Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1875-01-02
VISIT TO BEECHKR's CHURCH.

n
but since the last time L saw and heard nfm
which was at the funeral of Horace Greeley two
years ago. He does not seem so leonine. so mas
ave, so powerful. 20 filed with the vital forces
30 radiant-faced, so proud, 50 tender, or so
warm. There is a certain look of disc ufet about
his face, certain hard, angry. dangerous look,
and the feeling thereof runs through his whole
frame. IL Delsarte were now here, possessed of
the memories L have, he could tell better than
can what alterations the lines of his face have
undergone; he could tell how the lines OF all
parts of his body have altered correspondingiy
with those OF that part; he could tell how every
motion corresponded with these linesn sltera-
tons; and he could tell the internal conditions
or experiences which are expressed through
these visible apparitions. These things are
rather beyond my science; but wish that, on
going to Beecher's, 1 had found time to take
along with me Steele Mscksye, the brilliant
American pupil OF the lost Delsarte. Suffice il
to say, that at first sight Beecher seemed to me
to bear weighty evidence that life has not lately
gone along 20 gloriously with him rs 1t did till
the time when his hair turned gray. This noble
soul, this peerless pulpit orator, this man whose
life has been rich, and whose career has been
80 fruitful-may God save him
After the hymn, he began in low voice,
which gradually swelled, to read chapter from
the Psalms. Next came the prayer, at the
opening Of which his hands were clasped and
his tones tremulous. / do not like Beecher's
prayers. They seem to me worse than those OF
Edward Everett, worse than those of Theodore
Parker, and worse in another way than the
patent pulpit efforts of extemporiZed msdiOc-
rity. 1t seems to me fesrfully out of place to
indulge in all this iOrid, fulsOme, and familiar
talk TO that Divinity before whom the yelled
and PROSTATE figures seen by the seer of P stmos
uttered their spocalyptic cries. In prayer. at
least. Beecher ought to refrain from rhetorical
flights, If not for the sake OF the people who
hear 1t, then for the sake Of the lneffable Nys-
terry to whom 1t is addressed.
L cannot help, at this point, m aking n0ts OF
the exceedingly business-like way in which al
the proceedings In Bsecher's church, as In so
many other Protestant churches, are carried
on. There Is no repose, nothing majestical,
nothing, for example, that at once approaches
the impressiyeness of q "High Mass" in the
Catholic system. The hymns were gone through
in prompt and rapid way; the Bible reading
followed just soi the prayers were 50 many min
utes by the clock, and, in short, everything was
managed, by preacher, orgauist, choir and au-
ditoTs, in the most Yankee-like business sort of
way. The feelings of majesty or sublimity were
hardly more possible than those of rhapsody or
eCStacy.
The second hymn over, Beecher steps to the
desk at the front of the platform, and gives out
the text of his sermon. 1t is from st. Paul.
"Work out your own salvation" Everybody
knows that he does not preach from a manu-
script; but he had not even the small slip, with
notes on it, which he was formerly in the habit
OF laying before him, or, at least, If he had any
thing OF the kind, he never locked at it from
first TO last. In clear, full, rich, mellow voice,
the pleasant sound of which filled the whole
house, he began. "There may be kind of
philosophical fatalism," which he INN sdiately
described in a way satisfactory to all except SUI
percritical minds. This led him to tOu en- on the.
relations between God and man, and from
character, as presented in the New Testament
Before reaching this character zation, he gave
an exceedingly vivid and vivaciOus sketch of
the development and mutations of the idea of the
Divinity-or rather, as he put 1t, of the various
goods, gOdlings and g0ddesses," which had been
feared or wOrsh.pped by mankind in different
ages and countries -portraying the Egyptian
diyinities, then some other Oriental ones, and
next TIE Greek ones, shO wing also the Hebraic
conception of Jehovah; then the Deity of the
early Christian spectators; and so on till he
xvh ha md ~,
the Gospels that "God in Christ" upon whose
nature he descanted. Thence he proceeded
with the other portions Of his discourse related
TO the words of the text, showing what cOnsti-
tuted salvation, how 1t might BIS wrought out,
and how God cO-operated with man in working
it out. He ended up by personal appeal TO his
hearers, such as regular orthodox Protestant
preachers usually close their sermons with.
