A summer in England with Henry Ward Beecher; giving the addresses, lectures, and sermons delivered by him in Great Britain during the summer of 1886.

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

It was my expectation to issue this volume very soon after our return from England.

I had intended it to be not so much a publication as a souvenir for Mr. and Mrs. Beecher's friends and my own. But there were unexpected delays; my health was not good, and business preoccupations and disappointments laid heavy taxes upon my time. Besides these, Mr. Beecher entrusted some business of his own into my hands which demanded my close attention. I greatly desired to see him complete his " Life of Jesus, the Christ," and he was much disposed to do this, the more so as publishers had made overtures for his autobiography; one house even asking permission to send him a check for twenty thousand dollars if he would only promise to begin the work this summer. He confessed to me that no task would give him so much delight as the writing of his own remembrances; but he felt that he had neither the right nor the conscience to attempt any other literary work while the Life of Christ remained unfinished; he felt that there were moral obligations to the subscribers of the first volume and to his own work in the world which only the completion of that book could fulfil. He asked me to find, if I could, a publisher to undertake both works. I did so, and perfected both iv PREFACE.

contracts with Messrs. C. L. Webster & Co. By their terms Mr. Beecher was to complete the Life of Christ by the 1st of July, and the autobiography eighteen months later. With the contracts I delivered to Mr. Beecher the publishers' check for five thousand dollars as an advance on the two works.

Other business of Mr. Beecher's took me to Washington City in March; I was there on Saturday, the 5th, when I was shocked by the receipt of a telegram from Colonel H. B. Beecher in these words:

" Father very ill. Apoplexy. Suffering no pain."

I hurried to Brooklyn, reaching there the next morning, Sunday. I found my beloved and revered friend paralyzed and unconscious. Around his bed were two of his sons, Col. Henry B. and Mr. Wm. C. Beecher, and his daughter, Mrs. Scoville; while in her own room adjoining the sick-chamber sat Mrs. Beecher. It is not for me to attempt a description of the scene or the passage of time around that bedside, the sad waiting, and the solemn end.

Mr. Beecher was my nearest and dearest friend for thirteen years. Excepting only Arizona and New Mexico, there was not a State or Territory in the Union in which we had not travelled together. In sunshine and in storm; by night, by day, by every conceivable mode of travel; on steamboats androwboats; by stage, and on the backs of mules, I had journeyed at his side. I was near him in the days of 1876-^8, the time of his deepest sorrow, when he was reviled and spit upon; I saw the majestic courage with which he passed through gaping crowds at railroad stations, and at the entrances of hotels and public halls, — a courage which I had not conceived mere humanity could possess. I have looked

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upon him when I felt I would give my poor life a thousand times could that sacrifice alleviate the mental sufferings that I knew he was undergoing. There were times when it seemed as though he must give way, times when I was the only friend within his reach, and he sought refuge near and with me. It was thus that he came to love and trust me, and that my love and veneration for him became so strong that to lose him now leaves me like a ship without a helm or a commander.

Especially during those three darkest years was he the subject of my sad admiration. Often have I seen him on our entering a strange town hooted at by the swarming crowd, and greeted with indecent salutations. On such occasions he would pass on, seemingly unmoved, to his hotel, and remain there until the hour for his public appearance; then, confronted by great throngs, he would lift up his voice, always for humanity and godliness. He always saw and seized his opportunity to speak to the whole great People ; and when he had spoken, the assemblages would linger to draw near to and greet the man whom they had so lately despised. How changed I have often seen the public attitude toward him when he left a town into which he had come but the day before ! Thus he went from city to city, making friends and advocates of all who heard or met him; and thus for the thirteen years was it my delight to accompany him in his work of re-establishing himself in that love and confidence of the people from which unprincipled enemies and an often merciless press had attempted to thrust him out forever. When it came my turn to be in deep trouble, he was my only comforter.

