Introduction                                  

Lyman Beecher occupied a distinctive place in the history of American Protestantism. In his lifetime (1775-1863) he served as minister in three parishes in New England, president of a Cincinnati seminary, occasional revivalist and above all as a leader of numerous voluntary societies and Protestant causes in the first four decades of the nineteenth century. Later in his life Beecher's presence was indirectly mediated through the works of his children, especially Catharine Beecher (1800-1878) whose written word we shall encounter in this collection, famous novelist Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) and popular preacher Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887).

Noted for his organizing talents and abundant energy, Lyman Beecher has never received full recognition for his labors as the workhorse speaker for various Protestant benevolent causes in the early years of the Republic. In many ways, he was the quintessential “movement” rhetorician–ready to rally support or to renew flagging spirits, quick to claim the grand historical significance of the crusade of the moment and always deft at weaving the rhetoric of giving into a rousing climatic call for action.

Here is an illustration of Beecher at work. The occasion was an 1827 gathering in New York to summon support for the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Rather than focusing upon the work of foreign missionaries and their need for funds, the preacher chose instead to describe the historic, indeed cosmic struggle for America's soul. Beecher began by connecting the ancient rivalry between Christ and Satan (or the “mighty fallen spirit”) with the struggle of the American churches against a "well-constructed opposition to the Gospel.”[1] In the United States the forces involved in this “opposition” include “Papal superstition,” “crime,” “a more liberal sort of religion” and the forces working to corrupt “the purity of revivals of religion.”

The response to these “resources of the enemy”[2] requires a vital evangelical movement that will arouse “lukewarm” Christians from their spiritual torpor.  In the last half of the sermon (represented in the reading included below), Beecher turned toward describing the strategy for reviving American Christianity and preparing it for its world mission.

One element in that strategy was a marked increase in giving to benevolent societies. And therein lay a crucial challenge to evangelical Christians in this country. Beecher had no doubt about the possible availability of ample sums for this great cause. “There is at this moment, in the hands of Christians,” he declared, “capital enough to evangelize the world in a short period of time.” But would that money be forthcoming? What teachings about giving would be adequate to that assignment? Beecher answered the latter question in the course of his sermon.

The evangelical public had to be moved to see and to embrace the extraordinary opportunity then opening up in God's providential plan. By defeating Satan's minions, the movement could thereby usher in the millennial era. One more great effort would push history towards its consummation. Now was the time for giving. Any invitation to give money to this cause was more than a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. These challenges were, in effect, “once in history” occasions for making a difference to the whole human race.

In offering such an argument Lyman Beecher was among the first Americans to develop a “movement” rhetoric of giving. Others in later generations invoked some of the same appeals. For better or worse, this sermon illustrates one theme in American teachings about giving.

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Source: Selections from Lyman Beecher, Sermons Delivered on Various Occasions. (Boston: T. R. Marvin, 1828: “Resources of the Adversary and the Means of Their Destruction,” a sermon preached October 12, 1827 before the American Board of Missions at New York.)

The means and efforts for evangelizing the world must correspond, however, with the magnitude of the result. The idea that God will convert the heathen in his own good time, and that Christians have nothing to do but to pray and devoutly wait, is found in no canonical book. It is the maxim of covetousness, and sloth, and uncaring infidelity. We have no authority for saying, what some, without due consideration, have said, that God, if he pleased, could doubtless in a moment convert the whole heathen world without the Gospel. It might as well be said, that he can, if he please, burn without fire, or drown without water, or give breath without atmosphere, as that he can instruct intellectual beings without the means of knowledge, and influence moral beings without law and motive, and thus reclaim an alienated world without the knowledge and moral power of the Gospel.  It is no derogation from the power of God, that, to produce results, it must be exerted by means adapted to the constitution of things which himself has established. God has no set time to favor the husbandman, but when he is diligent in business; and no set time to favor Zion, but when her servants favor her stones and take pleasure in the dust thereof. From the beginning, the cause of God on earth has been maintained and carried forward only by the most heroic exertion. Christianity, even in the age of miracles, was not propagated but by stupendous efforts. And it is only by a revival of primitive zeal and enterprise, that the glorious things spoken of the city of our God can be accomplished.

