The Freedom Ring

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Date: April 13, 1862 Exactly one year after the Civil War broke out, the famous minister and abolitionist, Rev. Henry Ward Beecher, gave a powerful sermon on the definition and success of America's democracy. It was rapidly printed and distributed throughout the nation as an effort to embolden and sustain the righteousness of the American commonwealth. America was in the middle of a Civil War and the nation leaned on Beecher to guide their moral senses. Abraham Lincoln was grateful to have the support of Beecher, his famous family, and his millions of devout followers. Lincoln referred to the reverend's older sister, Harriet Beecher Stowe , as "...the little lady who started this big war" due to the wild success of her book,  "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Lincoln's nickname for Henry, her younger brother, was simply, "the most influential man in America." Rev. Henry Ward Beecher was one of America's first mega preacher...

Famous and Historical Sermon by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Plymouth Church Brooklyn, NY - Sunday Morning July 17, 1870  Warring Turbulence of Man George Villiers, by Peter Paul Rubens, 1625 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not; ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain; ye fight and war, and yet ye have not, because ye ask not.” — JAMES IV. 1, 2. This is a description of the turbulence of man, regarded simply as an animal. There is a dormant implication here, also, of man as a spiritual being. As an animal, he is restless, avaricious, dishonest, plundering, murdering, forever desiring, and yet unsatisfied in his desires, because his lower nature never can be at rest, but, like the troubled sea, casts up grime and dirt. “Because ye ask not.” Because the spiritual side of man, which derives its being from God, and all the plentitude of its enjoyment from spiritual things, th...

  Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in Liverpool WHEN the secession movement first assumed serious proportions in the South,  the sympathy of England was with the secessionists . There were many reasons for this. The political control of England was in the hands of the English aristocracy. Feudal England had always looked with both suspicion and aversion on her democratic daughter. The strongest argument against feudalism was the unparalleled growth of democratic America. Commercial England saw in the republic across the sea a rival who would soon contest with the mother country her claim to commercial supremacy, and she was not unwilling to see that rival dismembered, and her own commercial supremacy thus secured to her.  For more than a quarter of a century England had seen the South aggressive and successful, the North timid and retreating. It was not strange that she believed the South brave, the North timid; and England admires pluck and despises cowardice. During the four mon...

Theodore Tilton Stressed Over the Tilton vs. Beecher Case The Battle of Life Sermon by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Sunday Evening, Jan. 9th, 1881 Plymouth Church   Brooklyn Heights, NY Lesson : Eph. vi: 10-20 “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” — Eph . vi : II - 18.  This is the representation of a literal state of facts, although it is thrown into a dramatic form. There has been a line of division running through the human family from the very beginning to this day. Right and wrong have been in conflict from the very first developments of human existence. The conflict has not died out, and is not likely to die out for ages. Where the two sides come together there is a wide belt of uncertain and varying elements, yet the two extreme...

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when we shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifiers himself, even as he is pure." -- I John III : 2, 3. Preached by Rev. Henry Ward Beecher Sunday Morning, October 5th, 1863 Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, NY If we trace our relationship, through moral experience and equality, to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, and if through him the children of God can say, in sincerity and in truth, “Our Father," then everyone in that line should have a sense of personal worth that will be of incalculable value to them. The want of suitable pride is one of our biggest curses. The race suffers for the want of that sense of character, that sense of dignity, which alone can hold men back from things little and low, and keep them always in the line of things worthy. This is inspired by a sense of our ...

Rev. Henry Ward Beecher in his 50's When Henry Ward Beecher passed away (1813-1887), t here was a universal expression of esteem, love, and affection, that sprang forth from every part of the country, every class in society, and every religious denomination. This is an indication of how wide and deep a hold he had upon the American people during the 19th Century. No other man has exerted such a wide and profound influence on the progress of thought — moral, political and religious—in this country during the 1800's, as has Mr. Beecher. It may be claimed that other reformers have done more to change the political constitution from a pseudo-democracy governed by a slavocracy to a genuine democracy governed by its free industrial classes. Or, that other teachers have done more to promote that political enthusiasm out of which new parties are born (Republican Party) and by which they must be inspired-or die. Or, that other theological thinkers have exerted a more permanent influenc...