“His view of the great object of the ministry was sincerely and heartily the same with that of his father, to secure the regeneration of the individual heart by the Divine Spirit, and thereby to effect the regeneration of human society.  The problem that oppressed him was, how to do this.  His father had used certain moral and intellectual weapons, and used them strongly and effectively, because employing them with undoubting faith.  So many other considerations had come into his mind to qualify and limit that faith, so many new modes of thought and inquiry, that were partially inconsistent with the received statements of his party, that he felt he could never grasp and wield them with the force which could make them efficient.  It was no comfort to him that he could wield the weapons of his theological party so as to dazzle and confound objectors, while all the time conscious in his own soul of objections more profound and perplexities more bewildering.  Like the shepherd boy of old, he saw the giant of sin stalking through the world, defying the armies of the living God, and longed to attack him, but the armor in which he had been equipped for the battle was no help, but only an incumbrance!

“His brother, who studied with him, had already become an unbeliever and thrown up the design of preaching, and he could not bear to think of adding to his father’s trials by deserting the standard.  Yet his distress and perplexity were so great that at times he seriously contemplated going into some other profession....

“In his last theological term he took a Bible class in the city of Cincinnati, and began studying and teaching the Evangelists.  With the course of this study and teaching came a period of spiritual clairvoyance.  His mental perplexities were relieved, and the great question of ‘what to preach’ was solved.  The shepherd boy laid aside his cumbrous armor, and found in a clear brook a simple stone that smote down the giant; and so, from the clear waters of the Gospel narrative Mr. Beecher drew forth that ‘white stone with a new name,’ which was to be the talisman of his ministry.  To present Jesus Christ personally as the Friend and Helper of humanity, Christ as God impersonate, eternally and by a necessity of His nature helpful, and remedial, and restorative; the Friend of each individual soul, and thus the Friend of all society,—­this was the one thing which his soul rested on as a worthy object in entering the ministry.  He afterward said, in speaking of his feelings at this time,’I was like the man in the story to whom a fairy gave a purse with a single piece of money in it, which he found always came again as soon as he had spent it.  I thought I knew at least one thing to preach.  I found it included every thing.’”

Upon being ordained, Mr. Beecher married, and accepted a call to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, a little town on the Ohio River, about twenty miles below Cincinnati.  His salary was small and the work was hard.  He was not only pastor, but sexton as well, and in this capacity he swept out the church, made the fires, filled and trimmed the lamps, and rang the bell.  Says he, “I did all but come to hear myself preach—­that they had to do.”