Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-06-28
A SEVENTEEN Birthday.

Mr.. Beecher's seventeen birthday finds his
physical powers undated and his intellectual
force unimpaired. Born in 1918, graduated
from Amherst College in 1884. and installed
rs pastor of Presbyterian church in 1887,
he has been preaching for forty-six years.
The oldest members of Plymouth Church,
who have listened to his sermons for thirty
six years, can see no decadence in his preach
ing His theology has become more elastic,
but his manner has not altered and his power
although the influence of his sermons, owing
to causes to which it is unnecessary to refer.
ia no longer What it was when his twenty
9th anniversary was celebrated eleven years
sgo at Plymouth Church. He remains
however, the most conspicuous of American
preachers, with an unrivalled capacity for
expression and the orators magical power of
swaying mems hearts and minds and of bring
ing either tears or smiles TO their faces
The broad effects of his decade of
active work in the West have never
disappeared in his preaching. His
sermons still seem to have the breath of the
prairie stirring in them, and his manner
has never lost the elements of hearth
ness. simplicity and informally which it &C
duired during his earlier experience in the
ministry. His voice is as strong and melo
dious AZ ever; his humor has not grown
stale; his memory has not failed him; and
he 10 still in the maturity Of his intellectual
powers. The great audience that gathered to
honor him last night in Brooklyn did not
need, when he spoke to listen to be convinced
that ~ = popular preacher and platform ora
- 4 a. n.L.
equal or eurpass him in intellectual vigor.
in rhetorical graces and literary finish. or
in logical subtlety and argumentative pow
er, but no other preacher is so richly en-
dowed with those qualities Of heart. mind and
voice which give Mr.. Beecher a fairly cleo
trical ascendancy over an audience.
In responding to the congratulations of a
multitude of his friends on his SEVENTEEN
birthday, Mr.. Beecher had comparatively
easy task. Every face that was upturned to
meet his glance was illumined with sympathy
ami affection. He was the central figure in
great concourse of royal adherents and de.
voted friends, every one Of whom involun.
tsrily held his breath in order that it might
be easier for the Plymouth pastor to make
himself heard. How different his emotions
must have been when in his fiftieth year, Just
twenty years ago, he faced the English mobs
in Manchester. Liverpool aud London, and
plead the causc of the Union and of Freedom.
He was subjected at that time to every con-
ceivable annoyance. His voice was drowned
BY continuous uproar; he was insulted BY
gallery and pit; he was Kissed and hooted.
and every scntence that fell from his lips
was punctuatet with roars and yells. Az he
himself described the scene: 81 had to
speak extempore on subjects the most deli
cate and difIlcult ~ between our two nations,
where even the shading of my words was of
Importance, and yet l had to outscream
mob and drown the roar of . multitude. Ii
was Ike driving team Of runaway horses
and making love to : lady At the same time
The man who responded to the addresses OF
welcome and congratulation last night could
mot have faced an English mob at three
score-and-ten - be did 90 successfully al
my. Advanced age requires exemption from
the supreme tests Of mature manhood. But
- hr-reaching voice, the enthusiasm, the
sasnestness, the courage, the humor, the
pe1Aoe ard he eloquence remained in the
-, - they were when he closed his series
. Mez-tins addrcsses in England with q re-
maza.aae eseessieal triumph It Exeter Hall.
~ Z. Fti3une.