Beecher's Theology by Editor

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1875

Beecher's Theology.

By Editor

The popular religion of the day is essentially worldly and human; its theology is sentimental and sensational. It appeals to the emotions, and is almost entirely destitute of reverence. The ideal Saviour of the professors of such religion is one with whom they can be on terms of personal familiarity, and whom they love because he teaches them their own dignity, or, in other words, they love him because he is so nearly like themselves, and ministers to their good feeling and self-complacency.

For some time H. W. Beecher has been the leader, the very high priest of this class and of their theology; a theology which arouses the same feelings by the sermon and by the novel. His novels contain the substance of his religion, and his sermons contain the sympathetic shallowness of the novel. While he has been admired and almost idolized as the model preacher of the age, he has done more than any other man of this generation to inspire a love for light reading and to flood the churches with literary trash. It is a sufficient index to the superficial spirit of the popular religion that it exalts such men to the position of religious reformers. But we did not commence this so much to give our own views as to quote the following words from the N. Y. Sun. A better presentation of the case could not be made:—

"When the Eagle, therefore, says further that Mr. Beecher 'has exercised a wider influence upon the religious thought of our times than any other minister of the age,' and that 'he has been largely influential in modifying the Protestant beliefs of Christendom,' it makes a preposterous claim for the Plymouth pastor. Mr. Beecher could not, except by indirection, influence the general belief, because he has had no clear and determined belief of his own. The characteristic of his preaching is its sentimentality. Religion to him is good feeling; love to God, or Christ, as he would specifically urge, is an emotion that bears a close relation to the love of one human being for another, only perhaps higher and finer—its spiritual projection, in fact. Such preaching may attract great congregations, but it does not modify the beliefs of Christendom and it never will for it does not appeal to belief or establish belief, but only stimulates the feelings which, as we all know, may be stirred to the furthest depths without beneficial effect on moral character. The fruit of such preaching as Mr Beecher's is in truth ephemeral; and the minister who makes it his only resource may expect his influence to be substantially gone when his voice is extinct. Not so with men like Athanasius, or John Calvin, or John Wesley; these formulate creeds and religious methods, and plant them deep in human thought and character. The only religious achievement of Mr. Beecher really has been Plymouth Church, which will crumble to pieces when he disappears, for it is founded on a man and not on any great principle." J. H. W.