Nor need we be disheartened. We possess a thousand fold the advantage of apostles and primitive christians for the spread of the Gospel. And shall the whole church on earth – shall the thousand thousands who now profess the pure religion, be dismayed and paralyzed at an enterprise, which had once been well nigh accomplished by the energies of twelve men?

But what can be done? It would require ten discourses to answer this question in detail. We can only sketch the outlines of that moral array, by which Jesus Christ is preparing to come upon the strong man, and overcome him, and take from him all his armour.

1. There must be more faith in the church of God.

All the uncertainties and waverings of unbelief must be swept away by the power of that faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

Those "scenes surpassing fable," when Satan shall be bound, and an emancipated world shall sing hosanna to the Son of David, must rise up before us in all the freshness and inspiration of a glorious reality.  Such faith, and only such, will achieve again the wonders it wrought in other days. It has lost none of its power. Again, it will subdue kingdoms, work righteousness, obtain promises, stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire, escape the edge of the sword, out of weakness become strong, wax valiant in fight, and put to flight the armies of the aliens. For this is the victory over the world, even your faith.

2. There must be a more intense love for Christ in his church.

Such love as now burns dimly in the hearts of christians; a low, and languid, and wavering affection; halting between the opposing attractions of earth and heaven; may answer for standing upon the defensive, but never for making that vigorous onset which shall subdue the world to Christ. Effort will never surpass desire. And as yet our hearts are not equal to those efforts needed for the achievement of victory. They linger and look back upon the world. They hesitate, and slowly, and with a sigh, part with substance in penurious measure. Weight hangs as yet on the wheels of the Victor's chariot: and never, on earth, as in heaven, will it move,

"Instinct with spirit,

 Flashing thick flames, . . . . unless

 Attended by ten thousand saints."

3. There must come an era of more decided action, before the earth can be subdued to Christ.

Compared with the exigency, we have not, as yet, the semblance of an army in the field; and our munitions are yet to be collected. Two hundred souls constitute the entire force, which twelve millions of freemen, cheered and blessed with the light of the Gospel, have sent forth to bring the world out of bondage. And yet one half the nation is panic struck at the drafts thus made upon her resources! What has been done, however, is but mere skirmishing before the shock of battle. Half the subjects of Satan's dark empire on earth have not heard, as yet, that we have a being. And were none but such feeble efforts to be put forth, he, instead of coming down in great wrath, would keep his temper, and leave the war to his subalterns.

Nothing great on earth, good or bad, was ever accomplished without decisive action. The cause, in the moral world, as real as in the natural, must ever be proportioned to the effect to be produced. And what have we done, as yet, to justify the expectation, that God, by such means, is about to make all things new? Could our independence have been achieved by such indecisive actions as we put forth for the emancipation of the world? Dear brethren, we must fix our eye earnestly on a world lying in wickedness: our hearts must be fully set upon its deliverance: our hands must be opened wide for its relief. Not only the ministers of religion must give themselves wholly to this work; but all who prize civil and religious freedom–all who exult in these blessings must come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty. And when, to all who are now cheered by the light of revelation, the deliverance of a world in bondage shall become the all-absorbing object, and the concentrating point of holy enterprise; then speedily will the angel descend from heaven, with a great chain, to bind and cast into the bottomless pit him who through so many ages has deceived the nations. But,

4. For this glorious achievement, there is demanded more courage than has, in modern days, been manifested by the church of God.

