BEECHER. 



61 



ner, but pitied him in short, that he felt to- 

 ward me, as my mother felt toward me, to 

 whose eyes my wrong-doing brought tears, 

 who never pressed me so close to her as when 

 I had done wrong, and who would fain, with 

 her yearning love, lift me out of trouble." 

 From this eventful May morning dated his 

 consecration to the Christian ministry, a self- 

 consecration, which subsequent intellectual 

 doubts and difficulties, though often serious, 

 never induced him to abandon, even tempora- 

 rily. He returned from college to bis father, 

 who had now moved to Cincinnati, to take 

 the chair of Systematic Theology in Lane Semi- 

 nary, and entered there upon his theological 

 studies. The same variety of mood and large-- 

 ness of sympathy that on the one hand had 

 given breadth, but on the other had prevented 

 discipline, in his college life, followed him into 

 the seminary, where, while he pursued his 

 theological studies, he did successful service 

 as editor of a Cincinnati paper, in which he 

 took occasion to give ardent expression to his 

 anti-slavery views: and at the same time he 

 assumed charge of a Bible class, in the teach- 

 ing of which he cleared, if he did not absolute- 

 ly dissipate, his religious doubts, and settled 

 finally, not only his own personal relation to 

 Jesus Christ as a living friend and helper, but 

 his own mission as a preacher of that Christ 

 as the friend of each individual soul, and so the 

 regenerator of society. In 1837 he began his 

 ministry in the town of Lawrenceburg, Indi- 

 ana, a small settlement on the Ohio river, 

 which at one time had the ambition to be a 

 rival of Cincinnati, but is now a comparatively 

 insignificant village. The parish was not such 

 a one as young men graduating from the semi- 

 nary in our time are usually eager for. The 

 church consisted of nineteen women and one 

 man; the pastor acted as sexton, filled and 

 lighted the lamps, swept the church, made the 

 fires, opened the church before prayer-meet- 

 ings and preaching, and locked it up afterward. 

 His pastorate here was of short duration. In 

 1839 he was called ^ a Presbyterian church 

 in Indianapolis, the capital of Indiana. Here 

 he delivered his "Lectures to Young Men," 

 which are still in print, and are a remarkable 

 specimen of the power of graphic rhetoric. 

 In them he depicts, as from a personal and 

 practical knowledge, the dangers that threat- 

 ensd the young men of the capital, where all 

 evil influences quickly gathered. With his 

 peculiar skill in drawing men out, he made the 

 acquaintance of one of the most noted gam- 

 blers in the city; from him elicited the secrets 

 and methods of his trade, and utilized the 

 knowledge in one of his Sunday evening lect- 

 ures. His church was crowded, and among 

 his most eager listeners were members of the 

 Legislature, when it was in session. His library 

 was small, and his income meager, but he 

 made himself felt, not only in the city but 

 throughout the State, through which he fre- 

 quently made journeys, for the purpose of 



conducting revival services, then far more 

 common than in our time. He was wont to 

 preach daily for weeks, and even for months 

 at a time ; and once this daily preaching lasted 

 through eighteen consecutive months without 

 the exception of a single day. For recreation 

 he took to the study of horticulture, and agri- 

 culture, and to writing on those topics for the 

 u Indiana Journal," the agricultural department 

 of which he for a time edited. 



In 1847 he accepted a call to Plymouth 

 Congregational church then just organized in 

 Brooklyn, N. Y., on the Heights. His first ser- 

 mon was delivered on Sunday, Oct. 10, 1847, 

 and contained an exposition of his views with 

 regard to slavery, war, temperance, and other 

 moral reforms, as well as in regard to theolo- 

 gy, which in his thought and experience cen- 

 tered wholly about Christ as the revelation 

 and disclosure of the true character of God. 

 In the nearly forty years' pastorate in this 

 church, which made up the rest of Mr. Beech- 

 er's life, he never varied from the platform of 

 principles laid down in that opening sermon, 

 except by broadening and extending it. Under 

 his pastorate the church grew steadily both 

 in numbers and in influence; it now contains, 

 in round numbers, twenty-four hundred mem- 

 bers. It has a creed, adopted in 1848, which 

 is strictly evangelical ; but since 1870 persons 

 uniting with the church are not required to 

 assent to this creed ; they simply assent to a 

 covenant of consecration to the service of God. 

 and to acceptance of his Word as the rule of 

 their life. While the additions to the church 

 have been for the most part steady and gradual 

 rather than intermittent and extraordinary, its 

 life has been characterized by some notable 

 revivals of religion; in one of which (1858) 

 three hundred and thirty-five persons made 

 profession of their faith. Except in the sum- 

 mer vacations, and four visits to Europe, Mr. 

 Beecher was rarely absent from his pulpit, even 

 for a single service, for he rarely exchanged ; 

 the church throughout the period of his min- 

 istry was always crowded, both morning and 

 evening, and with two distinct congregations; 

 for the pastor urged his people to remain away 

 in the evening, and leave their pews vacant 

 for strangers. The original church-building 

 was destroyed by fire in 1849, and the present 

 structure was erected in its place, with accom- 

 modations for about twenty - eight hundred 

 persons, and with lecture- room, Sunday-school 

 room, social parlors, and kitchen attached. 



While Mr. Beecher's great work was that 

 of a preacher, it was by no means confined to 

 preaching. He began editorial work in Cin- 

 cinnati, before he was licensed to preach, and 

 retained an interest in journalism in some form 

 throughout the greater part of his life. He 

 was connected with Drs. Richard S. Storrs, 

 Leonard Bacon, and Joseph P. Thompson in 

 the New York " Independent," in the stormy 

 anti-slavery times out of which it was born. 

 He subsequently withdrew from the " Inde- 



