on in regard to its pastor. The first
investigation was presented, in its method, evidence and results, to a
meeting of the church. After full public notice and by a unanimous vote
of about fifteen hundred members, practically the entire resident
membership, Mr. Beecher was awarded the perfect confidence of the
church. The civil trial resulted in a disagreement of the jury, but the
chief lawyer for the prosecution and the presiding judge both publicly
affirmed their absolute conviction in Mr. Beecher's innocence. The
Council was the largest and most representative ever known in the
history of the Congregational Churches. Over two hundred and forty men
from every part of the country, holding every phase of theological
beliefs and of ecclesiastical habit, met together, and for days
investigated, considered, questioned, with a freedom impossible in
strictly legal procedure, and closed their sessions with formal
reaffirmation of Mr. Beecher's innocence, no charge against him having
been sustained by any proof.

While it is thus true that Mr. Beecher and the church came forth
triumphant, it was at heavy cost. No man could endure such a strain
without showing the effects of it, and Mr. Beecher never recovered the
old buoyancy. In many ways it became evident how keenly he felt the
trial. The church showed the effect less. A few, very few, members left
the church, but the number of dismissions was not larger than usual;
indeed they were less than in the previous two years, and the church
remained the more united. The admissions by letter were exceptionally
large, as were also those by confession of their faith. More pertinent,
however, than these evidences of life is the fact that the entire work
of the church suffered no interruption. Prayer meetings, Sunday School,
continued with usual vigour, and the general activities of the
congregation were carried on as if there was nothing unusual taking
place.

It was this that aroused the attention of the country at large and
convinced many that the basis of the real power of Plymouth Church lay
not so much in any oratorical gifts of its pastor, as in the substantial
Christian life of its members. Those who could hold together under such
a strain were not likely to fall apart under the pressure of any lesser
difficulty. Undoubtedly there was a certain amount of _esprit de corps_,
a realisation of the absolute necessity of mutual support, but to those
who look back on those days it i