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THE

VOL. XII., No. 70.—JANUARY, 1871.

BEECHERISM AND ITS TENDENCIES.*

It was said by somebody of -Ecce

-'
timid brother, after recognizing what
Homo, an anonymous book which- ~ he regards as the distinctive excel-
made some noise a few years ago, lences of each of " Our Seven Church-
that it must have been written either es " — that is, the Roman Catholic, the
by a man rising from rationalism to Presbyterian, the Protestant Episco-
faith, or by a man falling from faith pal, the Methodist Episcopal, the
to rationalism. But, though it re- Baptist, the Congregational, and
quires a nice eye to distinguish the the Liberal Christian — tells us very
twilight of the coming from that of plainly that, abstractly considered,
the parting day, we hazard little in all churches are equally good or
treating the twihght of these volumes equally bad, and that the best church
as the evening not the morning cre- for a man is that in which he feels
puscule, and in regarding the Beech- most at his ease, or which best satis-
ers deepening into the darkness
as fies him, or suits his peculiar consti-
of unbelief, not as opening into the tution and temperament. " When
light of faith. We
must, therefore, thus he has tried churches within
all

as our rule, interpret in all doubtful his reach," he says, " then let him
cases their language in a rationalis- come back any one that may ss-em
to
ticor naturalistic sense, and not in a best for him, and ask for the lowest
Christian sense. place among its members. As he
Mr. Thomas K. Beecher, who is enters and is enrolled, let him say to
more frank and outspoken than his every one that asks I cannot tell
:

cunninger, more cautious, and more whether this is the best church in
* 1. The Serjtions of Henry Ward Beecher in the world, still less whether it is the
Plymouth Church. From verbatim reports by true church. Of one thing only am
T. J. Ellinwood. First, Second, and Third Se-
ries, from September. 1S69, to March, 1870. New I certain, it is the best church y^r me.
York: J. B. Ford & Co. 1870. 3 vols. Svo. In it I am as contented as a partly
2. Our Seven Churches. By Thomas K. Beech-
er. The same. 1870. i6mo,,rx--,-
pp. 167. sanctified man can be this side of
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, by Rev. I. T. Hecker^ in the Office of
the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D, C.
— 28
(?

VOI~ XII.
 ;

434 Bcecherism mid its Tendencies.

the general assembly of the first- find always easy to adduce de-
it

born in heaven " [Our Seven Church- cisive we rightly under-

proofs that
es, p. 142). stand him. His language, apparently
Yet this same writer had (p. S) plain and direct, is singularly in-
pronounced the doctrine and ritual definite ; his statements are seldom
of the Catholic Church throughout clear and certain, and have a mar-
the world excellent, and had espe- vellous elasticity, and may at need
cially commended her (pp. 9, 10) be stretched so as to take the in
for her exclusiveness or denial of the highest and broadest Protestant or-
pretensions of all other churches, and thodoxy, or contracted so as to ex-
for maintaining that there is no sal- clude everything but the most nar-
communion
vation out of her This ! row, meagre, and shallow rational-
Beecher can swallow any number of ism. They are an india-rubber
contradictions without making a wry band. You enough what
see clearly
face ; for he seems to hold that what- he is driving at, but you cannot
ever seems to a man to be true is catch and hold him. His statements
true for him, and tliat it matters not are so supple or so elastic that he
however false it may be if he esteem- can give them any meaning that may
eth it true and is contented with it. suit the exigencies of the moment.
For him, seeming is as good as being. This comes, we presume, not from
Poor man, he seems never to have calculation or design, but from his
heard, at least never to have heeded, loose manner of thinking, and from
what the Scripture saith, that " There his want of fixed and definite
total
is a way that seemeth to a man just, principles. His mind is uncertain,
but the ends thereof lead to death " impetuous, and confused.
(Prov. xiv. 12). The fact probably Beecherism, as we understand it,
is that he believes in nothing, unless errs chiefly not in asserting what is
perchance himself, and looks upon absolutely false, but in mistiming or
truth as a mere seeming, a pure illu- misapplying the truth, and in pre-
sion of the senses or the imagination, senting a particular aspect of truth
or as a purely subjective conviction for the whole truth. Its leading
without objective reality. thought is, as Freeman Clarke's, that
It perhaps would not be fair to Christianity is a life to be lived, not
judge brother Henry by the utter- a doctrine or creed to be believed
ances of brother Tom, but the Beech- and being a life, it cannot be drawn
er family are singularly united, and out and presented in distinct and de-
all seem to regard brother Henry as finite statements for the understand-
their chief No one of the family, ing. One is a Christian not because
unless it be Edward, the eldest he believes this or that doctrine, but
brother, is very likely to put forth because he has come into personal
any views decidedly different from relations or sympathy with Christ,
his, or which he decidedly disap- and lives his life. Its error is in
proves. They all move in the same what it denies, not in what it asserts, -

direction, though some of them may and its chief defect is in not telling
lag behind him while others may be who Christ is, what it is to come into
in advance of him. personal relations with him, what is
Although we have no difficulty the way or means of coming into
in ascertaining for ourselves what such relations, and in discarding or
Mr. Ward Beecher holds, so far as making no account of the activity
he holds anything, yet we do not of the intellect or understanding in
 Beecherism mid its Tende^icics. 435

living the Christian Hfe. Undoubt- understanding must precede the love
edly Christianity is a hfe to be hved, and present the object, or nothing i.«
and we hve only by coming into
it loved. What Beecherism calls love
intimate individually with
relations is simply a subjective want, a blind

Christ himself, as the church holds, craving of the soul for what it has
only by being literally joined to him, not and knows not. Even Plato,
born of him by the Holy Ghost, and high as is the rank which he assigns
living his life in the regeneration, as in to love or our appetitive nature, as
natural generation we are born of St. Thomas caUs it, does not hold
and live the life of Adam. But that love alone suffices. According
Beecherism means not this, and, in to him, it is only on the two wings,
fact,has no conception of it. It sim- intelligence and love, that the soul
ply means that we must be personally soars to the Empyrean, to " the First
in sympathy with Christ, and act from Good and the First Fair."
the stimulus of such sympathy. But There is no love Avithout science,
this is no more than the boldest and the science must always precede
rationalism might say, for it implies the love and present its object. Our
no higher life than our Adamic life Lord even includes love in the sci-
itself. ence or knowledge, for he says, in ad-
If by doctrine is meant only a dressing his Father, " This is ever-
view, theory, or " a philosophy " of lasting life, that they may kiioiu thee,
truth, which is all that Beecherism the only true God, and Jesus Christ
can hold it to be, we agree that Avhom thou hast sent " (St. John
Christianity is not a doctrine to be xvii. 3). All through the New Tes-
believed ; but the creed is not a view tament love is connected with know-
or theory of truth, but the truth it- ledge or faith, and the knowledge of
self. In believing it, it is the truth the truth is connected with salvation.
itself, not a view or theory of truth, " The truth shall make you free,"
that we beheve. Christ is the truth, " Veritas liberabit
vos" says St. John.
as well as the way and the life, and " God have aU men to be saved
will
he must be received by faith as well and come to the knowledge of the
as by love for we not only cannot
; truth," says St. Paul, who also says
love what we do not intellectually to the Corinthians, " Brethren, do
apprehend, but Christ is supernatural, not become children in understand-
and can be apprehended only by faith ing, albeit in malice. be children, bu+
and not by science. Christ is the in understanding be perfect," or " be
Word —the Logos made flesh, and— men " (i Cor. xiv. 20).
his life must then be primarily the life It is the grave fault of Protestant-
of intelligence, and therefore we can ism itself, especially in our times, that
enter upon it only by faith. Christian- it makes little or no account of intel-
ity is a religion for the intellect, whose ligence. It is essentially unintellec-
object is truth, as well as a religion tual, illogical, and irrational, and its

