This world of Thine, by him usurp'd too long, O Lord, our Lord, and spoiler of our foes, There is no light but Thine: with Thee all beauty glows." ARTICLE III. THE THEOLOGY OF PLYMOUTH PULPIT. [Concluded.] So far as relates to the means of a just conclusion, our inquiry might rest at the point already reached. Baron Cuvier could demonstrate the mastodon from a small number of the bones. In like manner, from the declaration of Plymouth Pulpit on "man" and his "aspiration," "the cross of Christ," and "doctrine," we should proceed, without the slightest fear of mistake, to construct "Beecher's Institutes." For Henry Ward Beecher has a creed, be it known, notwithstanding he is so much disturbed that his neighbors should presume to have creeds. All his "Five Points" are there. He believes things, and that with his whole heart and soul; albeit he is at so much pains to declare that it is not necessary for other people to believe, but, on the whole, rather a presumptuous and foolish state of mind on their part to do so. Moreover, he preaches his doctrines with a frequency and an earnestness which no Puritan ever surpassed; repeating and reaffirming them, with a copiousness of illustration and an emphasis of manner which are quite exhaustive. The character of God, the character of man, the atonement of Christ, the Bible, the Sabbath, on these and other related points, Mr. Beecher preaches his doctrine with a diligence and enthusiasm which are most exemplary. This is not changed by the fact that what he preaches is never Puritanic,— that, in his doctrinal preaching, he makes incessant and bitter war upon Puritan and Calvinist. It is not our intention, however, to complete "Beecher's In stitutes" by way of inference. He shall still be permitted to speak for himself, and we will still be listeners. We shall detect no faltering and no turning back. With the exception of an occasional confusion of logic and cloudiness of words, he is singularly consistent with himself. The profound and philosophic Genevan was hardly more so. We beg our readers to note this. We affirm that Henry Ward Beecher is singularly consistent with himself as a Theologian, that he is not in the habit of saying a thing at one time and unsaying it at another. On the contrary, he reaffirms and reiterates his positions with the earnestness of a man who has thought out his conclusions and committed himself to them "for better, for worse." claim that ours is a perfectly fair piece of criticism of a man whom it is perfectly fair to criticise; and if anybody thinks he can, with equal fairness, or, indeed, in any wise, make out opposite conclusions from these or any other published discourses of Mr. Beecher's, we have only to say, let him try. Should it excite our surprise, after what we have heard, to find Plymouth Pulpit warring with its might against the Church, considered as a Divine institution, the guardian and conservator of Christian doctrine, court of discipline, temple of God's special indwelling, and appointed channel through which the blessings of his grace flow down from age to age? Why should he not claim for the world an equal place, not only in the paternal benignity of God, but in his administration of mercy and love? Nay, we will stand up for him and insist that he is only consistent with himself and his "doctrine," when he boldly asserts that, in relation to some things of vast importance to mankind, and where the Bible had furnished, for long ages, only darkness and confusion, there has sprung up at length, outside of the Bible, and outside of the Church, and all in spite of both, a light and a power Divine, which has made luminous and resplendent the dark page of the written Word, and cast out of the Church the evil spirit of ignorance and barbarism and imposture. It conflicts with no past deliverance of his when he proclaims that this power and light from without shall yet bring a jubilee to the nations, of freedom and purity and joy, which Judaism and Christianity have failed alike to introduce. Whether Mr. Beecher has actually given utterance to senti ments so directly opposed to the Scriptures, and so entirely in harmony with himself, our readers shall judge. We put in testimony out of his own mouth, as follows: — “As God, in reference to Christian communities, has a diverse administration, suited to the varied condition of the individuals composing them, so I believe that in reference to all races, all tribes, and all nations, while He regards them differently, He has an administration that includes them all. I believe that He is alike kind to all, administering according to the same beneficence to all, only it is a beneficence that, in its instruments and intents, is graded to their peculiar want and their special condition. We know nothing but this: that God is the universal Father, that the field is the world,' that the race is God's family, and that he is carrying on an administration which, though it varies from our experience, has an efficacy and a relation of some sort, which we shall have revealed to us by and by. .... 