Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1903 — ANECDOTES OF BEECHER. [ARTICLE]

ANECDOTES OF BEECHER.

The Rev. Lyman Abbott Talks Inter* estinsly of the Great Preacher. On April 1 Mr. Beecher found In. bis monjing mall a letter containing only tbe words “April Fool,” says the Rev. Lyman Abbott In tbe Asiatic Monthly. “Weill Well!” he said. “I have received many a letter where a man forgot to sign his name; this ia the first time I ever knew of a writer signing his name apd forgetting to write a letter.” After I took the editorship of the Christian Union I urged Mr. Beecher to give his views on public queetions through Us columns. “As It Is now,” I said, “any Interviewer who comes to you gets n column; and the public Is as apt to get your views in any other paper as in your own.” “Yes,” he said, “I am like the town pump; any one who will come and work the handle can carry off a pail full of water.” On one occasion I argued for Calvinism that it had produced splendid characters. “Yes,” Mr. Beecher replied. “Calvinism makes a few good men and destroys many mediocre men. It is like a churn; It makes good butter, but it throws away a lot of buttermilk.” Charles Sumner In the senate and Thaddeus Stevens in the house were passing the reconstruction measures for forcing universal suffrage in thw south. In conversation with me Mr. Beecher thus diagnosed the situation: “The radicals are trying to drive the wedge Into the log butt end foremost; they will only split their beetle.” They did; they solidified the south and divided the republican party. If he had been preaching on reconstruction the figure would have flashed on him then and he would have given It to his congregation from the pulpit. Mr. Beecher was denouncing the Inconsistency of church members, stop* ped. Imagined an Interlocutor calling him to account for exposing the sins of church members before the world, and thus replied: “Do you not suppose the world knows them better than I do? Tbe world sees this church member In Wall street, as greedy, as rapacious, as eager, as unscrupulous as h!s companions. He says to himself. Is that Christianity? I will go to church next Sunday and see what the minister says about this. He goes; and whet Is the minister saying?” Instantly Mr. Beecher folded his arms upon his breast, held an Imaginary cat purring comfortably Where, as he stroked it with the other hand and continued: “The minister is saying: ‘Poe* 1 Pussy! Poor pussy! Poor pussy!’ ” Mr. Beecher made his congregation langb, not of set purpose and never for the sake of the laugh, but because be himself saw and made them see those Incongruities which are the essence of humor aud often the most powerful of arguments.