THE
LIFE AND SERVICES
OF
RtEV. LYMIAN BEECIER, D. D.
AS PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY IN LANE SEMINARY
A  COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED AT THE ANNIVERSARY,
MAY 7th, 1863.
BY
REV. D. HOWE ALLEN, D. D.
PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
CI N C INN A TI:
JOHINSON, SrEPHENS & COMPANY, STEAM PRINTERS,
141 Mlain Street, between Third and Fourth.
1863.
i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i.








THE
LIFE AND SERVICES
OF
EV. LYMAN BEECHER,. D.
AS PRESIDENT AND PROFESSOR OF THEOLOQY IN LANE SEMINARY.
A COM3JEMORATIVE DISCOURSE,
DELIVERED AT THE ANNIVERSARY,
MAY 7th, 1863.
BY
REV. D. HOWE ALLEN, D. D.
PROFESSOR OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
CINCI N NATI:
JOHNSON, STEPHENS & COMPANY, STEAMH PRINTERS,
141.Main Street, between Third and Fourth.
1863.








COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS.
THE request that I should deliver a discourse on this occasion,
commemorative of the services of the late President of this Seminary, Rev. Dr. Beecher, suggests as a reason why this service should
devolve upon me, the fact that for several years I was associated
with him in this institution. For the same reason, I presume it is
expected that this discourse should be confined chiefly to his connection with the Seminary and his labors in the West. The admirable
discourse delivered at his funeral in Brooklyn, New York, and the
numerous sketches which have appeared in the Eastern papers,
leave little to be desired in this form in respect to his early life
and his public labors, until his removal from Boston. It is understood that a fuller memoir will soon be published, which shall give
his history in permanent form.
But all these notices, so far as they have met my eye, have
passed over very briefly the period of his public labor devoted to
the West-a period of nearly twenty years duration-as if it were
of comparatively little importance.
The presumption is that those who have written and spoken of
Dr. Beecher, at the East, knew but little of the magnitude and
importance of his Western work, and can not appreciate the extent of his influence here, both in the pulpit and the Theological
Chair.
I can not hope to do more in this discourse than to present a
brief history of his connection with the Seminary, and of his work
here; and to suggest some considerations bearing upon a just
estimate of the extent and value of this portion of his public
services.
Lyman Beecher was born at New Haven, Conn., on the 12th of October, 1775, and died on the 10th of January, 1863, in the eightyeighth year of his age.
Left motherless from his birth, and committed, a child of only
three and a half pounds weight, to the care of a maternal aunt,




4
residing at Guilford, Conn., he was brought up under her tender care,
till he became a stout, hardy, farmer's boy. But his impetuous
nature demanded a more earnest life. When about sixteen years
of age he began his preparations for college, and at twenty-two
graduated under I'resident Dwight. After one year of theological
study under the tuition of his revered President, he was licensed
to preach the Gospel; and a year later, (1799,) when twenty-four
years of age, was installed pastor of the church of East HIampton,
Long Island. Here he rose steadily and surely to prominence and
distinction. After a ministry of eleven years, he was called to
Litchfield, Conn., then distinguished for its excellent Law School.
This pastorship, which he called the most laborious part of his life,
continued for sixteen years.
From Litchfield he removed to Boston in 1825, where he spent
six years of wonderfully successful labor-"the most active and
intensely interesting period of [his] life."
With this brief outline of his early and middle life, covering
just about two-thirds of the whole, I pass to speak more fully of
the remaining third, spent chiefly in this community.
Dr. Beecher was elected to the office of President and Professor
of Theology in this Seminary on the 22d of October, 1830-a most
critical period in the history of its establishment.
The charter had been obtained in the winter of 1829. A donation of sixty acres of land, furnishing this admirable location, had
been secured, one condition of the title being that a theological
institution should be established and maintained upon it. Five or
six thousand dollars had been received, including $4,000 from the
gentleman whose name it bears.
Agents had been sent East and South to collect funds, and had
returned discouraged. The first Professor in the Theological Department had been appointed, and about a year before had entered upon his duties. Three or four students were on the ground,
but there were no conveniences for their accommodation. In the
spring of 1830 the Professor was sent to the East to obtain funds.
He labored several months without any success, and early in September resigned his office and abandoned the enterprise.
On the receipt of this intelligence, a special meeting' of the
Board was called to consider what must be clone. That was a
solemn and memorable meeting. The institution existed only in
name-without Professors, without students, without funds or




buildings —and their efforts to obtain finds have proved a failure,
the prospect was dark enough to stagger the stro.ngest faith. The
foundations of one building were laid, but the means of completing it were not at command, and it seemed very doubtful whether
the donation of land must not be given ulp, and the whole enterprise be abandoned.
The record of that meeting, held September 30th, 1830, is brief:
"Much doubt rested on the minds of some," says the Secretary;
"the meeting was solemn, and after much deliberation and consultation, it was resolved that one more effort be made to raise funds
at the East."
From a full report of the financial operations of tile Seminary,
made some six years after, we are permitted to obtain a fuller acquaintance with that interesting meeting:
"The President of the Board (Dr. Wilson) said:'I never had
great confidence in obtaining aid from Eastern nmen and Eastern
funds. We have made the experiment, and we have seen the result. We must now look to the West for Professors and funds'
and if wve cannot make a great institution, as we hopled, we must
make a small one.' As little confidence, however, was felt by the
members, generally, in obtaining aid firom the V est, as the Chairman had expressed in relation to the East. At member of the
Board said:'  am an Eastern man; I know the hearts of Eastern
Christians; I Iknow they will give us money, if we make a special
appeal to them. We must have Dr. Beecher or Dr. McAuley, and
the means for Ihis support will not be wanting.' The Committee
said,' If the brother who has so much confidence in the East will
go, we will senld him, and make one more effort.' Dr. Wilson said'Amen.' "
That brother, Rev. F. Y. Vail, consented to undertake the important mission. He hastened to the East, and conferred with prominent men in Philadelphia, New York and Boston, in respect to the
man to fill the office of Professor of Theology in the Seminary.
With one voice they directed him to Dr. Lyman Beecher, of Boston. If he could be induced to go, public confidence would at
once be secured, and funds and students would immediately begin
to flow into the institution.
The subject was next laid before Dr. Beecher, in connection with
some of his best advisers, especially his ever loved and trusted
friends, Drs. Cornelius and Wisner. He had then been in Boston




6
but about four years and a half, and was at the very hight of his
popularity and power in that city. Those had been years of
almost constant revival of religion in his congregation and in connection with his labors in the vicinity. His head and heart were
full, and all his power was tasked to the utmost in a kind of labor
which he loved intensely.
Most men would have said at once, "I ought not to leave; I
can not leave." But not so he. He entered into the subject with
all his characteristic ardor. The idea of having so direct and important a part in forming the character of the ministry of this vast
Western world, took profound possession of his soul. A field of
wider and more permanent usefulness was opened before him,
than the pastorship of any single church could furnish.
He was constitutionally fitted to grasp the great idea and, with
prophetic vision, to see the coming magnitude and power of these
Western States, and feel their claim upon the strong men of the
East as very few men could. The subject was not new to him.'He had prayed for the West, and pleaded for the West, long
before he had thought of coming here himself.
After nearly all present had given their opinions, expressing the
strong conviction that, notwithstanding the great loss to Boston,
God now called him to the West, Dr. Beecher was called upon to
express his own convictions. His utterance was almost choked
by the intensity of his emotions, but at length he spoke substantially thus:
" Brethren, I have long desired the privilege of training young
men for the ministry, and have hoped that God had given me some
fitness for such a work; but the way has never been opened till
now. Now it is all plain as noonday. What a glorious work to
train embassadors for Christ for the Great WIest   Some of you
have said that Boston would suffer by my removal. Why, brethren, if Boston should sink, it would not be so great a calamity as
to have this grand enterprise fail. Brethren, I ought to go —I
must go!"
Arthur Tappan, Esq., immediately became responsible for the
salary of Dr. Beecher, by subscribing $20,000, to be paid at his
decease, and the interest semi-annually, on condition that Dr.
Beecher should receive and accept the appointment of President
and Theological Professor, and also, that two other Professorships
be secured at the East, and from $10,000 to $20,000 at the West




