Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-01-13
Death of Rev. DIR. Lyman Beecher.

true copy, Attest:
GEORGE E. BULLARD, Town Clerk
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Death OF Rev. DIR. Lyman Beecher.
The venerable DR.. Lyman Beecher died at
his residence in Brooklyn, Saturday evening,
at the age of eightyseren years, For many
months, while his physical vigor remained APP
parently unimpaired, his mental faculties had
been almost wholly obscured. His situation
was touchingly described in brief notice of
his death, given by his son, Henry Ward
Beecher, on Sunday :-'As men, prepared for
a voyage, pack up their things, and, being de-
tanned, dwell in unfinished apartments, des-
olate-so he sat, his rareSt and noblest facul-
ties sealed up" Long before his last sick
ness, lie had been unable to recognize his
own children; and though he was apparently
free from disease or pain, he lived uncon-
scious and oblivious of events transporting
around him. The last two weeks he was con-
fined to his bed, and lay mostly in a continu-
Gus sleep, broken at brief intervals On the
morning of the last day, after being purposely
aroused, he fell again into gentle slumber,
in which he continued till about five in the
afternoon, when he glided SO gently out of life
that the watchers who stood over him could
not determine the precise moment of his death.
Lyman Beecher was born in New Haven
OCU. IL, Hrs, anu the Of Do, id
Beecher, a blacksmith, a man of positive
] character and MANY eccentricites 1t is eaid
of him that he had no less than flve wives, of
whom the fourth was the mother of LYMAN,
and who died few days after his birth. The
babe, prematurely born, and weighing only
l~2 pounds, was shown to his mother who,
rejecting, as the doctor afterward said that
such creature could be of no use to his
father, gave him away to his mothers sister,
Mrs. Lot Benton of North Guilford. He was
such Tom Thumb for size that he was often
set, for exhibition, into Il silver tankard-an
indignity for viii III he afterward took a brave
revenge on all wine-cups ''Pity," said the
neighbors, who looked without hope at the
puny face for two or three years. ''pity that
the little sickly thing did not follow its moth
er into the gravew But Gods finger touch
ed the weakling, till he waXed strong for
long life and great work.
He entered college at the age of eighteen
years, and graduated in 1897; was licensed to
preach in 1885, was installed as pastor at
East Hampton, l.. L., in 1893, where he la
bored for eleven years, at salary of three
hundred dollars perannum. Removing thence
to Litchtield, then the intellectual center of
Connecticut, he laid the foundation of his
brilliant and enduring fame. Sixteen years
later he went to Boston, his reputation having
gone before him, and entered upon the mem
orable conflict with the Unitarian theology of
New England, out of which he came the re-
cognized central champion of the hereditary
faith of the Pilgrims. In 1882 he removed to
NFtN,.t F,I-.,
Theological seminary and the pulpit of the
second Presbyterian church in that city. 1t
was here that accusations of heresy and false
doctrine were brought against him, and a trial
famous in its day-carried from presbytery
to synod, resulted in his acquital, and a tri-
umph so signal that his friends rejoiced that
he had been charged and tried His twenty
years in this field Of labor closed the active
service of his life.
He was three times married. and was the
father of thirteen children. His first wife.
RoXana Foster, a woman of extraordinary ex-
cellence of mind and person, was the mother
of the Beechers-C atharine Edward, Mrs.
Stowe, Charles, and Henry Ward. The last
named closed his sermon at Plymouth church
on Sunday morning with brief announce.
ment of his fathers death, and the following
touching tribute to his memory
Gle has lived far beyond the average life of
man, and lived the whole of his life as simply
virtuous, as nobly christian, as herocally ac-
tive as any man, | think, of whom we have
had any account in history. For year and
half his mind has been greatly impaired,
and at times entirely obscured. As men, pre-
pared for a voyage, pack up their things, and
being detained, dwell in unfinished apart
ments, desolate,-so he sat, his rarest and
noblest faculties sealed up. 1t was, therefore,
a contrast ali the brighter and sweeter when
those faculties, unused for so long time,
opened again in the transcendent glory of the
heavenly state. His future life is in heaven;
his earthly life is in the churches. About two
years ago, recovering from sickness. he
called to those about him to read him that pas
sage. After threading numherless ones-for he
could not indicate which it was-after long
tryings by one and another, they fell, in Gods
good providence, upon this =
81 am now ready to be offered, and the
time of my departure is at hand l have
fought good fight; have finished my course
| have kept the faith; henceforth there is
laid up for me crown of righteousness,
which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall
give me at that day. And then they went on
to read, land not to me only"-when he in
terposed In his energetic way 81 have moth
ing to do with the rest-th0t is mine-that is
my testimony-write 1t downfall is my tes-
timony!" That was his last substantial tes-
timony; and think he was as worthy to take
it as the one who first uttered it.
He has gone to join Taylor of New Haven,
and Evarts of Boston, and Wisner, and Cor
nelius, and other men of like mark; but his |
last lingering intelligence and love chung to
Dr. Taylor And, although the brightest
part of his life was his triumphant career in
Boston; although the last part of his life was
spent here in BROOKLYN, near to the beautiful