HENRY WARD BEECHER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4212, 19 September 1874, Page 2

HENRY WARD BEECHER.

* TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —About eighteen months ago, I was staying for a few weeks in New York, or rather Brooklyn, on my journey across, the American Continent, and I naturally availed myself of the opportunity to hear this famous preacher. I say to hear him, for it is impossible to live even for a few hours in New York without hearing of him. What I heard of him was this, that he was at that time in the receipt of a larger income from his congregation alone than was enjoyed by the President of the United States, and very proud were the New Yorkers of the fact. • The,amount was, if I remember correctly, 25,000 dollar’s per annum. Since.then the income of the President has been doubled. But lest what T have said should produce a false impression, I am bound to add another thing which I heard at the same time—viz., that Mr. Beecher’s congregation had somewhat recently proposed to increase his stipend, but that he had declined to allow it to be done. A word, also, as to the accommodation at Plymouth Church. The hospitality of the church, if I may say so, is admirable in the extreme. Whilst the regular congregation is assembling, strangers (and they are there by many hundreds at every service) are accommodated on forms ranged against the wall, but when the service has proceeded for a short time Mr. Beecher pauses, and then the attendants throughout the vast building invite the strangers into all the vacant pews ; in a few minutes every pew throughout the building is densely packed, and the stranger luxuriates for the rest of the service in a comfort which I for one highly appreciated. Nor is any attempt made to oblige him to pay for this by passing round the bag ; only on ■ special occasions is there any collection. But when every seat has been filled, the sight of those serried masses, said to be 3000 strong, all rising together to join in the psalmody of the, service is one never 'to be forgotten by him who ; has beheld it. But, of course, the chief thing is the moral character of the man who stands confronting this vast audience, and I cannot help thinking that - more has been made of the charges brought against him than need have been, and that is why lam writing. People here speak of it as if it were something new and recent. Why, it was the stock-theme of the newsboys in New York when I was there ■ eighteen months ago, hut nobody paid any heed to it there. Every morning as I walked down Broadway and Wall Street, the newsboys were shouting the latest details of the “Ward Beecher scandal,” but if you asked anybody about it you were told it was nothing. In spite of the noise that was made, the attack was confined to one newspaper - , a journal of no standing, edited by the woman Woodhull and another—l think her name was McCaflin. It was believed that the attack was made by these women to increase the sale of their paper, and gratify a personal spite ; but I never came across anybody who thought the assertions worthy of a second thought, still less of a serious refutation. I suppose these women have kept up the attack till at last some few have come to believe them through sheer iteration, on the principle that if you persist in throwing mud long c-nongh some of it is sure to stick at last. None but will rejoice that the inquiry has resulted iu an acquittal ; hut it is better still to know that no inquiry was needed amongst those who had the best opportunities of knowing him. I have said far too much, or I should like to have added a word or two on the secret of his great power, as it shaped itself to my mind ; summed up in one sentence, it was his strong common sense, his perfect mastery of his subject, and his thorough earnestness. —I am, &c., John Gammell. Wellington, September 18.