for buildings. The Board were immediately informed of these
facts, and on the receipt of the grateful intelligence assembled for
the special purpose October 22d, 1830, and unanimously elected
Dr. Beecher, President and Professor of Theology. The following
extract, from the letter of the Corresponding Secretary, Dr. James
Warren, in which he communicated to the agent the action of the
Board, will show the state of feeling at that time: " Your success
was entirely unexpected, and it gave a thrill to the soul of every
member of the Board, and others whom I have seen, are rejoicing
with tears in their eyes. Is it possible, say they, that this Western
world is to be blessed with the presence of Dr. Beecher? And
we give thanks to the Lord that he has made you the honored instrument of conferring so great a blessing upon us. The resolution was passed with reverential silence, not a word was *spoken
but' Aye. "
Dr. Beecher was confident that he could make his people view
the subject as he did, so that they would bid him God speed. But
he had not estimated, perhaps till then he had not known, how
strong were the ties and obligations which bound him to his people. Boston had no idea of sinking, nor of consenting that one
of her pillars should be removed, or that any of her financial
transactions should be put in peril.
One Sabbath morning, near the beginning of that year, (1830,)
the Hanover Street Congregation had gathered in a strange place,
and their pastor's text was, " Our holy and our beautiful house is
burned up with fire, and all our pleasant things are laid waste." In
consequence of this event, financial obligations had beenincurred
for the erection of a new house of worship, which could not be
disregarded.
Early in the year 1831, solicitude began to be felt lest Dr.
Beecher might not obtain the consent of his people to his leaving
them, and Dr. Wilson, Rev. IMessrs. Vail and Gallaher were appointed a committee to correspond with them on the subject.
The following extract from the letter of this committee will show
how the very existence of the institution was regarded as being
identified with Dr. Beecher's acceptance.
After speaking of Dr. Beecher's qualifications for the work to
which he was invited, and the influence upon the cause of Christ,
East and West, of his accepting, the committee go on to say: "The
last reason we shall mention for Dr. Beecher's connection with our




8
institution is, that the securing of funds pledged on this condition,
and the consequent existence and prosperity of the institution depend upon it. Three Professorships, amounting in all to $50,000
are nearly secured, on condition that Dr. Beecher becomes our
Professor, and that we, at the West, raise from $10,000 to $20,000
more for buildings. These funds, thus liberally offered to us, are
to be given on account of the special confidence that the donors
place in Dr. B. to preside over and give character and success to
our Seminary. Shall it be then the painful calamity of the West,
and of the Church generally, that some $60,000 or $70,000, which
would place our institution on a high and permanent basis, and
bless our increasing and perishing millions, must be lost, and our
now brightening prospects be blasted for want of the man with
whom the friends of Zion and of the West have identified their
benefactions? Should we fail of securing Dr. Beecher and the
funds connected with him, we see not how our institution can be
sustained, as extensive funds are indispensable, and can not possibly be obtained here among our infant churches."
In March following, Dr. B. wrote to the Board a full statement
of the case from which it appeared almost certain that he must
decline the appointment.*
In this emergency a special agent was sent to Boston to lay the
case anew before him and his people, and to secure, if possible,
his final acceptance.
Several successive days were spent in consultation with him and
his best advisers. It seemed to them all that no time could be
more unpropitious for his leaving, not only on account of the condition of his own church, now destitute of a house of worship, but
on account of the critical condition of the cause of Evangelical
truth in Boston, and the rising controversies among orthodox men
themselves in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
But in spite of all obstacles, Dr. Beecher's earnest desire,
amounting almost to a passion, to take part in giving shape to the
theology and education of the West, and the claims of the Seminary whose very existence seemed to be vibrating in the scale, induced at length a decision-that while he could not possibly leave
at that time, he might, perhaps, in one or two years, though no
pledge to that effect could be given. In this confidence the Board
rested till the following year.
S* ee the letter in the Appendix.




9
On the 23d of January, 1832, his appointment was renewed. In
April he visited Cincinnati to make a personal examination of the
condition and prospects of the Seminary; and in July following,
having previously renewed his connection with the Presbyterian
Church, signified his acceptance of the appointment. In November he moved to Cincinnati, and on the 26th of Decemlber, 1832,
was inducted into his office, and entered upon its duties. In the
spring following, he was installed the pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati.
The prospects of the institution were then in the highest degree
encouraging. The theory that manual labor could be systematically united with study, so as not only to promote health, but to
diminish largely the expenses of an education, was just then exceedingly popular.
The entire expenses of a student in the Theological Department
were estimated at $60 per annum, and in the Literary Department
at $75; and the hope was confidently cherished that a large part
of these sums would be paid by manual labor. These causes, together with the high reputation of Dr. Beecher, drew together, at
once, more than a hundred young men, of whom more than seventy
entered the Theological classes. This prosperity, however, was
not of long continuance. Before one year had passed, the Board
had begun to learn the lesson, which all Manual Labor Institutions
learned sooner or later, that while the system was a pecuniary gain
to the student, it was a pretty heavy pecuniary loss to the institution.
The year following occurred what is known in the history of the
Seminary as "the Abolition outbreak," which resulted in the withdrawment of about seventy students froni the Seminary, and was
followed by the abandonment of the Literary Department. During
the very unpleasant excitement which terminated in this outbreak,
Dr. Beecher's course was such as to secure the strono personal
attachment of all the students. Even those who thouglit themselves called upon to leave for conscience's sake, loved him as a
father, and it was always afterward his confident opinion that if he
could have been here during the summer vacation, when the direct
collision between the students and the Board of Trustees occurred,
he could so have controlled the fiery spirits of those ardent young
men, as to prevent the sad result.
This blow upon the prosperity of the.institution discouraged




10
many of its best friends. From that time it was obliged to bear
up under a load of prejudice as being a pro-slavery institution,
which severely tested its strength and stability. Dr. Beecher's
hopefulness and energy seemed to rise with the difficulties, and
when the lowest stage of depression had been reached, from
1836-40, the graduating classes for three or four years averaging
only five, and the confidence of the most hopeful except himself
had failed, he threw himself into the breach, turned the tide, and
again saved the Seminary. HIe visited the young colleges of the
West, just then beginning to graduate classes, and then hastened
to the East on the same errand. In the Colleges and even in the
Theological Seminaries, he plead for the West with all his power,
without any hesitation because of any seeming want of personal
delicacy in the matter, exhibiting the great advantage to men who
expect to labor in the West, of pursuing their theological studies
here. The consequence was, that the next class numbered twelve,
and the class following thirty-five.
But he was then drawing near to his three score years and ten,
and the signs of failure, both intellectual and physical, began to
appear in the lecture-room as well as in the pulpit. I well remember an appointment to meet him at the ordination of one of his
students in Athens County in 1839-an appointment which he
failed to falfill. I learned afterward that the steamboat reached
within about sixty miles of the place, the night before the appointment, and on account of low water could go no further.
On inquiring about the matter, when next I met him-" Oh,"
said he, " it was the first time I ever failed to reach an appointment for such a cause in my life. If I had been five years
younger, I would have hired a horse, and by riding all night, I
could have got there in time. But I am a little too old for that
now, and so I had to come back —but I felt as mean as a dog looks
that has been stealing sheep."
A year or two later, however, he actually made very much
such a night's ride, on the way to preach the ordination sermon of
his son Charles, at Fort Wayne, Ind., through the swamps and
prairies from Piqua to that place.
He continued to discharge the duties of both Pastor and Professor till 1843, and of those of his Professorship till 1850, when
he resigned his office, at the age of seventy-five. From that time
to the day of his death, his connection with the Seminary was