Wherever circumstances have precluded the application of force for the defence of his cause, there the god of this world has attempted to fortify it by a perverted public sentiment. This, while it predominates, is as terrific as the inquisition; and if not as bloody, it is unquestionably as virulent, over-bearing and severe. Multitudes shrink before it, who would not hesitate to storm the deadly breach; and one half the power of the christian church is doubtless this very moment paralyzed by it, if not even arrayed by its influence against the cause of Christ. Fashion is the Juggernaut of Christian lands; around whose care pilgrims of all conditions gather, and do homage.

Here, then, in communities civilized and nominally Christian, is to be fought one of the keenest battles: for after every strong hold is demolished, if Satan can but frame the laws of honor and of fashion, he will not fail to govern by maxims which will shut out the Gospel, and perpetuate the dominion of sin. And Christians are the first to be emancipated. While they are in captivity, the world will be in chains. Jesus Christ must have entire possession of his own soldiers, before the armies of the living God can put to flight the armies of the aliens.

This conflict for dominion over public sentiment is coming on, and by this generation, in city and in country, it is to be decided, whether an evangelical or a worldly influence shall prevail–whether the landmarks of christian morality shall stand against the inundations of vice, or, with every thing that is pure, and lovely, and of good report, be swept away. Emboldened by the pusillanimity of the friends of virtue, the enemy has become audacious, and scarcely covet the veil of darkness, but seem even to glory in their shame. And if no stand is made, we are undone. The church in this land will go into captivity, and the nation is undone. Our prosperity and voluptuousness will be our ruin; and short and rapid will be our journey from the cradle to the grave. But if resistance is made, then will the waves rise, and foam, and roar, and dash furiously upon those who shall dare to make a stand: and birds of ill omen will flap their sooty wings, and croak, and scream, to intimidate and dishearten the fearful and the unbelieving: and all the engines of bad influence will be applied to prevent that coalition of patriotism and of virtue, which would set bounds to the encroachments of evil, and shed daylight upon the works of darkness, and stamp with indelible and intolerable infamy, wickedness in high places and in low places.

And now, custom, with silver tongue, will plead prescription–‘It always has been so, and always will be, and why should we attempt innovation?’ And interest, too, will plead necessity–‘How can I withdraw my capital, or alter my course? To refuse to do wrong a little would be to take away my children's bread.’ And now, difficulty, with good wishes and sorrowing face, will plead, ‘Spare thy servant in this thing–is it not a little one?’ While fear will see the giants, the sons of Anak, and call out for care, and prudence, lest we should act prematurely, or be righteous overmuch. Petulance, too, will lift up her voice, with vexation at our presumptuous meddling, wondering that we cannot mind our own affairs, and let other people alone. And even charity, so called, will draw aside her veil, for the archers with poisoned arrows to hit us. While liberality, provoked beyond endurance, will hail upon our heads the hard names of ‘bigot, enthusiast, fanatic, hypocrite.’

All this, however, we could easily sustain, were there no treachery within. But our hearts are yet in too close consultation with flesh and blood. ‘What will the world think? What will the world say?  How will it affect my reputation – my interest–my ambition–or even my usefulness? Suppose I step in as a kind of candid mediator between the world and my too zealous brethren, taking the prudent course, and not carrying matters too far?’ O, that prudent course,–that middle ground–so crowded, when the lines are drawing between Christ and the world! Satan desires no better troops than neutral christians. And the Lord Jesus Christ abhors none more. He prefers infidelity to lukewarm Christianity.  “I would that thou wert either cold or hot; so then because thou art neither, I will spew thee out of my mouth.”

As to cheating Satan out of his empire over men, by a reserved course of warfare, he has no objection that christians should dream about it, and try it. But we mistake, if we suppose our wisdom a match for his wiles; or that we can so prudently drive him out of this world, as that he will find no pretext for controversy. Whenever we do enough to give to religion a solemn reality upon the minds of men, and draw the cords of evangelical morality with such power, as shall compel reformation, or inflict disgrace; we must calculate to meet his resistance who reigns in the hearts of the children of disobedience. And the time will come, when men must take sides. For as the conflict between virtue and vice waxes warm, neither side will tolerate neutrality: and he who plants his foot upon neutral ground, will select just the hottest place in the battle, and receive the fire from both sides.

