RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Beecher Beelzebub
Lecture-Room Talks (New York, 1870); A Summer Parish (1875); Evolution and Religion (1885). His books of most permanent value were The Life of Jesus the Christ (i, New York, 1871; ii, left incomplete at his death and supplemented by extracts from his sermons, 1891), and the Yale Lectures on Preaching (Lyman Beecher lectures before the Yale Divinity School, 1872-74; 3 vols., also collected edition in one volume, New York, 1881). He compiled The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes (1855), and wrote Norwood, or Village Life in New England, a novel (1867).
Bibliography: Lyman Abbott and S. B. Halliday, Henry Ward Beecher, Hartford, 1887; the Biography by his son William C. Beecher and Samuel Scoville, assisted by his wife, 1888; John Henry Barrows, Henry Ward Beecher, the Shakespeare of the Pulpit, New York, 1893; the Autobiographical Reminiscences edited by T. J. Ellinwood, his private stenographer for thirty years, 1898; Lyman Abbott, Henry Ward Beecher, Boston, 1903; N. L. Thompson, The History of Plymouth Church, New York, 1873.
BEECHER, LYMAN: Presbyterian; b. at New Haven, Conn., Oct. 12, 1775; d. at Brooklyn Jan. 10, 1863. He was graduated at Yale 1797; studied theology under President Dwight the following year, and, after preaching on probation for a year at East Hampton, L. I., was ordained as pastor there, 1799; in 1810 he removed to Litchfield, Conn., and in 1826 to Boston, as pastor of the Hanover Street Church (Congregational). In 1832 he became president and professor of theology at the newly formed Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, where for the first ten years he also served as pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church. In 1851 he returned to Boston, and after 1856 lived in Brooklyn. He was a profound student of theology, but eminently practical in his preaching, which was marked by an uncommon union of imagination, fervor, and logic. His convictions were strong, his courage great, and he acted with an impulsive energy which generally succeeded in accomplishing what he thought should be done. The death of Alexander Hamilton called forth a sermon on dueling (preached before the Presbytery of Long Island, Apr. 16, 1806; published in several editions) which did much to awaken the popular conscience on the subject. At Litchfield he took a decided stand in favor of a general reformation of public morals, and in particular against the convivial habits of the time. During his Boston pastorate he was a leader on the conservative side in the Unitarian controversy. In Cincinnati hard feelings evoked by the antislavery contest, and certain problems inevitable during the formative period of the seminary and in a new society, made his career a stormy one; but he worked with characteristic energy and retired with honor. During the earlier stages of the differences which led to the disruption of the Presbyterian Church in 1837 he was charged with holding heretical views on the atonement, and was tried and acquitted by both presbytery and synod in 1835; throughout the entire contest he was one of the New School leaders. His seven sons all became clergymen and his daughters, Catherine Esther Beecher, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Isabella Beecher Hooker, became well known for literary
and philanthropic work. During his second residence in Boston Lyman Beecher prepared a collected edition of his Works (i, Lectures on Political Atheism and Kindred Subjects ; Six Lectures on Intemperance, Boston, 1852; ii, Sermons, 1852; hi, Views of Theology as Developed in Three Sermons and on his Trials, 1853).
Bibliography: His Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. was edited by his son Charles Beecher, rev. ed., 2 vols., New York, 1865; consult also D. H. Allen, The Life and Services of Lyman Beecher, a Commemorative Discourse, Cincinnati, 1863; J. C. White, Personal Reminiscences of Lyman Beecher, New York, 1882; E. F. Haywood, Lyman Beecher, Boston, 1904.
BEECHER, THOMA3 KINNICUTT: Congregationalist, sixth son of Lyman Beecher; b. at Litchfield, Conn., Feb. 10, 1824; d. at Elmira, N. Y., Mar. 14, 1900. He was graduated at Illinois College, Jacksonville, 111., 1843; became school principal at Philadelphia, 1846, at Hartford, Conn., 1848; pastor at Williamsburg (Brooklyn), L. I., 1852, of the Independent Church (afterward called the Park Church), Elmira, 1854, where he served a long pastorate and became widely known for his eccentricities, but still more esteemed for his charities and respected for the practical good sense of many of his plans and ideas. He developed one of the first " institutional " churches, and his Sunday-school was a model one. His chief publication was Our Seven Churches (New York, 1870), a volume of discourses upon the different denominations in Elmira. In Time with the Stars, a book of children's stories, appeared posthumously (1902).
BEECHER, WILLIS JUDSON: Presbyterian; b. at Hampden, O., Apr. 29, 1838. He studied at Hamilton College (B.A., 1858) and Auburn Theological Seminary (1864), and was ordained to the ministry in 1864. After a pastorate at Ovid, N. Y., 1864-65, he was appointed professor of moral science and belles-lettres in Knox College, Galesburg, 111. In 1869 he became pastor of the First Church of Christ in the same city. Two years later he was appointed professor of the Hebrew language and literatuie in Auburn Theological Seminary. In 1902 he delivered the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary. He was a member of the Assembly's Committee on the Revision of the Confession of Faith (1890-92), and in theology is a progressive conservative. Besides preparing the Old Testament Sunday-school lessons for the Sunday School Times since 1893, he has written Farmer Tompkins and his Bibles (Philadelphia, 1874); General Catalogue of Auburn Theological Seminary (Auburn, 1883); Drill Lessons in Hebrew (1883); Index of Presbyterian Ministers, 1706-1881 (Philadelphia, 1883; in collaboration with his sister Mary A. Beecher); The Prophets and the Promise (New York, 1905); and The Teaching of Jesus concerning the Future Life (1906).
BEELZEBUB, be-el'ze-bub (properly, in all the New Testament passages — Matt, x, 25; xii, 24, 27; Mark hi, 22; Luke xi, 15, 18, 19— Beelzeboul): The name of the prince of the demons; i.e., of Satan. The reading Beelzeboul has also this in its favor that the Greek oikodespotes, " master of the
Beelzebub Begrhards