The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-27
MIR. BEECHER IN A RAGE.
He Does Not Intend to Leave His Church-His
Course in Politics.

ne DOeS MOI 1ALenO CO Leave HIS CnurCn-HlS
Course in Politics.
New York World.
Mr.. Beecher was found by a reporter ENJOYING
the cool breezes which were chasing each other
across the magnificent landscape which is spread
out before the Beecher summer-seat at Peekskill.
The morning papers had not yet arrived, and Mr..
Beecher, when he had finished the perusal of the
article published in the Philadelphia Times.
laid it down with a gesture of Impotence and
said:
cit is a baseless fabric of nothingness, without
the least foundation. 1t is all a lie, an infa-
nous lie; and, first of all, I would speak of money
matters, for it is so put as to reflect upon a
mans honor when it says that there is any
assumption OF debt without intention or ability
to pay. Nothing can be more remote from the
truth. There is not a workingman in my en-
ploy, and l have seven about this place, who
need wait longer for what is due him than the
time it will take me to put my hand in my
pocket. There is not a tradesman who has one
penny owing which he cannot have on demand.
This part of the Philadelphia article / would
declare a wholesale, malicious lie. / cannot for
the life of me see why such tales should be set
aAoat: but suppose 1t is one of the necessary
VIVA of your retirement from the pulpit of
Plymouth Church?"
THE matter has never been discussed-barely
mentioned. There has never been any formal
consideration of it in the church. It has been
thought OF, OF course; 1t would be strange if it
had not been. l am not a perpetual motion ma
chine. There is a span to every human life, and
some day it will come about that there will be a
Plymouth Church and no Mr.. Beecher. As soon
as | feel myself going / am ready to stand I'D
and say: Brethren, we have had a good time
together. Thank God for that! But now let us
reason for the future. And l will then welcome
a younger man, and help him all can to 60
right on with the work"
How is your present health7"
"Never better in my life. / am prepared for
any amount of work, and l am ready now to
enter the lists against any man of half my age,
and run him a race, say for a year-an intel
mons and preaching them-in doing hard brain
work night and day. My mind is clearer now
than it ever has been. and there is not an ache,
or a pain, or a weak spot that know Of"
And the churchP
SIS stronger and better to-day tina err it
was. The asperities of the last politl cam
paign are gradually fading away, and /. % old
reign of love and tolerance coming in. Plymouth
has been a Republican stronghold; it was as such
that l founded 1t, and such it had grown to be.
Many were not ready TO follow me when 1
thought it my duty IS a good citizen to support
Mr.. Cleveland. Some of the members of the
congregation felt very sore for q time, and
absented themselves from the church. but all
save two are now again In full working fellow
ship. These indignant ones remember that I had
always preached the fullest freedom of action on
the part Of every man, and they saw that [ had
q right to live up to my own doctrines. No man
CdH sdy tHob 1 uSeu my pulplC rs a pOlltlcal
agency, or that l uttered one word as a pastor to
which any one in Plymouth could take excep-
ton. what [ did out of the pulpit. on the stump
and in pushing the cause which l then thought
and still think had the most of justice, and right.
and honor in it. 1 did openly
and above-board. There was a reason
for every utterance l made, and this
reason l gave with all the power l had. History,
l think, has justified my course. Mr.. Cleveland
has made an excellent executive, and l have not
one word to recall-not one sentiment to change
or alter. Those of my people who differed with
me then are coming round to my way of think
ing now. All the bitterness of the strife is pass
ing or has passed away, and, as l say. / can think
of but two instances among all my people where
the old Plymouth Church feeling is not back
again in their hearts. One of the leaders in this
opposition, if we might SO style it, in a letter on
this very point. said it was not so much a cues
ton of Plymouth Church leaving Mr.. Beecher
as it was of Mr.. Beecher leaving Plymouth; but
there is no danger, l think, of either catastrophe
not for a time, at least. The question of a
change has been considered by the long headed
men of the church for ten years past, but it
seems as far of AS ever in any practical sense. |
think / can be of great service yet, and / mean
to try to give the people the full measure of my
abilities. thank God for what he has permitted
me TO be and do, and every day makes me to see
things clearer, and many matters that were once
puzzles are new plain reading and thinking. !