Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/270

Rh in man as in woman, and which admits of no lax concession; for its noble feeling as regards the rights of woman and her development as fellow citizen; for its sense of the honour of labour, and its demanding for every good labourer honourable wages as such. I thank it for its magnanimous wish and endeavour to give everything to all; for those little settlements in which the children of the New World endeavour to bring into operation the divine teaching. People say that such ideas are impractical. It is by such impractical ideas that society approaches nearer to heaven, nearer to the kingdom of God, and the very things which are insecure root themselves firmly in those which are secure.

Sunday.—I am just returned from a Presbyterian church, where I have heard a young preacher from the West preach “on the positive in Christianity,” one of the best extempore Christian discourses which I ever heard in any country. The preacher, Henry Beecher, is full of life and energy, and preaches from that experience of Christian life which gives a riveting effect to his words; besides which he appears to me to be singularly free from sectarian spirit, and attaches himself with decision and clearness to the common light and life of every Christian church. He has also considerable wit, and does not object to enliven his discourse with humourous sallies, so that more than once the whole audience of the crowded church burst into a general laugh, which however did not prevent them from soon shedding joyful tears of devotion. That was the case at the prayer of the young preacher over the bread and wine at the administration of the sacrament, and tears also streamed down his own cheeks as he bowed in silent, rapt contemplation of the splendid mystery of the sacrament, of that humanity which through the life of Christ is now born and transfigured. When we stand at the communion table with our nearest kindred or our family, we ought to