In August, 1847, Mr. Beecher received a call to Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, which had just been founded.  He promptly accepted it.  Breaking up his home in Indiana, he removed to Brooklyn, and was publicly installed pastor of Plymouth Church on the 11th of November, 1847.  He at once “announced in Plymouth pulpit the same principles that he had in Indianapolis, namely, his determination to preach Christ among them not as an absolute system of doctrines, not as a bygone historical personage, but as the living Lord and God, and to bring all the ways and usages of society to the test of His standards.  He announced to all whom it might concern, that he considered temperance and antislavery as a part of the Gospel of Christ, and should preach them to the people accordingly.”

It is no part of my purpose to consider Mr. Beecher as a politician.  I deal with him here not as the partisan of a political organization, but as a minister of the Gospel.  In politics he has always been a Republican of the Radical type, but has generally inclined to a conservative construction of that creed.  Many of his warmest friends take issue with him in his political views, and he has not always been able to lead his congregation with him in this respect.

Soon after assuming the charge of Plymouth Church Mr. Beecher became a regular contributor to “The Independent,” a paper which he had helped to establish.  His articles were marked with an asterisk, and were widely read.  They dealt with every topic of interest, principally with slavery, and were vigorous and full of thought.  A number of them were afterward collected and published in book form as the “Star Papers.”  Since then he has acted as editor of “The Independent,” and is at present the editor of “The Christian Union.”  He has written a novel of New England life, called “Norwood,” for “The New York Ledger,” and still writes a weekly paper for that journal.  He is at present engaged upon a “Life of Christ,” which is to be the crowning labor of his life.  Besides these labors, he has been until recently almost constantly in the lecture field, and has spoken frequently before popular assemblies on the political questions of the day.

These labors have filled up the leisure time left him after discharging his duties as pastor of his church, which have never been neglected upon any occasion.  In this field his work has been faithful and constant.  He has labored in it for nearly twenty-three years, and his work has not been without its reward.  Such sermons as his could not fail of doing good even if spoken to half a dozen people.  How great, then, must be their effect when addressed to the vast audiences to which he speaks!  His congregation averages over twenty-five hundred at every service, being the largest regular congregation in existence.  His sermons are reported by a stenographer, and are printed each week in pamphlet form, and in this manner find their way into thousands of hands.  The “Plymouth Pulpit,” in which they are published, has a regular weekly circulation of six thousand copies, and it is estimated that each copy is read by at least five persons, which gives the preacher, in addition to his own congregation, an audience of more than thirty thousand persons per week.