for the heart, or our appetitive nature, tendency is to place religion almost
whose object is good. Beecherism entirely in the emotions, sentiments,
overlooks this fact, and places Chris- and which are in them-
affections,
tianity, religion, in love. Love, it selves blind and worthless, are even
says —and says truly, when by love is worse, if not enlightened and restrain-
meant the supernatural virtue of cha- ed by truth iritellectually apprehend-
rity, caritas —
is the end or perfection ed by faith. When not so enlight-
of the law; but it forgets that the ened and restrained, they become
 ;

436 BcecJicrisiJi and its Tendencies.

fanaticism. Beecherism is even more ble only when made on an infallible

un intellectual than the Protestantism authority, which no Protestants have
of the Reformers themselves. It di- or can have. Protestantism is, there-
vorces our sympathetic nature from fore, in its developments obliged ei-
our intellectual nature, and would fain ther to become open, undisguised in-
persuade us that it is our higher na- fidelity, or to resolve Christianity into
ture. This is bad psychology, and a purely subjective religion — a religion
to its prevalence is due the inca- consisting in and depending solely
l)acity of Protestants to apprehend on our interior emotional, sentimental,
the higher and profounder truths of or affectional nature, and incapable
the spiritual order. The affections are of intellectual or objective statement,
either affections of the sensitive soul and needing none. The tendency
or affections of the rational soul. If of all Protestantism must always be
affections of the rational soul, they either to religious indifferentism or to
are rational in their origin and prin- religious fanaticism.
ciple, and impossible without intelli- We do not find from the sermons
gence. If affections of the sensitive before us that Beecherism, which is a
soul, they have no moral or religious new but not improved edition of
character, though they incline to sin; Bushnellism endorsed by Mr. T. K.
but are, when they escape the con- Beecher, explicitly denies the Chris-
trol of reason, that very " flesh," or tian mysteries ; neither do we find
concupiscence, the Christian struggles that it explicitly recognizes them
against. Beecherism, in reality, makes while it is not doubtful that the
the flesh our higher nature, and re- whole current of thought excludes
its

quires us to walk after the flesh, not
do and must all sys-
after the spirit, as
tems that place religion in sympathy
or love without intelligence.
affections of our nature not enhghten-
ed by inteUigence and informed by
reason or faith are affections not of
our higher but of our lower nature,
and when strong or dominant become
destructive passions.
Beecherism, in rejecting intelligence
or in making light of all
Christianity or objective faith,
substituting a purely subjective faith,
only follows the inevitable tendency
of all Protestantism emancipated from
them. What are its views of God,
and especially of the person and na-
ture of our Lord, we are not distinct-
All the ly told, but evidently it has no con-
ception of the tri-personality of the
one Divine Being, the personality of
the Holy Ghost, or the two for ever
distinct natures, the human and the
divine, hypostatically united in the
one divine person of Christ. As far
as we can ascertain, it recognizes no
dogmatic distinction of person and nature, and
and is unaware of the fact that the Wofd,
who is God, took to himself, in the
Incarnation, human nature, and made
it as really and as truly his own na-

the civil power for Protestantism

; ture, without its ceasing to be hu-
recognizes no authority competent to man nature, as my human nature
enjoin dogmas, or to present or de- joined to my personality is my na-
fine the object of faith. It can give ture. It would seem to hold that
for a creed only opinions. It could Christ is God or the divine nature
not, in abandoning the church, if left clothed with a human body without
to itself, avoid in its free develop- a human soul, or, rather, that Christ
ment eliminating from Christianity is God humanly represented or per-
the entire creed, all dogmas, doc- sonated.
trines, or statements, which are credi- In a sermon on the " Consolations
 :

Bcecherism a7id its Tendencies. 437

of the Sufferings of Christ," Mr. Ward inits plenitude consequently, God is

;

Beecher seems to regard Christ, who not eternally self-existent, indepen-

was tempted and suffered in his di- dent, self sufficing being, as theolo-
vine nature, yet without sin, in all gians maintain, and therefore is not

points as we are tempted and suffer, God, or, words, there is no

in other

as suffering in his divine nature, and
from that fact he argues that his
sufferings were absolutely infinite.
But he asks
' Can a Divine Being suffer?
God; and then nothing is or can be.
We must in our charity suppose the
preacher either says he knows not
what, or that he does not mean what
he says. It is not our business to
I should rede the Beecher riddles but proba- ;

rather put the question, Can one be a Di- bly, if it was, Bushnellism might help
vine Being in such a world and over such us. Dr. Bushnell, with a slight tinc-
a world as this, and not suffer? If we
ture of Swedenborgianism, regards
carve in our imagination a perfect God,
with the idea that perfectness must be
Christ not precisely as God or man,
that which is relative to himself alone, but as a scenic display, as the
that he must be perfect to himself in in- representation or personation under
telligence, perfect to himself in moral a human form and human rela-
character, perfect to himself in beaut}-,
tions to our senses, feelings, sympa-
and in transcendent elevation above all
thies, and imagination, of what the
those vicissitudes and troubles which
arise —
from imperfection if thus we make Divine Being really is, not in him-
our God, and in no wzy give him roots in self, but in regard to man. But this,
humanity, in no way lead him to have though it might explain, would not
sympathy with infirmity, then we have
save Beecherism from the charge of
not a perfect God. We have a carved
selfishness embellished. We have a be-
making Christ an anthropomorphous
ing that cannot be Father to any thought representation of God, not God him-
that springs from the human heart. . . . self, or the Word made flesh; nor
" A God that cannot suffer, and suffer
from that of maintaining that God is
in his Godship nature, can scarcely be pre-
passible in his divine nature, " his
sented to the human soul, in all its weak-
nesses and trials and wants, so that it Godship nature." The Word or Son
shall be acceptable. We need a suffering is indeed the express image of God
God. It was the very ministration of and the brightness of his glory, yet
Christ to develop that side of the Divine in the divine not the human form;
—
Being the susceptibility of God to suffer
for the Word is God, and eternally,
through sympathy, as the instrument and
channel of benevolence by which to res- and it is only as made flesh that he
•.u« them that suffer through sin " ( Third has a . human form and human rela-
Series, p. 38). tions but in this sense he is man,
;

not a representation of God humanly

We had supposed that man has related. No man who believes in
his roots in God, not God his roots in the tri-personality of the Divine Be-
man, and that the ministration of ing, or in the hypostatic union of the
Christ v/as to redeem, elevate, and two natures in the one Divine Per-
perfect man, not to develop and per- son of the Word, could ever use the
fect or fulfil the Divine Being; but expressions we have quoted, or re-
we had done so without consulting gard Christ as a scenic representation
the Eeechers. Being
If the Divine or personation of the Divine Being.
on any side needs, ever needed, or Beecherism undeniably anthropo-
ever could need, to be developed, the morphizes God, and regards him, as
Divine Being is not eternally perfect, does Swedenborg, as the great or per-
is not perfect being in itself, or being fect Man, or as man carried up to infi-
 —