I thank God that it was my privilege to attend his fortunes to the end, and to see and hear on both sides of v i PREFACE.

the Continent, and on both sides of the ocean, demonstrations of love and confidence that came at length in so unsullied and vast a stream, from the Church, his friends, his country, and his race, toward him who had brought so many thousands of them so much nearer than they had been to the common Master of us all.

James B. Po^d.

Contents

The contents of this volume are divided into four separate parts : Introductory matter and Account of the Trip, 125 pages; Addresses, 160 pages; Lectures, 118 pages; Sermons and Prayers, 298 pages: or, 701 pages altogether. The Parts are paged (having been arranged for separate issue) each by itself.

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Account op the Trip, by J. B. Pond 5 to 125

Chapter I. Voyage, Akd Welcome To E^glakd

The following record was almost ready for the bookbinder, with the exception only of these prefatory pages, when the great man of whom it tells, apparently in the fullest enjoyment of health, was suddenly stricken by death. It was not my original intention, but is my severe disappointment, that this should have to be offered as a tribute to the memory of the departed, which was intended for his friends in the enjoyment of his presence and his pastoral charge.

In the summer of 1876 I made a tour of England, Scotland, and Ireland with the Eev. T. DeWitt Talmage. At that time I took pains to inquire as to Mr. Beecher's probable reception should he decide to visit England. I found on all sides a sort of hesitancy: his strongest friends advised against his coming; there seemed to be an almost universal prejudice against him. Dining one evening with a gentleman in presence of a large company, including several members of his own household, I happened to quote Mr. Beecher. The gentleman replied, "I do not allow that name mentioned in my family." It is now my pleasure to tell of a visit to England by Mr. Beecher and his wife, at the close of which that very gentleman (who entertained them at his house in London) and members of his family offered welcoming congratulations, parting words, good wishes, and blessings to Mr. and Mrs. Beecher, whose portraits now hang in places of honor in the house where once his name was not allowed to be mentioned.

In 1876, I say, I could nowhere get encouragement to bring him to England. The secular press was against him ; there was no kind word for him from the religious press, excepting only the Christian World. Only here and there an old acquaintance, or a reading minister, expressed any sentiment towards him that, it seems to me, deserved to be called Christian. But these things only fixed my resolve to show the English public how mistaken they were. It became my constant purpose to get him upon British soil and have his voice heard among Englishmen. I never afterwards lost any fair opportunity to present to him the necessity of accomplishing this end; but when I talked with the most influential members of his church, even his deacons and assistant pastor gave me no encouragement. The best word said was, " If he goes, he must not lecture; he must only preach." There was no belief that the English public would give him a cordial hearing.

As to Mr. Beecher, he always said, "You need not talk England to me; I will not do it. I shall not go; or if I do, I will not speak in public." Still my determination only grew. I urged every friend of his whom I knew to suggest the desirability of his being heard again

WITH HENRY WARD BEECHER. V

in England, and at length I began to see that such words were having their effect.

"Deacon H. thinks I ought to go to England and preach; but if I do, I shall never lecture there." This was his casual remark, I replying, " Did you ever lecture without benefiting the public? How many times have you met great audiences of sceptical opponents and curiosity-mongers in America to see them, after hearing you, leave the hall your sincere and devoted friends? I want you to be heard all over England for the good it will do. I want the world to know why you are so beloved by all who know and hear you; and nothing will teach that like your presence."

This kind of persuasion went on from year to year, and it was only in the winter of 1885-6, during a short tour among our Western cities, that he began to speak favorably of going abroad; and by and by I made him a large business offer to lecture in England five days each week, leaving him Saturdays for rest and Sundays for preaching. I believed and said it would be the crowning year of his life. He did not say ISTo, and my hopes grew strong. It had taken me three years of frequent persuasion to get his consent to make his first iour to California, and his second through the Western States. I had to use the same methods to bring about his " Circuit of the Continent" in 1883.