11
merely nominal, the Board, as an expression of their respect, having requested him to retain the office of President.
Their action on the occasion was as follows:
" The Board having learned from the Report of the Executive
Committee, that on yesterday, Dr. Beecher resigned the office of
Professor of Theology in the Seminary, unanimously adopted the
following resolutions: 1.?esolved, That while the Board accept
the resignation which the infirmities of advanced age have induced
him to present, they desire to express to Dr. Beecher the high esteem
and affection which they entertain towards him, their sense of the
great faithfulness and ability with which, since the foundation of
this institution, he has labored for its prosperity; their appreciation of his Christian self-denial and missionary zeal, in leaving
the field of his earliest labors for this western world, and the rich
blessing which his labors, under God, have conferred upon this
country in aiding to send forth hundreds of young men in the
ministry of the cross. They are free also to express the opinion
that without his generous co-operation they do not believe this
School of the Prophets could have been established on its present
broad and liberal basis.
"2. Resolved, That, while the Board are thus willing to relieve
him from the great responsibility of sustaining the great burden
of theological instruction, they desire to secure to the Seminary
such assistance as he may feel himself able to render, and for
that purpose as well as to evince their gratitude for his past
labors, they do appoint him Emeritus Professor of Thieology,
and request him to retain the Presidency of the Institution.
"' 3. Resolved, That the Executive Committee be directed, should
Dr. Beecher accept this appointment, to make such arrangements
with him, in respect to the service he may still be able to render
to the Seminary, and the provision for his support as will be mutually satisfactory."
Dr. Beecher's relations to the Second Presbyterian Church, to
which he ministered as pastor for ten years, and to the city, were
pleasant to the end. Many of that congregation will cherish his
memory with grateful affection while they live. Several revivals
of considerable power attended his preaching; but it was impossible for him to give himself to his work as pastor with that undivided energy which had been so richly blessed in Boston, nor was
there here the same preparation for revivals of great power, in the




12
previous training and habits of the people, as in the Churches he
so much loved in the East. tHis congregations, however, were
always large, and visitors from every part of the land, who passed
a Sabbath in our city, were pretty sure to be found among his
hearers.
The results of these ten years of preaching, in clear and intelligent views of the doctrines of the gospel, as well as in the number
of souls converted to God in the city and t-he region, compare,
however, not unfavorably with any other period of his life.
A revival of great power attended his labors in Oxford, in
connection with the Miami University, in which several who were
afterward his students in the Seminary were brought to Christ.
His preaching was also blest of God to the conversion of souls,
in many other churches in all the region about us in this State
and in Indiana.
When it is remembered that the special field of his labor, that
which brought him to the West, was the Seminary; that here was
the sphere of his daily work, itself enough and more than enough
to fill the heart and the time of any man, it will seem marvellous
that he could have done so much besides.
His relations to the Presbyterian Church at large can not be
presented without referring to his famous trial for heresy, which
terminated in the year 1835.
When he came to the West, he had been preaching more than
thirty years, the first ten of them in the Presbyterian Church. He
had been called with great unanimity to Philadelphia, and urged
by the Princeton Professors to accept the call; and probably his
views and his mode of preaching were as well known as those of
any prominent preacher in the land.
He had been called to this Seminary by the unanimous voice,
not only of the Trustees, but of a large portion of the Presbyterian
ministry, East and West. His prosecutor, Rev. Dr. Wilson, was
the President of the Board, and was Chairman of the committee,
by whom a letter was sent him, of which an extract has already
been read, urging him in the strongest terms to accept the call.
Well might he say, as he did say in the beginning of his defense, that at his time of life, he did not expect to be called upon
to defend his orthodoxy. But so it was. And in what I say of
the matter, I wish to impute no wrong motives to any one. A
new zeal for the soundness of the faith of the Presbyterian Church




13
had been awakened by the rapid accession of men accustomed to
attach somewhat different ideas to the terms of the Calvinistic
creeds, from those which mariy of the fathers of the Church had
given. Substantially the same difference existed, which about a
century before had sundered the Presbyterian Church into two
fragments, known as the New Lights and the Old Sides. The
terms Old School and New School were now ranrincr the members
of the same Church into two parties, in defense of somewhat different views of the proper way to explain some of the prominent
doctrines of their common Confession of Faith, and differing also
in their judgment and preferences as to the best way of conducting
missionary operations.
Leading Old School men seem to have thought it their duty to
arrest the further spread of these views of theology, by pronouncing upon them, in the person of some of their ablest defenders, the sentence of the several ecclesiastical courts.
Dr. Wilson was a representative man in the West, on the one
side, and Dr. Beecher on the other. And while the Eastern forces
were attempting to dislodge the youthful commander from his
high position in the old first Church of Philadelphia, Dr. Wilson,
old Roman as he was, was not the man to shrink from grappling
with the new champion who had recently conme, with all his
Eastern glories about him, to fight his last battles in the West.
They both loved the great scheme of gospel truth with equal
fervency, and defended it with like ability. They each believed
firmly that their views of the philosophy of these truths were not
only the true views, but that they were in accordance with the
standards of the Reformation, and such as in all their experience
God had blessed in the conversion of souls.
They have met, we can not doubt, in that world of eternal light
into which doubt and darkness never entered, and as they walk
about the heavenly Zion, they review the past with perhaps equal
amazement at their mutual misunderstandings of each other.
As early as January, 1833, Dr. Wilson had endeavored to induce
the Presbytery to take up charges against Dr. B., on the ground
of common fame. But the Presbytery denied the existence of suc
comon fame. At the next meeting of Presbytery in April, they
were called upon to appoint a committee to examine some of Dr.
B.'s sermons, and report whether or not they contained sentiments
contrary to the teachings of our Confession of Faith,




14
The Presbytery declined to do this, and an appeal was made to
the Synod. The Synod decided that the Presbytery could not be
compelled to take up charges unless there was a responsible prosecutor. From this decision an appeal was taken to the General
Assembly. This appeal was cast out- by the Judicial Committee,
on the ground that Dr. Wilson was not one of the original parties.
Dr. Wilson then returned to the Presbytery, bringing charges
in his own name, and thereby making it imperative upon them to
investigate these charges.
Omitting details, I remark, in passing-the charges were presented under six heads:
I. Propagating doctrines contrary to the Word of God and the
standards of the Presbyterian Church on the subject of the depraved nature of man.
II. On the subject of total depravity and the work of the Holy
Spirit in effectual calling.
III. On the subject of perfection.
IV. The sin of slander-in belying the whole Church of Godby teaching that his doctrines had been those of the Church in
all ages.
V. The crime of preaching these doctrines in the Second Presbyterian Church.
VI. Hypocrisy-either in entering the Presbyterian Church
without adopting her standards, or if he did adopt them, in doing
so when he disbelieves them on some of the most important points.
[See the specifications in full in Dr. Beecher's Works, vol. 3d.
N. Y. Observer, June, 1835. Cin. Journal, July 31, 1835.]
The prosecutor supported the charges by a long and able
speech. HIe was no trifling adversary. IIe held his opinions
intelligently and fearlessly, and was able to present them clearly
and strongly.
Dr. Beecher followed in his own defense, and occupied a considerable portion of three days. It was by far the fullest and
ablest theological discussion of his whole life.
His defense of the distinction between natural and moral ability,
and of the voluntary nature of sin, was masterly and convincing,
and his argument as expanded in his views of theology, will be a
text-book on that subject for ages.
The Presbytery pronounced the charges not sustained, by a vote
of 23 to 12.




