ARTICLE VII.-AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF REV. DR. LYMAN

BEECHER.

Autobiography, Correspondence, &c., of Lyman Beecher, D. D. Edited by CHARLES BEECHER. With Illustrations. In two Volumes. Vol. I. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1864. 12mo. pp. 563.

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LYMAN BEECHER was the man of all others in the present century, who, in our American church, was most largely endowed with the spirit and power of the prophet Elias. He was preacher, reformer, theologian, and prophet, all in one, and the whole country, for more than a single generation, felt his power to arouse and direct. He said of himself most truly, in his own characteristic language, "I was made for action. The Lord drove me, but I was ready. I have always been going at full speed. From the beginning, my mind has taken in the church of God, my country, and the world as given to Christ. It was this that widened the scope of my activities beyond the common sphere of pastoral labor. For I soon found myself harnessed to the chariot of Christ, whose wheels of fire had rolled onward, high and dreadful to his foes, and glorious to his friends." These words describe the aims, the purposes, and the enthusiasm which directed and animated him in all his public career.

But who that ever saw or knew the man, could ever forget, or, remembering, cease to love and admire him? Who could ever lose the image of that rugged face, now firm in every muscle, and fiery with heroic energy-then relaxing into genial humor, the eye twinkling with roguish expression, and the mouth trembling with the sweetest of smiles. Who could ever forget the bristling hair, the troublesome spectacles, the compact form, the sturdy step, the crisply uttered question, the blunt reply, the fervid positiveness; the prayer, half-childlike in its unaffected humility, and half startling for its bold assurance

and its almost irreverent familiarity; the sermon, now tame with its prosaic truisms and its dull expositions, then kindling into glowing fervor, or crashing with peal on peal of live thunder, now appalling the convicted conscience with its awful descriptions of guilt and wrath, and now softening the heart with its sympathetic assurances of the weeping love of Jesus? Who could forget his power to arouse the torpid, to assure the discouraged, to breathe life, and energy, and courage, and hope among the timid and half-hearted; or again to cow into very shame the selfish and hypocritic worldling?

As a preacher, Dr. Beecher was deservedly eminent. But it would be a mistake to account him a ranter, or a fervid declaimer, or an energetic exhorter, or a devout rhapsodist. He was a thinker, and a reasoner. His own sturdy and thoughtful intellect could be satisfied with no aliment less substantial than solid reasoning and sound common sense; and he could not bring himself to present to other minds any material dif ferent from that which he required for himself. But reasoning in a sermon for the sake of its ingenuity, or speculation for mere speculation's sake, his own soul abhorred. He must needs bring every argument to its practical conclusion, and then press it upon the conscience and the heart with all the power which fervor, and energy, and tact could furnish. Plain language, apt illustrations, and fervent appeals, were the investments with which his nice sense of adaptation and his apostolic love of souls led him to clothe his reasonings. He did not trust exclusively or chiefly to his extemporary power, rare and serviceable as this might be. On many single discourses he bestowed the labor of weeks, and the felicity and choiceness of the language, as well as the arrangement and power of the thoughts, testify to the value of the labor and time expended. Some of his ablest occasional discourses will never cease to be models of the noblest kind of pulpit eloquence.

As a reformer he was enterprising, bold, and judicious. The secret of his power and success lay in his firm faith in the power of truth as adapted to change the moral convictions of men, and thus to reform the sentiments and practices of society, and, as designed in the purposes of God, to accomplish

great revolutions by means of its faithful proclamation. His policy was bold, because he believed in God. He was enterprising, because he was assured that the cause was not his own. He was judicious, because his heart was set upon the work to be accomplished, and not upon any traditional ways of procedure on the one side, or any novel devices on the other. Hence he was inventive and docile; skillful by his quiet discernment to judge when the old methods were outworn, and fertile to devise those untried expedients which were best fitted to the ends which he believed could and should be accomplished. He was all things to all men in the good sense of the phrase, because the apostolic feeling was eminent in him, that by any means he might save some.

