HENRY WARD BEECH R ON GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, 22 July 1881, Page 2

HENRY WARD BEECH R ON GLADSTONE AND DISRAELI.

» During a recent discourse in Plymouth Church, Mr Beecher bad occasion to illustrate a portion of the argument, by reference to the career of illustrious men. He especially drew attention to the Lord Beaconsfield aod the present Minister of England pointing a lesson out which was much to the disadvantage of the dead statesman. 'No generous heart, 1 he said, ' loves to speak of faults, but when I look at the moving ideas of Beaconsfield's life — the line of his literature, the line of his statemanship, the line of his inspiration — I ask myself : What new truth has he dicsovered? What old truth has been left burning brighter than it was ? What more heroic ideal has he attained in human life ? What advance in human society ? What single good quality has be made more resplendent, noble, and desirable of the whole human race ? He U one of those names that like a pyrotechnic display, stand out brilliantly for the admiration of the crow 1. When the wheel ceases to revolve it goes out — it is forgotten. His life is ended, bis power ended and he leaves nothing behind him but the name— the same ! But when he who stands high to day in the administration of the Empire of Great Britain shall die he will have left many a work behind in the line of scholarship and elegant literature, and he will have left an example of a Cbristain statesman seek* iog the best things by the highest and purest ways ; and if God spares his life, and he will have scattered, I think, from his country those great clouds which threaten so much and betoken the rise of the better day— • of a purer nationaity and a nobler morality. God bess our mother land ! I have affection for her gloryand I both honour and revere that nobler man, who as a Chris tain statesman, stands proudly pre-eminent in the councils of the world, for I know of one other. Not him of Germ my ! And in my own land where is the mm? Of politicians we have enough ; but where is the man that embodies in himself the royal idea of divine love ; the learn* ing, wisdom, and skill in affairs? There is the room for euch a man and may God send him speedily.'