15
Dr. Wilson appealed to the Synod. The majority of the members of the Presbytery were in theological sympathy with Dr.
Beecher, but the majority of the Synod were on the other side in
the controversies. The case came before the Synod at Dayton inOctober of the same year, and was argued with no less power and
interest than before the Presbytery.
The Synod, by a very large majority, came to the following decision:
Resolved, That the appeal be sustained,
1st. Because the Synod see nothing in the conduct of Dr. Wilson,
in preferring and prosecuting charges against Dr. Beecher, which
ought to infer censure.
2d. Because although the charges of slander and hypocrisy are
not proved, and although Synod see nothing in his views, as explained by himself, to justify any suspicion of unsoundness in the
faith, yet on the subject of the depraved nature of man, and of
total depravity, and the work of the Holy Spirit in effectual calling,
and the subject of ability, they are of opinion that Dr. Beecher has
indulged a disposition to philosophise, instead of exhibiting in
simplicity and plainness, the doctrines as taught in the Scriptures,
and has employed terms and phrases and modes of illustration,
calculated to convey ideas inconsistent with the Word of God and
our Confession of Faith; and that he ought to be, and hereby is
admonished to be more guarded in future.
The parties were called into court. Dr. Beecher declared his
acquiescence in their decision, and his purpose to act accordingly.
The Synod expressed by resolution their satisfaction with this
termination, and requested him to have published at an early day
a concise statement of the argument and design of his sermon on
native depravity, and of his views of total depravity, original sin
and regeneration, agreeably to his declarations and explanations
made before Synod. In compliance with this request, his Views
of Theology were published.
When the motion requesting such a publication was made, a
member of the Synod, with a voice choking with emotion, moved
to amend by substituting the word'reguired" for the word
"requested."  The father who drew the resolution, Rev. Dr. Carothers, then, and while he lived an Old School man, but a man
of nobility of soul above all sectarianism, replied in the words of
the apostle, " Rebuke not an Elder, but ontreat him as a father."




16
The prosecutor, however, believing, as he said, that justice was
not done, and the demands of truth not satisfied, carried the case
by appeal to the General Assembly, which met at Pittsburg in the
following spring.
But a short time before the case was to come to trial, Dr.
Wilson asked leave to withdraw the appeal. He was induced to
do so by the urgent requests of many members of Assembly, with
whom he had been accustomed to act-requests presented before
the Assembly met.
But it seems that the preaching of Dr. Beecher, on the first
Sabbath after the Assembly convened, in the presence of a large
number of its members, gave special force to these requests. One
who was present writes: " The sermon of Dr. Beecher, in Dr. Herron7s church, on the personality and agency of the Holy Spirit,
was among thle grandest the Doctor ever delivered. Though the
house was filled to overflowing, you might have heard a pin fall
duringO nM'clh of the sermon; and to those who heard it, it was
evidence' strong as proof from Holy Writ,' that on that subject at
least, the Doctor was sound to the core."
Dr. Wilson himself, in giving the reasons which had induced
him to withdraw the appeal, said, a" And what did I hear on Monday? I heard from several brethren that Dr. Beecher had preached
on Sabbath two powerful orthodox sermons, by which he had cut
up New-Schoolism by the roots;" and though his own mind was
unchanged, the request of brethren so numerous, so respectable,
carried with it almost the force of a command.
Thus ended this protracted trial; but the agitation, of which it
was a part, went on unchecked, till it rent the Presbyterian Church
into two fragments, which now for more than a quarter of a century
have maintained a separate organization, though with the same
name and the same constitution and charter.
The trial had, at least, this effect at the time, viz: that men
holding the same Confession of Faith should not be condemned
for heresy in the Presbyterian Church, because of different philosophical explanation of the terms of that Confession. When it
shall appear that the same principle is recognized as valid in both
branches of that Church, one obstacle to a re-tun0onm will be removed.
It remains that I speak of Dr. B. as a teacher of Theology.
About the year 1835, several students of Andover Theological




Seminary thought seriously of finishing their Theological studies
at Lane. They inquired therefore of an Alumnus of Andover,
then residing in Cincinnati, how the advantages of the two institutions would compare. The answer in respect to the Professors
of Theology was substantially this. Under Dr. Woods, you will
have a more systematic course of Theology and get more of it into
your Note Books than you will here. Under Dr. Beecher, with a
good deal less of system, you will get a good deal more into your
heads and you can never get it out again.
This answer expresses pretty much all that need be said in
regard to Dr. Beecher as a Theological teacher, as judged by the
results of his teaching. It need not be claimed that he was specially
systematic in his instructions. The whole system of revealed truth
stood before his own mind in its due proportions, and his peculiar
modes of conception and expression pertained alike to the whole
of it, so that whatever the topic he discussed, he was always consistent with himself.
But at the same time some truths of the system had entered so
much more deeply than others into his own religious experience
and into the experience of his pastoral life; and he drew his lectures so largely from his heart, rather than his head, that he could
hardly fail to give those truths such an overwhelming importance
that his pupils would not be likely to discover the majestic temple
of truth with all its parts fitly framed together and compacted by
that which every joint supplieth. Depravity, Free Agency, Moral
Government, Atonement, would be likely to be regarded as four
massive rocks, intended for corner stones or buttresses, not yet
adjusted to their places.
A full compensation, and perhaps more than a compensation,
for any lack ot system in his teaching, was found in his power of
impressing himself so strongly upon his pupils, that the truths he
discussed became living truths, truths to be loved, and lived and
preached, " lively stones," in God's spiritual house, which would
illumine and animate every thing they could touch, and not bones
of a skeleton to be fastened together with wires, and hung up to
show how complete a theological system can be, and how cold it
can be too.
Let us inquire for a few moments into some of the elements and
sciences of this power.




The brilliancy of his intellect, readily suggests itself as the first
of these elements.  The common consent of all who ever
heard him in his best days, has recognized in him the evidences
of remarkable intellectual power. His was not a massive intellect like Edward's or C(halmer's or Webster's —nor broad and comprehensive, like Dwight's. It was not stored with all knowledge
like Hamilton's, nor was it disciplined by the habits of careful and
patient study. Dr. Beecher was not a student of books. He read
history, and he read men. He studied only his Bible, and that not
at all by Grammars and Lexicons, and not much by Commentaries.
He studied it rather in its own light, as a self-interpreting book, in
the light also of his own experience and observation of men, as a
book made for man, not man for the book.
His conclusions were not so much the result of a careful examination of all sides and all views of a subject, as the convictions
of his own strong common sense. They were not so much reasoned out as seen-not so much logical as intuitive. When he
grasped a principle, especially a principle in the government of
God, its relation to the whole sphere of theology flashed through
his mind with the brightness of noon day, and no technical or
logical difficulties could ever convince him that he was mistaken.
In the defense of such principles, and of their wide and momentous bearing, was revealed the type of his intellectual power.
It was brilliant, splendid, sublime, pouring out the fullness of its
own light upon his hearers, and burning the thoughts into their
very souls.
Besides the Bible, I apprehend there was no book with which he
was so familiar as Butler's Analogy, and no portion of his lectures
is more worthy of being given to the world than his lectures on
Butler. They were generally given at the beginning of his course,
and impressed the student at the outset with the idea that he was.n safe and strong hands.
I have said he read history. He lived in times which made no
small amount of the most stirring history of modern days. Born
at the opening of the American Revolution, in the ardor of early
life during the last war with Great Britain, one of his cast of mind
could not fail to be in full sympathy with the movement of nations
toward universal liberty, of which De Tocqueville, justly remarks
that it has all the characteristics of a divine decree, which human




