Times, by Harriet Beecher Stowe