Tom's Cabin") as writers. He had a vigorous organ, ization, both physical and mental, and was equally noted for boldness and kindness. As an orator, he was one of the most peculiar, brilliant, and effective of his day. By nature he was a strong reasoner, yet he reasoned rather in the style of an advocate, aiming at a point, than of a judge or a statesman, aiming to cover a whole field of discussion. He spoke and wrote always for some immediate purpose." Albert Barnes states that " no oratory he ever heard equalled Beech- er's in his grand flights." Dr. Noah Porter {New Englander, xxiii, 354) characterizes Dr. Beecher as follows: "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 exhort- er, 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 ma- terial different from that which he required for him- self. 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 pow- er 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 apostolical love of souls led him to clothe his reasonings. He did not trust exclusively or chiefly to his extemporary power, rare and service- able 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 occa- sional 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 pow- er of truth as adapted to change the moral convictions of men, and thus to reform the sentiments and prac- tices 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 ; skil- ful by his quiet discernment to judge when the old methods were outworn, and fertile to devise those un- tried 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 forae. But in all his reforming movements his public spirit was con- spicuous 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 responsi- bility for the practice of duelling, and to sound the I trumpet note which rung throughout the land. This I induce 1 him to sympathize with the feebler churches j in the thinly-peopled and decaying towns of Connecti- cut, 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 1 the country, till the word of the Lord was a fire in his I bones, and "he could not but lift his voice in the appall-
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ing energy of a commissioned prophet. The preva- 1 -I],- 1 of dan ;erous error depressed and vexed his spir- it till it found relief in plans, and protests, and move- ments which wriv felt through New England. As a theologian he was thoroughly practical, and bis 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 autobiography and life, edited by the Rev. Charles Beecher, appeared in 1864 5(N. Y. 2 vols. 12mo). His writings, chiefly ser- mons, temperance essays, lectures, and review arti- cles, were collected substantially, and published un- der his own supervision, in the Works of Lyman Beecher, D.D. (Boston, 1852, 3 vols. 8vo ; vol. i, Lec- tures on Political Atheism ; vol. ii, Sermons; vol. iii, Views in Theology).— Wilson, Presbyterian Almanac, 1861; Amer. Plirenolrgical Journal, Feb. 1863; Auto- biography of Dr. Lyman Beecher (N. Y. 1864-5, 2 vols. 12mo) : /; bliotheca Sacra, April, 1852 ; NewEnglander, April, 1864.