thought of it now." He made a report as chairman of a committee, to the General Association, on this subject. It says:

"We do most earnestly entreat brethren in the ministry, members of churches, and those who lament and desire to check the progress of this evil, that they neither express nor indulge the melancholy apprehension that nothing can be done on this subject; a prediction eminently calculated to paralyze exertion, and become the cause of its own failure. Immense evils afflict communities, not because inculcated, but because tolerated; and great good remains unaccomplished because unattempted."

Such sentiments as these the church would do well to apply to-day to existing moral evils. In one year after, ardent spirits were banished from ecclesiastical gatherings; its use in families and private circles had diminished; the community was awakened, and public sentiment turned; and society experienced a reformation in morals. Legislation resulted, and ecclesiastical bodies in other States took action upon the subject.

"Glory to God! Oh, how it wakes up my old heart to think of it!"

The death of Mary Hubbard cast a gloom over the household she had so long blessed; but the consolations were abundant.

Mrs. Beecher followed not far distant. One evening, as she was riding home with him, she said, “I do not think I shall be with you long. I have had a vision of heaven and its blessed

her, a heavenly peace was hers: she had such views of heaven as hardly to be able to sustain them. She wished her sons to become missionaries.

Kneeling at her bedside, Dr. B. offered prayer, giving her back to God, as she was about to go. He loved and leaned upon her; and felt "a sensation of loss which nothing alleviates, a solitude which no society interrupts. Amid the sound and prattle of children, and the kindness of sympathizing friends, I am alone. Roxana is not here."

Mrs. Stowe gives a charming description of a visit to Nutplains, — the former residence of Mrs. B., — and closes by saying:

"These remembrances may explain why the lonely little white farm-house under the hill was such a paradise to us, and the sight

of its chimneys after a day's ride was like a vision of Eden.”

An affecting scene is presented on the first thanksgiving after the loss :

"When all were seated in order, and father was to ask the blessing, we waited long in silence, while the great tears stole down his cheeks amid the sighs and tears of all around. Then followed, in a clear, subdued voice, such an offering of patient, peaceful thankfulness and love, as if the gentle spirit we mourned was near, shedding peace and comfort from her wings."

Pointing to a large basket, Dr. B. said to his son, "Henry, there are the sermons I wrote the year after your mother died; and there is not one of them good for anything."

Drs. Taylor, Tyler, Harvey, and Dr. B. wrote a series of tracts on existing questions; and two years after the death of Dr. Dwight the "Christian Spectator" was started. Taylor he had frequent discussions on points of doctrine. In speaking of the doings of unregenerate men, he says:—

With Dr.

"Taylor and I pushed for immediate repentance. Instead of using means of grace,

He advocated tracts as one of the best methods of controversy. They are anonymous and call no names; they are cheap and easily multiplied; short and easily read; plain and easily understood.

From the time Unitarianism began to show itself in this country it was as a fire in his bones; he watched it, and read every thing upon it. As he preached at Park Street in Boston, at the ordination of Sereno E. Dwight, he says, “My mind had been heating, heating, heating,- now I had a chance to strike." The sermon created a sensation all over the city.

In 1817 he was married, by Dr. Payson, to Miss Harriet Porter, of Portland, Me. The trunk containing the bridal outfit was sent by water from Portland, and, the vessel freezing up, did not reach its destination till spring. Mrs. Stowe, then six years old, says of the new mother, on her arrival :— "A beautiful lady, very fair, with bright

blue eyes, and soft auburn hair, came into the room smiling, eager, and happy looking, and, coming up to our beds, kissed us, and told us she loved little children, and that she would

be our mother. Never did mother-in-law make a prettier or sweeter impression."

In a letter to Edward he says:

"If you get puzzled with your lesson, avoid two things: do not pass over the difficulty; make thorough work; dig up science by the roots; ask assistance. Every subject, like a tree, has roots. Find the root; follow it up; you will find, by an easy and natural process, the last branches."

He understood the position of an editor: "Do not let my pieces go in without trimming them where they need it," he writes to the "Christian Spectator."

Of preaching he says:

"I had been three years a preacher before I acquired the power of properly examining, discussing, and presenting important subjects in a sermon."

He shows his paternal heart in writing to William :

"But oh, my son, save me from such an hour on your account! Let me not, if you are prematurely cut down, be called to stand in despair by your dying bed, to weep without hope over your untimely grave. Awake, I beseech you, my dear son, and fly to Christ. So your affectionate father prays with weeping.

