The Portland daily press., 1874-07-18
Recent Publications.

The SERMONS OF HENRY WARD BEEoHKR in
Plymouth church, Brooklyn, Tenth series. New
York: }. b. Ford q Co. Fer sale by Hoyt 8 Fogg
In these two volumes of thousand pages
and more are collected the sermons, phono-
graphically reported, preached by Henry
Ward Beecher in Plymouth church pulpit
from September 1872 to September 1873 At
this day there is no occasion to call public at
tention to the merit of Mr.. Beechers SER
mons. He stands forth the greatest preacher
in the English tongue since Jeremy Taylor
let fall his quaint sentences, heavy as an old
court dress, with their weight of ornament.
As an artist in words, the American does not
rank with the English clergyman. 1t is to be
doubted if his writings will be stored up, gen.
erations hence, in libraries as rhetorical mod
els; but so long as men wish to impress the
hearts and stimulate the conscience and i'm
agination of religious congregations, so long
will the sermons of Mr. Beecher be studied
by pulpit orators. As master of the art of
preaching he is without peer, living or dead.
While reading these published sermons one
is sometimes at loss, especially if he has
never heard the pastor of Plymouth church,
to account for all their power. It'll true he
finds passages of lofty eloquence, bits Of de-
scription that would do credit to the most
finished literary artist, sentences that are the
ty; but he has heard eloquence as powerful.
descriptions as perfect, pleas for the right as
effective from men whose very names will be
forgotten lol g before the world has ceased to
talk of Henry Ward Beecher.
The secret of the great preachers extraor-
dinary power is to be found in the record of
his life. For thirty years he has stood up be-
fore the American people and battled against
sham and bisotry; for thirty years his voice
has been raised for the right and in condem-
nation Of the wrong whenever and wherev,r
harm has been threatened our national ard
social and moral security. Nor during ali
these years has he been merely the echo OF
an already aroused public sentiment. He
has created and moulded that sentiment.
No man within the last quarter of
century has so impressed himself up
on the American people, has done so much to
shape their aims and aspirations. He has
ever been in the front OF the fight, bearing
al jft the banner of the cross, and contending
for that purer life, higher morality, and more
enlightened civilization which it symbclizes.
When the night has been darkest and the
struggle the tiercest, his voice has rung out
over all the conflict, cheering those of us who
were faint and discouraged His wonderful
prescience, which is genius Itself, has never
failed him. His brain and conscience, great
and allied, have ever led him to espouse and
hold to the right. while so many of ilustrious
talents have stumbled and turned back in the
path, or wandered off into devious by-ways
and been heard of no more. There is no man
in our recent history who has been found so
often on the right side OF current questions
and the first man on the ground, too.
Joined TO this perception of right and this
capacity of fighting for it, is another quality
which has endeared Mr.. Beecher to the hearts
of our people. Unsparing in his denuucia-
ton Of wrong lie has never suffered the Ian
guage OF hate to escape from his lips. In