Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1871-02-03
Keeping a Diary.
BY HENRY WARD BEECHER.
/. Mich.. Nov. 90. 1870.

, Mich, Nov. 90, 1870.
Mr.. BEEcHER Dear Sir-I am
a young man-young and trying to
be a man-depending on my labor
for living. | want to be well
Informed man. To effect this |
keep my ears open, and devote most
of my leisure to study. | have
thought good deal lately of begin
ming a diary with the new year; and
as am unable, with the light now
have, to satisfy myself that it will
be better for me to keepa diary than
to spend the time | must devote to
ii in study, as | do now, | resort to
You for advice.
Hoping, desiring, hardly expect
ing that YOU will think keeping Il
diary a subject of sufficient interest
and Importance for an article for
the Le,lqor, I am, honored sir, your
most obedient servant, IL. a. Ii.
1t used to be the fashion, about
the time ! was boy, for young per-
sons religiously inclined to keep a
journal. and to enter in it, from day
to day, the exercises and eNrcrien-
ccs which betcll them. The lives
of certain eminent Christian men
had been published a..d copious ex-
tracts were made from their private
Journals. There was something
fascinating in reading Henry Mar
tyn's inncrmost thoughts; in draw
ing forth from the closet David
Brainard's secret life; in discussing
Payson's wonderful nature to the
core, and reading quite at large the
things which in his lif,"imc, he
would have suffered no man to know.
But the rage for journals began.
Several Of our young companions
''kept journals" 1t was 10 mcom-
mon thing to hear one young
Christian inquire of another, ''Do
you keep a .iou unal?' "Not yet;
but mean to-" "Oh, you ought to
keep Journal, by all means" 1t
was thought to produce a great
depth Of spiritual life. l locke
with wonder and envy on my broth
cr George, who ''kept journal" as
his brother before him did. Every
day he would retire to write. 10
me it WAS as sacred as if he had
been going with Moses up into
Mount Sinai. At length, in Il mel
low hour, | determined to begin the
long-delayed duty, and keep Il jour
nal. There were some difficulties
in it. My writing capacity had de-
veloped poorly. | was s'otr and
illcgible. But time might have
cured that. Il am now s~Jt and
illcgible) This was a mere exter-
nal hinderance. My chief trouble
was within. had no experience.
There was nothing to write. !
tried very hard to ''look in," rs |
had been directed, but saw nothing
there. | stated circumstantially,
for some W. eks, how many chapters
| had read, how ii Jared with me in
private prayer, and for the rest the
entry comprised mostly a statement
of what l didn't feel, but desired to,
and didn't do, but wanted to. Now
and then copied hymn.
Once or twice | had a rather dis
graceful "expericncc." had fall
en- into some fault, or misdemeanor
even saintcd boys d. Iattempt-
ed to state the facts, but was so
ashamed that | could not write them
fairly down. "What if some one
should get hold Of your Journal
how would YOU tcel?" said the
spirit of mischiefin my ear. "What
if YOU should die and men should
get hold of your account and pub
lish it?" The result was, that the
next day, on reading over the var
nishcd entry, was disgustcd at its
want of implicit truth. Then it
gradually dawncd on me that many
other entries that had made of
happy experiences in meeting would
not quite stand alone in the .udg-
men, day. The result was, that l
refused to write anything but exact
truth, and not all of that, and so the
stream of my inward history began
to flow with greatly diminished vol
ume, and finally quite dried mp, and
that was the best part of my Journal.
Although my father never said
ANYTHING to discourage the journal
keepers Of the family, had reason
to believe that he never himself
kept one. ventured one day to
ease nv concience for having left
off this secret duty, to ask him why
he did not keep II Journal. His re-
ply came like shot from an over
loaded gun. "a journal is the
devils pillory, and fools sit on it.
Everybody sins, but they need not
sprawl out on paper an account of
it. If you write the truth, you
ought to be ashamed; and if you
don't, you ought to be still more
ashamed" Then, perhaps thinking
that this might be casting ref1ec-