The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1874-05-08
Henry Ward Beecher.

We cannot resist the desire to insert
few extracts from Mr.. Beecher's SER
mon, delivered from Plymouth Pulpit
February 18th, 1874.
His concise, plain, yet beautifully
eloquent language is we'll worthy the
perusal of all-s;ints and sinners, alike.
Speaking of church customs, he says:
If man would be pure, and truth
loving, and beautiful, and full of honor,
and full OF every scintillatiOn of virtue,
is he not bound to observe church ecOnO-
mics? No. May men be Christians
outside of church? Would to God
that they would be- Well, if man be-
comes Christian outside of church
must he not come into it? If he wishes
to-nOt otherwise.
We think it established fact,
| that it man does go to school it will
be easier for him to learn; but if he
chooses to learn outside of the school he
is at liberty to do it. We want him to
have intelligence; and we point out to
him the ways in which he may obtain
it; and undoubtedly they are the best
ways for the community at large; but
nobody is obliged, because he wishes
education, to go first to the common
school, then to the academy, and then
| to the college, and then to the profess
siOnal school. A man may possibly be
practical physician without ever hav-
ing gone into any school. A man can
be successful merchant without hav-
ing had instruction in a counting house; !;
though none of these possibilities are
probable. Such places for training are
convenient and desirable, and men are
to be urged to go through them, be-
cause the presumption, drawn from ex-
perience, is against his succeeding with
out them; but if any man can prosper
without them he is under no obligation
to avail himself of them.
So, then, boldly say that | hail the
thinkers of every school of philosophy
who are makingprOgressin the develope-
ment of truth. Let men search for
hidden records-for the footsteps of
God on the globe. Let men make dis
cOVeries in the stellar depths. Let men
develop new economies and 'philosO-
phles. Let men open up other realms
of knowledge. Let whatever there
may be in the sphere of human society
be disclosed. It does not follow that it
is not in harmony with religion because
it is not part of that which is heredit-
AIRY and conventional. Christianity in
its nature is interminable, universal,
unfathOmable. There is no end to it.
No man can express it in books of prose
or verse. No man can give the statis-
tics of it. Whatever expansion the
human soul is capable Of; whatever
may be done in the household that is
more beautiful; whatever may take
place in the State that is more noble
that belongs to Christianity, which is
sanctified, divine manhood in men.
There is no antagonism between rei-
gion and the discoveries that are being
made, so far as they are true develop
ments. Whatever elements go to make
men deeper, higher, wider; whatever
enlarges mans horizon whatever makes
him an heir of two worlds, and worthy
to be made a king, not by an outward
crown, but by a crown of the heart;
whatever makes him more like God,
and more deserving Of the love of God
all of that belongs to Christianity,
and the unexpressed part of Christianity
is a thousand times more than that
which has been expressed. Christianity
is the alphabet, and life is the literature
which springs from that alphabet.