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HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 640 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HENRY See also:WARD See also:BEECHER (1813-1887)  , See also:American preacher and reformer, was See also:born in See also:Litchfield, See also:Connecticut, on the 24th of See also:June 1813 . He was the eighth See also:child of Lyman and See also:Roxana See also:Foote See also:Beecher, and See also:brother of Harriet Beecher See also:Stowe . Entering See also:Amherst See also:College in 183o, and graduating four years later, he gave more See also:attention to his own courses of See also:reading than to college studies, and was more popular with his See also:fellows than with the See also:faculty . With a See also:patience See also:foreign to his impulsive nature, he submitted to See also:minute See also:drill in elocution, and became a fluent extemporaneous See also:speaker . Reared in a Puritan See also:atmosphere, he has graphically described the mystical experience which, coming to him in his See also:early youth, changed his whole conception of See also:theology and determined his choice of the See also:ministry . " I think," he says, " that when I stand in See also:Zion and before See also:God, the highest thing that I shall look back upon will be that blessed See also:morning of May when it pleased God to reveal to my wondering soul the See also:idea that it was His nature to love a See also:man in his sins for the See also:sake of helping him out of them." In 1837 he graduated from See also:Lane Theological See also:Seminary in See also:Ohio, of which his See also:father was See also:president, and entered upon his See also:work as pastor of a missionary Presbyterian See also:church at See also:Lawrenceburg, See also:Indiana, a See also:village on the Ohio, about 20 M. below See also:Cincinnati . The membership numbered nineteen See also:women and one man . Beecher was See also:sexton as well as preacher . Two years later he accepted a See also:call to See also:Indianapolis . His unconventional See also:preaching shocked the more staid members of the See also:flock, but filled the church to overflowing with See also:people unaccustomed to churchgoing . He studied men rather than books; became acquainted with the vices in what was then a See also:pioneer See also:town; and in his Seven Lectures to See also:Young Men (1844) treated these with genuine See also:power of realistic description and with youthful and exuberant See also:rhetoric . Eight years later (1847) he accepted a call to the pastorate of See also:Plymouth Church (Congregational), then newly organized in See also:Brooklyn, New See also:York .

The situation of the church, within five minutes' walk of the See also:

chief See also:ferry to New York, the stalwart See also:character of the man who had organized it, and the See also:peculiar eloquence of Beecher, combined to make the See also:pulpit a See also:national See also:platform . The See also:audience-See also:room of the church, capable of seating 2000 or 2500 people, frequently contained 500 or loon more . Beecher at once became a recognized See also:leader . On the all-absorbing question of See also:slavery he took a See also:middle ground between the See also:pro-slavery or See also:peace party, and abolitionists like See also:William See also:Lloyd See also:Garrison and Wendell See also:Phillips, believing, with such statesmen as W . H . See also:Seward, See also:Salmon P . See also:Chase, and See also:Abraham See also:Lincoln, that slavery was to be overthrown under the constitution and in the See also:Union, by forbidding its growth and trusting to an awakened See also:conscience, enforced by an enlightened self-See also:interest . He was always an See also:anti-slavery man, but never technically an abolitionist, and he joined the Republican party soon after its organization . In the earlier days of the agitation, he challenged the hostility which often mobbed the anti-slavery gatherings; in the later days he consulted with the See also:political leaders, inspiring the patriotism of the See also:North, and sedulously setting himself to create a public See also:opinion which should confirm and ratify the emancipation See also:proclamation whenever the president should issue it . When danger of foreign intervention See also:cast its threatening See also:shadow across the national path, he went to See also:England, and by his famous addresses did what probably no other American could have clone to strengthen the spirit in England favourable to the See also:United States, and to convert that which was doubtful and hostile . In 1861-1863 he was the editor-in-chief of the See also:Independent, then a Congregational See also:journal; and in his editorials, copied far and wide, produced a profound impression on thepublic mind by clarifying and defining the issue . Later (in 187o), he founded and became editor-in-chief of the See also:Christian Union, afterwards the Outlook, a religious undenominational weekly .