19
energies are alike impotent to advance or retard. Dr. Beecher's
early life, and the first years of his pastoral life, were spent
near the sea shore. This fact, in connection with the times
in which he lived, gave a cast to a good deal of his figurative language. The remark was a common one, that he never
preached a sermon without getting into a battle or out to sea.
But he seldom used complete figures. His rapid and brilliant
mental movement spurned them.  Mletaplors were like the
atmosphere he breathed, and these were drawn very largely
from common life, so that every one could see and feel their
force.
Such an intellect, clothing its ideas with such language, could
not fail to make an impression on the minds of young men, which
they would never lose. It inspired them with zeal to investigate,
and awakened new and valuable trains of thought. It clothed the
dryest subjects with life and interest.
I recollect a discussion in Presbytery on the profound question,
whether slaveholding is a sint per se, the whole tone of which
showed plainly enough that none on either side had been accustomed to bring the question to the test of any pri2ceiple, metaphysical or practical.
Dr. Beecher rose, and taking for his starting point, the principle
that whatever tends necessarily to undermine God's institutions is
in itself wrong, in a speech of about half an hour, laid bare the
tendencies of slavery, as antagonistic to all the principles of the
divine government, with a clearness and force that left nothing
more to be said on the subject.
On a visit to the north-west about the year 1845, he was called
to attend a missionary meeting, in which a missionary from
among the North American Indians, gave an account of his
labors. It was a very prosy, dull narrative, The speaker seemed
to have forgotten, if he had ever known, how to use the English
language. Dr. Beecher followed, and beginning with Henry
Obookiah, he traced the history of Foreign Missions, and unfolded its destined results, in a way that held the audience spell
bound for an hour or more. "Thank God," said a Professor
in one of the Westen Colleges, "our mother tongue is not yet
a dead language."
A second element of his power lay in his intense sympathy with
the truths of the gospel —a sympathy which was the result not




20
alone of his piety, but of his experience of their power in his own
preaching.
His theology was just what he had preached for thirty years.
It was the theology which God had made mighty in his hands
in pulling down the strongholds of Satan. It was the theology that Nettleton preached in those wonderful revivals in
which so much of his life was spent. Dr. Beecher came directly
from some of the most glorious revival scenes of his life; and
whenever he touched upon those great themes on which he had
poured forth his soul in the pulpits of Litchfield and Boston, and
which he had learned to love so much in revivals, the fountains of
emotion overflowed anew, and he lectured as he preached, with
the heart as well as with the head.
One of his pupils writes: " One of the most important benefits
he conferred upon his pupils was his provoking them to think not
on abstract themes in general, but on those difficulties in theology
and piety which are practical in all thoughtful minds. He seemed
to have been so long engaged in taking away from people their
refuges of lies, and leading souls to Christ; also in directing truly
converted people in their religious embarrassments, that this fact
imparted its character to his lectures. To such an extent was this
true, that I was wont to regard the practical religiousness of his
class-room performances as of the nature of a direct appeal to my
own religious wants. There were episodes in his driest lectures,
when he would chase down some practical difficulty which had
haunted me for years in connection with the higher and more abtruse doctrines of religion which have exerted a great influence on
my religious experience and preaching."
When he had given his definitions in the Lecture Room, laid
down his premises and spread out his work before him, he would
often raise his spectacles, straighten up his body, and set fire to
that logic, verifying emphatically his own definition of eloquence.
That fire was drawn from his heart-not from his intellect alone
It was not the inspiration of genius, but the out-breaking of strong
conceptions of the truth, and of that living sympathy with it,
which the spirit of God had wrought in his soul.
I was present at one of his lectures in which, as nearly as I now
recollect, he was examining the objections against the doctrine of
free agency. He had compared the tremendous perils and fearful
responsibilities of such an endowment on the one hand, with the




glorious privileges and possibilities which it involved on the other,
when, suddenly snatching off his spectacles, he drew a picture of
an assembly of all God's intelligent universe summoned into a
quasi state of existence, in which they should be capable of understanding the reasons for and against being created, clothed with
the responsibility of free agency, and permitted to decide the question for themselves. Then leaping from his chair, and walking
back and forth upon the platform, he poured out, in a few short
pithy sentences, the peril of falling and the damnation of hell on
the one side, and the blessedness of standing and the possibility of
restoration by divine love, and the hights of immortal glory to be
gained on the other; and then, as if standing in the place of the
Creator himself, and putting the question to vote, shall I create
or not create? he made the shout go up as the voice of ten thousand times ten thousand, create! create!
Now whether, by a cool calculation of logical probabilities, we
should have been brought to say yea or nay on such a question,
one thing is certain, no man who heard that lecture could help
thanking God that He had decided it for him by making him a free
agent, and a fit subject of just that government of law and grace
which God is administering over our world.
Along with this intense love of the truths of the gospel system
was his enthusiastic delight in preaching. A student could hardly
fail to catch from him some measure of apostolic earnestness in
doing good; and probably no one impress of himself -was more
distinctly and deeply made on the whole life of his students than
this, the glorious privilege of living to save souls.
A characteristic instance occurred in the summer vacation of
1842. We had both been absent from  home nearly a month,
preaching in protracted meetings. On his return he found a letter
from one of the Elders of his son's church in Indianapolis, informing him that a revival had begun in other churches of the city and
was extending to theirs; but their Pastor was absent at the East, and
therefore the Church was very anxious he should come and preach
for them a few weeks. Without noticing the date of the letter,
then nearly a month old, he immediately wrote me to meet him
at Indianapolis, and the next day took stage for that place.
When we met there we found the interest had subsided and no
special labors were expected. " Well,!' said he, " Brother A. it is
harder to stop the ebb tide and roll it back, than to roll it in at




22
first, but by God's help it can be done. God has sent us here for
some good purpose. There are souls here to be saved. Let us go
to work." Some precious souls will bless God forever for the three
weeks labor which followed.
This, " his ruling purpose," writes one, " never left him. Since
his mental faculties have been clouded, a minister, to try his condition, said to him in presence of several friends,' Dr. Beecher,
you know a great deal; tell us what is the greatest of all t1hings? 
For an instant the cloud was rent, and a gleam of light shot forth
in the reply,' It is not theology, it is not controversy, but it is to
save souls,' and then the deep shadow came over him again."
The students went forth from under this electric power over
them, determined, with the help of God to be revival preachersto make their ministry tell on the salvation of men; and many a
congregation has had occasion to bless God that such an impress
was thus made upon this institution; that from its birth it was
thus stamped and set apart as a Seminary for furnishing the church
with revival preachers. May it never lose its first impress, never
leave " its first love."  Action-work —work in saving souls, was
Dr. B.'s highest joy and glory; and he looked forward with joyful
confidence to an eternity of more intense and unwearied action in
the service of the same Master.
Who of his students has not heard him say that action, vigorous,
untiring action, is the highest pleasure of mind; just such action
as we ought to expect to have in heaven. "I should hardly want
to go to heaven," he would exclaim, "'to sit forever by purling
streams and sing psalm tunes."
Indeed, he never seemed quite ready to give up his work and
depart. There was always some crisis just ahead, in Church or
State, in the labor of which he wished to share, and the issue of
which he wished to see, before he could say, a Now lettest thou thy
servant depart in peace." And if God had not shut up his faculties, so that he could not enter into the spirit of this war, he would
have thought that this was no time to die.
He had no patience with the millenarian notion of the personal
reign of Christ on earth. He believed, most firmly and exultingly,
that the Scriptures clearly teach only a spiritual reign of the great
Head of the Church; that the world is to be converted to God,
and the true millenium brought in through just such means and
agencies as have been employed hitheito; and that it would be




