The New York herald., 1879-02-24
Topics Discussed by Popular
Clergymen Yesterday.
HOW MEN SHOULD LIVE.
The Glory of God Is Infinite and Not
Susceptible Of Increase.
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.

BEEcHER.
Mr. Beecher prayed yesterday. morning that the
churches might be cured of the conceit of seeking
to the world by the rod of the sanctuary,
whereby they themselves filed with confusion.
1t also observed that he omitted his usual media
ton for the President of the United States Congress
and the other constituted authorities
The text of the Revelation. XIV, 13-
sand l heard voice from heaven saying unto
me- Write, Blessed the dead which die in
the Lord from henceferth Yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their labors;
and their works do follow them" Commen-
tators, said Mr. Beecher, generally had interpreted
the phrase their works do follow them If it sig
nifed that they accompanied them and went on with
them into the life which beyond them. But
another rendering might beadmitted without vio-
lence to the Greek original and more in consonance
with the preceding clause-namely. that their works
follow in the which they have marked out;
that the good which they have in motion does not
die when they die. At any rate. that true
whether the text meant to teach it not. The SUBJ
Jec OF the discourse the perpeiual continuity OF
the influence and the work OF good men, The testi-
mony to the fact was found in the Scripture under
very many forms. There something in the ma
ture of goodness which appealed to the gratitude Of
mankind. to their generous sentiment, and which
elevated the mind in contemplating it to stage the
pathy, admiration and love in those who did
not possess it. Good men. therefore. cast their
the generous side of human nature.
A good life was the writing OF ones own memorial
tablet day by day. On the other hand. men loathed
wickedness-always in their neighbors, sometimes
in themselves unless there was total disintegration
or the moral nature. Evil examples subject to
all the dstrust the dislike and the hatred that in
heres in humanity. There why filth
should be embalmed. Like the dirt i'll the sea- il
settles to the bottom and more. SO it was
seen that wicked men lose to after generations all
attractiveness; their names rot and perish If they
survived 1t only to become stin rotten But
men cherish and take. it were, to the bosom of
their admiration the names of those who have bene-
htcd their kind. There many which
could never go down below the horizon of glory.
Thousands and thousands who stronger than
they III their own day have gone out from the men,
ory of the race and not heard of now-not
dying sound They have sunk into eternal silence.
Jesus was the weakest of His age and yet the
strongest for He gave forth such conceptions ife
duty and eternity as have led the world from that
day to this. He is an outcast indeed who does not
join III the testimony of the ages that the one man of
the world was Christ Jesus. Goodness was pass
port to posthumous fame
SHAKESPEARE BURNS.
All men who have made truth clearer have title to
recollection which cannot be invalidated There
places OF ignorance Although they do it at the
pense OF their present ease making of themselves
targets for the merry arrows OF contumey yet their
reward is Artists who make life more joyous
and more beautiful are doing works which will fol.
low them. Cathedrals and temples are the mute
forms OF speech that. in their way declare the
glory of God, just do the mountains and the hills.
Shakespeare--who can estimate the breath OF the
JOY and OF the sympathy which he owes to his uni
vorsal Pilgrim whom every man counts as his fellow?
England may fall but the English language shall live
forever ana whoever sets 1t to strains which shall
purity humanity, his work shall not die. Whoever
sets stars OF poetry III the armament to light the
world need have fear-even lie who writes but one
Winged hymns Poets Gods priests, who
clothe inferior things with heavenly meanings.
Over all the faults OF Burns there has been cast
mantle of charity; large mantle that he
might walk to and fro under it under
tent. He has lived nobler and a sweeter life since
lie W ha l1a1 InVop hall
have place, and their lives shall not be extin-
guished. They who labor to better the inferior
ditons OF society to make the way of lite less inty
giving to drudgcry its ticketofleave, and they who
go around the globe unlocking the climes. bringing
together the marts OF the world, distributing the
treasures OF every region, grouping men in larger
spheres of amy-thcse will leave behind them not a
name perhaps spelt out in alphabetical characters
but what they have done win have made them great
they are true princes. Not every knows who
were the founders OF Cambridge and Oxford yet all
the world has felt the power OF these consecrated
men. Half dozen ministers got together, made
contributions of books and started Yale College.
Where they now and what Ii it +? But will their
work ever cease Not when the conclusions Of a
thousand ages have shaken down the monuments of
material power which have been reared around it.
TRIBUTE TO WASHINGTON.
These thoughts, continued MIR. Bcecher are fit for
day like this which stands the birthday of
Washington. He was a great man, not by intel
lectual endowInents remarkable genius, except in
his rare good Judgment and discretion. but he was
untainted by personal ambition and kept himself
pure in patriotism and free from every thing that
savorcd of partisanship. devoted TO the good his
Drooding wing patient and enduring in the darkest
hours, not alone courageous in battle but calmly
and hopefully sus tanning the weight of misfortune
and adversely; incorruptible in personal morals,
wise in all things pertaining to public affairs and
wise in gathering about him counselors who their
several spheres wiser than he. and deriving
from them increased brightness like the light
which IS reflected in concayo mirror--so he shone
forth with all the gathered virtues Of his time. His
in the relation which it bore TO the nascent
EepublIc is not so great, however, as the works
which follow him. We have no guilty Napoleon. no
nO Ilr1sa audH
but man of sympathy, patient, pure large hearted
consecraed 70 the welfare of his race. OF the
commonwealth.
THE CURSE or PUBLIC MEN,
. The curse OF our modern public men has been that
they have not put any faith i'll the saving power of
rectitude and goodness. Many of gigantic power
have fallen because they have yielded prejudces
OF the hour. To-day how are the great fallen How
they fallen in the Senate. They could not fall in
the House OF Representatives. u.aughtcr How are
should act up TO our admration-how have they,
against their own judgment, bowed down TO fear and
the outcry OF a terocious mob which gives lawless
expression to It's passionsl Daniel Webster would
have been President of the United States easily aud
lustrousy If he had believed that rcctitude was
always safety; but he quiver.d and fell before the
taco of the Moloch of the South and rose
again. No man who sits upon tho duughill of
ruption and puts a upon his head can be other
than mole and worm like those that he feeds
upon. His food is rottenness and his shall be
rotten. When the Son OF Man comeih there shall be
found the earth the faith OF manhood OF honesty
fidelity courage to do right. benevolencc and patriot
ism. II is integrity. ingraincd and vital. that
man tnro"Sh inc stoIns OF llic ana gives
20 II meaning voice aud leverage long after he
Is dead in the body. There whose whole
course Of life is transient, who constantly rake
gether what other men and reap. and who glow
with seif-consciousness. They leave organized
force of example, subtle and invisible power
working continually. There is nothing in their
career They are like tho buzzing flies of the
summer
therefore appeal to those under my influence
ayst the tendencies OF our tiines the rushing into
the ways OF lust ayarice pride and sef-sceking 1t
Is right for men TO DO happy but true happiness
other men happy. lie who gives a life to a man, and
sends him forth to DC the master OF causes and the
producer OF effects, lives In that man. and also ia
those whom that man influences Whom he dies his
work Is not lost.
Livol Live larger lives; live for Joy, for wealth,
for literature, for political influence for any form
OF power, but live so that all that you attain shall
be reflected upon your kind, your nation and your
age, that when you die your name shall be great
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