I had already written letters to England to his friends and mine; and I now got answers that assured me that the people were now ready and anxious to hear him. The steady power of his life, his great influence always used for good, the constant publication over there of his sermons, had gradually gained and secured him a large and widening circle of friends. These letters gave him great satisfaction, and the project gained favor among his nearest friends. These now became my helpers both in Plymouth Church and in the community where he lived. It began to be rumored in Brooklyn and New York that the journey would be made, and the public response was, as one put it, " He will do us honor over there."

One morning in May, 1886, when I visited him at his lovely home in Peekskill and went so far as to show him advertisements of steamships, he made inquiries, and bade me ask the advice of a certain near friend and church officer upon the choice of a steamer. Finally the steamer was selected, and at last I was made happy by Mr. Beecher saying, " Well, Pond, go ahead ; we will take the Etruria."

The following Sunday he announced his purpose in his church, and on the succeeding Sabbath hundreds tried in vain to gain admission to the crowded church : the pew-holders and their friends came early in the morning and filled the place. It was almost impossible to persuade the great crowd outside to disperse. The church was decorated with flowers in unusual abundance. Every feature of the service, the music, the sermon, and the evident feeling of the audience, rose to the impressive character of a farewell worship. At its close Mr. Beecher was surrounded by scores of friends, all eager to express their love and affection, and to offer any service they might.

We were to sail on Saturday morning, June 19th. At the prayer-meeting on Friday evening hundreds failed to get into the lecture-room. Mr. Beecher was asked to go into the large auditorium. "No," he said, "this is our prayer-meeting room, where we have met on Friday evenings for forty years, and I do not feel like making this evening an exception."

A great overflow of church-members and friends filled the auditorium adjoining the lecture-room, waiting to say Good-by after the prayer-meeting. Here until eleven o'clock Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were detained, saying Good-by, and receiving God-speed; children clinging to Mr. Beecher, and he kissing them and saying some precious word to each. Then Mr. and Mrs. Beecher went home, to gain a short sleep and to be on board the Etruria at six o'clock the next morning; while the Trustees remained in the church for a few moments later, to order officially an advance to Mr. Beecher of six months' pay, and to grant a leave of absence until such time as he might choose to return.

Promptly at six o'clock the Etruria left her wharf. Her decks were crowded with passengers not yet aware of Mr. Beecher's presence ; but as he stood almost alone on the forecastle deck, leaning on the rail, his well-known form attracted the attention of the people on the ferryboats, and simultaneously the whistles of the tug-boats and other neighboring steam-craft were sounded in salute.

Three thousand Plymouth Church people had risen before the sun to pay a farewell tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Beecher; and as the Etruria steamed down New York harbor, the excursion-steamer Grand Republic, with this great throng on board, followed close behind. Just before the Etruria reached Liberty Island her engines were stopped, and the Grand Republic came alongside, her three thousand passengers crowding to the nearer guards and sending up cheer after cheer. Mr. Beecher stood where he could overlook the heads of those around him, and, resting one hand upon his wife's shoulder, lifted his hat and stood uncovered and bowing, while Mrs. Beecher waved her handkerchief in return to the innumerable salutations of her friends. Dodworth's band played " Hail to the Chief/' and the whistles of the steamers saluted; then, as the Grand Republic sheered off and these sounds were hushed, the receding voices of Plymouth Church choir were heard across the water singing, " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow." Mr. Beecher stood uncovered until the last sound died away.

We passed Sandy Hook at 10.30 o'clock, and were soon out at sea, bound for England. Now we had our first opportunity to look about us on the ship. We found baskets, bouquets, and banks of flowers. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher's cabins were beautifully decorated. Many friends had sent letters of farewell; and one had provided a basket of twenty homing pigeons, with instructions how to send messages, what birds to fly first, and what others at two and three o'clock. Mr. Beecher wrote messages to his sons, and to friends in various parts of the country, fastened them to the birds according to directions, took the birds in his hands, playfully gave them parting instructions, and then let them fly. They reached their destination safely, as in due time we learned.