"I am glad, my dear child, that you feel

the difference between the gospel preached

called 'fine writing,' as much at war with common sense as it is with fidelity and simplicity of real revival preaching.

plainly, and that despicable, pitiable stuff

"If I were to go over life again, I would study history more extensively and thoroughly, chiefly as it furnishes a public speaker with illustrations and matter-of-fact argument, which is the most knocking-down argument in the world.”

Dr. Beecher saw that Unitarianism, not only in doctrine, but also in its church polity, tended to destroy the organization of the Christian Church, as composed of believers. He wrote a sermon to meet this influence, on the design, rights, and duties of local churches; insisting on personal holi

ness, a profession of it, confession of faith, narration of experience, and church creeds.

He felt the importance of reviews to counteract the influence of the "Christian Examiner," and the "North American Review." After learning of the successful attempt by the Orthodox members of the council to settle Dr. Wisner at the Old South in Boston, to prevent the right hand being given by a Unitarian, he says:

"I read it with tears of thanksgiving to God that at length that infamous, deadly, temporizing expediency, cowardly policy, had found a rock to strike upon and experience shipwreck, and, as I trust, once for all. Wake up, ministers, from conspiracies against error, and scatter firebrands in the enemy's camp. The greater your havoc, and the return of curses on your head, the more I shall love you."

The correspondence with Catherine during her struggles before conversion, on original sin, inability, disposition, generic choice, the duty to repent and love God, and the ability to do it, is indicative of the mazes through which a sinner may wilfully wander before coming to the simplicity of the gospel, and accepting and acting upon the great fact of sin, an atoning Saviour, stern duty uttering its commands, an awaiting Spirit to incline and enable where the desire is felt for the great salvation. We incline to think the end would sooner and better have been reached by holding her as a sinner fast before the cross of Christ, bidding her listen to the voice of a suffering Saviour, and look and live, trusting that the change wrought by the Spirit while looking and believing, would be a blessed reality, whether the philosophy of it were understood or not.

He visited Boston in 1823, and took part in a revival going on. He lectured at Park Street and the Old South. The Unitarian influence was weakened, and their opposition to the revival

was withdrawn. Indeed, they started meetings of their own. Dr. Beecher preached a sermon on Byron. He did not seem to realize that people were unbelievers for any reason but want of light. He thought that if Taylor and he could have talked with Byron, they would have got him out of his difficulties. He had a great admiration for Napoleon. He says of his preaching at the Old South: "They were afraid of me when I came, understanding I had been a man of war from my youth, and had shed much blood. I gave them instruction, argument, and affectionate exhortation." He preached a strong sermon at Worcester, on "the faith once delivered to the saints," and strenuously claimed to be a Calvinist.

Of writers he says:

"It never satisfies me that a writer has written tolerably well, or pretty well. The world is full of such writing, and would experience no great loss if it were emptied of it all. A few minds see clearly, and speak directly and energetically to the point. These are the writers I love to read."

Of an opponent in controversy, he says:

"I hope the man is not dead, for I have some terrible things in reserve that I should not like to hurl at a dead man.”

His famous six sermons on Intemperance were called out by an incident occurring in his own mission-field. They had a powerful effect on the public mind.

Twelve hours after he had reviewed the whole subject, and made up his mind to ask a dismission from Litchfield on account of inadequacy of salary, a letter was received from the Hanover Street Church in Boston, asking if he would consider a call. He removed to Boston in 1826. Unitarianism was entrenched in Boston, Cambridge, and Salem, and had talents, learning, wealth, and popular favor on

its side; but truth was mightier than it. From the Old South, Park Street, Essex Street, and Hanover Street Churches, floated the banner of the Cross. Universalism also widely prevailed.

He began his labors with his usual energy and zeal. His meetings were crowded, and inquirers began to appear. Night and day was he engaged with men on this great subject. One secret of his endurance he tells us thus: "In my early efforts, I gave myself up to strong feeling, which I have since learned to economize, or I should have long since been in my grave, or useless." Mild, constant, intense desire for the awakening and conversion of sinners, he indulged; but shut out an overpowering sense of responsibility and care. He found in Unitarian congregations a few who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and who longed for the true Gospel. The revival began by his talking with single cases, and when twelve were found interested, an inquiry meeting was appointed. He made no attack on Unitarians. "They came, heard, ran me down,' would never come again,' came, were snared and taken." The first week there were fifteen inquirers; the second, twenty; the third, thirtyfive; the fourth, three hundred. At the latter meeting, some said: "It's a mistake, they think it's a lecture." It was no mistake, it was the finger of God.