23
the glorious privilege of ministers of the gospel, in all ages, to be
employed by the Spirit of God in saving souls.
"No, no," he would exclaim to the young men, " Christ has not
given up his contest with the devil, and he hasn't changed his tactics. He has no intention of giving up the gospel and taking the
sword instead. Think you he will ever retreat from the front, go
round to the back door, seize the devil, and put him in chains, kill
off the wicked, raise the saints, and have a jubilee? Or, as Father
Mills would say, " whom he was fond of quoting:' that he will
stretch his teams, as he has done, all the way from Dan to Barsheba, and then back out?' No; to the end as now, by the foolishness of preaching, he will save them that believe."  -
Another element of his power was derived from his personal
character. His students not only admired him as a man of splendid
intellectual endowments, not only were they aroused and excited by
his vivid and earnest presentations of the truth, and stimulated by
his example, but they loved him as a father and a friend, so that
his words came to hearts already open and predisposed to receive
them with favor. He was eminently a man to to be loved, and
those who knew him best loved him most.
In the days of controversy through which he passed, he was
charged with being scheming, envious, disingenuous, a strong partisan. Never was a charge more entirely without foundation. He
was a man of. almost child-like simplicity, without one particle of
envy, much more ready to be lead than to lead, and always placing unlimited confidence in his best friends. Perfectly accessible
and free, he made all his students feel at home with him. He encouraged and stimulated them by speaking well of other men, and
rejoicing as sincerely in the success of others as he could in his
own. To the talents and usefulness of the few who might be called
his peers, both in our own and other branches of the Church,
he was always ready to bear joyful testimony Indeed, it may
be said of him, as another has said of Chalmers, that he was characterized by " a living fellowship with all humanity, a lack, while
no man had a more decided individuality, of everything like conscious individualism."
One who was a pastor in this city when Dr. B1. came here,
writes: "We soon saw and felt that he came among us for no
selfish ends. He held his whole being subject to the promotion




24
of Christ's kingdom, and he rejoiced in all the genius, learning,
eloquence and influence, of all or any of his brethren, regarding
their gifts as his capital with which the good cause might be advanced. If any other one rejoiced in his own abilities or good
work,'he more.'
"He had no small ambitions. He left to his brethren unchallenged all the influence they could gain by person, dress, and
address, social assiduities, minute learning, and niceties of style;
he left to his brethren, if they desired it, all ecclesiastical offices
and preaching prominence, if the people would consent, at ordinations and installations; he left to his brethren so much that he
hardly seemed to be in the way of any, while all felt his deference
to their person and claims, and therefore they all rose to aid and
bless him in the great field of thought and enterprise which he
occupied. And he was so willing to invite the sympathy and aid
of others in all his great efforts, that they seemed to share with
him in all the good effected. If good was done, he cared little by
whom, or who had the credit for it. He made all around him feel
that they were necessary to him. If he had a grand thought or
splendid scheme, he shared it with them, and took their suggestions, so that when the matter was accomplished all said' we did it."'
A pupil writes, " I loved him very much. He was noble in his
feelings. He had nothing mean or low in his nature that ever disclosed itself to me. I have heard him in public discourses and in
private conversation speak freely of other men, and yet he always
spoke as if an envious thought had never entered his mind. His
controversy with Dr. Wilson seemed never to have left in his heart
one unkind feeling. In this respect his magnanimity seemed characteristic and remarkable."
On this subject I may perhaps be pardoned if I bear my personal testimony.
My intimate acquaintance with him commenced in 1840, when
I came here to enter upon the duties of the Professorship to which
I had been invited. He received me at once as a brother, and
gave me his confidence and his heart; and never once, during the
ten years of our connection as members of the Faculty of this
Seminary, did an unkind word, so far as I knew, fall from his lips.
Never did anything occur in the least, to mar our official or our
social enjoyment. My other associate, Rev. Dr. Stowe, I venture
to affirm, will unity witrh me in this testimony.




25
Dr. Beecher's simplicity, frankness, hearty affection, fondness
for a good geneous laugh, united with his tender interest in the
welfare of our students, and his fervent love for the PRedeemler's
Kingdom, commanded my admiration and my affection, as no
other man ever has done. I loved him as a Christian father. I
loved him as a neighbor friend, and associate. His memory will
always be exceedingly precious to me; and it has been to me a
grateful labor of love to prepare this memorial of him.
In the freedom of conversation about other men which prevails
among the members of a Faculty, entire kindness of feeling,
and a generous appreciation of their excellencies, were always
manifest.
I mention but one other source of his power over young men,
viz.: the pithy, sententious remarks which flashed out from his
living experience, and fastening themselves in the memory, became
like familiar proverbs-practical principles of life. The weekly
conferences of the Faculty with the students furnished the best
opportunities for these, but they were not unfrequent in the lee
ture-room.
"You will have troubles, young gentlemen," he would say, " go
where you will —but when they come, don't dam them tp, bzut let
them go down stream, and you will soon be rid of them."
A young man said to him, " What can I do if I am not elected?"
"When you begin to care about being saved, come to me and I
will tell you —but while you don't care a snap about it, very likely
God doesn't."
" Take care that you don't let down the doctrine of future pun
ishment. Nothing holds the mind so."
"Eloquence is logic set a fire."
"Walking is not the best exercise for students —you don't tAink
with your legs."
I was in his study, says a pupil, the morning he received a letter
from H. W. B. at Indianapolis, announcing the re-conversion of
Charles. With choking utterance he exclaimed: " His mother has
been long in heaven, but she bound chords about her child's heart
before she left which have drawn him back. IHe has never been
able to break them."
Speaking of the happiness which flows from moral freedom he




26
said, " God never meant to fill this world with machines, and then
create another order of beings to wait upon them."
"Suppose a skillful workman makes a chronometer so perfect that
it never varies, no matter how long the voyage; but some intermeddling scoundrel thrusts his hand in and deranges the machinery. As a consequence, the ship is wrecked; is the maker of the
chronometer to be blamed? God made man in his own image, so
that his soul contained all the elements of happiness. He was not
made to be miserable. But the tempter placed his hand on the
beautiful instrument, and death ensued. Was God to be blamed?'
"What a preponderance of motives in favor of doing right!
how small the inducement to do wrong! The first is to the second
as a million to one."
In commenting on the sentiment or opinion which seeks to
account for the fact that every one sins, not by alleging natural
depravity, but by saying that "the appetites and passions are
developed faster than reason; that is, in the nature of things which
God has constituted the appetites and passions necessarily obtain
the ascendency over reason."  Dr. B. said "it is by this theory
as if God had placed a man in a boat with a crow-bar for an oar
and then sent a storm on him! Is the man to be blamed if in
such a case he is drowned? "
"Indolent habits derange the nervous system  and stir up a
tyrant capable of making hell on earth. Thus with dyspepsia;
and it is most remarkable, that nature, before she surrenders,
stoutly resists, and hangs out flags of distress."
"' Dr. Ware, Dr. Channing and others of' their school, who are
sound reasoners on other subjects can not construct a logical argument on Christ's divinity."
"Reverie is a delightful intoxication into which the mind is
thrown. It is extempore novel-making. I knew a person who
was wont to retire into this garden of reverie whenever he wished
to break the force of unwelcome truth. I told him he must break
up the habit or be damned."'" Multitudes never learn to study a subject and unlock it so as
to be able to enter it."
"Great readers are in danger of filling their minds with undigested facts, which they have not force enough to reduce to general principles."
"All the sciences which amplified occupy so much space might




27
be reduced to their elements so as to be contained in a few pocket
volumes."
" Take care in your contest with intellectual sharpers how you
attempt to prove that mind is not matter. The onus probandi in
such a case is on the skeptic. The inability to prove a negative
does not falsify an affirmation. Suppose I assert that the spots on
the sun are immense rat-holes made by rats a thousand times
larger than our rats?"
The. soul in the body is enclosed "within mud walls," through
the chinks of which the brilliant light of the soul shines.
"Conscience for the obedient has sounds more pleasant than
music, but for the transgressor peals more terrific than thunder."
"Death tears off the mask.  Then slumbering convictions
awake and rage. The soul is then a volcano in its throes."
"Conscience is the executioner of the sentence, the sheriff who
unlocks the dungeon, leads forth the criminal, draws the cap, and
swings off the culprit."
"Sincerity will never cause tares to produce wheat, nor sowing
to the flesh life everlasting."
" Some cry out'mysterious! mysterious!' because God has not
so created us that we can not make mistakes. There is no mystery about it. As well ask why God has not created tallow candles
to light up the universe. He intended man to be happy in the
exercise of mental activity in view of motives. How much happiness could be placed in a snail's shell? God did not make man
after such a pattern, but according to a law which is common to
all intelligences from man to the highest angels who burn before
the throne of God."
In illustration of the folly of the notion that the motives of the
gospel are enough to convert men, he exclaimed: "' What if the
engineer does ring the bell with all his might, if the man ahead
on the track has no ears to hear."
Of certain evils he was wont to remark, " they are not warts but
cancers."
Dr. Beecher's mental faculties began to give evidence of failure
before he resigned his place in the Seminary. His mind had never
been trained and stored by patient and careful study. He depended more on its original resources, which hitherto had seldom
failed him. But when the fires of genius began to burn low, as