The day was beautiful. There were five hundred and sixty-three names on the passenger-list, and every one seemed well and happy. The following day, however, was rough; the ship tossed heavily. Mr. Beecher was sea-sick, and continued so for four days. But the 24th of June was his seventy-third birthday; the sea was smooth, the sun bright, and the weather perfect, and he appeared on deck. I had been intrusted with birthday cards and letters from friends, and these were now presented. His mind was diverted from the sea to pleasing thoughts of home and friends, and for the rest of the voyage he enjoyed every hour.

On Saturday morning, 26th, at daybreak, we awoke off the Irish coast. There was a heavy fog. The fogwhistle was making a horrid din. We could hear voices in the distance, noises of life and commerce. Soon the fog lifted and we saw land. At six o'clock we reached Queenstown. Here many of our passengers disembarked; and here, with the Dublin morning papers, we got letters and telegrams, and numberless invitations for Mr. Beecher to dine, and to speak on the Home Rule question. We saw that Mr. Gladstone was announced to speak at Liverpool, and decided to remain and hear him. We received letters from Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Parker, Dr. Henry Allon, and a host of others of Mr. Beecher's clerical friends, inviting him to preach, and scores of applications, from all parts of the Kingdom, for lectures. As we drew near Liverpool, the deck of. our steamer presented the usual closing scenes, of throngs in changed apparel, merriment and happiness.

We landed at 7.30 in the evening, and were met by delegations from Bradford, Leeds, York, Carnarvon, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, and other cities. Reporters from the London papers were also in waiting. So — I was on English soil, with Henry Ward Beecher ! My fondest dream was realized.

We spent Sunday, the 27th, in Liverpool. Mr. Beecher had several invitations to preach, but was obliged to decline all, since he had* not regained the vigor lost in his sea-sickness. He found his way to some church alone, and sat in a large congregation unrecognized for the first time since he was ordained a minister. In the afternoon many clergymen and many men active in politics called to pay their respects.

The next day we heard Mr. Gladstone. He spoke at Hengler's Circus to an immense audience. "We had the fortune to obtain a ticket for Mr. Beecher to the platform, and one each for Mrs. Beecher and myself, in the auditorium.

After squeezing and twisting our way through the crowd for half an hour, we finally got a place for Mrs. Beecher to sit, and I stood in the packed aisle for an hour before proceedings began. Yet all was orderly; only once was there any excitement. Mr. Beecher found it necessary to cross the platform in sight of the audience while they were waiting. He was recognized. The vast crowd cheered and applauded to the echo, and refused to be quiet until Mr. Beecher acknowledged the attention. He heard Gladstone for the first time, and at his best, as was generally conceded by those accustomed to hearing him. We rode back to our hotel. I asked Mr. Beecher how he liked it.

" It was a very powerful and very luminous speech," he replied. " Here is a man fagged out with the campaign, with his voice nearly scotched; if he can make such a speech under such circumstances, what would it be were he fresh and elastic ? Of course, I was thinking all the time how it would affect the British public. To us Americans it is a stupendous argument in favor of Home Eule, which is as simple as the alphabet to our part of the world. Home Eule is the keynote to the whole American system. The British Government is a suppressed democracy. If all men in

England were as free to vote as in our own land, this question would be very easily settled."

We remained for the night at the Northwestern Hotel in Liverpool, where Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were made very comfortable in the Eoyal suite, amid flowers and special decorations.

On Tuesday morning, June 29th, our party all left Liverpool at 9.40 in a special saloon car for London, where we arrived at 2.15. Eev. Dr. and Mrs. Parker met Mr. and Mrs. Beecher at the station, and took them to their residence at Daleham Gardens, a beautiful modern English home in the northwestern part of London, the fragrance of whose flowers and the brilliant hue of whose foliage were extremely attractive. The dinner, which was in waiting on Mrs. Parker's table, and the welcome which accompanied it would forever banish home-sickness. Only in English homes can the fulness of welcome to strangers be realized.