43 S BeccJicrisin and its Tendencies.

nity. It supposes the attributes of God his own Divine Being. Yet as we
are the attributes of man infinitely are his creatures, sustained by his
magnified. This is what it means, we creative act, and as that act is the
suppose, by saying God has his " roots free act of infinite goodness or love
in humanity." Being man infinitely caritas—X-iYS^ love in that act surrounds,
developed and perfected, God knows pervades, our entire existence in a
and loves us by sympathy, and is manner infinitely more tender and
able to share our joys and sorrows, touching to us, and effects in us and
and suffer in all the vicissitudes and for us infinitely more than the closest
troubles which spring from our im- and most sympathetic human love or
perfections, for he has in himself, in kindness. We are held in the very
its infinitude, all that we have or ex- arm.s of infinite love, live and breache
perience in ourselves. This supposes in infinite goodness, and v^^e are noth-
that God is made in the image and ing without it.

likeness ofman, not man in the image God is perfect being in himself;
and God. The type and
likeness of consequently, always the adequate
principle of man are indeed in God, object of his own activity, whether
and his works copy his divine essence, of intelligence or love, as we are
but not he them. God cannot suffer taught in the mystery of the Tri-
in his divine nature, for all suffering nity. It is in liimself, in his own es-
arisesfrom imperfection, and he is per- sence, in which is\ the type or prin-
fect being in its plenitude; therefore ciple of our existence, and whose
impassible, and necessarily, from the decree or act is the cause of all we
fulness of his own nature, eternally and are, can be, do, or suffer, that he knows
infinitely blessed. He knows not us and loves us, has compassion on our
from his likeness to us, nor from an ex- infirmities, forgives us our sins, works
perience like ours, but in himself, from out our salvation, and enables us to
his own perfect knowledge of himself, participate in his own beatitude, and,
in whose essence is our type and prin- Avhen glorified, even in his own divine
ciple, and whose own act is the cause nature (2 Pet. i. 4). His love is won-
of all we are, can do, or become. He derful, and past finding out it is too ;

knows us not by sympathy with us, high, too broad, too tender, and its
for he is the adequate object of his riches are too great for us to be able
own intelligence, and cannot depend to comprehend it. To be able to
on his creatures, or anything out of comprehend it, we should need to be
himself, for any knowledge or perfec- able to comprehend God himself, in
tion whatever. He knows and feels his own infinite being ; for his very
we clo or suffer
all in himself, in his being is love and goodness, — Caritas
own essence and act creating and est Dciis, as says tlie blessed apostle.
sustaining us. He loves us in him- No man knoweth the Father save the
self, and in the same act, because he Son, Avho is in the bosom of the Fa-
has created us from his own super- ther, and he to whom the Son shall
abounding goodness, and because reveal him. The error of Beecherism
v/e live and move and have our here, as well as of many other isms, is

being in him, not because he feels
with us, as Beecherism would have
us believe. No attribute of the di-
vhie nature does or can depend for
its exercise or perfection
anything exterior to or distinct from
in assuming that the type of God and
his attributes is in man, not the type
of man in God, which anthropouior-
phizes the Divine Being.
on us, or on Yet it is perfectly allowable to say
that God suffers and is tempted in all
 Beecherisin
points as we are, though without
sin, ifwe speak of Jesus Christ the
Incarnate God. The Word or Son
is God; the person of our Lord in the
divine nature or being is
vine ; and always the person
as it is
that acts or suffers, whatever Christ
does or suffers, God does or suffers
for in Christ there is human nature,
but no human person. But God can-
not suffer in his divine nature, and
hence, if our Lord had had only the
—
one divine nature which he always
had and has in its fulness he never
could have suffered and died on the
cross to redeem and save us. Beech-
erism, which regards Christ as the
representation of the Divine Being
under a human form and to our hu-
man sympathies and affections, denies
the very possibility of his making any
real atonement for man, for he has of
his own no nature at all. He is not
himself real being that suffers, but its
representation or personation; and
therefore his sufferings are represen-
and death re-
tative, as the sufferings
presented on the stage. Hence, it
transfers to the Divine Being, to
in his divine nature,who cannot suf-
fer,whatever suffering is represented
in the person and life of our Lord.
But our Lord is not a representative
being, but the Divine Being himself,
and he does not personate the divine
nature —he is it. He does not in the
Incarnation part v/ith his divine na-
ture, but takes human nature up into
hypostatic or substantial union with
his divine person. As the Divine Be-
ing is one divine nature, being, or
sence, in three persons, so is
divine person in two natures. Being
at once perfect God and perfect man,
and having a human as well as a di-
vine nature, he could be tempted as
we are, could sympathize with us,
share our sorrows, bear our griefs,
be obedient to his Father, suffer, even
die on the cross for us ; but in his hu-
and its Tendencies. 439
man nature only, not in his divine
nature. His sufferings could not be
infinite in the sense Beecherism as-
serts for the human nature even of
;
strictly di- God is finite but his sufferings and
;
obedience have an infinite value, be-
cause the sufferings and obedience
]
of an infinite person.
Beecherism gives us no clear or
satisfactory account of what our Lord
is. All we can say is, that it does
not treat his person as the Second
Person of the Godhead nor as the
— Vv'ord made flesh ; but holds him, as
far as we can get at its thought, as a
representative person, as Bushnellism
does, representing or personating God
or the Divine Being, as we have said
more than once, under a human form
and in human relations. But it not
only eliminates the Word or Son from
the Godhead; it eliminates, also, the
Third Person, by denying with certain
ancient heretics the personality of the
Holy Ghost. In the sermon on
" The Holy Spirit," we read :
" The Divine Being is not merely a
God person, superlative, infinite, who sits en-
shrined and, as it were, hidden in the
centre of his vast domain. We
are taught
that there is an effluence of spirit-power,
and that the Holy Spirit pervades the uni-
verse. It is to the personality of God what
the light and heat are to the sun itself.
For, though the sun is in a definite sphere
and position, and has its own globular
mass, 3'et it is felt through myriads and
myriads of leagues of space, and is there-
fore present by its effects and power.
And though God is not fj-cseiit \sic\ and
heaven is the place where he dwells, yet
es- the divine influence pervades the universe.
[The divine influence wider than the Di-
Christ one
vine Being !] The mental power, the
thought-power, the Spirit-power, impletes
the rational universe" {Third Sc'rics,
p. 87).
In this extract, personality and na-
ture are not distinguished, and the
personality of God is assumed to be
one, as his being, nature, or essence
440 Beecherism and its Tendencies.