28
there was little in reserve for him to fall back upon, the change
was very obvious. The enginery worked heavily.
When J.. Q. Adams delivered the address at the laying the cor
ner-stone of the Cincinnati Observatory, feeble under the weight
of years, and yet clear and beautiful as ever in thought and language-an old steamboat Captain said of him, "It is a pity we
couldn't put that old engine into a new hull." It was not so with
Dr. Beecher. The hull at the last proved better than the engine.
And it was remarkable that among the earliest signs of failure
was the want of control over language. In the very sphere in
which he had seemed most wonderful-sometimes almost inspired, he seemed first to be shorn of his greatness and become as
other men.
This was painfully evident when he visited us in 1856, and
attempted here for the last time to address his former pupils. His
loving heart was touched by the tender recollections of the scene,
and he found it very difficult to control his feelings or to command his thoughts; and while to his students it was delightful to
see his face and hear his voice once more, the contrast with the
addresses and discourses of his best days, which had so often
borne them irresistibly on their current, was painful. They venerated him still as a father, but he could no longer be their
teacher.
The last letter I received from him, and the last he ever wrote
to any one, bearing date September, 1857, has at once the movement of his magnificent style of thought and expression, and of an
intellect struggling to break through the cloud that was steadily
gathering over it. It is the result of the sixth distinct effort to
reply to a letter, enclosing a draft of about $1,000, in part payment of his claims against the Seminary for unpaid salary. It is
as follows:
"Dear Friend: — There are moments of hope and fear, and
apprehension and relief, that may fill the soul. We knew that
you would be pressed to advance the successive portions of our
needed income, and of course our hopes left us in not a little
doubt.
But when increasing earthquakes swept over you in ceaseless
continuousness, our hearts died within us, or waked only to hear
that all was lost. When, therefore, on yesterday morning, on our




29
first arrival home, your opened letter told me that all was well,
with all the testimonials, it required time and an effort for our
astonishment to get up and to wake up our realizations, and to
clothe our thoughts with wonder, gratitude and praise. As soon
as tears and emotion would permit, we bowed to God together,
and as the pious Montauk woman said to her benefactor, " I think,
Col. Gardner, God inclined you to give me this meat. I thank
you, also, Col. Gardner"-and in our condition, we think God
inclined you to do these things, and we thank you too, Brother,
for all your care of us."
But our loved and venerated father is gone. The man of great
intellect, of noble spirit, of childlike piety and earnest faith in
God, is gone; yet "he is not dead, but sleepeth." IIe lives in his
children, justly distinguished in their several spheres.
He lives in his writings, his sermons on Intemperance, his Pleas
for the West and for Colleges, his Views of Theology, and his
Occasional Discourses. These writings, containing some of the
grandest specimens of eloquence to be found in any language,
destined to be admired wherever vigorous thought, vivid pictures
of the imagination, and thrilling language are admired, will perpetuate the name of their author, and make him a blessing to the
latest generations.
HIe lives in the multitudes who have been led to Christ by his
instrumentality.
He lives in the three hundred men who have here been impressed by his power, guided and stimulated by his instructions,
and who to-day are preaching the same gospel he taught them, in
all parts of this land and in the fat distant lands of heathenism,
most of whom are among the men of middle life, bearing the heat
and burden of the day.
His last definite and positive testimony for God was in the
words of Paul, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me
a crown which God the righteous Judge will give me in that day."
" Ihat is my testimony; write it down. That is my testimony."
But there was a more remarkable testimony of God for him as
his redeemed child, a few weeks before his end. The cloud was
lifted off from his intellect for a few hours, and the light from the
throne of God broke in upon his spirit. In the presence only of
the daughter of Mrs. Beecher, who had watched and nursed him




with the tenderest care, he exclaimed,'Mother, mother, come sit
beside me. I think I have begun to go. I have had a glorious
vision of heaven. Blessed God for revealing thyself. I did not think
I could behold such glory and live. Until this morning my hope
was a conditional one; now it is full, free, entire. Oh, glory to
God! How wonderful that a creature can approach the Creator
so as to awake in his likeness! Oh, glorious, glorious God."




APPENDIX.
BosToN, March 9, 1831.
Dear Brother:-It is not until now that Providence has seemed to give
me permission to write. For a long time the slow movement of things
around me, and the very great difficulty of forming a decision, refused to
afford to me any thing to say; and when I came in sight of the result to
which I should be obliged to come, it was with so much regret, and such
anticipation of possible injury to the cause as made me willing to postpone
an answer as long as it might properly be done. You have not forgotten
my views expressed to you of the immeasurable importance of the West,
or the frankness with which I declared my willingness, should it please
God to call me to do it, to consecrate my remaining days and labors to
His cause, in that immense field, and my expectation that though it would,
in their present condition, be a peculiarly hard case, the consent of
my church and people could be obtained, and that I would assume the
responsibility of attempting to obtain it, according to my best discretion.
I am happy to be able to say, that I have honestly and faithfully redeemed
this pledge, though not with the result which I anticipated. That you and
all concerned may judge, I subjoin the written argument which I submitted to those on whose judgment, piety and influence I relied, with an
epitome of the argument made in behalf of the church on the other side.
My own arguments in favor of a removal:
1. The extent and importance of the field of action and the influence at
this time of a well endowed orthodox seminary to anticipate error and
extend evangelical doctrine and religion to the future millions of the West,
and through them to the millions of the Southern continent and to the
whole world.
2. It has occurred to me that from the beginning God has been preparing
me in some respects to teach theology; the first ten years of my life having
been employed in preaching and vindicating the doctrines of the gospel in
the presence of a crafty, cavelling infidelity; the next sixteen, in counter.
acting what nmay be called the antinomian tendencies of hyper Calvinism,
as well as the opposite extreme of Arminianism; and the last five in the
exposition and vindication of the same doctrines in opposition to the innumerable mistakes and misrepresentations of Unitarianism, in its Arian
Socinian, Universalist and infidel forms. The consequence is, that though
I have never been engaged in a public theological controversy, my mind
has been constantly disciplined and exercised by reason of use, in explaining
and vindicating the doctrines of the Reformation and in adapting them to
popular apprehension and in commending them for purposes of conviction
and conversion to the conscience and the hearts of men; and when I look
back and perceive that it has pleased God that one-third of my ministry
should be occupied in revivals among my own people, I have dared to
hope that I have not been unguided by His Spirit both in the doctrines I
have preached and the manner in which I have explained and vindicated,




