Beecher:
THE
PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.
No. 12–October, 1882.
I.
LYMAN BEECHER ON THE ATONEMENT–ITS
NATURE AND EXTENT.
LYMAN BEECHER, clarum et venerabile nomen, was President and Professor of Systematic Theology in Lane Seminary, from the time of its full organization in 1832 to the date of his resignation in 1850; and continued to be Professor Emeritus until his death in 1863. In this relation he was truly eminent as a theological teacher, though his services in that line have been somewhat obscured, in the public estimation, by the superior brilliance of his career in the pulpit, and in the more general service of the church. While he was not remarkable for the extent of his reading, or the scope or comprehensiveness of his theology-while indeed lacking in method and system, and apparently impatient of exactness in definition and completeness in demonstration, he was always vigorous, earnest, broad in his theological conceptions, and always powerful in impressing his own convictions on the minds of those who became his pupils. If they were sometimes carried from point to point in his theological cursus, without due respect for logical order or for scholastic completeness in doctrine, they were often more than compensated by the fervors which he enkindled in their breasts, and by the grandeur of his presentation of his favorite topics in the scheme of grace. Though they may not have gone forth from his training as fully drilled in technical issues, as amply supplied with theological furniture, as the graduates of some other institutions, they certainly , went out with souls fired by his teaching, and with minds well endowed practically for the task of preaching the Gospel of Christ. The impress which he made upon them in the class-room, became in most cases a permanent impact, impelling them through life, and making them conspicuously men of grace and men of power.
The manuscript lectures of Dr. Beecher have been donated to Lane Seminary by members of his family, and are now in the library of the institution. Their reading would be a curious study for adepts in the art of deciphering hieroglyphics. It may be presumed that no person has ever read the three volumes through since the venerated teacher himself laid them down. The lectures on the Atonement, here to be presented, were originally written largely by the hand of some amanuensis, and in their original form present no difficulties. But the manuscript bears traces of several distinct structural arrangements introduced at intervals; in the course of which numerals and headings are repeatedly changed, the order of topics varied, lines of thought stricken out or modified, and the general construction so far altered that it seems at times impossible to determine upon the final form of presentation. Many verbal changes also appear, dropping in wherever the vacant space on the pages furnished room i altered phrases are seen along the sides, at the bottom, over the upper line, often leaving the reader in great darkness as to their proper location in the text i and in addition to these sources of perplexity he is confronted by the almost universal lack of dots or crosses, the absence of punctuation, and a certain general indistinctness in the formation of letters which drives him well-nigh to despair. If the writer has failed at any point to get the exact word or sentence, or to catch the precise principle of construction, it has not been for the lack of diligent effort; he trusts at least that no serious mistake has been made in what has been throughout a labor of reverential love.
The lectures themselves, it should be added, present the subject for the most part in an abbreviated form only i much being left to merely verbal, and perhaps ex tempore presentation. It is the testimony of his pupils that Dr. Beecher excelled especially in such informal expositions of divine truth, and that the most valuable portions of his instruction broke in upon them at times when, under the influence. of some fresh inspiration, he made the class-room fairly glow with the splendor of his teaching. In view of the brevity and inadequacy of the present discussion, the writer has ventured at a few points to introduce further explanations from the published works’ of the author. As a compensation, some omissions of explanatory matter have here and there been made.
The publishing of these outlines of what Dr. Beecher once taught respecting the nature and extent of the Atonement, is in no way designed to revive historic differences or to stir up doctrinal controversy. What is sought is simply to bring again into view the teaching of an honored father in the Church, who a half century ago was recognized as a man of remarkable power, but who for nearly twenty years has been asleep in Jesus. It was his intention, as is announced in the preface to the first volume of his Works, to put his entire theological system into print; but the disabilities which have so often prevented the execution of a like purpose by other eminent teachers and preachers, fell into the way and frustrated his desire. His Lectures on Atheism and his six magnificent Sermons on Intemperance, together with some other valuable productions from his pen, have been preserved in printed form, but his theological lectures, as a whole, will probably survive only as a treasured heirloom in manuscript, in the library of Lane. In these circumstances, it will be of interest to many in our Presbyterian family, whatever may be their individual views of the subject discussed, to read what he wrote on so sublime and vital a theme. As his successor in the theological chair, the writer desires thus both to revive the fading memories of a great teacher, and to preserve the teaching itself in permanent form, for the instruction and edification of other minds. It is one of the irenic features of the times, that the dogmatic differences which once widely divided good men respecting both the nature and the extent of the atoning work of Christ, have been fading away relatively under the brighter consciousness of unity in both thought and experience respecting the great scriptural fact of an Atonement actually provided. And perhaps one of the most important causes tending to this happy result has been the developing capacity of men of different schools and tendencies to study opposite opinions more calmly and candidly, and to appreciate the worth really inherent in that from which they are constrained to differ. In the growth of such a spirit on every side, with all the practical consequences flowing from it, lie both the highest measure of present denominational harmony and also that progressive unification of thought and faith toward which all true men in this day are more or less consciously aspiring. In the hope that they may contribute to such results, these words of Lyman Beecher are here brought to public notice; and may God bless them to this end! E. D. MORRIS.
FROM THE MS. LECTURES OF LYMAN BEECHER, D.D. THE ATONEMENT
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