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VOL. I, NO. 14-
PINEHURST, N. C, FRIDAY, JANUARY 14, 1898.
PRICE THREE CENTS.
ill ns
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
The Celebrated Plymouth Pas
tor's Summer Parish.
Services Conducted by Him in the Parlors
of the Twin Mountain House.
Interesting Recollections ol His Special
Reporter, T. J. Ellinwood.
For ;i number of seasons it was my
pleasant duty to report the discourses of
Mr. Umber at the White .Mountains.
During a large portion of his vacations
he preached regularly on Sundays at the
Twin Mountain House, whither lie re
sorted from year to year on account of
hay fever, with which he was alllicted.
The services were generally held in the
great parlor of the hotel, and were so
largely attended that many were obliged
to occupy seats or standing-room in the
halls or on the piazzas. The towns and vil
lages around about were not so generally
reached by railroads as they are now,
and the people, in all manner of vehicles,
from the "Crawford," from "Faby-an's,"
from the '-Profile," from Jefl'erson, from
Bethlehem, from Littleton, and from
other places, came to listen to the preach
ing. A part of the time the accom
modations for the audiences were so
inadequate t lia t an immense lent was
procured under which the services were
held. The discourses were reported in
full for Tin' Christian Uniony and con
densed reports of them were sent by
telegraph to The Xno York Tribune and
The AY ylirk Herald. 31 r. Beeeher was
then passing through the greatest
trouble, of us ijfe; and the lml).
lie were eager to read, if they could not
hear, alibis utterances from the pulpit
nd the platform.
hi addition to his Sabbath discourses
Mr. Beeeher g:IVe to the guests of the
htel week-day morning talks, which
were very i,u,cli prized, and were often
Wended not only by the inmates of the
A win Mountain House but also by people
distance. The exercises con
front
sisted of readings from the Scriptures,
"Hi's, singing, and brief lectures,
"e lectures were entirely familar, ques
lous (, the subjects under consideration
Jme ahv:,.vs in order, and any topic
Persons present wished to suggest was
fre dismissed.
Mr. Berber took a lively interest in
vcU'are of the inhabitants in the vi-
an y.' .Twin Mouutain House. If
Ja- 1' distress or need among them
to rer mi"-ht t0 hiS ntiee he endeavorcd
ti.efICVC ir' and ou certain occasions at
ounday meetings he solicited
con
tributions for this purpose. At the close
of one of his sermons, in asking aid for
a family that were in straightened cir
cumstances, he said:
This year we are attempting to release
a widow from the thrall and bondage of
a mortgage. Now, mortyaya is only an
other name for devil. It sits astride of
the poor and weak, and rides them to
death. When they cannot pay, it is piti
less and remorseless. This woman has
four children, and only two of them are
old enough to do any work. She has a
little farm, but it is encumbered with
debt, and will be swept away unless we
redeem it. You enjoy Saratoga and the
grace of genuine kindness and love.
More than once I have gone there when
the house was full, and found that there
was some little question as to who
should be leader, and whether this family
or that had the right to hold their head's
highest. There was considerable whis
pering, and there were little cliques
formed; but I found that after the tirst
Sunday, when they had sung together,
and prayed together, and talked with
one another on the theme of the sermon,
their whole tone was changed. They
became more familar, more genial, more
sympathetic. There were no bickerings
nor baekbitings at any rate, none that
came to my knowlege. There is noth-
HENRY WARD BEECHER.
From "A Book of Prayer." By Courtesy of Forth, Howard A Ilulbert.
White Mountains; but the remembrance,
when you go home, that by your com
bined sympathies and charities you re
leased a large family from distress will
be more to vou than anything else. We
have a great deal to enjoy here, but we
will delight in the memory of the good
we do especially if it costs us some
thing. This appeal was liberally responded
to, and the aforesaid mortgage was duly
paid.