is one, which excludes both the Holy does not accept the mystery of the
Ghost and the Son as persons from Incarnation, out of which grows the
the Godhead. The Holy Ghost, in- whole distinctively Christian order,
stead of being represented as the Third without which man cannot fulfil his
Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, is existence and attain the end or beati-
denied to be a person at all, and de- tude for which he is created. It is
fined to be simply an effluence or in- impossible to assert the Incarnation
fluence of the one person of God or ;
when the three Persons of the ever-
to be to the personality of God what blessed Trinity are denied, for it sup-
the light and heat of the sun are to poses them and depends on them.
the sun itself An effluence, an ema- Christ, according to Beecherism, is,
nation, or an influence is not a per- as with Bushnellism and Swedenbor-
sonal distinction in the Divine Being, gianism, not the Second Person or
and Mr. Beecher evidently does not Word of God assuming human na-
so regard it ; for he speaks of it as //, ture but the manifestation, persona-
;

not as him^ and makes it not the ac-
tor, but the effect of the person act-
ing. Light and heat are not distinc-
tions in the sun, as the Divine Persons
are in the Divine Being; but are, in
so far as not the sun itself, distinguish-
able from it, as the effect
guishable from the cause.
vine Persons are distinguishable from
one another, we grant, and we re-
tion, or representation of the Divine
Being under a human form and rela-
tions, which is simply no Incarnation
at all. Rejecting or not accepting
the Incarnation, Beecherism loses
Jesus Christ himself, and with him the
is distin- whole teleological order, -which is
The Di- founded by the Word made flesh, and
without which creation cannot be ful-
filled, and must remain for ever incipi-

gard the Father as principle, the Son ent or incomplete, and fail of its final
as medium, and the Holy Ghost as cause; man must
then for ever remain
end ; but they are distinctions in God, below his destiny, craving beatitude
not from God ; or distinctions in the but never gaining it the doom or —
Divine Being, not from it. Obvious- hell of the reprobate.
ly, then, whatever else Beecherism Beecherism is far from having pene-
may accept of the Christian faith, it trated the depth of the Christian or-
does not accept the Mystery of the der, and understands little of the rela-
ever-blessed Trinity, but really denies tions and reasons of the Christian
it. The Beechers, perhaps, are not dispensation. It sees nothing of the

theologians enough to know it, but profound truths brought to light by

the denial of the Trinity is the denial the Christian faith. It sees no rea-
of God as living God, by reducing son w^hy St. Peter, speaking of the
the Divine Being, with the old Elea- Lord Jesus Christ by inspiration of
tics, to a dead and unproductive uni- the Holy Ghost, could say " There :

ty, as do also all Unitarians as distin- is no other name under heaven given
"
guished from Trinitarians. He who to men whereby we must be saved
denies the Trinity, if he knows what (Acts iv. 12). It conceives of no
he does, denies God as much as does reason in the very order and nature
the avowed atheist. Unitarianism of created things why it should be so.
that excludes the tri-personality of But how could man exist but by pro-
God is really atheism, and the God it ceeding from God through the divine
professes to recognize is only an ab- act creating him ? and how could he
straction. fulfil his existence but by returning
It is also evident that Beecherism to God, without absorption in him. as
 ;

Beecherism and its Tendencies. 441

his cause or supreme good ?

final bounded good, and demands an in-
How could he return without the te- finite beatitude, the only beatitude
leological order ? or how could there there is or can "be for it.

be a teleological order without Christ, But the only unbounded good, the
or the Word made flesh ? Nothing only infinite beatitude, is God; for God
is more shallow, more meagre, or more alone is infinite. All that is not God
insignificant than the Beecher Christi- is creature, and all that is creature is
anity. does well to depreciate the
It finite. God, then, is our final cause as
intellect, for there is nothing in it for well as our first cause. We proceed
the intellect to apprehend. from God through creation develop-
Nor less does Beecherism misap- ed by generation, and we return to
prehend and misrepresent the Chris- him through regeneration by grace
tian doctrine of the new birth or as our supreme good. Yet God,
regeneration. It attaches no mean- alike as our first cause and as our
ing, as far as we have been able to last end, is supernatural, above na-
perceive, to the palingenesia of which ture, above everything created. The
both our Lord and St. Paul speak. natural, that is, the creature, can-
Our Lord says expressly (St. John not in the nature of things be the
iii. " Except a man be born again, medium of the supernatural. We
3),
he cannot see the kingdom of God." must then have a supernatural medi-
Beecherism, in very properly reject- um of return to God as our last end or
ing the Methodistic process of " get- beatitude, or not return at all, but re-
ting religion," and the Calvinistic pro- main for ever below our destiny, and
cess of " obtaining a hope," goes far- for ever suffer the misery of an un-
ther, and denies the necessity of rege- fulfilled existence. Faith teaches us
neration itself, and seems to suppose that this medium is the man Christ

man can without a

return to God Jesus, or the Word made flesh, the only
teleological order, or being born into mediator of God and men. Chris-
the teleological life. It assumes that tianity is simply Christ himself, and

every one is bom by natural genera- the means he institutes or provides

tion on the plane of and his destiny, through the Holy Ghost to enable
may by proper and education
training us to rise to him, live his life, and
fulfil his existence, and attain beati- return to God, our supreme good, who
tude. Nothing more than the proper is our supreme good because he is
development and training of one's na- the supreme good itself, and the only
tural pov\^ers or faculties, it teaches, real good.
is necessary to make one an heir Christ cannot be our medium ex-
of the kingdom of God. This is the cept as we are united to him and
hobby of the feminine Beechers, and live his life. Live his life we cannot
perhaps not less so of the masculine unless united to him, and united to
Beechers. But the full development him we cannot be unless born of him
and right training of our natural fa- in the order of regeneration, as we are
culties do not raise us above the or- born of Adam in the order of gene-
der of generation, and only enable ration. Hence our Lord says, " Ex-
us to attain at best a natural or a creat- cept a m.an be born again, he cannot
ed beatitude, which is simply no be- see the kingdom of God." We can
atitude at all for a rational existence no more live the teleological life of
for it is finite, and nothing finite can Christ without being born of him,
satisfy the rational soul. The soul than we can the initial Adamic life
craves, hungers, and thirsts for an un- without being born of Adam. As
 — ; —

