, 1886-06-20
MR.. BEECHER'S SERMON.
A SERVICE OF UNUSUAL IMPORT
ANCE IN PLYMOUTH CHURCH..


NEW YORK, June 13.-A con gregation
fl ing every aisle, p~assageway, nook and
corner to overlooking greeted Henry Ward
Beecher as he stepped Upon the platform at
Plymouth church to preach his last Sunday
morning sermon before his departure for
Europe. Beautiful listers OF roses and
peonies adorned the platform. The musical
services were more elaborate than usual and
everything te.okened a service of more than
customary Importance in the eyes of the
congregati N. After admitting several per-
sons to the church and administering bap-
tism to n number Of children and Adults,
Mr.. Beecher announced his text as fol. ows:
John vi. 32-3l Then Jesus said unto
them, verify. verify, 1 say unto you. Moses
gave you not that bread from heaven; but
my father givoth you the true bread from
heaven. For The bread Of God is he which
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life
unto the world Then said they unto him,
Lord evermore give us this bread. And
Jesus said unto th'm, l am the bread Of
life; he that comcth to me shall never hun
ger. and he that believcth on me shall never
thirst" Hs sail:
Ole cannot bat be struck with surprise
that such an emphasis should have been laid
iy cur great elder brother church upon the
trea1 and the wine OF the Lords Supper,
and that for generations it should nave been
lhu -ue M u Whs tTuislOrI 1eu anu tlht IL
was itself the substance of Christ Simply
becau Q He declared that He was the bread,
and lecause He told His disciples in the
communion season that that bread was His
body, and that the wine was the blood shed
for them, l. has been held, and is held,
that there is a transformation by miracle of
the breai into the person and body of
Christ, and a transformation also of the
wine into b'col.
Now why should not all the other figures
have been literal eli He declared that He
was n door; and why was there not some
transubstantiation Of a door. He declared
that he was a vine, and hat they were
branches; and IL He was a vine, why was
there not some invisible ligneous miracle,
and why should we not feel the wood in us,
If we are branches, OF something that should
nearly stand connected with that. He was
water: whoever drinks of Me shall never
thirst The water that 1 shall give him
shall spring up in him as an everlasting
fountain" More significantly still, He was
a light; the light that lighteth every man
that cometn into the world. All these are
passed by, and it is understood that they arc
Illustrative figures; but when we come to
bread, we have been taught from age to age
that that is not a fl cure but a literal thing,
We shall see what 1t is before we finish.
In each OF these cases it is not the nature
but the uses which are the bases OF int.rpre-
tation. The uses to which all these things
are put stand over against. in n shadow
way, certain great uses in Jesus Christ to
us. The stcI of the formation of this
globe. when we come to consider them, will
be Instructive to US in regard to this matter.
For it is a fact that this whole world has
been so created as that one stage feeds
ON the anterior or foregoing stage
nj aNttnn.. .I III
that the great levels OF creation hive
these that are to coma after. Not conscious
food, necessarily, but preparing those ele-
ments which go into the organization OF tn,
next ascending series in creation. The early
energies seem TO have been chemical. By
the II fiurn-e, of these subtle forces the
aeri i condition of the globs was gradu.
ally formed and refined, and then solidifed.
and then came in also the mechanical
forces by which this globe, that had be-
come %ripenei and was useless, was. what by
chemistry and the grinding force of ices and
by other mechanical forces. ground fine for
soil; and tho earth was COOL for nothing
until tLeTe had been the soil created upon it.
But no sooner had the soil bcel created and
the temperature Of the globe sufficiently
abated, before organic life sprang into exist
ence, and ell that which had been going
on in this thunderous mill Of world
formation was the food of the lower forms
of veg %tation; ferns, lichopods, and all
forms oi coirse and rude vegetation; so that
the SO ] was eaten by the vegetables; and
they perishing, and in endless succession,
added to the soils a humus, that, mixed
with the mineral matter, prepared
the soil itsef for a higher function;
for then came in a higher class of vegetation,
and the I'D vegetables of the old grinding
minerals became the food OF the whole bo-
tnnicnl kingicm as 1t stands upon the face
of the glol e to-day. Thu earlier stages were
preparing tho materials upon which the
latter stages of vegetable life should feed
and develop themselves. But that which
the plant could do the animal could not
For the plant, with n fine chemistry
known TO no laboratory, knows how to
seiz' the various elements, the quartz
and | knew not what, and with its
leaves also the subtler elements of the at
mosphere. and change them into vegetables.
But the eagle could not change soil into
eagles He needs those chemical elements
to make his bones and his feathers, but he
could not eat dirt, and so minister to his own
want. but that which was done for him.
namely. the vegetable kingdom, was
prepared to give to tho animal kingdom
it's food. The sheep and the deer and
the OK could none of them find the material
they needed in their structure, but the vege-
tation hal found 1t, and when they ate the
vegetation they received from it ali those
elements that were necessary in building up
their own system; so that the whole vege-
table kingdom stood preparing the way for
the l III Ter animal kingdom-the lower. But
the carnivoroui animals needed something
else Ihes could not eat vegetation,
although il prophecy there is a day
coming when they shall eat straw
like the OK and the lion; but until
the millennium comes. lions cannot eat straw,
and have to eat sheep and deer and all that
sort of thing. They ate the vegetation, and
All the lion ate them, SO that he stool pre-
pared to eat all that precedes him only in
differing forms. BecauSeNtne OK at, grass
he was not grass. In tba< preliminary pro-
ce's there logan that Cystem OF digestion
and assimilation that runs throughout
creation. For though the OK ate grass
year in AMI year out, not a spear
OF grass ever grew in him or on him There
was a power In him to transmutc grass into
nssh and into bone, and digestion sprang up
even ms low down as that, and anterior 10
that; so that the food that they ate was con-
verted into blood, with all its nourishing ma
t%erial; and the Hood ran day by day and
hour by hcu to every part Of .he human
system. and knocked at every pore and every
Coor, saying what lack yer and It became
The pui veyor Of the whole body. Allhouy III
the grass was necessary to make the Hood.
when il WINS made it took care OF the whole
system.
TIE food does not, | have said. convert
th. rcci' ienia INTO It's own nature. but by
dtgr.tio1 and assimilation is converted into
NNc vGNSON My Sloys A S1,as