Year: 1872




Mr. Beecher breaches ON the Us.s OF the
Idcal-A Con nsidor alton OF the Troubles
and Difficulties Arising from Its Un-
wise Use.


The first srow OF Winter fringing the sidewalk
and the roofs of the houses with its mantle OF un-
sullied whiteness and the cold blast OF the north
wind. did not prevent the streets being lined yes
terday morning with long procession OF church.
goers, all vending their way, with gleesome faces
and their best clothing, to their respective houses
OF worship. Plymouth church had its usual crowd,
filing every nook and corner.


Mr.. Beecher preached the second OF a course OF
Sunday morning sermons ION tho use OF the IDEAL"
His text selected froa the First Epstle OF Paul
to the Corinthians, the first chapter, the twenty
seventh and twenty eighth verses :-'But God hath
chosen the foolish things of the world to conound
the wise, and God hath CHOSEN the weak things Of
the world to confound the things which are mighty,
and base things of the world and things which a1e
despised hath God chosen. yea, and things which
are not. to bring to might things which areu


Mr.. Beecher set out with a reference TO the
criticisms OF commentators on the things seen and
unseen as limited at in the above passage. He
then defined faith as that


FAR-sIGHTEDNEss


which lies outside the things that are. The work.
ing force OF faith was the intellect quickened by
imagination. He then devoted himself to the more
immediate subject of his discourse, which was the
consideration OF some Of the difficulties and trOu-
bles that arise from the unwise use of the ideal
There was frSt the unwise and ruthless dsmem-
berment of the real from the ideal. Any form that
our ideal took must, to be useful to us, take into
its conception the fact of the real No man-in the
portrayal of passion for example, could afford to
leave out the fact OF anger and certain phases OF
passion. The ideal apple must never become
puinpkin. The ideal palace must always have for
It's root the idea of a house. In ideal music
man must never lose sight Of the elements of mu-
sical correct sounds. The world has for 1000 years
been IN labor pains in trying to perfect from its
seriousness SC the ideal man, or perfect manhood.
Ol men, which are God's presence in man ior the
complete accomplishment OF His work in him,
have not been SO fully considered as they should
be. The important speciality or this idea Is found in
the history Of the Individual. Men seemed at one
acter had any naturalness in it. In my day it was
deemed presumptuous to apply the principles OF
natural philosophy to portrayal OF q solution Of
this character. Thus 1t was that


IDEALS OF CHARACTER,


or the men whose seraphic spirit, whose wondrouS
natural capacity, united Win the action OF divine
grace, had left their mark upon the ages, were
held up to the hating, striving, erring Christian
the character he must attain to if he would realize
all the blessings OF better lie. All that was Just
as reasonable o. though he were to go into public
school and tell all the Children who could sing tnat
they must be young Beethovens and young Mo-
zarls A greater mistake even than this was made
in putting this ideal OF Christian character before





up0n as IN


THE IDEAL MUSICIAN,


but character with all the virtues, all the graceS,
were put before you, and 1t was insisted that that
character must be realized. 1t was leaving out OF
the requirement the fact that some men are not
born Tor the creating or embodiment OF moral
ideas that resulted in much mischief. There are
just as many gradationS In moral creations as there
are in intellectual Ii any man had the idea that
to be religious man he must be a man who Is to
walk in a high oftiness above his fellows and that
he was the man who was to receive angels If they
came, then he had an ideal that was very tor
menting one, and no scorpion from the pit could
produce more torture. Now, l respect Cal
vanism, but its tendency has been very
preudicial. OF the one hundred men 1t has been
influential in turning toward consideration Of re-
gion 1T has turned seventy-fve o! them away from
1t. Far be 1t from me to say that you should not
have an ideal. But the man should really know
what IL is II you could have bill OF items or this
largely in
FLESH AND BLOOD.
fQp must not treat every man as though he had
q COrinna brow and sOul-lit eye. That would be
as though you were to put the clothing OF a tall
man on to- small man;. or that which
OF small man upon very tall man:
The Bible is the most human OF all
books. Where Is there q higher ideal than that
which Christ lifts upY But what tenderness there
Is In 1t to humanity. What significance there is in
the saying that the publican and the harot shall
enter into the kingdom OF heaven before the
Pharisee and the rich man." It Is foolish use OF
ideals when 1t tends to throw discomfort upon our
lives. Neither must we have an ideal that Is fas-
tdious and refuses to have anything but the high
coming when the Church can afford to be rich. The
time will come when men can afford TO live in large
spheres OF beauty OF leisure, OF uness OF being Of
the complete enjoyment OF all that is in the world.