442 Bcccherism and its Tendmcics.

we had no faculties by the exercise must require one to act before being
of which we could attain to birth of born, or elseit must deny the teleo-

Adam into the order of generation, so logical or Christian order altogether.

by no exercise or development of our Since it professes to be Christian,
natural powers can we be born of Beecherism cannot overlook the
Avell
Christ in the order of regeneration. action of the Holy Ghost in the
Or, as we could not generate our- Christian life; but it does not, through
selves, neither can we regenerate our- any action of the Holy Spirit Avhich
selves. We can of ourselves alone it recognizes, get new birth
the or
no more enter the teleological order regeneration. The Holy Ghost, Ave
than we could the initial order. This have seen, it resolves into a divine
entrance into the teleological order St. effluence, or the spirit-poAver of God,
Paul calls even a " new creation," not a personal distinction in God,
and the one who has entered " a new and this effluence only stimulates or
creature,"and we need not say that excites our natural life.
one cannot become a new creation
"
This divine and universal effluence,"
or a new creature by development,
it says, " is the peculiar
element in which
education, or training. the soul is destined to live, and find its
Now, whatever Beecherism may inspiration and its true food. For al-
pretend, it recognizes no new birth though we find man first in this world,
at all. It is necessary, it concedes, and he receives his first food here, be-
cause he begins at a low point, yet as
that the soul should come into per-
he develops and goes up step by step,
sonal relations Avith Jesus Christ, and higher faculties, requiring a higher kind
that vre should live his life, but Ave of stimulus or food, are developed and ;

groAv into his life and live his life by he reaches manhood at that point in
love; and to be in personal relations which he begins to act from the influen-
ces that are divine and spiritual, and
with him means only to be in sympa-
that flow directly from God. Up to that
thy Avith him. Just begin to love Christ, point he lives as an animal, and bej-ond
it and then you Avill learn Avhat
says, that point as a man.
his life and Avill love him more and
is, " This divine Spirit, or, if I may so say,
more, and groAv more and more into the diffusive mind of God, which per-
vades all the realms of intelligent beings,
sympathy Avith him. But one might
and which the atmosphere the soul is
is
as Avell say to the child not yet born, medium of its light, the
to breathe, the
or conceived even, " Just begin to live stimulus of its life, acts in the first place
the life of Adam, and then you Avill as a general excitement. It develops the

be able by continued and per- effort whole nature of a man, by rousing it to

severance to groAV to be a man," as
life. We
are familiar \viih the gradations
of this excilemcnl."
to say to a man not born of Christ
through the Holy Ghost, " Just begin These gradations are: i, Nctdous
to live the life of Christ, and you excitement, produced by physical
AAdllbe able to live it," or, "Just enter stiinuli ; 2, Mesmeric excitement, pro-

the teleological order, or kingdom of duced by the action of men on one

heaven, and you aa^U be in it." C'estle another; 3, Esthetic excitement,
premier pas qui coiite. Once get into Avhich gives rise to genius, art, and
sympathy Avith Christ, and you are philosophy ; and, 4, The highest or
in sympathy Avith him. All very true diimie excitement. After describing
but hoAv take that first step ? How these several degrees of excitement,
begin to live Avithout being born ? "Ex- produced by the divine effluence, it
cept a man
be born again, he cannot I)roceeds to ask and ansAver the ques-
see the kingdom, of God." Beecherism tion
 : —

Beecherism and its T'cndencies. 443

" V\/'hat is the result of this supernatural natural order that can assimilate su-
divine stimulus upon man's nature? It pernatural food or stimulants.
seems to act on the sensuous and physi- Yet Beecherism Avould seem, we
cal nature only indirectly, by acting upon
confess, to go a little farther. It
the higher life. It is, in general, an an^ak-
continues
cning of the faculties. It fires men. It
develops their latent forces. We go all " It is, be3rond this that
however, still
our life long with iron in the soil under . . . seems to act up-
the divine Spirit
our feet, and do not know that it is hid- on the human mind, by imparting to it a
den there and we go all our life long
;
fineness of susceptibility and moral sympa-
carrying gold in the mountains of our thy, by which the soul is brought into
souls without knowing that it is there. immediate conscious and personal com-
We carry in us ranges of power that we munion with God, and from which the
know very little of. most illustrious events in man's history
" And the divine Spirit, in so far as it
are deduced " ijb. p. 89).
acts upon the human soul, or is permit-
ted to awaken it, develops its latent forces.
But, since the Beechers are on the
It carries forward a man's nature, open-
ing in it, often, faculties which have been
downward track, this must be taken

absolutely dormant. There are many as an effort to explain away, while

men vv'ho have eyes that they have never seeming to retain, the mystery of re-
opened, and that are capable of seeing generation. All that is imparted
truths which they never have seen. They
are therefore called blind. And' they be-
better say, produced —
is a finer sensi-

bility and a higher moral sympathy ;

gin to see only when the divine Spirit
acts upon their souls because there are
;
no new principle is imparted or in-
which will not act ex-
certain faculties fused into the soul that elevates it to
cept when they are brought under the the plane of the supernatural. It is
divine influence. Then it is that these
only the highest degree of that gene-
faculties begin life, as it were" {Third
ral excitement, varying in degree,
Series, pp. S7-S9).
from the lov.^est point to the highest,
Thus far it is certain' that there is which Beecherism defines the effect
no new birth asserted; there is only of the divine effluence on the soul to
an awakening into activity, under the be. The true doctrine of the Holy
stimulus of the divine effluence, of Ghost, we are told on the same page,
natural forces hitherto latent, or the is " that it is the influence of the di-
higher faculties of the soul hitherto vine mind, of the whole being of
dormant, and which without it are God, as it were, sent down into the
not, perhaps cannot be, awakened, realm of rational creatures, hovering
developed, or excited to act. This above them as a stimulating atmos-
means that the soul rises to its high- phere, and food for the soul ; and
er life, or the exercise of its higher that when men rise into this atmos-
faculties, only under the influence of phere, which is the nature of God
supernatural stimulants, but not that diffused in the world, they come to a
it is translated from the natural order higher condition of faculties." Yes,
of life into the supernatural. The when they lise into it. Always the
divine stimulants only develop what same difficulty of the first step. When
is already in the soul. These divine men have risen into this stimulating
influences create or infuse nothing atmosphere, they can breathe it ; but
into the soul ; they only excite to ac- how are they to rise into it ? Begin
tivity what is latent or dormant in to love God a little, and you will be
the soul, and therefore do not lift stimulated to love him more and
it into a higher order of life and it ; more, till you love him perfectly. No
is only the soul living in the super- doubt of it. But how begin ? The
444 Beccherisni and its Tendencies.

