friends, or hurl the ban of heretic against those
who took another road to heaven. This was
really the chief cause of his offending, and it
cost him many an uncomfortable hour and not
a little persecution. Within the recognized
limits of his own denomination, whatever he
might have been toward outside liberalism,
Lyman Beecher showed a humane spirit and a
resistance of sectarian pressure, "velvet in touch,
Alpine in weight," which did great credit to
his heart.

Jonathan Edwards bequeathed a troublesome
legacy to his theological descendants, into which
heritage no one entered more fatefully than /
Lyman Beecher. The two parts of his "Inquiry '
respecting the Freedom of the Will" were re-
sponsible for the widely different conclusions in



88 LYMAN BEECHER

which the reader rested, according as he stopped
with one or the other. Only the profoundest
and most patient reasoners were able to see
the two in harmony, and out of the rejection
of abstract free agency of the one, and the Bibli-
cal appeal to moral obligation in the other, to
construct a positive system of thought.

Lyman Beecher admired Edwards profoundly,
but he paid the price of his loyalty in the con-
fused thinking which the latter's philosophy en-
tailed upon the Presbyterian Church. He and
his son Charles were illustrations of the con-
fusion, himself escaping with only outside op-
position, but the latter for a time driven by the
inexorable logic of the first part into the wastes
of fatalism. The wanderer was finally brought
back into the fold, but he reflected the prevail-
ing disturbance of the religious mind ; while
the father went on his way rejoicing, without
realizing how increasingly wide were his own
divergences from the accepted standards of the
past. His case was indeed like that of a trusted
brother of his in the ministry, who thus ad-
dressed him in 1836:

"I early wrote out a course of theological
lectures, hoping that they would stand by me
from year to year; but I find on recurring to
them that they do not keep well. They need



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 89

rewriting almost every year. If you can suggest
a remedy for so great an evil, I should be much
obliged."

As life went on with him, Lyman Beecher
more and more reflected the sunnier influences
of Christianity, and came to have a greater
charity for those who disagreed with him in be-
lief. Like all the rest of the thinking world,
he had been caught up by the stream of a
tendency, which, without knowing it, he had
done his part toward creating. The time-
spirit was upon him, and whether he willed it
or not, his eyes had been touched to a new
seeing, and his heart to a new feeling of truth.
Above all, had the members of his own family,
in the baptism of a vital and independent re-
ligious life which they had received from him,
helped to carry him beyond the moorings of a
fixed and traditional faith. The prayer of his
life, the prayer also of that dying mother, who
had looked forward to the future with such so-
licitude, had been answered, and all of his seven
sons had become ministers, while the daughters
were keen, intellectual women, deeply interested
in religion and reforms. All of them, though
evangelical in temper, were touched with the
modern reactionary spirit, and thought and felt
for themselves, mellowing the father's atmos-



90 LYMAN BEECHER

phere, as they in turn came to exert the stronger
influence.

It was a gracious sight to see how, as the
years brought their changes, this strong, force-
ful man, who had been so long a leader of the
people, came to look up to his children for light
and guidance. As his own powers waned, he
saw his sphere of influence constantly widen-
ing in them. They had reached out into fields
of activity beyond his own, but they every one
reflected his spirit and perpetuated his work.
With marvelous rapidity the country had grown
up around him. The primitive conditions amid
which he started out on his career had passed
away. City life had come, and created a vast
cosmopolitan public, with new national issues
to meet, and with tastes and interests in which
it was difficult for him to share. But through
his children he was carried into the very center
of the modern ferment of ideas, and could feel
that he was still a potent force for good. Henry
Ward Beecher was preaching from Plymouth
pulpit to a national congregation, and lecturing
up and down the land, while the activity of his
pen in book and periodical seemed well-nigh
exhaustless. Harriet Beecher Stowe had al-
ready before his death carried her name into
many languages with her Uncle Tom's Cabin;



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 91

while his daughter Catherine had made a place
for herself in the world as an educator and
writer for women. Edward, his second son,
had begun his career as an author, with his
much discussed The Conflict of Ages, to be fol-
lowed by much other effective literary work.
Charles was to follow in the same line ; Thomas
K. was to become a vigorous preacher and or-
ganizer in religious work ; while Isabella was
to become known in connection with the wom-
an's suffrage movement and similar reforms.

