Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1858, by In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. PREFACE. SOME two years since, while visiting friends in a distant city, they proposed that I should take notes for them of Mr. Beecher's sermons. Upon my return I commenced doing so, without a thought of their going beyond the little circle for whom they were first intended. But, as page after page was added to my note-book, and read occasionally to one and another, it began to be suggested that they ought not to be confined to the few, but should be published in a volume and given to the many. Thus the present book came into being. With rare exceptions, these notes have been taken from the Sabbath sermons and Wednesday evening lectures, since the date at which they were commenced. Most of them have never been written till now; for Mr. Beecher's best thoughts are not usually those which are beforehand committed coolly to paper; they are those which spring from the inspiration of the moment, and have no record (iii) save in the memory of his hearers. To gather up and preserve some of the treasures thus lavishly scattered, has been the aim of this volume. It is not given to the world as the full-boughed tree; but only as some of the leaves which have fallen from it through two successive seasons. To Robert D. Benedict, Esq., of Brooklyn, whose own notes, taken during the same time, were placed at my disposal, I desire to express my cordial thanks. EDNA DEAN PROCTOR. BROOKLYN, N. Y., April, 1858. INDEX. Absent, speaking of the, 142. Actions, the best, often unconscious,13. - Arrow, thought is the, 67;-in God's Arrows, trials compared to, 195. Artist, at work, 215;- copying a pic- parental, 195;-a Asceticism, 184, 236. Affliction, a guide, 49. Afflictions, the uses of, 109. African race, the, 166. Agassiz, 248. Aim, how to take, 188. Aspiration, 138; - not incompatible Associations, power of, 141. Aster, late blossoming of the, 130. Alexandrian library, destruction of, 46. Attainments, not for ourselves, 41. Attempts, accepted, 122. Babe, the mother's anchor, 122. Bather, the sea receiving a, 103. Beauty, the lavishness of, 243. Beethoven, Psalm 73 likened to sym- Beggar, a flower from a, 154. Belief, sincerity in, not enough, 16. Bell, tolling of, for the lost, 127; - Benevolence, for sake of praise, 81 ;- (v) abroad and at home, 204 ;- the high- Cable, a fifty foot, 237. Caldron, the earth a, 150. - Bible Society, the, 184. - Bird, mourning over the bursting shells Birds, thoughts likened to,50 ;-fright- Blessing for cursing, 274. Blossoms, superfluous, 24;- not the emblems of religion, 37. 190. Boy, with ball of twine, 210. Brahmins, the, 244. Brake on a car wheel, 62. Bread, Christ the, 125. anger, a, Bread of God, the, for which we pray, 52. Bridge, experience a, 288. Bridging a stream, 45. Brokers, exchange, some preachers Cares, earthly, how the heart may fly Cathedral, a, more than cold stone, 12. Cave of Kentucky, 280. - Chestnuts, some Christians like, 212. - our love to, 199;-the way to Buds, dread of unfolding, 147;-the China, war in, 245. expansion of, 196. Building without plan, 161. Cholera, not to be cured by studying Buildings, the prosperity of men com- Chords, sweeter after discords, 61. pared to the rearing of, 113. Business, religion in, 209, 286. Buoys in our course, Butterfly, a, 179. "But then," 185. 55. Christ, how to get a correct view of, |