Although Mr. Beecher is a resident of Brooklyn, and although Plymouth
Church is located in that city, yet the great preacher is sufficiently
bound to New York by business and socialities to make him a part of the
great metropolis.
He was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, on the 24th of June, 1813, and is
now in his fifty-ninth year, though he looks very much younger. He was
the eighth child of Dr. Lyman Beecher, and was regarded as the dunce of
the family, and, according to his own account, had the usual unpleasant
experience of ministers' children. Being of a naturally strong, vigorous
constitution, his body far outran his mind, and the little fellow lagged
behind until nature asserted her rights. The forcing process
accomplished very little with him. He was quick-witted, however, and
fond of fun. The gloomy doctrines of his learned father made him
shudder, and he came to the conclusion that Sunday was a day of penance,
and the Catechism a species of torture invented for the punishment of
dull boys. At the age of ten, he was sent to a boarding-school in
Bethlehem, where he studied by shouldering his gun and going after
partridges. Then his sister, Catharine, took him in hand, but he spent
his time in teazing the girls of her school, and she was compelled to
give him up as a hopeless case. The boy of ten could not be made a
mental prodigy, do what they would. The result is that the man of
fifty-nine is as fresh and vigorous in body and mind as most others are
at thirty-five.
[Picture: HENRY WARD BEECHER.]
When he was twelve years old, his father removed to Boston, and there
Henry began to show his true powers. He learned rapidly, and was soon
sent to the Mount Pleasant Institute, at Amherst, from which he passed to
Amherst College, where he graduated with distinction in 1834. While at
Mount Pleasant, he formed the resolution of entering the ministry, and
all his studies were thenceforward shaped to that end. In 1832, his
father had removed to Cincinnati, to assume the presidency of the Lane
Theological Seminary, and, after leaving Amherst, Henry followed him to
the West, and completed his theological course at the Lane Seminary in
1836. In that year he was admitted to the ministry of the Presbyterian
Church.
Immediately after his ordination, Mr. Beecher married, and accepted a
call to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the Ohio River, twenty miles below
Cincinnati. He did not stay there long, but passed to the charge of a
church in Indianapolis, where he spent eight years--eight valuable years
to him, for he says he learned how to preach there. In the summer of
1847, he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of Plymouth
Church, in Brooklyn, which had just been founded, and on the 11th of
November, 1847, he was publicly installed in the position which he has
since held.
Few persons of education and taste ever come to New York without hearing
the great preacher. Plymouth Church is a familiar place to them. It is
located in Orange street, between Hicks and Henry streets, Brooklyn. It
is a plain structure of red brick. The interior is as simple as the
exterior. It is a plain, square room, with a large gallery extending
entirely around it. At the upper end is a platform on which stands the
pulpit--an exquisitely carved little stand of wood from the Garden of
Gethsemane. In the gallery, back of the pulpit, is the organ, one of the
grandest instruments in the country. The seats are arranged in
semicircles. By placing chairs in the aisles, the house will seat with
comfort twenty five hundred people. The congregation usually numbers
about three thousand, every available place being crowded. The
upholstering is in crimson, and contrasts well with the prevailing white
color of the interior.
The singing is congregational, and is magnificent. One never hears such
singing outside of Plymouth Church.
The gem of the whole service, however, is the sermon; and these sermons
are characteristic of the man. They come warm and fresh from his heart,
and they go home to the hearer, giving him food for thought for days
afterward. Mr. Beecher talks to his people of what they have been
thinking of during the week, of trials that have perplexed them, and of
joys which have blessed them. He takes the merchant and the clerk to
task for their conduct in the walks of business, and warns them of the
snares and pitfalls which lie along their paths. He strips the thin
guise of honesty from the questionable transactions of Wall street, and
holds them up to public scorn. His dramatic power is extraordinary. He
can hardly be responsible for it, since it breaks forth almost without
his will. He moves his audience to tears, or brings a mirthful smile to
their lips, with a power that is irresistible. His illustrations and
figures are drawn chiefly from nature, and are fresh and striking. He
can startle his hearers with the terrors of the law, but he prefers to
preach the gospel of love. His sermons are printed weekly in the
_Plymouth Pulpit_, and are read by thousands.
His literary labors, apart from his ministerial duties, have been
constant. He has published several books, has edited _The Independent_
and _The Christian Union_, and has contributed regularly to the _New York
Ledger_ and other papers. He has been almost constantly in the lecture
field, and has spoken frequently before public assemblies on the various
questions of the day.
Mr. Beecher is young-looking and vigorous. He has the face of a great
orator, and one that is well worth studying. He dresses plainly, with
something of the farmer in his air, and lives simply. He is blessed with
robust health, and, like his father, is fond of vigorous exercise. He
has a fine farm on the Hudson, to which he repairs in the summers. Here
he can indulge his love of nature without restraint. He is said to be a
capital farmer, though he complains that he does not find the pursuit any
more remunerative than does his friend, Mr. Greeley.