Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813-March 8, 1887) was an American clergyman, editor and abolitionist. He was the son of the New England theologian Lyman Beecher, and brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the novelist and reformer who wrote the book Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Over 2,500 people flocked to hear him each week at the Plymouth Church of Brooklyn, New York.
He increasingly used his pulpit to denounce civil corruption, support women's suffrage (the right to vote), and preach against slavery:
<Sink the Bible to the bottom of the ocean, and still man's obligations to God would be unchanged. He would have the same path to tread, only his lamp and his guide would be gone; the same voyage to make, but his chart and compass would be overboard.> 1813HB001
<If a man cannot be a Christian in the place where he is, he cannot be a Christian anywhere.> 1813HB002
<A Christian is nothing but a sinful man who has put himself to school to Christ for the honest purpose of becoming better.> 1813HB003
<Christianity works while infidelity talks. She feeds the hungry, clothes the naked, visits and cheers the sick, and seeks the lost, while infidelity abuses her and babbles nonsense and profanity. "By their fruits ye shall know them."> 1813HB004
<There's not much practical Christianity in the man who lives on better terms with angels and seraphs, than with his children, servants, and neighbors.> 1813HB005
<"I can forgive but I cannot forget" is only another way of saying "I cannot forgive."> 1813HB006
<The Bible is God's chart for you to steer by, to keep you from the bottom of the sea, and to show you where the harbor is, and how to reach it without running on the rocks or bars.> 1813HB007
On November 18, 1869, after the Civil War had concluded, Henry Ward Beecher spoke on the need for the North and South to cooperate, rather than to continue the practice on regionalism and denominationalism:
<In the unity of the nation and the reduction of its materials, we hope much from religion; very little from sectarian churches; much from the Spirit of God blessing the Truth of his Word to the hearts of individual men; much from the individual men that are nobler than their sect; much from free men whose adhesion to forms and ceremonies is the least part of their existence; much from religion as it exists in its higher forms in individual nature and in public sentiment; very little from dogmas; very little from theology as such....
Let us implore the God of our fathers, by his own wise providence, to save us from our wanton passions, from impertinent egotism, from pride, arrogance, cruelty, and sensual lusts, that as a nation we may show forth his praise in all the earth.> 1813HB008
--
American Quotations by William J. Federer, 2024, All Rights Reserved, Permission granted to use with acknowledgement.
Endnotes:
1813HB001. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Mark Galli, "The Gallery: Firebrands and Visionaries-Leading people in religion and politics during the Civil War era" (Carol Stream, IL: Christian History, Christianity Today, Inc., 1992), Issue 33, Vol. XI, No. 1, p. 18. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 47.
1813HB002. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Life Thoughts. Burton Stevenson, The Home Book of Quotations (New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1967), p. 264. Carroll E. Simcox, 3000 Quotations on Christian Themes (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House 1989), p. 164. Bob Cutshall, More Light for the Day (Minneapolis, MN: Northwest Products, Inc., 1991), 9.11.
1813HB003. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 89.
1813HB004. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 91.
1813HB005. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Tryon Edwards, D.D., The New Dictionary of Thoughts-A Cyclopedia of Quotations (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1852; revised and enlarged by C.H. Catrevas, Ralph Emerson Browns and Jonathan Edwards [descendent, along with Tryon, of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), president of Princeton], 1891; The Standard Book Company, 1955, 1963), p. 91.
1813HB006. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Bob Cutshall, More Light for the Day (Minneapolis, MN: Northwestern Products, Inc., 1991), 3.24.
1813HB007. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher. Alfred Armand Montapert, Distilled Wisdom (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1965), p. 36.
1813HB008. William J. Federer, American Quotations (2014). Henry Ward Beecher, November 18, 1869, in a message urging reconciliation following the Civil War. John R. Howard, ed., A Rare Collection of Beecher's Speeches (compiled in 1889). Charles Hurd, ed., A Treasury of Great American Speeches (NY: Hawthorne Books, 1959), pp. 118-119.