2
and pressed them; and I do confess that the prospect of being permitted
to write the results of my somewhat extended experience, not on paper, which
can never be done, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart of a generation of
ministers, lays open before me a work of pleasure and usefulness which I
can not without regret be obliged to decline. I might be disappointed, but
I can not but indulge the hope that I should be enabled so to teach theology
as would accomplish the end of silencing gainsayers, allaying fears and
prejudices, and inspiring confidence and co-operation in all good things in
the hearts of all who love, in sincerity and ti'uth, our Lord Jesus Christ.
3. The work of providing an evangelical ministry for the West must be
done chiefly at the West.  The East can not furnish the requisite company
of the publishers nor the funds to educate them, and if she could, it were
better that the ministry of the West should be indigenous rather than imported.  As an ally, the Atlantic States may do and are willing to do much.
But it is the sons of the West, educated on her own soil, who must preach
the Gospel to the West; and in this great work, the Lane Seminary may,
if prospered, exert an important influence.
4. Immediate and vigorous measures are demanded to occupy the ground.
It has been suggested that as yet there was no preparation for my labors.
But if my influence and co-operation should be required to make the preparation, could I refuse it in such a world of souls?  Half way measures
will not save the West.  And if any man is qualified and is called to that
great work, how can he refuse to go, unless the providence which calls
permits the interposition of insurmountable obstacles?
Others have said that as yet the West is too poor and too much encumbered to be able to afford men for the ministry or funds for their support.
If this were so, it would auoment our obligation to go, as the means of
drawing the young men and the charities of the Atlantic States over the
mountains, for were they to be deprived of the bread of life till all the
obstacles of a new country are removed, the disposition to educate an evangelical ministry would be gone, when the day of ability should come. But
the fact is, that there are men and there is money; nnd it is a moral influence, such as theological seminaries and pastors and revivals alone can give,
which is needed to make the able willing; and it must not be forgotten that
a little charity there, added to the economy and personal enterprise of the
beneficiaries, may form better soldiers than more charity and less economy
and personal efiort.
Some of my friends have suggested that I may be more usefully employed in preaching, than in teaching.  But I shall expect to be no less
usefully employed in preaching if I go, and as to teaching theology, as no
employment coull be more delightful, so I hope and believe, that in none
would my time and powers be more usefully employed.
5. For a year past I had begun to anticipate that my work here might
be drawing to a close, and had made up my mind, called or uncalled, to go
to the West, probably to Cincinnati, to inquire and ascertain if God had,
in that region, any work for me to do.
6. The reasons for my detention here are temporary, and it would seem
to be a subject of regret, that a short service here should foreclose the employment of my whole future life in a station of such importance as now
invites my acceptance.  Aside from specific engagements, I could not hesitate a moment, either in respect to duty or to inclination.
The arguments suggested in opposition to my removal at this time are:




1. The Hanover Church is not to be considered in the light simply of a
single and insulated church. It was e;stablished by the benevolent from
all the churches as a public concern, as one among a train of causes which
they relied on under God to turn back in this region the captivity of years,
and restore the city and the college to Christ and the church, and hitherto
God has made use of that institution for good beyond all which had
been asked or thought. Is it not helreleore the interest of a single church
which is to be considered but the associated interest of the great cause in
the arduous conflict going on in this region.  Should any thing be done to
injure seriously this Church it would send exultation through the ranks
of opposition and faintness of heart to the friends of evangelical religion.
2. The house now building was undertaken with express reference to
yourself as our pastor, in concurrence with your advice and on a distinct
engagement that your continued labors might be relied on.  This pledge
was given, not to the Church, but to the stockholders, some of whom
probably could not be made to feel the motives of distant usefulness in the
same degree, as they may be felt by the Church, whose consent could not
be obtained if that of the Church were given; which, however, could not
be given without offending many of the congregation and threatening great
evil.
3. These evils would be amplified by our having been dispersed and
withdrawn from pastoral and congregational sympathies for more than a
year, and by the exchange of the Trust deed, by which the entire election
of Pastor and control of the building were vested in the Church, for a simple act of incorporation, in which the Church and the pew-holders act in
the election of Pastor by a concurrent vote of the Church and the pewholders.
4. -About 4,000 dollars have been vlested in the house, in reliance oni
your influence to fill it and enable us to liquidamte the debt of.$ 18 or $20,000
as yet unpaid, which without. a Pastor and withl all the difficulties of obtaining one would render our embarrassment not small.
5. There is no way for you to obtain the conlsent of the stockhclders to
your dismission but for you to request it,;and to (ldo it in such circumstances as would by many of them, and by all persons unfiriendly to religion
be regarded as cruel and indirectly a breach of promise.
6. You are not immediately needed at the West as inmiperiously by any
means as you are now needed here.  Should your agency there be thought
important when our special exigency is past, it may be time enough then
for you and us to determine what is dutyv.  At present, it seems to us
manifest that it is not your duty to go.
7. The impression made by your lectures, indicates to us that you may
be serving the cause of religion for a season here, even more efficaciously
than you could be at the West.
The Unitarian conflict is not, as you supposed, draxvin- to a close, but
becoming more determined and threatening, by the union recently of the
Theological Seminary with the College at Cambridge, indicative of unyielding and high determination to hold out and bid defiance to opposition.
These are the arguments and opinions of my most judicious friends.  I
did not think it expedient to call a regular meeting of the church and congregation, but what I have done is in my opinion the best that I could do, and
1 am bound to say, that, in my opinion those whom I have consulted have
viewed the subject comprehensively and under the influence of an1 enlarged




4
benevolence which feels deeply the weight of the reasonls i have offered;
and who, but for the specific difficulties above stated, would, in my
opinion, not only have consented to, but would have advocated my dismission.  But as matters were circunmstanced they could not advocate
my dismission without a prostration of confidence with the congregation,
which would be ruinous to their influence.
I have thus made to you a frank development of my views and feelings
and conduct, and if apology is needed, for speaking so freely albout myself,
it must be found in the fact, that fidelity to my engagements to you deianded such an expose of my views to my friends, and I have communicated the same to you, that yourself and the Trustees may see that I had
no disposition to recede from any encouragement given.  I have, as I
hope they will be of opinion, acted in sincerity and good faith according
to my best discretion, to realize the expectations which I permitted to be
excited, and that I am stopped by the hand of God, for as circumstances
now are, it is my entire persuasion that may dismission could not be obtained without being thought to have done such violence to fiiendship and
obligations and public sentiment as could not be justified. I have only
to say, that in the short conversation held with you, the change which
had taken place in my relations in consequence of the burning of my
church, did not occur to me. I looked at the practicability of obtaining
a dismission as an event which lay wholly within the bosom  of the
Church; and though I was aware of the engagement given to be their
Pastor, if they rebuilt, I (lid not consider until the call came, and the
difficulty rose up before me, that this engagement was made, not to the
Church, but to stockholders, over a portion of whom my influence would
be comparatively small.
As yet, however, I have given no answer, and before I do it, I have
thought proper that it should be preceded by this explanatory statement.
Since the above was written, I have received the address to my church.
But as I have in conversation, as well as in writing, suggested all the
most material considerations it contains, there would be some superfluous
evil and no probable good in agitating the church and congregation with
the subject at this time, especially as there are beginning to be some
symptoms ef a revival interest waking up.
I would add, that my answer, if it be to decline the call, will be, and
must be, considered as without any secret or confidential understanding
that I may be called again after the exigency here is passed, and that
if called then I will come. That it was my duty to give such encouragement as I did, is my opinion still; that an anticipated impediment, insurmountable at present, forbids the fulfillment of the expectations excited is
to my mind clear.  That I am willing to give my remaining days to the
cause of Christ in the West, should his providence open the door and
plainly make the demand, is as true now, as it was when I saw you, and
the motives to do it have lost none of their weight and power.
But beyond this the whole subject lies in futurity, and must be left in
the hands of God, as if nothing had happened.  I must be able to say to
my people, if I decline the call, that my relations to them are, in all
respects, as they were before receiving it, and that I am under no obligations whatever, expressed or implied, to leave them, other than the general
obligations to regard the providential will of God, which existed before,
and is obligatory on every man. I am the more particular on this point




because already rumors are coming back from the West that I am to
decline, with a secret understanding that if called again a short time
hence, I will come. I have no such understanding, as you know full well,
that I shall be called aoain, and I have authorized no understanding that
if called I will accept. My views and feelings about the West were known
before, long before, the call came. They can not be taken back and made a
secret. But whether a call shall be made or not, depends not on me, and
is not the condition upon which my decision turns. No, not in the slightest degree. And whether it would be my duty to accept a call, were it
given, would depend on the independent merit of the question at the time.
1 am, Dear, Sir, respectfully yours,
(Signed)  LYMAN BEECHER.