“Nov. 12, Friday morning.—For several years I have been passing through severe trials on account of the troubles in the Tilton family. This has taken hold upon the church, personal friends, family, newspapers, civil courts, ecclesiastical bodies, etc. I have thus been like a lamb, not before her shearers, but before a fire, every stick of which has had enough heat in it to consume one’s peace and comfort. In all this six years I have laid down for myself the strictest adherence to Christian principles, in all my feelings toward each person or party concerned, and upon my conduct in every part of the perplexing and exhausting struggle for life—for my life is aimed at, and the struggle is for life, in every sense in which life is a blessing.”
“Tuesday, Nov. 23, 1875.—H——— called from Missionary Association to inquire what I thought of their asking Dr. Storrs to speak at opening of Fisk University at Nashville. Replied, No reason against, unless they thought that just at this time, when he heads and inspires a movement against Plymouth Church and me. But that they, and not I, should determine.
“In myself there are two thoughts: (1) Should I give help to an enemy who will use it for my harm? and (2), and a better one, Ought I to take any care or notice of the ascent or descent in influence of one not friendly? Is it not better to go on doing duty and leave wholly to the Over-ruler the disposition of affairs?
“‘Fret not thyself because of evil-doers.’”
Shortly after the council had adjourned, and on the 27th of February, 1876, Dr. Leonard Bacon, in that spirit of brotherly love that filled the council at its close, wrote to Mr. Beecher:
“... ‘A brother offended,’ whether Storrs (R. S.) or Budington, ‘is harder to be won than a strong city.’ But is it not possible for you (God helping you) to win Brother Storrs, and then to win Budington also?
“Of course you are an innocent man, grievously calumniated, pierced through and through with arrows, like St. Sebastian. You feel that the position of those two brethren in relation to you is unbrotherly and unkind. You complain (and, I will say, reasonably) that neither of them came to you in the beginning of these troubles, or has come to you at any later time, with a request for explanation or with offers of sympathy and assistance. They, on the other hand, think that you have withheld your confidence and have stood aloof from them.... Is it not possible for you to win Storrs?... You will not win him by waiting till he shall come to you.... What, then, would be the effect on Brooklyn, on our country, on ‘English-speaking Christianity,’ if it should be announced that you three are ‘brothers reconciled’? Have I proposed an impracticable thing? Am I imagining an impossible result? If so, alas!...”
To this Mr. Beecher replied:
”My dear Doctor Bacon:
“I heartily thank you for your letter and its kind and Christian suggestions. They are such as a father might give to a son, and I am emboldened to hope that for my father’s sake you will allow me to hold, in some degree, such a relation to you.
“There is nothing in my heart to prevent a reconciliation with my offended brethren.
“If it required only that I should express my regret for unanswered letters, and my sorrow for harsh words forced from me in the height of distress, the whole matter might be settled in an hour. But it has largely ceased to be a personal affair, and has assumed the complex character of two parties with strong party feeling.
“So that Dr. Storrs, for instance, is not at liberty to act from personal considerations alone.
“Pass by his long and repeated interviews with Mr. Tilton as late as last New Year’s, and take the most recent case, that of Mrs. Moulton.
“Mrs. M. and I are in such opposition as admits of no middle ground. To take her up is to take sides against me. Our testimony in court is in deadly opposition.
“But Dr. Storrs has assumed her cause to the extent, that, (aside from all counsel during her negotiations with Plymouth Church) he sends her to Mr. Bell (who has just taken charge of the Mission Sabbath-school of his church), with a letter requesting him to give her a class. Such an act, at such a time, produced profound impressions, even more within his own church than out of it. After two Sundays’ attendance Mrs. Moulton retired from the school under plea of ill health, a great excitement having arisen within the school.
“Dr. Storrs is surrounded by such men as ———, ———, ———, and ———, whose animosity reaches bitterness.
“I have very little hope, therefore, of favorable results.
“You should be aware that from time to time during the twotwo years past, I have conveyed to these brethren my desire of reconciliation.
“After the civil suit of last summer I drew up a letter to Dr. Storrs at the request of several members of his church (warm friends of mine), in which I expressed everything which one Christian gentleman could to another. But my advisers said that such a letter should not be sent until it was distinctly ascertained that Dr. S. would take it kindly; for, if disposed to do so, it might lay the foundations for a refusal with reasons, which would leave the case far worse than it was before. As the summer vacation was at hand, the matter was dropped.
“I fear that Dr. Storrs is so fully committed that it is too late. He could not have made a declaration of war more effectually than by taking up Mrs. Moulton, considering her deadly antagonism to me and her peculiar relations to Plymouth Church.
“But if the Lord will open a way, you may be sure that I shall not hold back nor hesitate. I do not regard my own personal feelings or interests as comparable to the welfare of these neighboring churches, and the cause of religion in all churches. I would go to the very verge of truth and honor in my expressions of regret and retraction. Yet, with all this, I fear, alas! there is no hope.
“But I leave all to God. The effect of a reconciliation would be pentecostal.
“I am the man going to Jericho, stripped, wounded, and left for dead. Nevertheless I am writing to apologize both to the priest and Levite, for not considering the proprieties and respect due them as they passed by.
“P.S. I have thought long and anxiously upon this matter. I have sent friends to Dr. Storrs, who could get no word of encouragement. He eschews even my personal friends who were his warm friends.
“I have thought that any movement with hope of success must come from within his own church. But there is an undeveloped party on each side.
“On the whole, I have come to about this:
“That the families of the two churches should hold on to each other more firmly than ever before, and on both sides refuse to be separated.
“Then, as time goes on and the scandal gives place to other things in the public mind, occasions or influences which we do not now command may arise in God’s good providence, and a way be opened.
“I have often and often thought that if it were God’s will that I might die, a great stumbling-block would be taken away, and health would come out of my grave to the ailing hearts about me.
“And why not?
“I have lived long, and no one ever had leave to live in an age of such opportunities, as those who have had their prime in the past thirty years. One ought not to be greedy of years.”
The hope in which the Great Council was called was realized. The pastors and delegates, called from twenty-one States, returning to their homes, became centres of a noble, generous influence, correcting false impressions, setting doubts at rest, renewing again the old love and confidence.
It is true that here and there, especially in certain theological centres, there were those whose partisan zeal, jealous malice, or even personal hatred would not let them rest content with the deliverance; who would rather have kept Christendom deluged with the vile mess than that Mr. Beecher should stand cleared and justified.
But the great serpent was dead; only its tail wiggled and stirred a little dust for a short time. After a little even that lay quiet.
The clouds were dissipating, the sky was clearing, and soon the sun shone with its former brightness, giving comfort, light, and life to many thousands.
The conspiracy had failed. Where to-day are the conspirators?[15]
15. A friend has aptly put the story in a few short lines: