Beecher, Lyman. A reformation of morals practicable and indispensable. A Sermon delivered at New-Haven on the evening of October 27, 1812. Andover: Flagg and Gould, Printers, 1814. Second Edition. [11353]
Sometime put into a black paper wrapper with a typewritten title label on front. 8 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches, 32 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
A sermon on the text Ezekiel 33:10, "Therefore, o son of man, speak unto the house of Israel, thus ye speak, saying, if our transgressions and our sins be upon us and we pine away in them, how should we then live?"
The main divisions are, I. Some of the difficulties which may be expected to impede a work of reformation. II. Show that such a work is, notwithstanding, entirely practicable. III. Consider some of the ways in which it may be successfully attempted. IV. The motives to immediate exertion.
One of the examples he gives for showing the that the reformation of moral is practicable and possible is the abolition of the slave trade in England.
The need for reform is expressed thusly: "Drunkards reel through the streets, day after day, and year after year, with entire impunity. Profane swearing is heard, and even by magistrates, as though they heard it not. Efforts to stop travelling on the Sabbath have, in all places, become feeble, and in many places, even in this State, they have wholly ceased. Grand jurors complain that magistrates will not bear them out in executing the laws. And conscientious men, who dare not violate an oath, have begun to refuse the office...The public conscience is becoming callous by the frequency and impunity of crimes...The Sabbath is trodden down by a host of men, whom shame alone, in better days, would have deterred entirely from this sin." p. 22.
Lyman Beecher, D.D. (1775-1863), “an eminent Presbyterian minister, was born at New Haven, Connecticut…was sent to Yale College, where he graduated A.B. in 1797…In 1825 he accepted a call to the Hanover Street Church, Boston, where he spent six years of immense activity and popularity, distinguished also by his boldness and success with which he opposed Dr. Channing and grappled Unitarianism…In 1832 he accepted the Presidency of Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, in which service, and that of the Second Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, he remained during twenty eventful years…The doctrinal views of Dr. Beecher has always been moderately Calvinistic, and he was charged by some of the stronger Calvinists with heresy. A trial ensued, ending in 1835, by the adoption of resolutions to which Dr. Beecher assented; but the controversy went on until at last the Presbyterian church was rent in twain by it. In 1852 Dr. Beecher resigned the presidency of the seminary and returned to Boston.” – M’Clintock & Strong.
Dr. Beecher was the father of Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and the father of the preachers Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Beecher, Edward Beecher, and Thomas Beecher.
