, 1886-06-13
HENRY WARD BEECHER
is LIFE WORTH LIvINol is MO-
RALlTY OF ANY ACCOUNT

BROOKLYN. June 6.-Mr. Beech err, this
morning, referring to yesterdays rumor of
his death, sail he was grateful for the SYM
pathy and interest which had been revealed
by thu Re po7t, though he regretted the pain
it had caused some of his family who had
not the opportunity of receiving the denial
OF the report promptly. The only
origin OF the canard that he had been
informed Of was that the tickers announc G d
early in the day the cker street strike
Ia dead. - as that was the FIR st OF the tiled
up" roads to resume work. Some careless
and hasty person had misread and misr g
ported the words. Mr.. Beecher took ad van
tage of the reference to tho "tis up to ex-
press hi, vigorous conde mnation OF the
methods OF the st rikers. While thoroughly
In ,ympathy with tho aims OF organized
labor, h, ~dospised the tyranny by which an
executive board could order out 1900 men
without their voting or consul ting on the
question:, and to the inconvenience OF the
whole community.
Mr.. Beecher preached from the text Gala
tians vi, 30; Be not deceived; God is no.
Knocked: for whatsoever n man soweth, that
obatAA ht hnp A0hBs iOi no Ahht oC"'Ah W Ah'
flesh shall OF the flesh reap corruption; but
he that soweth to the spirit shall Of the spir. It
reap life everlasting. And let US moi be
weary in well doing; for in due season we
shall reap, IL We faint not" He said:
The question which deeply a~gitates thought
full men today was alive and active in far
away ages. is life worth livingi Is moral
ity of any account Is uprightness really
valunblei May not a man gain tho en- is of
life ly trnversing any ono OF the supposed
canons of moralityi Does it make any diff
ferenccl II n man is only rich, will he not
be happyi If a man has money, cannot he
have pretty much everything else he wants
in this woflif'
These are not the heresies OF books, but of
the street and of the thoughts of men. And
this want Of faith in the essential elements
of spiritual mud social morality is one of the
most dangerous OF all possible heresies. As
far back as the Cd Testament goes we find
intimations; as for instance in the early
peri od by the book OF Job these questions
were cnnvaSscd Is life worth living, and II
1t Is, which is better, TO restrain yourself and
to live with care, or TO say eat, drink, for
tomorrow ye diet Is life anything else but
a muddlei Is II n determinnte and regulated
scheme in which 1t is profitable 10 follow tho
higher instincts OF a mans nature, and do
they have advantagei
Solomon tells us tho result OF his range of
all human experiences. both in physical in
indu 'gences and the pursuit OF wisdom: A
is vanity
Now when we come to the ripenei thought
of the New Testament. we begin to see some
light; at any rae we begin to strike ground
of principle which shall make a d.
rection for these musings and these
sad philosophers. Tho Old Testament had
no future. l do not mean by that there was
no CLEAN on any mind OF a possible immor-
tality There appears to have been such
but 1t belonged TO the poet, to the seer. 1t
was not The general knowledge nor thought.
On the other hand there is not throughout
the whole Old Testament one single instanc
in which a law Is basel upon n promise
of reward or punishment hereafter.
There Is not one motive drawn from
the existence Of "A man after HIS
bodily death, nor in which prophet,
priest or teacher ever denounced wickedness
with n penalty hereafter. The Old Testa-
ment, while it had flashes and CLEANS of this
revelation OF life to come, in the main they
were dim. and therefore when mon reasoned
as to the etc OF this or that line OF con.
durt Upon a mans welfare, they had only
this world to reason about; and | no d
that that question cannot he determined
by consi lerations exclusively belonging to
time and human life. There was no knowl-
edge either, in that early day. Of the struc
ture OF a mans mind and body and the r,la
ton OF conduct 10 one or TO the
other; that disobedience of the higher
mind hal rny effect upon the
body, nor disobcdience of physical laws
any eff C. VI Oh the mind. The whole scheme
of life is therefore transformed. and the
question Of a c rejudged in ihs light of the
truth, OF the New Te3tament IS life worth
livingr Often earthly life Is not / am
very clear about that There i, not enough
In the lie Of who o nations and tribes
to make it a public calamity IL they were
sunk in the ssa. Two-thirds of the continent
of Africa might go down md the world
wou d lose no more than the breaking of so
many bubbles as there were individual per
sons destroyed. Life is no more worth
living than the life OF a sheep or
an OK. In multltudes OF mon. And
in mu titudes of other men the griev-
ances are such, and the deprivations, the
sicknesses, the hop, deferred, the len thou
sand Cypress oni that have been brought
upon men. that 1t makes the question still
more obscure, and we are reduced very often,
so far as we study this question from the
lRut OL lulS NoIll ulOne, 10 n cOnultlOn III
which w say, some men are born lucky and
they are happy, the majority are born with
out luck and they are not happy, and we are
reduced 10 the feeling of an instinct, not a
choice, not a Judgment, but merely that the
instinct OF life leads men to hold on to il.
though the fruit Of life is that Of pain and
suffering.
But when you introduce beyond that the
thought OF an eternal life, a renewed exist
ence, then the question changes in all It's as
poets. Life may not be worth living here,
and may he trnnscendently worth living ON
account OF the hereafter. For man is a BIZ
ennial, and II takes two lives to tell him what
he is As when. for instance, the hollyhock is
planted in one season. but cannot blossom
until the next; nll the first season the holly
hook has no comeliness, 1t is coarse in
leaf, 1t is undeveloped In stem and il shows
no color when the winter has hushed
1t to rest; but the next summer
brings 1t out, it lifts itself up In unimagined
beauty as compared with what 1t was in its
first summer Aud men arc born hero for
the start, the first year. but they are TO
come to themselves only after death, and
when the other summer hall find
them. then they Will DO lifted up
in unimagined glory and beauty, unless
the whit n kills them. And the whole ques-
ton, therefore, /, changed at once; for II we
should b, led to doubt whether life was
worth living on account Of the physical con
dition Of things, that doubt would DO dis
persed whom we take into considern-
ton that there is a double, and even
atriple work going on here. There is n mo.
rail- y OF the person, which concerns him and
the physical laws OF nature: there is n mo
rality o soc ETY.. VIII CHI concerns the individ-
ual and the organization in which he Is
obi gel to live. and there h n morality
The Power OF Money
and what the small sum Of twcntv 6ve