Remaining in London from June 29th to July 4th, Mr. Beecher was enabled to take a thorough rest : yet he was active; he called on me almost daily with letters that had come applying for lectures.

"I was never made for rest," he has frequently said to me.

Arrangements were made for him to preach for his friend, Dr. Parker, on Sunday, July 4th. This was to be his first public appearance in London. It was not, however. On July 1st Dr. Parker preached his usual Thursday-morning sermon in his church, the City Temple. Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were in attendance. The Temple was crowded; I think it was understood that he was to have a day undisturbed, but Dr. Parker was too full of English welcome, and, Mr. Beecher sitting in the audience, he could not resist mentioning the fact, but called him to the pulpit and said to his congregation:

"We have with us this morning the Kev. Henry Ward Beecher. If I were introducing any clergyman from a great distance, I should have to explain a good deal about him in order to bring you into sympathy with the occasion. In this instance, however, the name is its own introduction. [Loud applause.]

" That is a very good cheer to begin with, but it would never do for a finish. I should not care to belong to any church where the congregation could not laugh and cry according to conviction and impulse. Let there be no restraint this morning. If you love Mr. Beecher and welcome him, say so ! [Loud and long-continued applause, the congregation standing.]

"Mr. Beecher has kindly undertaken to do three things in this church at present. [Laughter.] What he may do in the future, I dare not say; but I am living in the sweet contentment of present blessings. Mr. Beecher has engaged to close the service this morning with prayer. Secondly, he has engaged to preach in this church next Thursday morning at twelve o'clock, and, not to keep us waiting too long, he has promised to preach in this church on Sunday morning next. [Loud applause.] This is just like him. If he ever did an ungenerous thing, I never heard of it. Some people have thought that sometimes he was just on the verge of doing an unusual thing, an imprudent thing, but never has any man accused him, in my hearing or to my knowledge, of ungenerousness. He gives and works with both hands earnestly and diligently. This comes to my mind as what one might term an extemporaneous suggestion, namely, that Mr. Beecher, accustomed to republican institutions, should for the nonce submit himself to our monarchical usages, and if I might avail myself of the tyranny which is supposed to attach to imperial government, I should venture, in tones that cannot be too restrained and dulcet, to suggest that he should not only conclude the service with prayer, but should say something to us. [Loud applause.] That is, if anything should occur to his dull and infertile imagination. Who can tell what may occur to him ? In the inscrutable ways of Providence, some ideas may dawn upon him. [Laughter.] We shall presently see. My brethren, in your name, as well as in my own, shall I extend to Mr. Beecher an English Christian welcome? [Loud applause.]

" There is in London what is called, very appropriately, 'an American Exchange.' [Laughter.] I can never forget the kindness I received in the United States. I can never forget the day when I had the honor and pleasure of preaching in Plymouth Church. Then I never dreamed that Mr. Beecher would be with me as he is to-day. But he is here. And Mrs. Beecher is here. [Loud applause.] And never was my poor little pill-box of a home-house turned so upside down as it has been since their arrival. What with telegrams and reporters and letters and suppliants, and people offering to give Mr. Beecher receptions, my quietude has been utterly spoiled. We are Americanizing our institutions; in a day or two we may get accustomed to it. It is like taking a voyage over the sea. The first day or two is apt to be a little uncertain — not to put too fine a point on it. [Laughter.] But this is an honor which we value. We welcome a servant of God; we welcome one of the principal prophets of the Church. We have read his sermons and his prayers for many a long year. He grows younger with the years. My brethren, I am sorry to break in upon a man's singularity, so that the palm may, even for a moment, seem to be divided between two. I am, however, constrained to violate the sanctity of a definite personality, and to say that last week there was in England a Grand Old Man — [Loud applause] ; — to-day there are two of them. " [Loud and long-continued applause.]