atmosphere of God is hovering above roughly disgusted with this feature

us, and Beecherism not only requires
us, but assumes that we are able of
ourselves, without the infusion of
and even without the stimulating
life,
atmosphere itself, to lift ourselves up
to it, and henceforth to live and
breathe in it, and assimilate it as food
for the soul.
The illustrations prove
of it, and have simply aimed to get
rid of it, and to find a regular way
new by which the child can grow up as a
Christian. Rejecting with all Pro-
testants sacramental grace, infused
virtues, and baptismal regeneration,
they have had no alternative but
either to accept the moral cataclysm
it. On the produced by the immediate and irre-

same page again, it is said of the sistible inrushing of the Holy Ghost,
men who have risen to this atmos- as all Evangelicalism asserts, or else
phere, that " they find -whereas their to maintain that our natural life, pro-
heart was like a tree in the far perly developed and directed, grows
north, which, although it could blos- of itself into the truelife of Christ,

som a little, could never ripen its and suffices to secure our beatitude.
fruit, because the summer is so short, They do well to reject the Evangelical
now their heart is like that same tree doctrine of conversion, but, knowing
carried down toward the equator, no other they in doing
alternative,
where it brings its fruit to ripeness." so bring Christ, the Holy Ghost, the
But here is implied only a change in Christian or teleological order of life,
the exterior conditions; the seminal and man's beatitude, down to the
principle, the principle of life and order of natural generation, lose the
fecundity, w^as in the tree when in palingenesia, and of course every-
" the far north " not less than it was thing distinctively Christian.
when " carried down toward the Dr. Bellows, a well-known Unita-
equator." Whatever " fineness of rian minister in this city, commenting
"
susceptibility and moral sympathy not long since on a sermon by Henry
the divine effluence in its action on Ward Beecher, said it was " as good
the soul may impart, it certainly does Unitarianism as he wanted," and we
not, on the Beecher theory, infuse do not think that, in saying so, he
into the soul or beget in it the wronged either Beecherism or Unita-
principle of a new and higher hfe rianism. Certain it is that Beecher-
than our natural life, which is what ism rejects in substance, if not in so
is necessary in order to assert the many words, the mystery of the ever-
new birth. blessed Trinity or the tri-personality
Beecherism is not, we presume, in- of God ; the mystery of the Word
tentionally warring against the Chris- made flesh, or the Incarnation; the
tian mystery of regeneration, for it is mystery of redemption ; the mystery
not likely that it knows anything of regeneration and of mediatorial
about it. What moves it is hostility or sacramental grace and what more
;

to the Methodistic and Evangelical could any Unitarian ask of it ? It

cant about " experiencing religion," would be easy to show that the Beech-
" getting religion," " obtaining hope," ers make no account of the gratia
"being hopefully converted," in a sort Christie and assign to Christ no office
of moral cataclysm, prior to which in man's redemption, salvation, or be-
all one's acts, even one's prayers and atitude. The influence of the divine
offerings, are sins, hateful to God. spirit that Beecherism asserts is su-
The Beechers, brought up in the pernatural only in the sense that the
Evangehcal school, have become tho- creative act of God producing us from
 Beecherism and its Tendencies. 445

nothing is supernatural. It is the that " the proof of the pudding is in

nature of God that pervades the the eating," but if the pudding hap-
world, and is only what theologians pens to be poisoned or unwholesome,
call the divine presence in all his the proof comes too late after the
works sustaining and developing them eating. Prudent persons would re-
in the natural order, or the divine quire some guarantee before eating
concurrence in every act of every that the pudding is not poisoned or
one of them. It is supernatural, for unwholesome, but is what it is said
God is and all his acts
supernatural, to be. Ward Beecher is no doubt
and influences are supernatural, but a very respectable cook in his way,
creating no supernatural order of life. but we have yet to learn that the
Nay, hardly so much as this for we ; Plymouth congregation receives much
are told that God is not everywhere spiritual nutriment from his cooking.
present, and his influence or effluence, It may be a question whether they
being inseparable from himself, can- who die in sin, or under the penalty
not be more universal than his being of sin, are or are not doomed to a
or extend beyond it; and hence there hell of literal fire; there also may be
may, if Beecherism is right, be exist- questions raised as to the degree or
ences where God is not. intensity of the sufferings of the damn-
After this, it can hardly be neces- ed, and perhaps as to the principle
sary to descend to further details ; for, on which their sufferings are inflicted
if Christianity be anything more than and are reconcilable with the infinite
the order of genesis, or pure natural- power and goodness of the Creator;
ism, the Beechers have no Christian but among intelligent believers in
standing, even in simple human faith. Christ as the mediator of God and
They know nothing of mediatorial man, and the founder and principle ,

grace; and these sermons make as
light of the sacrament of orders as their
author, in the Astor House scandal,
did of the sacrament of matrimony.
The language of Scripture, however
plain and express, has
for him. He
admits that one has no
authority to preach the Gospel unless
he descends from the apostles, but
holds that every one who is able to
preach it with zeal and effect does
descend from them. He has his
orders and mission in the inward an-
of the teleological order, there can \/
be none as to the fact that the suffer-
ing is and must be everlasting. Every
one capable of suffering must suffer
as long as he remains unperfected
no authority and below his destiny. The damned,
vv^hatever else may be said of them,
are those who have failed, through
their own fault or that of their supe-
riors, to fulfil their existence or attain
their end, and thus are inchoate, in-
complete, or unperfected existences,
and therefore necessarily suffer all

ointing of the Holy Ghost
by the way, he does not believe
though the Scripture teaches that it
is through " the laying on of the
hands of the presbytery " that one
receives the power that is, the
Holy Ghost and the mission is
; in the state in
given in a regular way, through those
already ordained and authorized by
our Lord himself to confer jurisdiction.
Ward Beecher goes on the principle
— in whom, the miseries that spring from unsat-
— al- isfied or unfulfilled nature. As at
death men pass from the world of
time to eternity, in which there is no
succession and no change, the damn-
— ed must necessarily remain for ever
which they die, and,
therefore, their suffering must be ever-
lasting.
Yet Beecherism, without explicitly
affirming universal salvation, decid-
 ;