6 .. There is infinite wisdom and love and kindness administered toward the races that are not surrounded by the light of civilization, or illumined by the rays of Christianity, by which we are surrounded and illumined. I should worship with less fervor, if I thought that a mother weeping for her lost child in India, had no sympathy of God, who knows her, though she sees him not. Do you suppose a heart with aspirations and longings in that benighted land has no God that broods over it with sympathetic tenderness? Do you suppose that God's fostering care is withdrawn from every man that does not believe in the Thirty-nine Articles, and the Five Points of Calvinism?" -(Sermon in the Independent of Oct. 11, 1860, on the text, "The field is the world.") Unless this abolishes all ultimate distinction between the Church and the world, Christendom and the heathen nations, those who have the Bible and those who have it not, will anybody tell us what it means? What is the value, in Mr. Beecher's estimation, of the "infinite wisdom and love and kindness, administered toward the races that are not surrounded by the light of civilization, or illumined by the rays of Christianity, by which we are surrounded and illumined," if all this is to terminate with the present brief existence, leaving eternity uncheered by a solitary beam of light or hope? Or that sympathy of God for the Indian mother, weeping for her dead child, unless the doctrine of universalism be what he is driving at, we confess ourselves utterly unable to understand his argument, or to see anything but an illusion and a mockery in the touching picture. It has been a common opinion that Christianity is the great power for moral elevation among men, and that the Bible is the fountain-head of its light. It has been supposed that the Bible claimed this, and that the history of the world, for the last twenty centuries, was a confirmation of the claim. All this, however, is now found to be, not only not altogether true, but a very egregious assumption and blunder. Mr. Beecher ..... says : "The world does not go through old stubble-fields to reap. In part, doubtless, by discussion, this matter has been settled. But even more because of the growth of a new influence among men. We do not yet understand that the arbiter of some of the most weighty discussions in this world is neither synod nor thinker, and that God arraigns them before tribunals the most despised, the least thought of, and the most efficacious, often. The rising liberty of the common people it was that put an end to this discussion, and compelled men to change their interpretations of the Bible. For, do you know that the inside of the Bible has been subject to the outside, ever since it has been a record? When there is a truth that has its appropriate sphere in this world, and the Bible speaks of it, men may interpret the Scripture as they please; they that study the truth as God made it outside of the Bible, they are conditioned to study it aright. . . . . . And what has changed these theories? Not the exegetical study of texts, but the silent growth of a power outside of the Bible the development, in the Providence of God, of intelligence and moral purity, and so of liberty and power, among the common people. . . . . This simple fact has revolutionized the interpretation of the Bible on civil government, as I have said. It has put an end to all arbitrary claims of priestly orders to absolute authority over the conscience; it has already gone far toward reversing the notions that have hitherto been entertained of woman's nature, and place, and rights of development; and in the end it will utterly destroy those barbaric notions which linger under a Christian garb among us. The growth of life itself is the best discussion of all these truths. The thing in its living form in human life is the arbiter of all these questions of right and wrong in authority. . . . . . Power of life in the soul puts down decretals. Authority does not; ceremonials do not; orders do not; doctrines do not; church-discipline does not. The ability to do this does not be ..... long to any body of men on account of organization, though it may on account of the spirit of the individuals composing it. I protest against the ecclesiastical claim, and I affirm and avow the claim as belonging to the democratic whole of Christendom.". "The Keys," in the Independent of Dec. 13, 1860.) (Sermon on We had supposed, in our simplicity, that Jesus Christ was the light of the world, according to his own claim, not only preeminently, but exclusively; and also, that he had constituted his visible Church, with its institution and doctrines and ordinances, the depository and radiating centre of this light on the earth. But now we are to learn that the Church, in her sad yet cherished darkness, has had a day-spring from beneath visiting her, and is henceforth and forevermore indebted to the world for the development of "intelligence and moral purity, and so of liberty and power," for which the world had been long looking to her in vain. Let the Church henceforth know her place, and render "honor to whom honor." For God works without as well as within. Jesus is his prophet, and so are Kossuth and Garibaldi; and the things which Jesus left incomplete Kossuth and Garibaldi have accomplished! Our readers will not fail to note how beautifully all this accords with Mr. Beecher's pet notion about the world being one vast commonwealth of souls, with a God administering to all alike in "infinite wisdom and love and kindness." The Church, to be sure, is a component part of this universal commonwealth, as Cæsar would have had no objection to admit the statues of Jesus and his apostles into the Pantheon; but let the Church understand that she must claim no preeminence in God's favor above the heathen world. Let her never forget that certain things of happiest presage to mankind have sprung up without the Church, and, as it would seem, in spite of the Church; and have forced the door and entered in, to fill the Church, dark before, with their light, and to bless the Church with their blessing. We are moved to thank Mr. Beecher here for calling attentention to a fact of great significance. That there are agencies and principles in the Church, working with a mighty transforming power, which agencies and principles did not originate with |