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H
W
B
.
A sturdy tree, standing alone in a vast field, suggesting strength, growth
and independence, and regarded both as a landmark and a shelter;
withstanding alike the heats of summer and wrestling with and throwing off
the blasts of winter; drawing from Nature her myriad stores of nutrition and
giving back to Nature a wealth of power and grace in return; seemed Henry
Ward Beecher, in his youth of old age, to the observation of men. Original
orator, advocate, poet, humorist, agitator, rhetorician, preacher, moralist and
statesman. The greatest preacher of modern times, possibly of all times, the
man was one of the wonders of America; one of the marvels of the world.
Henry Ward Beecher's career has been phenomenal for the activity and
variety of its achievements. Coming from a long line of mentally alert and
physically vigorous ancestors, he was richly endowed with the qualities
going to make up the highest type of human nature. He was handicapped
only in being the son of a man whose fame was world-wide; a preacher of
such intensity of spirit and eloquence of expression that he stood at the head
of, if not above, all of his contemporaries. Yet, while Dr. Lyman Beecher
will always hold an honored place in American history and biography, who
can deny that his fame has been far outshone by that of his brilliant son? It
may be truly said, therefore, that Henry Ward Beecher won a double
triumph. He emerged from the comparative obscurity in which he dwelt,
behind the shadow of his father's greatness, and he lived to see his own
name emblazoned more brightly and engraved more indelibly upon the
records of time than that of his noble father.
He was born at Litchfield, Connecticut, June 24th, 1813. His father was a
busy minister, and the mother divided her time among several children, so
that no especial attention was paid to Henry Ward, nor was he considered
more promising than some of the others. He was not, by any means, fond of
books in early life. He gives the following sketch of himself in one of his
personal writings: 'A hazy image of myself comes back to me—a lazy,
dreamy boy, with his head on the desk, half-lulled asleep by the buzzing of
a great blue-bottle fly, and the lowing of the cows, and the tinkling of their
bells, brought into the open door, across the fields and meadows.' Through
the advice of his father, he attended Mount Pleasant Academy. Afterwards
he attended Amherst College where he graduated in 1834. During his last
two years of school, Beecher followed the example of many another young
man who has since attained eminence in his chosen profession, and taught
in district schools. With the money thus obtained he laid the foundation
upon which he built that splendid superstructure which is recalled at the
sound of his name.
Dr. Lyman Beecher meanwhile had accepted a professorship at Lane
Seminary, Cincinnati, and having decided to follow the ministry, the son
went West this same year and began the study of theology under his father.
He finished his course three years later, married, and accepted the first
charge offered him; a small Presbyterian Church in Lawrenceburg, a little
town on the Ohio river, near Cincinnati. Of this dismal beginning of his
illustrious career he said:
"How poor we were! There were only about twenty persons in the flock. I
was janitor as well as pastor of the little white-washed church. I bought
some lamps and I filled them and lighted them. I swept the church and
dusted the benches, and kindled the fire, and I didn't ring the bell, because
there wasn't any; did everything in fact but come to hear myself preach, that
they had to do. It doesn't occur to me now that Lawrenceburg was
remarkable for anything but a superabundance of distilleries. I used to
marvel how so many large distilleries could be put in so small a town. But
they were flourishing right in the face of the Gospel, that my little flock and
I were preaching in the shadows of the chimneys. My thoughts often travel
back to my quaint little church and the big distilleries at Lawrenceburg.
Well, my next move was to Indianapolis. There I had a more considerable
congregation, though I was still far from rich in the world's goods. I believe
I was very happy during my eight years out there. I liked the people. There
was a hearty frankness, a simplicity in their mode of life, an unselfish
intimacy in their social relations that attracted me. They were new people—
unharrowed and uncultured like the land they lived on—but they were
earnest and honest and strong. But the ague shook us out of the State. My
wife's health gave out and we were forced to come East."
From this it would seem that chills and fever were the means used by
Providence for bringing Henry Ward Beecher and Plymouth Church
together. The church came into existence on the 8th of May, 1847, when six
gentlemen met in Brooklyn at the house of one of their number, Mr. Henry
C. Bowen, the present proprietor of the
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