ston, and there
Henry began to show his true powers. He learned rapidly, and was soon
sent to the Mount Pleasant Institute, at Amherst, from which he passed to
Amherst College, where he graduated with distinction in 1834. While at
Mount Pleasant, he formed the resolution of entering the ministry, and
all his studies were thenceforward shaped to that end. In 1832, his
father had removed to Cincinnati, to assume the presidency of the Lane
Theological Seminary, and, after leaving Amherst, Henry followed him to
the West, and completed his theological course at the Lane Seminary in
1836. In that year he was admitted to the ministry of the Presbyterian
Church.

Immediately after his ordination, Mr. Beecher married, and accepted a
call to Lawrenceburg, Indiana, on the Ohio River, twenty miles below
Cincinnati. He did not stay there long, but passed to the charge of a
church in Indianapolis, where he spent eight years--eight valuable years
to him, for he says he learned how to preach there. In the summer of
1847, he received and accepted a call to the pastorate of Plymouth
Church, in Brooklyn, which had just been founded, and on the 11th of
November, 1847, he was publicly installed in the position which he has
since held.

Few persons of education and taste ever come to New York without hearing
the great preacher. Plymouth Church is a familiar place to them. It is
located in Orange street, between Hicks and Henry streets, Brooklyn. It
is a plain structure of red brick. The interior is as simple as the
exterior. It is a plain, square room, with a large gallery extending
entirely around it. At the upper end is a platform on which stands the
pulpit--an exquisitely carved little stand of wood from the Garden of
Gethsemane. In the gallery, back of the pulpit, is the organ, one of the
grandest instruments in the country. The seats are arranged in
semicircles. By placing chairs in the aisles, the house will seat with
comfort twenty five hundred people. The congregation usually numbers
about three thousand, every available place being crowded. The
upholstering is in crimson, and contrasts well with the prevailing white
color of the interior.

The singing is congregational, and is magnificent. One never hears such
singing outside of Plymouth Church.

The gem of the whole service, however, is the sermon; and these sermons
are characteristic of the man. They come warm and fresh from his heart,
and they go home to t