446 Beecherisvi and its Tendencies.

edly doubts that the sufferings of the female suffrage and eligibility, and
damned, if any damned there are, reversing the laws of God, so as to
will be everlasting, as we may see in make the woman the head of the
The Alinister's Wooing^ and in the De- man, not man the head of the wo-
fence of Lady Byron, by Mrs. Beech- man. Henry Ward Beecher is at
er Stov/e, as well as from a recent the head of the woman's rights move-
sermon by Mr. Henry Ward Beech- ment, so earnestly defended by his
er, if correctly reported; although lackey of the Independent. Beech-
a more logical conclusion from its erism goes in also for liberty of di-
premises would be the everlasting vorce,and virtually for polygamy
misery of all men, for makes no
it and concubinage or free and
love,
provision for their redemption and free religion, while it retains enough
return through Christ the mediator of its original Calvinistic spirit to re-
to God as their final cause or beati- quire the state to take charge of our
tude. From some things we read, we private morals,and determine by sta-
infer that Beecherism inclines to spi- tute what we may or may not eat,
ritism, as it certainly does to mes- drink, or wear, when we may go to
merism, which only incipient or
is bed or get up; that is, it would
tentative spiritism, and it probably clothe the magistrate with authority
accepts in substance the doctrine of to enforce with civil pains and penal-
the spirits —
the doctrine of devils ? tieswhatever it may for the moment
— that there is very little change hold to be for the interest of private
in passing from this world to the and and to prohibit in
social morals,
is a world of
next, which, like this, like manner whatever it holds to be
time and change, in which the de- against them to-day, though it may
velopment begun here may be con- hold the contrary to-morrow. The
tinued, and the spirits rise or sink Beecher tendency is to throw oft' all
from circle to circle according to the dogmatic faith; to reject or to make
progress they make or fail to make; no account of the Christian mysteries
but always free and able, if they to remove all restraintson the emo-
choose, to better their condition, tions, affections, and passions; to place
and enter higher and higher circles the essence of marriage not in the free
up to the highest. Lady Byron, who consent of the contracting parties, but
appears to have been a spiritist, and in the sentiment or passion of love,
who regarded her husband. Lord By- obligatory, and lawful even, only so
ron, as the most execrable of men, long as the love lasts ; to regard all
still expected, if we may believe Mrs. authority as tyrannical that would re-
Beecher StOAve, to meet him in the strain one from holding and utter-
spirit-world wholly purified, and a ing the most false, dangerous, and
beatified saint, standing near the blasphemous theories ; and at the same
throne of the Highest Great theo-! time, in the true Calvinistic spirit, to
logians and philosophers are the demand that the magistrate shall re-
spirits. press whatever it, in the exercise of its

Beecherism jumps astride every liberty,judges to be wrong, and en-

popular movement, or what appears force with the strong hand whatever it
to it likely to be a popular move- holds to-day to be enjoined by hu-
ment, of the day. It v/ent in for manity, though directly contrary to
abolition, negro suffrage, and negro what it held yesterday. It substi-

eligibility, and now goes in for negro tutes change for stability, passion for
equality, in all the relations of society. reason, opinion for faith, desire for
 Beecherism and
hope, philanthropy for charity, fanati-
cism for piety, humanity for God, and,
in the end, demonism for humanity,
since man, as he renounces God, in-
evitably comes under the power of
Satan.
That Beecherism has reached this
extreme point we do not allege, but
we think we have shown that this is
the point to which it tends. But the
Beechers are a representative family,
and represent the spirit and tendency
of their age and country. The spirit
of the age moves and agitates them,
the current of the modern unchristian
civilization flows through them, and
their heart feels and responds
to every
vibration of the popular heart. " They
are of the world, and the world hear-
eth them," and sustains them, let
them do what they will. Mrs. Beech-
er Stowe's Byronics, though assailed
and refuted by the leading journals
and periodicals of the Old World and
the New, have not damaged her re-
putation, and she, perhaps, is moi-e
popular than ever. The world can-
not spare its most faithful feminine
representative. Henry Ward Beech-
er survives the Astor House scandal
without loss of prestige, and proves
that the dominant sentiment of the
American people makes as hght of
the marriage bond as he did, and
holds it is no more an offence against
Christian morals for a man to marry
another man's wife than he does.
He only represented the popular sen-
timent respecting marriage and di-
vorce. He in fact gained credit, in-
stead of losing it, by an act which
shocked every man and woman who
believes that marriage is sacred and
inviolable, and thatwhat God has
joined together no human authority
can sunder. Henry Ward Beecher
is probably the most popular preach-
er, as Mrs. Beecher Stowe is the most
popular novelist, in the country.
The Beecher family, we grant, are
its Te^idencies. 447
a gifted family, but not more so than
thousands of others. They have tal-
ent, but not genius, and are not above
mediocrity in learning, science, taste,
or refinement. The sermons before us
are marked by a certain rough ener-
gy, or a certain degree of earnestness
and directness, but they indicate a
sad lack of theological erudition, of
varied knowledge, breadth of view,
and depth of thought. They rarely if
ever rise above commonplace, never go
beneath the surface, are loose, vague,
indefinite in expression, unpolished,
and not seldom even vulgar in style,
and have only a stump-orator sort
of eloquence. The Beecher popu-
larity and influence cannot then be
ascribed to the personal character or
qualities of the Beecher family, and
can be explained only by the fact that
they are in harmony with the spirit of
the Evangelical world and represent
its dominant tendencies.
In the Beecher family, then, we
may read the inevitable course and
tendency of Evangelical Protestant-
ism, whither it is going, and in what
it must end at last. The Beechers
never defend a decidedly unpopular
cause ; they are incapable of being
martyrs to either lost or incipient
causes ; they never join a movement
till they feel that it is destined to be
popular; they were never knovm as
abolitionists till it was clear that the
success of abolition was only a ques-
tion of time ; and we should not see
Henry Ward Beecher at the head of
thewoman's rights movement if he did
not see or beheve that it has sufficient
vitality to succeed without him. Yet
the Beechers are shrewd, and usually
keep just a step in advance of the
point the public has reached to-day,
but which the signs of the times as-
sure them the public will have reach-
ed to-morrow so that they may al-
;
ways appear as public leaders, and gain
the credit of having declared them-
448 Beechcrism and its Tendencies.

selves, before success was known. gelicalism is bound to no creed, oblig-

We cannot, therefore, assume that ed to defend no doctrine, is sufficient-
the world they appear to lead is ac- ly elastic to take in every heresy and
tually up to the point where they stand, to sympathize with any and every
but we may feel very certain that movement that is not a movement in
where they stand iswhere the world the direction of the church of God.
they represent will stand to-morrow. It is, to borrow a figure from St. Au-

They are a day, but only a day, ahead gustine, the proud and gorgeous city
of their world. of the world set over against the city
The Beechers are Protestants of of God, and which it attacks by storm
the Calvinistic stamp, and Calvinism, and siege with all the world's forces
Evangelically developed, is the only and all the world's engines of destruc-
living form of Protestantism. All tion. Whoso
thinks it is not a for-
other forms had for their organic prin- midable power, or that it can be easi-
ciple the external authority of prin- ly vanquished, reckons without his
ces, have borne their fruit, died, host ; only God is mightier than it,
are dead, and should be buried but ; and only God can defeat it, and bring
Calvinism had for its organic princi- it to naught.
ple the subjective nature of man, in the We do not say that Evangelicalism
emotions, sentiments, and affections has yet advanced or descended, ra-—
of the heart, and can change as they ther — so far as to leave absolutely be-
change, and live as long as they live. hind all objective doctrines ; it stiU
This is what the Abbe Martin has in clings to a fading reminiscence of
his mind when he says, " Protestantism them, and chooses to express its sub-
is imperishable." Calvinism can lose jective religion in the language of
the support of the civil government, all faith, to put its new wine into its old
objective faith, all distinctive doctrines, bottles, or, however the emotions,
and still retain its identity, its vitality, sentiments, affections, passions may
and its power of development. Indeed, change, to them by a Christian
call
it has lost all that, and yet it survives name. In this, Beecherism humors
in all its strength in what is called its fancy, and lures it on in its down-