Mr. Beecher was received with great cheering. He said:

' ' An old Methodist minister of my acquaintance, in preaching a revival sermon, commented upon the difficulty of winning the amiable and the kind, and he illustrated it by saying: ' We can easily cut the grain that leans away from us, but the sickle slips over the grain that leans towards us.' I could have faced an oppugnant audience, and spread my sails to the wind of opposition easily; but so much kindness disarms me. When I heard my honored brother preaching, I said to myself, ' He is a lion.' But when I saw him practising these seductive arts, I said, ' He is a fox.' [Much laughter.]

"I represent this morning, I think, somewhat, that most useful instrument of bands, the drum; I am very empty, and therefore just qualified to make a good deal of noise. I have but very little that I can say to you. Kind reference has been made to clouds that overhung the years of the past; they have gone down below the horizon and are forgotten. Contrary to my expectations, I have come again to the land of my fathers. From the county of Kent sprang my line, with a dash of blood from Wales. I must confess I am one of those in whom sentiment has predominant power ; and while I go into cathedrals, both here and on the Continent, with profound sensibility, I also profess, when I step on the shores of my fathers' land, to have coming to me all the sensations that a son should have for his father and for his ancestors. I will not undertake to be the laudator of England, but this I can say : Through light and through dark, through good and through evil, she has proved herself to be the right hand of Almighty God for light, for liberty, and for victory. [Applause.] And if we have unfolded on our continent institutions which might well be copied, with modifications, at the old home, it is because we have so much room to build larger: the architect was England; we have but enlarged the patterns given us, and built as she would have built if she had had an island big enough, and if she had not been encumbered with various and commixtured institutions that must be removed before the foundations of the new and more glorious future shall be laid.

' ' And in coming to England, I recognize with profound gratitude how much I, as well as every other truth-speaking man that loves God and his fellow-men, owe to the religious literature of England. The very men whom I could never follow have followed me all the days of my life, and that which I could not take from them as food I have received from them sometimes as chastisement. [Laughter.] It is a good thing for one to be chastised in this world in various ways, as my brother here can testify ; for as marble is but a rude and rough block until the chisel has cut away all the encumbrances that hide the true portraiture within it, so a man that is unchiselled is a rude stone yet, and the man that has been very much chiselled is apt to be an Apollo or an Apollyon, as the case might be. [Laughter.] England ! I love her churches, but above all I love those in whose face shines the glory of God as it is in Christ Jesus. You are not strangers to me ; you are my blood-kindred, and it is the blood of Christ. You are my brothers, my fathers, my mothers, my sisters, my children. With all my heart, I say, I thank you for the expression of your confidence, and yet more for your love. I shall be glad according to the measure of my strength to serve my brother and you, but more than all to serve Him whom I love above father or mother or brother or sister ; who loved me and redeemed me by his precious blood. And in him let us unite in some words of prayer :

" Dear Lord, we come to thee again; not as the needy, for we are not needy, we are fuller than we can carry. Thy mercies overflow our cup; it drops down with perpetual overfilling. We come to thee because, when the heart is full and we do not know what to think nor what to do, in the bosom of thy love we find rest. Grant that the love which we have for thee may be purified by suffering, by striving, by endurance, by growing knowledge, that all other knowledge may rise up and shine in the lustre and light of thy love. And as God is love, and they who love are of God, O, blessed God, look upon those that love thee and are of thee, and that rejoice through thee and will rejoice, through death, that they 2 are the children of God because they are the children of love. Give to every heart that which it needs, and keep from every one that which it asks and needs not. Go into every sanctuary of the soul, unseen and sacred from men, and bless them there ; go into every household and abide with them there; break the bread to every household, and open thy hand, and say, ' Peace be with you.'