At one of the Friday evening meetings
in the Plymouth Church Leeture'-li 00111
Mr. Beeeher, in alluding to his White
Mountain experiences, remarked :
I have had an opportunity of seeing,
during five seasons at the Twin Moun
tain House, people from every direction;
and on the whole I think the families
who have gone there have manifested
most beautiful Christian lives. I have
seen them mingling together, promoting
one another's welfare, and growing in the
ing in an assembly of comparative stran
gers that will so quickly bring them into
acquaintance with each other as a com
mon religious life.
1 noticed another thing namely, that
the habit of morning prayers, daily de
votion, in the most familar form, fol
lowed by questions and conversations,
making religious life and the Scriptures
subjects of inquiry, led to a series of se
quences the most delightful. Where
there are two or three Christians at a
hotel it is not necessary, in order to
make everybody happy, that they should
obtrude on all in the house matters of
religion. Sing with them. Look after
the children, lie kind to the servants.
Sympathize with those who take care of
the house. Fulfill the command, "Hear ye
one another's burdens." Fill the house
hold with sunshine. Shed happiness upon
those around about you, and be happy
yourselves. Lessen somewhat the length
of the face. Enlarge the periphery of
the heart. Create a social warmth that
will make everybody run towards you.
There is nothing so attractive as genuine
moral feeling. Nothing is so luminous,
nothing so draws men to itself, as Chris
tian character when it is divested of all
technicalities, and it takes on the form of
persuasive kindness and gentleness.
On another occasion, in a Leeture
100111 Talk, Mr. Beeeher spoke as fol
Ioavs on the same general subject :
Those who resort to the mountains are
usually people that, by reason of their
skill, their strength and their enterprise,
are able to travel. They have achieved
such a competence as gives them leisure,
and the means of enjoying that leisure.
This brings, of course, to such vacation
places, persons of a good deal of intel
ligence ; and more or less of them are
intelligent without being religious. It
also brings to the mountains people of
all shades of religious belief, dews are
there in considerable numbers ; and dur
ing the years I have been at the Twin
Mountain House they have been among
the most refined, cultivated and agree
able people there. Then there are the
Catholics and the Protestants. Of Pro
testants there are some of about every
denomination. All of them, without ex
ception, have joined in the Sabbath ser
vices, singing together, and uniting with
each other, outwardly at any rate and I
suppose inwardly, in the solemn service
of prayer. And they have all listened to
the truth with growing interest. I think
it would be the testimony of the hun
dreds and thousands that have been
there, that while Christendom had a fair
representation in our assembly, there
was never a bicker or dissension, and
there was as perfect unity and sympa
thy as could well be attained upon earth.
Such a state of things is a foretaste of
the final sympathy and unity of Chris
tian people, which is to come, not by all
having the same forms or the same doc
trines, but by their having the same
spirit of love to God and men.
I am, you know, a firm believer in the
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and
yet, some of the most tender, fervent and
spiritual people that I met at the White
Mountains were Unitarians. If you
present that doctrine to them in its con
troversial form they will oppose you;
but if you present it to them as applied
to practical life they will accept it re
joicingly. Among the persons who seemed the
most thoroughly at home were our Jew
ish friends, many of whom said to me
that they would rejoice if they might sit
from Sunday to Sunday under just such
presentations of the truth as they had
heard at our hotel services.
We had there a good many people of
the world, who were not habitual at
tendants at church, because, as they said,
religion was ordinarily presented in a
way that violated their common sense,
their observation, and their highest
reason. I have ground for believing that
there were some among them who en
tered into the Christian life under the
influence of the preaching in the parlors
of the Twin Mountain House.
Then there was another interesting
feature that came out during the services
of the morning week-day prayer meet
ings. A great many some in feeble
health, some who had lost their children
or companions, and some who were other
wise alllicted and yearned for comfort
received consolation that in some in
stances was quite remarkable.
I need not say to you that under such
circumstances 1 look with very great in
terest on my summer parish.
In recalling these occurences of more
than twenty years ago I am strongly
reminded, not only of the wholesome