For the manner of his teaching, he is not always gentle, but he is always sincere.  He speaks soft words to persuade; but if that is not enough, he does not scruple to knock the muck-rake out of sordid hands with a fine, sudden stroke, if so he may make men look up from the rubbish under their feet to the flowers that bloom around them and the stars that glow above and the God that reigns over all.

Thinking of the multitudes of hard-working, weary-hearted people whom he weekly met with these words of cheer:  sometimes homely advice on homely things; sometimes wise counsels in art; sometimes tender lessons from Nature; sometimes noble words from his own earnest soul; sometimes sympathy in sorrow; sometimes strength in weakness; sometimes only the indirect, but real help that comes from the mere distraction wrought by his sportiveness, and wild, winsome mirth; but all kindly, hearty, honest, sympathetic,—­indignation softening, even while it surges, into pity and love, and itself finding or framing excuses for the very outrage which it lashes:  thinking of this, we do not marvel that he has furrowed for himself so deep a groove in so many hearts.  Nor, on the other hand, is it difficult to see, even from so genial a book as this, whence polemics are not so much banished as where there is no niche for them, should they apply, why it is that he is so fiercely opposed.  When a man like Mr. Beecher encounters that which excites his moral disapprobation, there is no possibility of mistaking him.  He flings himself against it with all the strength and might of his manly, uncompromising nature.  There is no coquetting with the proprieties, no toning down of objurgation to meet the requirements of personal dignity, but an audacious and aggressive repugnance of the whole man to the meanness or malignity.  And the very clearness of his vision gives terrible power to his vituperation.  With his keen, bright eye he sees just where the vulnerable spot is, and with his firm, strong hand he sends the arrow in.  The victim writhes and reels and—­does not love the marksman.  And as the victim has a large circle of relatives by birth and marriage, he inoculates them with his own animosity; and so, at a safe distance, Mr. Beecher is sometimes considerably torn in pieces.  Yet we have no doubt that by far the greater number of these opponents would, if once fairly brought within the circle of his influence, acknowledge the truth as well as the force of his principles; and certainly it is a matter of surprise that a man with such a magnificent mastery of all the weapons of attack and defence should be so sparing and discreet in their use as is Mr. Beecher.  In this book, compiled of articles thrown off upon the spur of the moment, with so much to amuse, to awaken, to suggest, and to inspire, there is hardly a sentence which can arouse antagonism or inflict pain.  You may not agree with his conclusions, but you cannot resist his good nature.

Long may he live to do yeoman’s service in the cause of the beautiful and the true!