The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-06-25
MIR. BEECHER AT SEVENTY.
srhe Celebration of a birthday To-Day
Talk with His People.
Friday Night Conversation.

public celebration OF the fact that seventy
wears ago a man child was born into this
world, and that have had to take care OF
him ever since. [Laugbter,l If he had bis
own way he would have no fuss about his
birthday. 1 am modest man." he said,
with serio-comicalr which provoked laugh
ter. He never was more embarrassed, he
said, than when commended. II man
would only strike at him he was perfectly
willing to have fling at anybody, but 1t
was only very recently that ne got over the
awkward habit OF blushing when anybody
commended him to his face. 1t
was a hard thing to be the center OF
5000 or 1900 people, but nevertheless his
lie had been pubic, not private one. and
there were some parts of il belonged to the
public, not to him, and, therefore, he thought
it might do good to have the celebration
held. There might be in it some lessons to
young men in regard to the safety of trust
ing to great moral truths, to the safety of be-
ing in the minority, and of holding to views
that put them out of joint with their fellows.
There might be some advantage in it to men
who are trying to hide their lives and their
principles. He didn't know what he was 60
ing to say upon the occasion. There were
some things which he would have right to
say TO his people which he would not have a
right to say to the promiseuous audience to
assemble on that occasion. He playfully re-
marked that he would consider the prayer
meeting of.to-nght as being held in an upper
chamber, with the doors shut and no report
ers present. He wanted to make such a
statement as pastor had a right to make
confidentially to his children in the Lord.
He hoped they would excuse the apparent
egotism in it, and allow him to speak of him
self and his own feelings as they do in class
meetings among Methodist brethren.
Mr. Beecher proceeded to rehearse the
leading incidents of his own life and the
transitions through which ne passed n re-
ngious experience. This was the statement,
substantially. that he made before the Con-
Gregational Association when he resigned
from that body last year. He went on to de-
scribe the controversies between and over
Princeton and Amherst and also those in
which be became involved after assuming
his first passionate at Lawrenceburg ''On
every side was fighting, fighing, fighting"
said ne, land on subjects that would make
q crab laugh-questions that were
Observation-Disclosures, and on which
everybody that knew nothing at all
thought he knew rs much as God did. The
positiyeness with which things were argued,
declared and thrown back at each otherl
Why, as / look back at them now [ can't
help thinking of the contentious of lot of
children around cradle" All this gave
him disgust for dogmatic theology which
he had never got over, and the prospect was
he never should Not because be thought
theology to be an impossibility, but because
the best that men could get at a hundred or
thousand years ago was not good enough for
the present, nor did he think that in the
present day men had light and knowledge
enough to cover the whole sphere which a
true theology must occupy. As he mad to
wait through the ages for such light as we
have so we must wait for years for knowI-
edge positive and absolute to complete the
new theology. when the new heavens and
the new earth shall come to this world.
1t is, In some respects, fair indication of
the progress of my thought and religious
feeling in regard to Jesus Christ" said Mr..
Beecher, ''that / have that sympathy which
my natural constitution eminenty fitted me
to understand and sympathize with" The
compassion of God, as manifested in Jesus
Christ-that side of great, holy, beautiful
creature like God devoting his life to the
poor and the ignorant and those that had
gone astray, he could fully understand, and
the lower and more wicked men were, the
more they needed compassion. Mr.. Beecher
proceeded to rehearse all the good fights he
has fought. when the anti-slayery trouble
came" said he, didn't join the fray before
was fifteen years old, and continue to the
END? Didn't fight in the last war, both on
land and sea? Haven't | the most intense
sense of the rights of the people and the
freedom of nationsY' Beginning with his
joining the anti-slavery ranks, he said:
Il have followed up every evolution of
Providence, and planted myself upon the
side of those that were weak or in any
trouble When Kossuth came here my soul
burned for Hungary. Before that, when
Greece was oppressed l spoke for her. and
have had invitations to speak for the Irish,
for the Jews, and for every nation in turn
that has been under the ban. That all
springs from this sense of the nature of
Christ, that men who were lowest were
worthy of most help"
Reversing the ordinary view of things, Mr..
Beecher said he had not gone into these
things because they were humanities. but
because he loved Christ, and that was also the
basis of his preaching He had never at
tackled any denomination or body of men, but
he had attacked theological systems which
threw shadow across the path. There were
three things that had grown more intense in
his belief-the universal sinfuiness of man
kind, the need of being born again by the spirit
of God to lift human nature above the line
of animal nature, and the love of God in
Jesus Christ as the center of all conversions,
the hope of men in this world and their JOY
In the world to come. The certainty that
God loved him, Mr.. Beecher said. had sus-
tanned him in sorrows that rose like the
waves of the sea. Il know" he said, show
the Catholic feels when ne imploree the Vir-
gin Mary to intercede for him. 1t was iilu-
isive. know it was but often and often
cried out to my mother to intercede for me,
and she did" Amid all his trials his sup
port had been his belief that Christ lives,
and that nothing could deliver him out of
the hands of love. He had had that bulwark
between him and the storm.
my years." he said, in concluding "are
extended, but let those make a mistake who
think that am laid on the shelf, and that,
therefore, they can afford to praise me now.
j expect to be heard of yer. But have lived
seventy years-time enough to find out a
good many things, and this have found out:
The sweetness OF the life that now is is as
much dependent upon the love for Christ as
a landscape is dependent upon the sun shin
ding upon it for its beauty. When my work
is completed, and as soon as am unfit to do
any more active work, pray God to let me