His lectures and addresses had the spirit if not the See also:

form of his sermons, just as his sermons were singularly See also:free from the homiletical See also:tone . Yet his work as a reformer was subsidiary to his work as a preacher . He was not indeed a See also:parish pastor; he inspired church activities which See also:grew to large proportions, but trusted the organization of them to laymen of organizing abilities in the church; and for acquaintance with his people he depended on such social occasions as were furnished in the free atmosphere of this essentially New England church at the See also:close of every service . But during his pastorate the church grew to be probably the largest in membership in the United States . It was in the pulpit that Beecher was seen at his best . His mastery of the See also:English See also:tongue, his dramatic power, his instinctive See also:art of impersonation, which had become a second nature, his vivid See also:imagination, his breadth of intellectual view, the catholicity of his sympathies, his passionate See also:enthusiasm, which made for the moment his immediate theme seem to him the one theme of transcendent importance, his See also:quaint See also:humour alternating with genuine pathos, and above all his See also:simple and singularly unaffected devotional nature, made him as a preacher without a peer in his own See also:time and See also:country . His favourite theme was love: love to man was to him the fulfilment of all See also:law; love of God was the essence of all See also:Christianity . Retaining to the See also:day of his See also:death the forms and phrases of the New England theology in which he had been reared, he poured into them a new meaning and gave to them a new significance . He probably did more than any other man in See also:America to See also:lead the Puritan churches from a faith which regarded God as a moral See also:governor, the See also:Bible as a See also:book of See also:laws, and See also:religion as obedience to a conscience to a faith which regards God as a father, the Bible as a book of counsels, and religion as a See also:life of See also:liberty in love . The later years of his life were darkened by a See also:scandal which Beecher's See also:personal, political and theological enemies used for a time effectively to shadow a reputation previously above reproach, he being charged by See also:Theodore Tilton, whom he had befriended, with having had improper relations with his (Tilton's) wife . But in the midst of these accusations (See also:February 1876), the largest and most representative Congregational See also:council ever held in the United States gave expression to a See also:vote of confidence in him, which time has absolutely justified . Not a student of books nor a technical See also:scholar in any See also:department, Beecher's knowledge was as wide as his interests were varied .

He was early See also:

familiar with the See also:works of See also:Matthew See also:Arnold, See also:Charles See also:Darwin and See also:Herbert See also:Spencer; he preached his Bible Studies sermons in 1878, when the higher See also:criticism was wholly unknown to most evangelical ministers or known only to be dreaded; and his sermons on See also:Evolution and Religion in 1885, when many of the ministry were denouncing evolution as atheistic . He was stricken with See also:apoplexy while still active in the ministry, and died at Brooklyn on the 8th of See also:March 1887, in the seventy-See also:fourth See also:year of his See also:age . The See also:principal books by Beecher, besides his published sermons, are: Seven Lectures to Young Men (1844); Plymouth Collection of See also:Hymns and Tunes (1855) ; See also:Star Papers, Experiences of Art and Nature (1855); Life Thoughts (1858); New Star Papers; or Views and Experiences of Religious Subjects (1859); See also:Plain and Pleasant Talks about Fruits, See also:Flowers and Farming (1859); American See also:Rebellion, See also:Report of Speeches delivered in England at Public Meetings in See also:Manchester, See also:Glasgow, See also:Edinburgh, See also:Liverpool, and See also:London (1864); Prayers from Plymouth Pulpit (1867) ; See also:Norwood: A See also:Tale of Village Life in New England (1867) ; The Life of Jesus the See also:Christ (1871), completed in 2 vols., by his sons (1891); and Yale Lectures on Preaching (3 vols., 1872—1874) . The principal lives are: Noyes L . See also:Thompson, The See also:History of Plymouth Church (1847—1872) ; See also:Thomas W . See also:Knox, The Life and Work of See also:Henry See also:Ward Beecher (See also:Hartford, See also:Conn., 1887) ; See also:Frank S . Child, The Boyhood of Henry Ward Beecher (Pamphlet, New See also:Creston, Conn., 1887) ; See also:Joseph See also:Howard, Jr., Life of Henry Ward Beecher (See also:Philadelphia, T887); T . W . Hanford, Beecher: Christian Philosopher, Pulpit Orator, Patriot and Philanthropist (See also:Chicago, 1887) ; Lyman See also:Abbott and S . B . See also:Halliday, Henry Ward Beecher: A See also:Sketch of His Career (New York, 1887) ; William C . Beecher, Rev .

See also:

Samuel Scoville and Mrs H . W . Beecher, A See also:Biography of Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1888) ; See also:John R . Howard, Henry Ward Beecher: A Study (1891); John Henry Barrows, Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1893) ; and Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher (See also:Boston, 1903) . (L .

End of Article: HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887)
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