Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1870-06-24
Henry Ward Becchcr's Tribute TO
Father ana DIR. Nathan Taylor.

/ lI1MAN DEECHER-l tO-lSb1. leEe
few letters stand upon the end Of large
rccumbent slab Of granite. A cross lies fat
! upon the top Of the block, being raised BY
having the surrounding surface cut away.
| This is all. The material, the symbol, and
| the inscription well benefit the burial place
of the man. Here, in New Haven, be was
born and educated. The house still re-
mains in which bis father lived. 1t is not
! five minutes walk between his grave and
his cradle. Yet il was not the love of birth
! place that brought him back to New Haven
| for burial, but his love Of NATHAN TAYLOR.
This was a love OF man to man surprising
| the love of woman 1t was Ike that of Da-
vid and Jonathon. After lie had forgotten
almost everything else in extreme old age,
he remembered this one wish, and By signs
and broken sentences indicated bis wish TO
be laid by the side of "him" For Taylor's
personality and heart remained clear in his
memory after be had ceased to remember
bis name. That must needs have been a
noble nature that through long life was so
loved by such a man as Lyman Beecher.
Side by side they lie, between whom there
never came cloud, and that, too. when
both of them were geologans, and often d.f.
fered, and sat up half the night in high dis
cussion. Oh, it was charming to see men
who believed in what they taught, with such
an abandonment of faith, that not the visi-
bic world, nor human life, nor household
love was so real aud so trauscendent 10
them, as abstract truth, Nor is it without d
certain beauty that the farther away from
fact the thread was spun the more attenua-
ted tie philosophy became, the more impor-
tant it seemed. The globe and the universe,
to their thinking, hung upon distinctions
finer than the spiders finest film. We see
them now, III the old Lit hfeld sitting room,
come home from some meeting, sitting down
around the fire, and, after a little family
chat, begin to edge toward the discussion
that had broken off at their last meeting
They laid down their positions cautiously |
like Two knights riding around each other,
in survey, before the real struggle begun.
Soon they went at it. They grew earnest.
They stopped each other. Now one seem
ed pushing the other with an irresistible /
analogy but in little time, some lucky |
turn gave back the advantage, and all the
lost ground was regained and some steps
besides. Some explosion of wit would set |
them both into roar of laughter, and re-
fresh them for the next wIestle. The hours /,
flew on. 1t was eleven o'clock in a town
where folks went to bed at nine-it was
midnight was one O'Clock back I
~ad forth the arguments few, sometimes !!
while they walked up and down with their |
arms over each others shoulders, sometimes /,
Beecher sitting on Taylors knee. some !
times sitting face to face, arms going in ges-
lures, the forehnger pointing out the line Of
argument. At length a tall and pale form
from the head Of the stairs calls out, Faith
er, father! Do you know what time ii is >"
'.Well, Taylor, stick a pin there, AID we Il
60 on Tomorrow
The amount Of truth got out, if al was
true that each thought to be 50, can never
be known but must have been immense |
But it seemed difficult to reduce 10 record |
these surprising discoveries. On one occa-
sion the topic of debate was the VIII The |
1ext forenoon DR.. Reecher spent condid !
erable time in making an exact state
ment'' on this topic. Af,er he left we
looked into his blank book and saw a mage
with a. leas, twenty paragraphs begun and
struck out. Then
"In COZ sdering the human will "a pen
WAS struck through ,hat-aud again he
started--"No theory of The vii! is valid
pausing nsatistied,-that, too, was dashed
out,-,hen two or three times over he got
only as far as The viii, "a definition OF !
the will, land, finally, after many modii
cations and partial sentences, the last entry
made was "The viii IS" What the vii |
was &c have been shown 10 be, We shall /.
never know.
But the benefit of this practice on infinite |
themes, ana of this intense conviction of |
the truth of speculations, is not to be esti- !
mated by the immediate products. bot by
its reflex influence on the soul and reason. !
When these men handled the great themes !
Of truth, there was scale of sublimity ard |
all invisible force to their reasoning, which |
no one could have had but they that dwelt |
much in the higher moods of mind and in !
the great invisible realm of faith!
There they lie the grass grows green, |
violets and myrtle vine blooms are shining |
this day blue on the grass. Little birds
come and sit on their monuments and dress |
their feathers. sing single strain, and fly
off. What do the birds know of the great
names that lie asleep below them? And are
men on this earth 80 different from the |
birds? We fit hither and thther on this |
monumental globe, and hardly dream Of the
history that is under our feet, or Of the
throne of God, of which this earth is but
mighty incarnation.
Largely engaged during his lifetime in
controversy, it was the popular impression
that DR.. Beecher was stern warrior. His |
personal appearance favored the idea. And |
no one ever heard him in his prime and in
his best moods, but felt that he was mas,
Ter in discourse. Yet more simple mind, |
ed and child-like nature rever lived. When |
in hours of TRANSPORTATION his heart reveal
ed the tenderness of his ove-it was almost |
like opening window in heaven. With |
his children he was sporrive to frolicsome-
ness. Down on his hands and knees he
has given us many 4 ride, and, great has
been our exutation. when, after prodig- |
ious show Of wrestling, We flung him full /
length upon the grass. The faint suspicion
that "he let us do it." did not on the whole !
dispel the illusion of victory.
As we grew up, nothing that ever he said |
impressed us SO much as all that which we
silently saw, When the winter was severe,
a.j ,La ,torm was hiph tho unshrinkipp |