her. His first sermon
in Plymouth Church outlined his course; and the principles then laid
down he was to preach for fifty years: the love of God; the life of
Christ, not as a sacrifice, but as an example--our Elder Brother; and
Liberty--liberty to think, to express, to act, to become.

It would have been worth going miles to see this man as he appeared at
Plymouth Church those first years of his ministry. Such a specimen of
mental, spiritual and physical manhood Nature produces only once in a
century. Imagine a man of thirty-five, when manhood has not yet left
youth behind, height five feet ten, weight one hundred eighty, a body
like that of a Greek god, and a mind poised, sure, serene, with a fund
of good nature that could not be overdrawn; a face cleanly shaven; a
wealth of blond hair falling to his broad shoulders; eyes of infinite
blue--eyes like the eyes of Christ when He gazed upon the penitent
thief on the cross, or eyes that flash fire, changing their color with
the mood of the man--a radiant, happy man, the cheeriest, sunniest
nature that ever dwelt in human body, with a sympathy that went out to
everybody and everything--children, animals, the old, the feeble, the
fallen--a man too big to be jealous, too noble to quibble, a man so
manly that he would accept guilt rather than impute it to another. If he
had been possessed of less love he would have been a stronger man. The
generous nature lies open and unprotected--through its guilelessness it
allows concrete rascality to come close enough to strike it. "One reason
why Beecher had so many enemies was because he bestowed so many
benefits," said Rufus Choate.

Talmage did not discover himself until he was forty-six; Beecher was
Beecher at thirty-five. He was as great then as he ever was--it was too
much to ask that he should evolve into something more--Nature has to
distribute her gifts. Had Beecher grown after his thirty-fifth year, as
he grew from twenty-five to thirty-five, he would have been a Colossus
that would have disturbed the equilibrium of the thinking world, and
created revolution instead of evolution. The opposition toward great men
is right and natural--it is a part of Nature's plan to hold the balance
true, "lest ye become as gods!"

* * * * *

I traveled with Major James B. Pond one lecture season, and during that
time heard only two themes discussed, John Brown and Henry Ward Beecher.
These were his gods. Pond