But in all his reforming movements his public spirit was conspicuous in a large hearted sympathy with the public interests, and an intense personal concern for the church, his country, and his race. This led him, when in an obscure parish on the farthest extremity of Long Island, to lay upon his own soul the responsibility for the practice of duelling, and to sound the trumpet note which rung throughout the land. This induced him to sympathize with the feebler churches in the thinly peopled and decaying towns of Connecticut, and to lay the duty of sisterly sympathy and aid upon the wealthier parishes. This moved him to see and feel the wasting desolations of intemperance, not in this or that family or social circle in Litchfield alone, but to make this family and circle the image of thousands of families and communities throughout the country, till the word of the Lord was a fire in his bones, and he could not but lift his voice in the appalling energy of a commissioned prophet. The prevalence of dangerous error depressed and vexed his spirit till it found relief in plans, and protests, and movements which were felt through New England.

As a theologian, he was thoroughly practical, and his views of theology were moulded by a constant reference to its manifest adaptation to the great end for which a revelation was given to man. His inmost soul revolted against any phrases, however set, any representations of God and his ways, however

sanctioned by tradition, which were fitted to bewilder the understanding, to weaken the faith, to cool the affections, or to disturb the reverence of the men to whom the Scriptures address themselves. His own soul struggled for years with traditional dogmas and stereotyped notions, till it emerged into a clear and settled faith in a better system. Nor did he rest content with the light which dawned upon the earlier years of his ministry. Even in the height of his reputation and power, he was eager to learn whatever of truth might enable him more effectually and successfully to vindicate the ways of God to man. Whatever might be thought of his opinions, no man could venture to charge upon him a love of novelty or change, on any other ground than that of jealous regard for the honor of God and the souls of men.

But we ought to return to Dr. Beecher as the man, for it is as the man that he is depicted in this most interesting volume, which follows his life down to the year 1823, about the time when he left Litchfield for Boston. The story of his life is told, in a few brief autobiographical sketches which were recorded as they were uttered by his own lips, in familiar and characteristic language, in a great number of letters that were exchanged between himself and his dearest relatives and most intimate friends, as well as in many graphic letters from the members of his family, which give minute and vivid pictures of the family life, drawn at the time when the events were taking place. These letters are given as they were actually written, and they bring us within the most familiar as well as the most sacred secrets of the household. We see the jubilant father in the midst of the somewhat tumultuous but always merry circle, who were at once his joy and his pride. Freedom, and humor, and genius, are present in that earnest group, but all in their most mirthful moods are chastened by a serious reverence for God, and are trained after the father's spirit to seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness.

Of the living who survive, delicacy forbids us to speak, but of the dead there are four refined and saintly women, whose memory will be hallowed by every attentive reader of these fascinating pages. The beloved Roxana Foote stands foremost

in the group, who went forth from a home of refinement and culture, rare in those days, to be the companion of the devoted husband in the privations and cares incident to his checkered and peculiar career, who, with a brave and gentle spirit, softened and elevated his somewhat choleric nature as they toiled together up to the meridian of his career and of his fame, when she was suddenly caught from his sight,-transfigured before her death by her rapturous desire for heaven, and transfigured ever after to his love for her, that was stronger than death. Next we mention the second Mrs. Beecher, who glides so gracefully into the bereaved circle, and takes her place with manifest dignity and ease. Behind, and between the two, appears the faithful and heroic Aunt Esther, who, in strength of intellect, was able to cope with her sturdy brother and to judge of his writings with critical skill; but who, with sisterly affection and pride, adhered so steadily in all fortunes to him and his household. Half appearing and half withdrawn, is seen the fascinating Mary Hubbard, whose youthful happiness and hopes were wrecked by one of the saddest of earth's sorrows, but who was gently lifted back to comfort and even to gayety, by the sympathies of the foster-brother; in whose house she found her happiest home, and by whose Christian love and zeal she was strengthened to bear her sorrows and to rejoice even in tribulation.

We have dwelt too long upon the attractive themes which this volume suggests, to find inclination for criticism. There are some things in the book which it were better had they been omitted. Some connecting links are omitted, which should have been supplied; but it will be perused with interest and profit by many readers. If the second volume is prepared in the same spirit and manner as the first, this Autobiography will be greatly valued for a long time to come, for its vivid and instructive pictures of the religious and theological life of our country during one of its most stirring and critical periods.