Litchfield enquirer., 1859-01-27
ELOQUENT LETTER FROM HENRY
 WARD BEECHER.

v WARD BEECHER.
 From the Independent
 s WORKING WITH ERRoRIsrs. Last week V j. made partial confession of our Faith. Tn '- week we make 8 partial confession of ou e Practice. And we now print the entire fir. part of the article from the New York Exam Q ner, the last part of which it was more convs ient to dispose of first
 THE FRArERNrTr,, AND MR. BEEcnER. In the congregation mnistered to by Theodore Far 5 ker, ut the Music Hall in Boston; known as tn
 Twenty eighth Congregationalist Society. '' ther Is literary association styled the Fraternity"
 Sald Fraternity has got up series of Fraternit,
 Lectures an avowed object of which, if a newspa per announcement may be credited, was to give tc the ' ideas of Mir. Parker a treer scope than tn. Lyceum platform allows. But whether that was tn,
 purpose or not it is manifest that the effect would
 be- 50 far as any impression made on the public to give increased popularity to the man and hi.
 church. It the lectures prove as has been claim. ed the most successful course of the season." they
 will reflect certain luster upon the Twenty eighth Congregational Society," and upon the man whose lnhdety Is it's pervaoing spirit Such effect. We should suppose would be deprecated-at least would nut De even constructvely aidedby sincere friend of evangelical religion But the Pastor of the Piy- mouth Church in Brooklyn has appeared upon MT. PaIkers platform to lend it his popularity. Mr. Beecher has asserted his right to do in all things what Is right in his own eyes, and not dispo- sea- even Ii we were able to abrdge his liberty. But 1t Is utterly incomprehensible to how he recon ces with his love for the Gospel such open aid and comfort to its bitterest enemies appear with Mir Parker, contcmporaneously or successively, upon platform which represents neither him nor his ideas is one thing to assist in giving eat to an infid enterprise is very different thngand that is what every Fraternity lecturer and every purchaser of Fraternity ticket, has done.
 Of course, we believe in newspapers, and in editors. Yet, even an editor may be mista- ken, and newspaper may fall into misstate- ments And the Examiner has in this in- stance been misled by too con6ding trust in religious or secular newspapers.
 1t is true that the Fraternity Course was under the supervision of members of the Twen- tJ-eighth Congregational Society of Boston, but t is not true that it was got mp for the Sake of giving MT. Parker's "' ideas freer scope than tue Lyceum platform allows"-if by adeas. the Examiner means MT. Parker's characteristic religious views. On the contra rr;lifK TIT. DuJ sucn was Ine III QUOT HI Dos- ton of Mir. Parkcr's religious notions, thas studous care had been exercised to Keep Dim from Boston lecture platforms, though history, art or beles lettres were his theme, lest the influence of anything that was good in him should "rcHect lustre" upon that part or him which religious men so much deprecate.
 But, on the other hand, the attempt to suppress man, and to silence his speech on the great topics which are common to men or QH religious views, must produce not only among his personal friends, but among honor able men who utterly differ from him in reli- giou. determination that he shall have Q chance to speak, at least and then, if people do not wish to bear an "infideP' on secular topics. of course they can stay at home. !n other respects, this Lecture Course was like ordinary courses. The only respect in which it Was peculiar was, that Theodore Parker was to deliver four lectures in the course, upon Washington, John Adams, Jefferson, and BeEjamln Franklin.
 The funds, over and above the expenses, if there should be any, were not designed to sup port either Mir. Parker or the Twenty-eighth Congregational Society, of which he IS the minister. They were to be employed in charI- table purposes and for the most part among the poor aud unfriended. - Aud if the young men of the Tweuty-eighth Congregational Society of Boston judged that we were one who would be glad to cooperate with Theodore Parker, in all honorable ways that did not imply appreciation of h's theoio. gy, for objects common to all good men ana if they judged that we should be forward 70 aid ali measures, among all sects which nao for their object the improvement of the young and the relief of the suffering, they judged rightly. We believe in the right Of free speech, even of men whose speech, when deilv- cred, we do not believe
 Did the Examiner think that the young gentl, men of Mr. Parker's lsocietS, got up a course of popular lectures for tbe sake of cov- ertly propagating infdelity, and invited me, without disclosing the inward scheme, to gar
 nish the course, and to lend my influence, blindfolded, to such an aim Or did it never enter the head of the Examiner that Q man
 might associate with men from whose tht ole'
 rica tcnets he utterly dissented, because he
 sympathized with the special benevolence
 which they would perform because he had
 an e,hical sympathy with them in spite Of theil theology because he believed that good man ought always to seek occasions of work ipg with men, rather than of working ava! from them?
 ! We should be sorry to suppose ourselve' , singular in this judgment. Are we to tak' 5 the ground that no orthodox man shall en l courage the young to self-improvement ana e' works of beneyolence, unless they are sound | f the faith Because Mir. Parker teaches i, wrong theology to the young men ofh charge {. are we te hold of and refuse to help then ! when they eDdeavor to live great deal be' 'f ter than we. should suppose their theolog : z wouId incline them to? But this. is the yer 7. c,ss in hand The young men in MT. Pal
 ker's society undertook to do good by cours
 If general lectures we lectured in the course
 oood papers are full of grief and the Exan $ finer regards it as utterly ihcomprehensible | We must be still more incomprehensible thel E ,s when we say, that, though we would earnest