But the beginnings of all these varied careers
of usefulness had at first brought sadness in
the home. The aging warrior, shorn of his
strength as the children one by one departed
looked about him and knew not how to recon-
cile himself to the quiet household. His last
wife, Mrs. Jackson, brought with her a welcome
addition in her two younger children, Joseph
and Margaret, who henceforth became a part of
the family life ; but Dr. Beecher missed the bus-
tle and the happy intercourse one who knew
him may surmise that he missed even the care^
of those who had been so near to him in the past.
It was, in part, to renew this intercourse and
to insure its continuance, that a plan of circu-
lar correspondence was inaugurated. The
father frequently complained to his now scat-



92 LYMAN BEECHER

tered children that they did not write to him,
or that their letters did not take him into their
inner thoughts and feelings/ A large folio sheet,
which was to act as a sort of peripatetic family
confessional, was started at the eastern end of
the line, each one as it went westward adding
his or her contribution, until it returned to the
point of setting out, and vice versa. In most
cases the common address, Rev. Mr. Beecher,
was all that was necessary; while the postmarks
would run something like this: New Orleans,
La.; Jacksonville, 111., Walnut Hills, Ohio; In-
dianapolis, Ind. ; Chilicothe, Ohio ; Zanesville,
Ohio; Batavia, N. Y.; Hartford, Conn. The
following extract from one of these circular let-
ters shows how the father sustained his part in
the family correspondence.
"William, why do you not write to your father?



' "I am at length so entirely and distantly separated
from my sons," he writes to his son George, "as I have
never before been since the birth of my first-born, hav-
ing always had one or more with me, and others so
near as to secure frequent intercourse and aid in public
action, but having now not one within two, four, and
eight hundred miles. I am lonesome, and am stirred in
spirit to bring my dear sons around me by corre-
spondence, by which our sympathy and cooperation may
be sustained, otherwise my quiver full of them may not
avail me to speak with the enemy within the gate."

A novel way of acomplishing this end was accord-
ingly devised.



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 93

Are you not my first-bom son? Did I not
carry you over bogs a-fishing, a-straddle of my
neck, on my shoulders, and, besides clothing and
feeding, whip you often to make a man of you
as you are, and would not have been without?
and have I not always loved you, and borne
you on my heart, as the claims and trials of a
first-born demand? Don't you remember study-
ing theology with your father while sawing and
splitting wood in that wood-house on Green
Street, Boston, near by where you found your
wife?

"Little do those know who have rented that
tenement since how much orthodoxy was de-
veloped and embodied there ; and now why
should all this fruit of my labors be kept to
yourself? Nothing would give me more pleas-
ure, so long have your interests and mine been
identified, than to hear often what and how
you are, and how things go on all around you.
Our prospects at the seminary are good. I am
obliged to work too hard; still my health is good,
and we shall certainly get along now, as I fully
believe. Let me hear from you soon a letter
to me in particular, which shall soon be repaid
in kind."

There is a very characteristic account of a
grand family reunion which occurred during the



94 LYMAN BEECHER

Lane Seminary days, and which is here given
as it appeared in a daily newspaper. It is from
the pen of George Hastings, a classmate of
Henry Ward Beecher and his brother Charles
while attending the school, and one who had
come to be regarded as a member of the house-
hold.

''Long before Edward came out here, the
doctor tried to have a family meeting, but did
not succeed. The children were too scattered.
Two were in Connecticut, some in Massachu-
setts, and one in Rhode Island. That, I believe,
was five years ago. But now just think of it !
there has been a family meeting in Ohio !
When Edward returned, he brought on Mary
from Hartford ; William came down from Put-
nam, Ohio; George from Batavia, Ohio; Cathe-
rine and Harriet were here already ; Henry and
Charles at home too, besides Isabella, Thomas,
and James. These eleven ! The first time they
ever all met together. Mary had never seen
James, and she had seen Thomas but once.