Two things are required of all who would be found on the side of liberty and evangelical morality. One is, that we will not do wrong in obedience to custom: the other is, that we will not be accessary to the wrong done by others–that we will give to the cause of virtue the testimony of correct opinions, the power of a correct example, and the influence of our inflexible patronage. There are piety and principle enough in the community to put down the usurpations of irreligion and crime, if the sound part of the community will only awake, and array itself on the side of purity and order. But we must come out and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing. The entire capital in the hands of honest and moral men, which is employed in establishments that corrupt society, must be withdrawn; and that patronage which has swelled the revenue of establishments that lend their aid to the cause of licentiousness, must be turned over to the side of purity and order. Until this is done, we shall not cease to be partakers in other men's sins. The press, that mighty engine of good or evil in a free country, must be enlisted decisively on the side of virtue; and its perverted influence, if it continue, must be sustained only by those whose guilty cause it espouses. We cannot, as christians–we cannot, as patriots–give our patronage to that press which will not plead the cause of virtue, and which will prostitute its fearful energies to the cause of sin.

5. There must be new and more vigorous efforts to increase the number and power of evangelical churches in our land.

In all countries the tone of piety and evangelical morality corresponds exactly with the number, and purity, and energy of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. The want of this organized moral power in many parts of our land is appalling. Our population multiplies, and the ratio of good moral influence declines, and ignorance and crime are coming in like a flood. All that has been done by Tract Societies, by Sabbath Schools, by Education Societies, and by the National Society for Domestic Missions, is as the drop of the bucket to the ocean. A new and mighty effort is demanded to send light through the territories of darkness – to repress crime, and perpetuate our civil and religious institutions. In our large cities, especially, is the increase of ignorance and licentiousness lamentable and ominous. Here wealth and temptation concentrate their power upon masses of minds, whose influence cannot fail to affect deeply the destiny of the nation. If they send out a vigorous current of healthful life-blood, the whole nation will feel the renovating influence: but if, with every pulsation, they send out iniquity and death, no power on earth can avert our doom.

A moral power is the only influence that can save our cities. Mere coercion in a land of freemen, will not avail. Nor will a lax nominal christianity suffice, where offenders may find access to the table of Christ, and protection by the horns of the altar. The new churches, to succeed, should be composed of persons of real piety, of kindred sentiment, and of decided character; and, from the beginning, consist of so many members, and be blessed with such talent and devoted piety in the ministry, and be so countenanced and sustained by other churches, as that their attraction shall not fail to bring under the sacred influence of the Gospel the surrounding community. Until our cities shall thus be made to feel, in every part, the purifying power of the Gospel, the whole land will continue to send to them, as it has done, hecatombs of youthful victims, to be repaid by disappointed hopes and moral contamination.

6. Special effort is required, to secure to the rising generation an education free from the influence of bad example, and more decidedly evangelical.

The atmosphere which our children breathe, from the cradle upward, should be pure. Instead of this, it would not be difficult to find common schools, in which ignorance and irreligion predominate. Even where the intellect is cultivated, the heart not unfrequently is corrupted, and the child made wise only to do evil. In a great proportion of the higher schools, to which christians send their children, little exists of a decidedly religious tendency; while in some, a powerful influence is exerted against evangelical sentiments and piety.

And though in many of our colleges there is a salutary religious influence, and repeated revivals of religion are enjoyed, in none is the influence of religion so decisive as it might be; while in some, to which pious parents send their children, the influence is directly and powerfully hostile to religion.

