I must tell you of an occurrence that I was witness
of yesterday in Mr. Henry Ward Beecher's church. After a beautiful
sermon on Col. iii. 14, he called the attention of his congregation to a
subject which had been brought before him early in winter. A young man
from Washington called on him and asked him to bring the case of a
coloured child before his people on the first Sunday of January. That
plan was frustrated; but on Friday evening the gentleman re-appeared
with the child. He had succeeded in obtaining permission from her owner
to bring her north. Four men were left in bond for her ; and even then
the slaveholder would not consent to her going until he received Mr.
Beecher's word, that either the child should be returned within a given
time, or the sum at which she was valued.
The child was then placed beside Mr. Beecher, who,
taking off her cloak, said, " I wish I could as easily remove the
garment of slavery as I do this cloak;" and then passing his arms round
her neck, he pleaded simply but earnestly her case. She is nine years
old, and with but one part out of sixteen of African blood, and it is
believed she will be so beautiful as to be worth in four years hence
(had she remained a slave), £800. The value set on her now is £180. Her
grandmother, a free woman, had saved £40, which she gladly offered to
contribute towards her release.
I never could do half justice to the manner in which
Mr. Beecher pleaded her case—nobly and ably. He said he could not even
mention what he wished to save her from, and that the little girl had
twice seen her mother put up at the block. . . . There was no need for
enreaties; he merely said, "You will please pass the plates;" and
announced that the collection would be taken up again in the evening. By
this time the congregation were all deeply moved, and the scene that
followed baffles description. The excitement was unparalleled, and I
thought it never would terminate. However, as everything must, it did,
and then a gentleman whispered something to Mr. Beecher, who said, "I
have just received a message from a Christian lady to say that she will
be responsible for any deficiency there may be in the collection. The
child is free!" It is far beyond my power to convey the faintest idea of
the joy this announcement caused. The demonstrations were unequivocal.
The people were literally beside themselves.....The morning collection amounted to upwards of £200, so it was not continued
in the evening. Mr. Beecher mentioned that on one of the plates was
found a lady's ring with an opal set in it, and that he had taken the
liberty of withdrawing it, and had it placed on the child's finger, that
when she was old enough she might wear it as a badge of her freedom.—Extract
of a letter from New York.
Royal Truths
By Henry Ward Beecher (1862) (pdf)
My Friends,—I profess to be among the number of those
who are breaking away from old forms; but not from one old truth,
blessed be God!—not one. In all the great truths which relate to man’s
nature and destiny, and which holy men have endeavoured to present in
every age, I most fervently believe—from the bottom of my soul I believe
in them; but not in their particular mode of expressing them, not in any
concatenation of words in which they saw fit to clothe them. I hold
myself at liberty to speak the truths of God in exactly that language
which best suits the audience, the time, and the habits and wants of the
age.
These pages are a protest against that heathenism in the Christian
Church, which attempts to confine a man to certain faculties in the
exposition of God’s royal truths, and the application of them to men;
which undertakes to exclude from religion some of the most salient and
useful of the faculties. To such an extent has the use of these
faculties been disallowed, that there has come to be this proverb: “Dull
as a sermon.”
It is easy for us to trifle with these truths; it is easy for us to take
the most important subjects, and cast them about as though they were
foot-balls; but whatever men may say, whatever bodies of men may say,
whatever I may say, to you, do you go to the Word of God, with an honest
heart, and ask, “Lord, what sayest Thou?” and that there may be no
possible mistake, go to Him who knew how, out of the very clay, to make
the eyes of the blind see, and say, “Touch mine eyes that I may see;”
and in prayer get your vision. Go from the Bible to the throne, and from
the throne to the Bible, listening to no counsels less authoritative
than the voice of God; and while you are so guided, I shall not fear the
result.
H. W. BEECHER.
