The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-05-03

father he enters into the rank, spontaneous life
of that early prairie world almost before the
pillow had driven the moccasin across the Faith
err of Waters
So his formative years drank in the bucolic
unconventionalities, the large, fearless enter
prise the blunt Individuality incorporating
and resolute, and the human heartedness, the
sense of human kinship and social independence
born only of pioneer life, Well seasoned and
sorely strained in his earlier ministrauonS, he
stepped into the Plymouth pulpit with few illu-
slons and still fewer pretensions. 1t was his
battle-ground hencerOrth. and he was not the,
man to fight windmills Culture had done very
little for his equipment; neither, for that matter,
had books, or schools, or learning.
For In temperament he is impatient Of drill.
systems, analyses and logical procedures, all OF
which are an abomination unto his soul lnten-
ton serves as a man of all work, and he leaps to
his conclusions through the eyes of his heart in
womanly way, Notwithstanding the fneness and
v1gor of his intelligence. Will-power, emotional
volitions dominate his purpose and expression.
Then he seeks and reaches his conclusions
through analoges, similitudes, symbolisms, cor,
responsiveness which from the outset prompted
his intellectual and word processes, so that he
sees visions, sketches, pictures and dreams
dreams while most minds are busy with patent
analyses, the laboriOus precision of the syllog-
ism and exhaustive comparisons and
reasonings. So his vocabulary, which
has most eccentric and unlimited range
in all directions. is flushed with color,
force, sensible suggestions, figurative and de-
ScrpuVe t1avors 1t rises to the SubtleSt grada-
tions of significance when thought and feeling
are almost laid bare under daphanous idiom;
it labors and struggles with fierce assault and
heavy pounding onslaught, when the preacher
seems swinging the old Thor hammer; then it
fairly reeks with coarse realism, of the streets,
the markets and the sharp slang of rude life
at once spiritual and rustic, picturesque and
rugged full of plant and melody. or FOSTERING
mirth OF thunderous invective. There is always
missing the refined precision and elegance of
thorough scholarship, the severe graces of classic
suggestion and finely tempered reticence and
the repose of consummate culture.
Mr. Beecher meanwhile has pushed the pitiless
logic of individualism, which is the touchstone of
Congregationalism, until he has reached almost
absolute isolation and detached himself from the
church consciousness until he has literally be-
come a church to himself, sole and absolute
Casting Off therefore, all restraints and affilia
tions of church and denomination, he has reso-
lutely rid himself of old theologies and beliefs
Darwin and Huxley and Spencer have crowded
Moses aside. The Law and the Pentateuch are
faded, and to the three prime enemies of souls
the world, the flesh and the devil-Mr. Beecher
has added orthodoxy, which he berates and de-
rides in turn with all the energy of his brawny
nature.
His ministrations are crowded with incon-
gsuities-a tender pietism and glowing concep-
ton of the Christ the second Adam, while de-
nouncing the first Adam as a myth and fraud;
tenacious clinging to the Scriptures here and
there, as the basis of his preaching while
throwing overheard large portions and challeng-
ing the inspiration of the rest. But these para
doxes are inexhaustible, and it must suffice to
add that the great preacher seems hurriedly de-
voting the closing decade of his ministry to plow
ing under and demolishing the splendid work of
his former life and sowing the desolation with
salt.
The centuries are not prodigal of such richly
furnished preachers. Unquestionably as
popular force, Mr.. Beecher is strictly
unique and alone in staying power and
mastery. So while orthodoxy gets well out
of the way of his terrible philippics all other
doxies flock in and swell the congregation over
full, now in the seventy-frst year of the
preachers life. The charm and mystery of his
eloquence seem hardly dimmed. 1t is yet the
old triumphs, the killing repartee, the kin
ding apostrophe, the tumultuous upheavals of
volcanic conclusions and detritus and that
wonderful voice remains with its subduing, pen
etrating, pianissmos, and its irresistible vehe
mences. But this is not the Henry Ward
Beecher, whose sterling evangelism and win
ming orthodoxy in former years garnered in his
yearly hundreds into the fellowship. The
church now numbers over 200 members, and
the great ediice could hardly hold them in a
single congregation.