I am aware, that not a few regard religious influence in our colleges as already too great, and that an effort is making to separate religion from science, during the progress of a collegiate education. And those who choose to rear colleges, and send their offspring where the power of the Gospel shall be excluded, have, doubtless, a right to do so–answerable for their conduct only to God. But no christian can do this without violating the vows of God which are upon him, to train up his child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And, instead of a compromise in the evangelical colleges of our land, there should be, as easily there may be, a more decided tone of religious influence.  Our colleges should every one of them be blessed, not only with preaching, but with kind, discreet, and assiduous pastoral instruction and care. Why should these precious communities of inexperienced youth, separated from parental inspection, and exposed to peculiar temptation, be deprived of the watchful eye and parental voice of pastoral exhortation and advice? What parent would not pray with more faith, and sleep more quietly, if he knew that some one, acquainted with the youthful heart, and appointed to watch over his child, had gained his confidence and affection, and was praying and laboring for his salvation?

There is no period in life when the heart may be more successfully assailed, than that which is passed in a college. And there is no class of human beings, among whom revivals may be promoted, by proper pastoral attention, with greater certainty, or with greater power and glory. Nor can it be expected, that the church will ever look forth fair as the morning, until effectual care is taken, that in her higher schools and colleges, her children shall be induced to consecrate to God the dew of their youth.

7. The vigor of charitable effort must be greatly increased.

As long as rich men shall trust more in uncertain riches than in the living God, and the covetous shall dare to heap up treasures to themselves, consecrating to God scarcely the crumbs that fall from their table, and the ambitious shall insist that they will roll in splendor, and give only the pittance which can be spared from the expense of a wanton ostentation–as long as professors shall consume, in extra gratifications of sense, to the injury of health, sums that, if consecrated to Christ, might suffice to extend the word of life and the institutions of the Gospel all over the world–as long as avaricious christians shall so extend their plans of business, with the increase of their capital, as always to be straitened in the midst of their gains–and as long as parents shall labor to amass wealth for their offspring, only to paralyze their enterprise, and corrupt their morals, and ensure their ruin, – so long the cause of God on earth must move slowly. But the blame must rest on us. There is at this moment, in the hands of christians, capital enough to evangelize the world in a short period of time, and without the retrenchment of a single comfort, and only by the consecration to Christ of substance, the possession of which would be useless, and often injurious. It is not required of christian nations to sustain the entire work of preaching the Gospel to all the unevangelized population of the earth. Nothing is needed but to erect the standard in pagan lands – to plant the seed – to deposit the leaven, in schools and in churches, until each nation shall support Gospel institutions. This is the work to which God in his providence is calling the churches. Now, and for fifty years to come, the substance and enterprise of good men is imperiously demanded. Within that period, it is not improbable, that every nation may be so far evangelized, as that the work may move onward to its consummation, without extraneous aid.

8. The jealousies of christians, who are united substantially in their views of evangelical doctrine and religion, and who are divided only by localities, and rites, and forms, must yield, and give place to the glorious exigencies of the present day. 

The amalgamation of denominations is not required. The division of labor may greatly augment the amount; and the provocation to love and good works may be real and salutary, and still be conducted without invidious collision. Like the tribes of Israel, we may all encamp about the tabernacle of God – each under his own standard–and when the ark advances, may all move onward, terrible only to the powers of darkness. And if the enemies of righteousness are not sufficient to rebuke our selfishness, and force us into a coalition of love and good works; then verily it may be expected–and even be hoped–that God, by the fire of persecution, will purge away our dross, and take away our sin, until we shall love him, and his cause, and one another, with a pure heart, fervently.

9. Let me add, that we must guard against the dangers peculiar to a state of religious prosperity.

There is no condition in which an individual, or the church at large, can be exempted from temptations. And especially as the church shall become formidable, and bring upon the great enemy of God the pressure of a desperate extremity, we are to expect, that his rage will increase, and his wiles be multiplied. For he will leave the world only when forced; and will fight upon the retreat giving many a desperate battle, when it shall seem as if the necessity was past of watching against his devices. Never, therefore, has the necessity of vigilance and prayer been more imperious than now. Let all the churches, then, with their pastors, feel deeply their dependance on God; and when their alms come up before him, and his Spirit shall descend in new and glorious showers, let them watch and pray that they enter not into temptation, and experience an overthrow in the moment of victory.