At first the Unitarians scouted evening meetings, and not a bell tingled. In a few weeks they joined the movement. "I laughed to hear the bells going all round." "Cambridge college folks had their spies abroad to see what was going on."

against us. It was two years before the leading Unitarians treated me like a gentleman."

Mrs. Stowe contributes an intensely interesting chapter of reminiscences of life in Boston, showing her father's labors, recreations, and domestic enjoyments, when, laying by his sword and helmet, he frolicked with his children, and was a boy again.

When Dr. B. stood up in Boston to defend the truth, Calvinism was a despised faith. Trustees, professors, judges, were leagued against it; rights were taken from churches and conferred on congregations; societies were turned out of churches. Dr. B. was at the white heat of enthusiasm. Copp's Hill burying ground, near his house, stirred him up in his family devotions to pray that the faith and spirit of the fathers might prevail.

His idea of preaching was, a careful statement and argument; a passionate and direct appeal: the heart of a discourse is the application; a sermon that does not induce anybody to do anything, is thrown away. How well these ideas were carried out is well known to those who heard him in his prime, when, taking off his spectacles, he would look his audience in the face, and pour forth his words like lava from the crater of a volcano, which flowed over the pulpit, down every aisle, and into every pew, burning every heart.

“The Unitarians, with all their toleration, were as really a persecuting power, while they had the ascendency, as ever existed. Lies, ridicule, vile letters, and the whole weight of political, literary, and social influence were

Doctor has got on his spectacles behind and before; he means to look into

the matter all round."

He assisted in establishing the "Spirit of the Pilgrims" as an avenue through which to defend the truth.

His young men formed the "Hanover Association" to do good to young men coming to the city. Other similar ones were formed, somewhat like the Young Men's Christian Associations of to-day. They did much in practical ways for the public good, by attending primary meetings, shutting up lotteries, removing drinking-booths from the common, writing pieces for the papers, and securing the observance of the Sabbath. We have an account of Dr. Porter's letter to Dr. Beecher, criticising his views, and reminding him that the grand danger of the ministry always has been a tendency to modify the gospel to appease opposition. We have Dr. B.'s reply, with which Dr. Porter expressed himself satisfied.

We also have Dr. Tyler's criticisms on Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Beecher's letter to Dr. Tyler defending Taylor, as misunderstood and misrepresented. He says of false statements about Calvinism :

"Falsehoods more absolute and entire were never stereotyped in the foundry of the father of lies, or with greater industry worked off for gratuitous distribution from age to age."

In 1830, his church was burned, and he was hired to preach at Salem Street Church. The controversy proposed to be opened in the "Spirit of the Pilgrims," between Drs. Woods and Taylor, he advised to be stopped, and it was dropped for that time. He estimated the works of Edwards as being next to the Bible; and thought that to understand and accommodate them to use was as high power as to understand Newton's works. Fuller wrote with more conciseness and perspicuity, Edwards with more piety and ardor, and greater power of applying truth to the conscience. Edwards is unrivaled; study as models his applications; they are original, multiform, powerful, beyond description.

logical Professorship at Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio. He declined for the time, and the call was renewed in a year. A controversy in the "Spirit of the Pilgrims," between Dr. Tyler and Dr. Taylor, was at this time going on; and kind and conciliatory letters passed between Dr. Woods and Dr. Beecher. The latter preached a sermon on "Dependence and Free Agency," which was published, after being corrected by Drs. Woods and Wisner.

Dr. Beecher went to Cincinnati on a visit, and was well pleased with the field to which he had been called, uniting, as it would, pastoral labor and preaching with lectures to the students. His famous trial before the Presbytery and Synod is related at length, ending with the defeat of those who charged him with heresy. He was inducted into office in December, 1832.

At no period of his life was his mind more on the stretch, exerted to the utmost tension. For more than twenty of his best years he worked under a high pressure, to the utmost limit of physical and moral endurance. It was an exuberant and glorious life while it lasted. The atmosphere of his household was replete with moral oxygen, full charged with intellectual electricity. "It was a kind of moral heaven, the purity, vivacity, inspiration, and enthusiasm of which, those only can appreciate who have lost it.”

In 1834, he visited the East to obtain money to endow a new professorship, and to make other improvements in the college. He was in Boston when the Catholic convent in Charlestown was burned. By some, the mob was attributed to Dr. Beecher's influence. But he preached his sermon, - "A. plea for the West," before it was generally known that he was in Boston, on the very evening of the riot, and probably not one of the mob was present to hear it. In alluding to this