**Such a time as they had! The old doctor
was almost transported with joy. The affair had
been under negotiation for some time. He re-
turned from Dayton late one Saturday evening.
The next morning they, for the first time, as-
sembled in the parlor. There were more tears



PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS 95

than words. The doctor attempted to pray, but
could scarcely speak. His full heart poured it-
self out in a flood of weeping. He could not go
on. Edward continued, and each one, in his
turn, uttered some sentences of thanksgiving.
They then began at the head and related their
fortunes. After special prayer, all joined hands,
and sang Old Hundred in these words:

*From all who dwell below the skies.*

Edward preached in his father's pulpit in the
morning, William in the afternoon, and George
in the evening. The family occupied the three
front pews on the broad aisle. Monday morn-
ing they assembled, and, after reading and
prayers, in which all joined, they formed a cir-
cle. The doctor stood in the middle, and gave
them a thrilling speech. He then went round
and gave them each a kiss. They had a happy
dinner.

"Presents flowed in from all quarters. Dur-
ing the afternoon the house was filled with
company, each bringing an offering. When left
alone at evening they had a general examination
of all their characters. The shafts of wit flew
amain, the doctor being struck in several places;
he was, however, expert enough to hit most of
them in turn. From the uproar of the general



96 LYMAN BEECHER

battle, all must have been wounded. Tuesday
morning saw them together again, drawn up in
a straight line for the inspection of the king of
happy men. After receiving particular instruc-
tions, they formed into a circle. The doctor
made a long and affecting speech. He felt that
he stood for the last time in the midst of all
his children, and each word fell with the weight
of a patriarch's. He embraced them once more
in all the tenderness of his big heart. Each took
of all a farewell kiss. With joined hands they
joined in a hymn. A prayer was offered; and,
finally, the parting blessing was spoken. Thus
ended a meeting which can only be rivaled in
that blessed home where the ransomed of the
Lord, after weary pilgrimage, shall join in the
praise of the Lamb. May they all be there!"
''Truly the crown of old men is their children."



CHAPTER VII

ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS

It remains only to relate a few of the char-
acteristic anecdotes and sayings of Lyman
Beecher, and to tell the story of his declining
days, in order to complete this hasty record of
his life. An entertaining volume might be made
up on the Humor of the Clergy, and a large con-
tribution exacted from the generation of minis-
ters to which he in particular belonged. Sydney
Smith, Father Taylor, Peter Cartwright, Lyman
Beecher, what a fund of good sense lightened
by good cheer would be taken from the world's
stock of wisdom, if their words wxre no longer
a part of literature ! The last of these had
many faithful witnesses, inheritors of his own
wit, who delighted to preserve this more divert-
ing side of his character from oblivion. Pro-
fessor Stowe has left an account of some Bos-
ton experiences which help us to know and love
the man. He says:

97



98 LYMAN BEECHER

"The morning after his church on Han-
over Street had been burned, and the firemen
and the mob had been amusing themselves all
night with their noisy jokes about 'Old Beecher'
and his 'hell-fire,' several of us were assembled
in Pierce's bookstore in rather a lugubrious
state of mind. Presently the doctor, who had
been to view the ruins, and saw his proud, sub-
stantial stone tower split from top to bottom
with the intense heat, came skipping in as
gay as a lark. 'Well,' said he, 'my jug's broke ;
just been to see it.' As there was no affectation
in this as it was all simple and hearty as the
utterance of a schoolboy just let loose from the
schoolroom, what could we do but join in the
laugh and partake of the hopefulness? Those
who are acquainted with the facts will remember
that there were circumstances which made the
conflagration rather mortifying, and the doc-
tor's joke peculiarly appropriate.

"The same simplicity, buoyancy, and imper-
turbable good humor disarmed opposition when
he came in personal contact with an opponent.

An old wood-sawyer, whom we will call W ,

a rough, strong, shrewd man, who belonged to
a rival sect, was violently prejudiced against the
doctor, especially on account of his total absti-
nence principles. He had never seen him, and



ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS 99

would not hear him preach. This man had a
large lot of wood to saw opposite to the doc-
tor's house.

'The doctor depended upon constant manual
labor for keeping- up his own health; and in Bos-
ton, where he could not enjoy the luxury of a
garden to dig in, he was often puzzled to find
means to keep himself in good working order.
The consequence was that he sawed all the wood
for his own large family, and, often finding that
too little, would beg the privilege of sawing at
the wood-pile of a neighbor. He was as fas-
tidious in the care of his wood-saw as a musician
in the care of his Cremona. In fact, there was an
analogy between the two instruments. In
moods of abstraction deeper than ordinary, it
u-as sometimes doubtful which the doctor im-
agined himself to be doing filing his saw or
saw^ing his fiddle. That the old saw was musical
under his hand, none could deny; and that he
enjoyed its brilliant notes was clear from the
m^anner in which he kept the instrument always
at hand in his study, half concealed among re-
sults of councils, reviews, reports, and sermons,
ready to be filed and set at any time while he
pondered, or even while settling nice points of
theology with his boys, or taking counsel with
brother ministers.