To fear revivals, because attended by some indications of human imperfection, would be weak and wicked: and far from the church of God be the presumptuous confidence, that nothing deeply injurious to the general interests of religion can be blended with a real work of the Spirit. But though I am not without solicitude on this head, I do trust and expect, that God will preserve his churches, and cause pure religion and undefiled to prosper, and not permit the adversary to turn our glory into shame. O, could he do it, how would his minions scream out their joy! and how would Zion be confounded, and in this day of rejoicing, be compelled to hang her harp upon the willows, and sit down to weep in sackcloth and ashes! To conclude,

Will any of you, my hearers, in this glorious day, take side against the cause of Christ! It will be a fearful experiment. What the mind and counsel of God have purposed to do for the melioration of man is now hastening to its consummation, with the intenseness of infinite benevolence, under the guidance of unerring wisdom, and by the impulse of almighty power. And woe unto him who contendeth with his Maker. The lines are now drawing, and preparation is fast making for the battle of the great day of God Almighty. And who is on the Lord's side? Who! Will any of you, in this sublimely interesting moment, stand on neutral ground! Remember, that neutrality is treason: and if persisted in, is as fatal as the unpardonable sin. Jesus Christ will have the decided services of his people. Already has he denounced as enemies, all who will not labor and suffer for him. He that is not for me, is against me: and whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I came to send peace on earth; (that is, that the progress of truth will be without resistance and persecution;) I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come, (that is, the effect of my coming will be, as the Gospel prevails,) to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother; and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me: and he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life, shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it. These statutes are not repealed. And if the laws of christian discipleship could bind men to give up every relative, and even life itself, for Christ and his Gospel, no excuse, surely, will screen from condemnation those who flinch and temporize, where the sacrifices required are comparatively trivial.  If such as would not lay down their life for Christ, cannot be accepted–what will become of those, in christian lands, who will not lay down their substance, nor risk their reputation, nor lift a finger, to advance his cause?

Is there a christian here, who cannot, for the year to come, double the amount of his charities? Is there one will not now purpose in his heart to do it? Brethren, the time is short in which we here have opportunity to express our boundless obligations to the Saviour. The fashion of the world passeth away. Next year, our tongue may be employed in celestial praises; and our substance be in other hands. What remains then, but that this day we dedicate ourselves, and our all, anew, to Him, who washed us in his blood? The tone of feeling which we cherish today, may, by a holy sympathy, and by the power of the Holy Ghost, be propagated through this great city–through this powerful nation–and through the world. The augmented religious enterprise, to which we pledge ourselves this day, may tell quickly in the very heart of Satan's empire; and cause light to spring up in retreats of deepest darkness.

If any man, however, is smitten with fear, let him retreat. If any man is faint hearted, let him draw back. If any man tremble at his proportion of the charges for evangelizing the whole world, let him depart. If any man is alarmed at the noise which precedes the last conflict, let him hide himself, with his talent, in the earth! But let all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, and wait for his appearing and glory–give themselves anew to his service; and break the earthen vessel; and lift up their light; and shout, The sword of the Lord and of Gideon: and the victory, and more than the victory, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High God. And a great voice out of heaven shall be heard, saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Source: Selections from Lyman Beecher, Sermons Delivered on Various  Occasions.  (Boston:  T. R. Marvin, 1828: “Resources of the Adversary and the Means of Their Destruction,” a sermon preached October 12, 1827 before the American Board of Missions at New York.)

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[1] Lyman Beecher, “Resources of the Adversary and Means of Their Destruction,” Sermons Delivered on Various Occasions. (Boston: T. R. Marvin, 1828), p. 267, p. 268.

[2] Beecher, p. 269.