Evangelicalism, and which is confin-
ed to no particular sect, but compre-
hends or accepts all that is living in
any or all the sects. It is the living,
active, energizing Protestantism of
the day; that which inspires
grand philanthropic, moral and
cial reform, missionary, educational,
and the thousand-and-one other enter-
prises inwhich the Protestant world
engages with so much zeal, and for
ward career. Any one of the mas-
culine Beechers is as little of a Chris-
tian as was Theodore Parker or Mar-
garet Fuller, or as is Ralph Waldo
Emerson or Ellingwood Abbot, John
all the Weiss or O. B. Frothingham; but the
so- Beecher holds from Evangelicalism,
retains its spirit and much of its lan-
guage, and, instead of breaking with
it as the Unitarians did, he continues
its legitimate development, and keeps

which it collects and spends so many up the family connection. He may

millions annually ; that holds world's keep just in advance of it, but he does
conventions, forms alliances of sect not deviate from the line of its march.
with sect, and leagues with social- Unitarians are beginning to see their
ists, revolutionists,and avowed infi- blunder, and are striving daily to re-
dels to carry on war to the death
its pair it.

against the church of Christ and espe- is by no means the last

Beecherism
cially against his infallible vicar. Evan- word of Evangelicalism. It probably
 :

Beecherism a?id its Tendencies. 449

does not itself understand that word, rebellion against God." Now it says
nor is it able to foretell what it will be. " I represent humanity, and humani-
It represents the subjective or emo- ty is supreme ; I am the people ; the
tional side of Evangelicalism ; but people are sovereign their will is the ;

Evangelicalism holds from Calvinism, supreme law; therefore, obey my will,

and Calvinism, along with its subjec- or die as the enemies of humanity."
developed in the
tive principle, fully Let Evangelicalism once become do-
Beechers, asserts the theocratic prin- minant in a republic, be the belief or
ciple —a true principle when not mis- spirit of the people, and it can easily
apprehended or misapplied, or when and will establish the most odious
represented and applied by the infal- civil and religious despotism, even
lible church divinely commissioned to while it imagines that it is laboring
declare and apply the law of God, solely in the interests of humanity.
but a most dangerous, odious princi- It God and his law in the
has cast off
ple when applied by an unauthorized name of religion, reduced religion to
body, like the early Calvinists in Gene- the emotions, passions, and affections
va, Scotland, and the New England of human nature, in the name of piety.
colonies, as experience abundantly As every one of these is exclusive and
proves. As Calvinism develops and despotic in tendency, nothing is
its

becomes humanity
Evangelicalism, more simple than to cast off all liberty,
takes the place of God, and the theo- justice, equity, in the name of God and
cratic principle becomes the anthro- humanity. All government holding
pocratic principle, or the supremacy from humanity or the people as its ul-
of humanity and of course the abso-
; timate principle, is and must be intoler-
lute right of Evangelicals, philanthro- ant and tyrannical with all the intoler-
the representatives, or those who
pists, ance and despotism of human passions
claim to be the representatives, of hu- or sentiments. The only possible
manity, to govern mankind in all security for any kind of liberty is in
things spiritual and temporal in prac- — the subjection of the people, collec-
tice, of those who can best succeed in iitively as well as individually or man's —
carrying the people with them, or, emotional, affective, or passional na-
those vulgarly called demagogues. ture —
to the law of God, the very law
Evangelicalism is developing in a hu- of liberty, because the very law of
manitarian direction, affects to be de- justice and equality.
mocratic, and is in reality nothing We may
see what Evangelicalism
but Jacobinism, socialism, Mazzinian- would do by observing what Jacob-
ism, with a long face, clad in a pious inism did in France. There it was
robe, and speaking in deep, guttural supreme for a time, and its govern-
tones. ment is known in history as the Reign
But not all.
this is The Calvinis- of Terror. Its spirit was, " Stranger,
tic not changed any more
spirit is embrace me as your brother, or I will
than the identity of Calvinism is lost kill you." We what it would do
see
by the changes in our emotional na- if it had full sway in what it attempts
ture, by the transformation of the everywhere in the way of political,
theocratic principle into the anthro- social, and moral reform. When it
pocratic. It is always and every- sees what it regards as an evil, public
where, in religion and politics, in so- or private, it seeks by denunciation
ciety and the family, the spirit of des- and a fanatical agitation to bring pub-
potism. At first it said :
" I represent lic opinion to bear against it, and then
God; do as I bid you, or die in your to get the legislature to pass a statute
VOL. XII. — 2g
450 Venite A dor emus !
against it and suppress it by the strong cut, but it would legislate in the same

arm of power. Whatever it would spirit, and in a direction equally

si^:ppress, it seeks to make unpopular, against all true liberty. It opposes
and then to legislate it down. It ap- the church because she opposes Ja-
peals to public opinion, and popu- cobinism and exerts all her power in
larity and unpopularity are -its mea- favor of stable government, wise and
sure of right and wrong. It hates just laws ; and it encourages every-
the church, and is doing all it can to where the Jacobinicj-l revolution, as
form public opinion against her by giving it the power to suppress all
decrying and calumniating her to — liberty but its liberty to enforce, by
form a public opinion that Avill, in the public opinion and civil pains and
very name of equality, deny her equal penalties, its own constantly shifting
rights with the sects — and to enact notions of the public good or the inte-
laws for the suppression of the free- rests of humanity.
dom of her discipline and of her wor- The Unitarians, we have said, made
ship as fast as it can be done pru- a blunder in breaking with Evangeli-
dently. We see it in the Evangelical calism. Beecherism shows them how
hostility to our equal rights in the they may repair it, and assists them
public schools, and its legislation on to do it. Only keep clear of explicit
marriage and divorce. Its acts en- denials, preserve a few Evangelical
forcing negro equality, to legislate phrases, profess to be in earnest for
men into temperance, etc., are all " heart-religion," which means no re-
signs of what it would do if it could. ligion at all, and peace is made, and
It would not legislate against the Satan has his forces united against
same things now or under the same the Lord and his anointed, against
pretence that Calvin did in Geneva, both civil and religious liberty, and
or our Puritan fathers did in the colo- for the emancipation of society from
nies of Massachusetts and Connecti- the supremacy of the divine law.

VENITE ADOREMUS!
Dec. 25, A.c. I.

/
A LOWLY cave, in the hush of night,
'Neath the quiet gaze of the holy light
Of the stars, with chant of angels bright,
Welcomes Emmanuel.

Dec. 25, A.D. 1870.

A sinful heart, apart from men,

Bowed humbly down, within the ken
Of One, with sorrow's love, again
Welcomes Emmanuel.
Accession No.

Added 187

Catalogued BY

Revised by

Memoranda
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