400208



100 LYMAN BEECHER

"Looking out of his study window one day,
when his own wood-pile was reduced to a
discouraging state of order, every stick sawed

and spHt, he saw with envy the pile of old W

in the street. Forthwith he seized his saw, and
soon the old sawyer of the street beheld a man,
without cravat and in shirt sleeves, issuing from
Dr. Beecher's house, who came briskly up and
asked if he wanted a hand at his pile; and
forthwith fell to work with a right good will,
and soon proved to his brother sawyer that he
was no mean hand at the craft. Nodding his

head significantly at the opposite house, W

said, 'You live there?'

"B. 'Yes.'

"W. 'Work for the old man?'

"B. 'Yes.'

"W. 'What sort of an old fellow is he?'

"B. 'Oh, pretty much like the rest of us.
Good man enough to work for.'

"W. 'Tough old chap, ain't he?'

"B. 'Guess so, to them that try to chaw him
up:

"So the conversation went on, till the wood

went so fast with the new-comer that W

exclaimed,

" *First-rate saw that of yourn !'

"This touched the doctor in a tender point.



ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS loi

He had set that saw as carefully as the articles
of his creed; every tooth was critically adjusted,
and so he gave a smile of triumph.

" 'I say,' said W 'where can I get a saw

Hke that?'

"B. 'I don't know, unless you buy mine.'

"W. 'Will you trade? What do you ask?'

"B. 'I don't know; I'll think about it. Call
at the house to-morrow and I'll tell you.'

"The next day the old man knocked, and met
the doctor at the door, fresh from the hands o!
his wife, with his coat brushed and cravat tied,

going out to pastoral duty. W gave a start

of surprise. 'Oh,' said the doctor, 'you're the
man that wanted to buy my saw. Well, you
shall have it for nothing; only let me have some
of your wood to saw when you work on my
street.'

" 'Be hanged,' said old W , when he used

afterward to tell the story, 'if I didn't v/ant to
crawl into an auger-hole when I found it was old
Beecher himself I had been talking with so
crank the day before.'

"It scarcely need be said that from that time

W was one of the doctor's stoutest and

most enthusiastic advocates; not a word would
he hear said against him. He affirmed that 'old
Beecher is a right glorious old fellow, and the



102 LYMAN BEECHER

only man in these parts that can saw wood
faster than I can.'

''The doctor's unconscious, rustic simpHcity
led to many amusing scenes. I was walking one
morning with the senior R. H. Dana in one of
the narrow streets which lead to Quincy Market.
We soon saw the doctor rushing up on the other
side of the street with a bundle of what seemed
to be oysters tied up in a silk handkerchief in
one hand, and in the other a lobster, which he
was holding by the back, with all the claws
sprawling outward. Something had happened
the night before which had pleased him very
much, and, seeing us, he stopped and began to
harangue us across the street with great anima-
tion, vehemently gesturing with his bundle of
oysters and with his lobster alternately. Per-
ceiving that he was becoming rather more con-
spicuous than was desirable (for there was soon
a crowd in the street looking very much amused)
he desisted and walked on. 'Well,' said Dana,
with a laugh, 'I never before heard the doctor
speak with such eclat (a claw).' "

"In 1846-7" writes Thomas K. Beecher, "fa-
ther was sorely exercised b}' the severity of my
work in Philadelphia. He feared a sudden
breakdown. His urgency could not abide the
slowness of the mail; he must save by telegraph



ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS 103

I suspect his very first telegram. Aided by his
daughter, he undertook his costly ten words to
save a son thus: 'My very dear son, I have
worked more'

''Daughter. 'Father, father, you can't write so
much; don't say. My very dear son.'

" 'Dear Son, Trust a father's experience, and
let me tell you'

"Daughter. 'No, no, father, skip all that. You
can't make love by telegraph. Tom knows your
love.'