In literary or oratorical point OF view the
sermon was admirable. 1t was delivered in
that natural and effective way Of which
Beecher is master. His superb voice still re-
tsins much of its pristine capacity, It's great
range and volume, its marvellous variety OF
tone. Now it rolls and swells; now it psals;
now il is tremulous; now playful; now gentle;
now affectionate; and so Is responds ID every
thought and word in q harmony that is almost
scientific. He displayed, as he always does, his
amazing wealth of imagery. Figures, fancies
and companions flew from him like shO Wers of
AFRO vs., and every one or them was az fresh,
novel, spontaneous and appropriate as the mill
lions OF others he has scattered around this
church during the last quarter of a century.
Beecher is Shakspsrean in his i'm 32inatiOn or
fancy,-thOugh l must stop here long enough
TO say that perhaps COleridge might say his ex-
trsoTdinary faculty lay in the region of com
| parison rather than of imagery proper. His
humor, too, he still retains, and at times in thi.
/ discourse he gave IL play. Though he spoke ex-
| temporaneously, his Arguments were orderly
| and consecutive, and the discourse throughout
was compact and well coDCatenated. There was
alto feeling OF earnestness about it,-though
| there were st least two of his hearers on whose
| minds IL failed to make any other than pleas
| ing rhetorical impression. There was moment
| of the discourse in which the preacher was
| transformed, and once again became himself.
| his pristine, leonine, proud nature returned,
and he looked toward my part OF the house,
looking us full IN the face, with noble, youth
| full eountenance, lit up with the luminous
thought TO which he was giving expression. It
was Beecher at thirty-f7e again.
There were in the discourse but few of those
bold sentences with which Beecher has so often
startled orthodoxy. The most striking sentence
OF the kind on this occasion was one noted on
the spot, in which, referring to our modern
Christian religion, he said: "The church il but
Judaism revaRped, aud cur theological systems
are but the Greek speculation which was ap-
piled to the Gospels" One Of the interesting
son, has always been his rem 4rksble aptitude in
the use of words his ability to give fresh but nt
meanings, his skill in compromising words, and
his audacity in transferring words from any
language that contained one he needed. TIL ere
were several striking examples OF this soTt OF
thing in his sermon last night; but, by far the
most startling example OF it, was when, without
moments warning OF explanation, he Angli-
cised the French verb eeIdireir, by saying that
"rUth eeldireiSssS the Imagination" This was
not bad. We have no analogue for the word in
our language; for even ''claseify' would not in
this case give the idea OF the verb which he got
of, az though every body understood it.
L wish now, in closing, to refer to a point
which struck me when first i saw Beecher last
night and which impressed me as l heard hi
preach after an interval Of many years. He is
yet the pnequaled preacher; his ratio cinative
and Imaginative faculties remain, and L have
NOS doubt OF his being a sincere and earnest
man. But 1t seems to me he dOes not possess,
and IL appeared to me as though he could not
display, that conscious power which formerly
belonged TO him. When he used, in old times,
to step on to the platform of his church, and
when his intellectual and moral genius rose TO
tts full stature in preaching, the sense of power
was greater than have ever seen embodied in
any other man, with the exception of Daniel
Webster. L not only say that this sort OF thing
did not appear last night, but that it did not
seem as though he could possibly make it sp-
pear. His looks, feelings and Language. were,
for the most part, hard. His thoughts
came from the surface. His earnest
ness did not come from the depths.
he seemed as though he were under come ex-
citing sort of restraint and self-restrsint. He
wa evidently In painful state of self-con-
seriousness, such a state as destroyed that swell
ing spontaneity, that natural, open, hearty
humanity, that spiritual ecldircissemeat, If
mas M haf haA