The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1877-05-02
MIR. BEEoHER,s LECTURE.
The ministry of wealth.


A very large and very select audience
assembled at Pixies Music Hall last night
to hear the lecture by Rev. Henry Ward
Beecher. The renowned pastor Of Ply
mouth Church was looking well, and his
clear voice rang out as Of old. His hair
is little more sprinkled with gray than
when he was last here, but his flashing
eye and elastic step are just the same.
His lecture was listened to most at
tentiyeiy throughout, but that which
ELECTED the greatest interest was
the closing portion, in which he
treated of the use of wealth. He said:
| Every man that mas developed
riches has the right to the use OF part
Of his riches for himself; not because it
is right for man to be selfish; not be-
cause man, from the mere accident or
mere circumstance OF being rich, has a
right to separate himself from his kind
and to feed himself alone exclusively. 1
hold that riches have an enlarging and
refining effect; that they give man
leisure, give him culture, or may; that
they give refinement, give him elegance,
a power Of higher life altogether re-
deemed from the claims and the necessi-
ties OF the lower lite. hold that every
man that uses riches properly for him.
sell Is making his manhood eminently
larger, more beautiful, and more con-
spicu0us, and hold that any man who
gives his money away to the community
in this raw state as charity, or as the
foundation for an institution-no man
who gives his money gives his money SO
SO certainly to the State.
There is nothing 80 powerful as fair
and full populace OF royal manhood, and
he who uses wealth to make himself a
more noble man than he could have
money as righteously as man can use
1t. do not urge this upon you because
l suppose your peculiar danger is not
spending enough upon yourselves, but
because there is this latent uneasiness
in tender consciences that fail to see
that developing man by riches is like
developing himself by education, by art
apprenticeship or any other apprentice
ship. 1t is not selfish to make one more
wise, more large, more prodt otive,
more prolific; nor is IL selfshnvss to
make manhood more beautiful and more
glorious, and yet great many men do
not know how to get over the diff
Guilty. They are assailed by ethical
teachers and certain minds of the as
celtic school. ] can conceive man that
has very tender conscience, who is
met by brother who says to him: "My
dear friend, l have long desired to have
little communion with you; we all
esteem and honor you; we believe you
to be devoutly spiritual, but it has been
puzzle to many OF your friends how,
since you know that the world lies in
Wickedness, that there is need for
schools and ministers, and churches and
missionaries, you can afford to wear
West OF England broadcloLh, and carry
such an exnrasive watch and rings and
chain, when you know, my dear brother,
that If you were to clothe yourself In
linsey-woolsey 1T would not cost you a
quarter SO much, and you would be just
as warm, and you might give the differ
ence to the missionaries" He goes out
in suit Of linsey- oolsey clothes. He
meets second apostle OF the same
school, who says to him, swell, YOU
have got through pretty quick. You put
your hand to The plow and turn back
lively. Why, my friend, don't you
know that, in the course Of five years,
you will have to have ten or twelve suits
of linsey-Woolsey? 1t wears out SO fast.
whereas II you had one good suit OF
tanned leather, 1t would last you much
longer, and would not cost you quar-
ter as much. He goes out with u suit
Of tanned leather, and meets third ois-
ciple, who says Um-um-um, my friend,
do you not know that suit OF tanned
leather ia much more expensive than
would, be suit OF raw hide. which
would keep you just as warm, and you
might give the rest to the missionaries"
So he comes out with suit of raw hide
md ma to n dioa MI
to him: "Why didn't you scissor the
hair off and sell that and give the differ
ence to the missionaries Y' The logic ia
irresistible. 1t is wrong for q man to
wear the first best because there is a
second best, then it IL wrong TO wear
the second best if there is a third best.
and itis wrong to wear the third best ii
there Is fourth best, and 1T is wrong
to get a fourth best If there is a
fifth best, and 1t is right only when you
get to the meanest, lowest and nastiest
thing that man can find. There is no
stopping between one and the other.
Why, then our friend might have kept
all his money, and given 1t to the hesth-
en-, for he would be a heather himself in
less than five years If he had gone on in
that downward course. 1t is thus that
Divine Providence has been bringing
man up from the animal line through
five thousand years, throwing of skins,
throwing off rudeness more and more,
disposing of matter and material, and
developing man along the line OF beauty,
which is the line OF refinement. 1 would
like to know who my Father is ii he be
not 1.-THE King of His beauty" And.
what is His nature, II 1t is not to dwell
in the beauty Of h0linsss2
And what is His work, but night after
night to take darkness as sponge to
wipe out the royalty Of heaven in order
that he may fresco every day a new
beauty, never varying, ever the same.
He paints the very shells that lie hidden
in the deep from mans eye, for his own,
looking at them, and Furnishes the use
less, Dlundering beetle in the woods.
He fringes and paints innumerable
wings OF the midge, the flea, the insects
OF summer, and says to the whole veget-
able Kingdom, You shall not come to
seed or iruit until after you come to
blossom, which is the power OF beauty.
Use shall follow beauty. 1t Is the order
OF God to the whole vegetable world:
and am / to be told, because am His
son, that l have no right to beauty? /
claim it because God is my father, and
loves beauty, and am His son and love
beauty; and as 1 grow up into the line