"An hour was spent learning how to suppress
his exuberant affection, until at last the message
came into shape thus: 'Ease up. Rest sleep
exercise. Cold water rub. No tobacco. Fa-
ther.' "

The same writer tells another incident illus-
trating the doctor's absence of self-calculatioil
and perfect trustfulness. He says:

"One day in 1841 father rushed up-stairs in a
great hurry, and said, 'Wife, give me five dol-
lars' (one of the students was needing help).

" 'Why, husband, ' was the reply, 'that is
every cent we have!'

" 'I cannot help it," said he ; 'the Lord will
provide;' and away he went with the five dollars.
The next day, about the same hour, he came
in, holding out a wedding fee of fifty dollars be-



104 LYMAN BEECHER

fore mother's face, saying, 'Didn't I tell you the
Lord would provide?' "

From the same source we have the following :
"But how unlike a student's his room always
was, and what singular ways of studying! Do
you remember the gun he used to keep loaded
by the door ready for the pigeons that in those
days (1833-5) came over by millions? Father
would sit in his study chair deeply occupied, and
set me by the cocked gun to watch for game.
But he would hear the roar of wings as soon as
I, and, with remarkable jumps for a divinity doc-
tor, would get out the door, have his shot at the
birds, and then go back to his pen. His spec-
tacles used to delay him, and I well remember
his delight with a new pair which he brought
home, each glass composed of a plane half and
a convex half. Looking through the convex
lower section, he wrote metaphysics; through
the upper he shot pigeons.

''Have you ever seen father when a fit of order
and arrangement came over him? I remember
five green boxes, say twenty inches square, in
which the dear man again and again determined
to put his disordered MSS., arranged and clas-
sified. 'There, Tom, keep my lectures all in
this box. No. I ; put my revival sermons in this;
and then let's see,' and he would begin to look



ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS 105

over his piles, and to devise a third class. He
would pile them up on the floor methodically.
'Now don't let anyone touch 'em, and to-mor-
row we'll finish up.' Alas ! what with Trip, (the
dog), and father himself, in a hurry to find some
dimly-remembered fragment, the piles soon be-
came remedilessly confused, then scattered, un-
til a distant to-morrow came to re-begin and
never finish the ordering of his MSS. At one
of my last visits to him in Boston he fondly em-
braced me, saying, 'O Tom, I wish you could
live with me and help me arrange my papers !' "
The following takes us back to his East
Hampton days. He was returning home on
horseback one evening from Southampton,
when he saw what he supposed to be a rabbit
run across the path and then stop a little way
ofif by the side of the road. It was moonlight,
but he could not see very clearly, and his only
weapon was a heavy folio which he had bor-
rowed; nevertheless he said to himself, ''I'll
have a shot at you, anyhow." He accordingly
drew nearer and, poising the ponderous folio,
threw it with all his strength, to receive in re-
turn a discharge of an unexpected character,
which necessitated the destruction of the book
and all his belongings before he could again
enter societv. Years afterward when he was



io6 LYMAN BEECHER

suffering under the abuse of a certain individual
and was urged to make reply in the papers, he
said : ''I threw a book at a skunk once and he
had the best of it. I made up my mind never to
try it again."

Dr. Allen, who was associated with him in his
work, has told many sayings which show his
sympathy with young men and his power of
fixing truth in their memory by a graphic, pithy
statement. '' 'You will have troubles, young gen-
tlemen,' he would say, *go where you will ; but
when they come, don't dam them up, but let them
go down stream, and you will soon be rid of
them.'

'' 'The soul in the body is inclosed ''within mud
walls," through the chinks of which the brilliant
light of the soul shines.' "

Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D.D., of Philadelphia,
among many striking reminiscences, tells of a
remark which Dr. Beecher addressed to him
when a brother was making a poor argument in
Presbytery. "Brainerd," he said, "I had rather
be before that gun than behind it." When Dr.
Wilson wanted Dr. Beecher tried on common
fame of heresy in the West, the latter replied
that the common fame was made by Dr. Wilson
himself. "One wolf," he said, "will howl on the
mountains in so many tones you'd think there
were a dozen."



ANECDOTES AND SAYINGS 107

Enough has been given to indicate one of the
chief sources of his power. Lyman Beecher
could be unaffectedly free and simple because
he had no personal ambitions to consider, be-
cause humility and sympathy were the qualities
by which he most cared to be known among
men. That his life had play and sparkle did not
argue that its sources were not deep beneath the
soil. It was part of his working creed that wits
were given for use and exercise, and that he had