The state of sleepiness, which is a well-known attendant on the Sabbath, is indicative of the magnetic influence; and those who discard the day, and secretly pursue their active employments, would do well to heed the remarks I have made.

Before I close, I wish to make some observations upon the present style of preaching as compared with the sermonizing of my day.  When I occupied the pulpit, the doctrines of election and predestination were the principal themes that engaged the attention of ministers.

Free will and coerced will were questions which puzzled the theologian.  Looking upon the Bible as an inspired book, the most careless sentence therein expressed became a word of weighty import.  We engaged the minds of our hearers with abstract questionings and reasonings.  But we never could make the doctrine of predestination accord with that of free will.  Nor could we clearly account for the presence of evil, while we believed the Creator to be all wise, all powerful, and cognizant of the end from the beginning.  Yet these were the topics which the minister of my day discussed and endeavored to make clear to the comprehension of his hearers.  We did not treat of every-day life; the pulpit we considered too sacred for such topics.  Religion with the masses became an abstract state of holiness.  Men assumed long faces and sober bearings upon the seventh day; but their every-day life was something different, which the minister and his ministering did not reach.

But the pulpits of to-day are platforms of another kind.  They have altered, even as their shape has altered.  Their outward construction corresponds to their teachings.  In my day the pulpit was narrow and straight, and was lifted high above the people.  But at the present day a step only separates it from the congregation.  It is broad, low, and open.  The teachings received from it correspond with its change of form.  The ministers of to-day are one with their flock.  Their discourses are practical, relating to every-day affairs.  They no more discuss the questions of Satan, of angels, and archangels, nor arouse an undefined fear by descanting on the mysterious prophecies of Daniel:  they talk to you like human beings.

I remember being somewhat shocked while listening to sermons preached by my son, H.W.  Beecher.  I recall sitting near his pulpit, and longing to get up and tell the congregation my views of texts and matters of which he was discoursing.  I thought then it was because the race was going backward—­becoming less intellectual—­that men should be content to listen to sermons that contained so little theology.  But experience in spirit life has caused me to change my opinion.

I now see that Beecher, Spurgeon, and a vast host of others, are teaching human souls the great truths which will fit them for life hereafter.  I have done now with endeavoring to solve improbable problems, and with simple faith in man’s efforts for his own progression, I give my testimony as to the uses of the Sabbath, and the advantages of religion in advancing their progress, and in preparing the spirit for its future home.