St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-04
MIR. BEECHER,s SERMON
On The Unfolding of the Character
of Man.

Special 20 the Globe
NEW YORK, Jan. S.-Henry Ward
Beecher's sermon this morning was from
Matthew xiii, S1-32: Another parable put
He forth unto them. saying: The kingdom
of heaven is like to grain of mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in his field,
which indeed is the least of all seeds. but
when it is grown it is the greatest among
herbs, and beeOmeth a tree, so that the
birds of the air come and lodge In the
branches thereof" Mr.. Beecher said: AS
the grain of mustard seed did not really
find itself until it shook its leaves in the
wind and heard the birds singing in its
branches. so men have not found themselves
in any of the lower stages of unfolding and
Development but only when they come into
that higher range. First comes man, the
animal, the lower form, then gradually un-
folding and finally in long perspective the
civilized, and then all civilizations. The
ChristianiZed man-there is the final end of
creation. The grand experiment of taking
nothing and making something of it, and
then organizing it and bringing it up
through all the stages into the human es-
tate, and then from the human estate in the
lowest to the very highest That repeats
itself in every individual born into the
CoNDENsEs AND ABBREvIATEs
the process that the race itself
has been going through since the be-
ginning OF time. In the New Testa-
ment this is not expressed as a theology or
philosophy, but it is clearly enough indi-
Gated as the thought and expressed in the
language and methods of that time in
which il was written, so that in that fifth
chapter of Galatians, which [ am never
tired OF reading TO you, though you may be
tired of hearing it, / hope not, the fruit of
the divine spirit in this world is given as
love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness,
goodness. temperance or Self-control. That
Is the fruit. The whole organization of
man and nature are for this then, for the
production of these qualities. and every
man that is producing something else, but
not that, comes short OF the idea of his ex-
istence. Every man that Is producing
these, even though he may fall short in
every one of those things most priced in
outward society, he is really attaining the
end for which he was created. The funda-
mental virtues are admirable; industry, fru-
gality, foresight, enterprise, honesty, all
these things are admirable, but they are the
lower stages. What are you building on
then? If you go higher than that and have
the principle Of honor and
HIGHER CONCEPTIONS
of truth and delicacy, and chastity and self
denial in some degree within limited cir
Gle, all these elements are admirable. They
are not religIoRt they are but the green stem
Of the grain. and are not c0Hipicss 1utGl
there comes into the mind the illumination
produced By the spirit Of God ITSELF That
gives atmosphere to all the other qualities
and combines them, harmoRizes them and
lifts the soul into a holy aspiration as the
grain of mustard seed becomes a tree in
which the birds of the air sit and sing. 1t
is completed then, but all the stages on
ward and upward are valuable and better,
even If they go no further than to have had
them absent. They are not the full compile
tion of the idea of God in man, but they
are relative stages, and ought to be prepara-
tory steps on the way on and up. If you
will not be a Christian be as near to it as
you can. 1t is better for you. it is better
for this life, it is with more hope of saliva
ton in the life to come, but understand
that these moral qualities, social basis. are
merely the foundations on which you are to
go on and build higher and higher until
you come to the perfect man in Jesus
Christ.