r to
stand or withdraw entirely.

The hospitality, too, was thoroughly democratic. It may be doubted
whether any church in the land, not even excepting those of the Roman
Catholic worship, gave so genuine a welcome to every sort of people,
rich or poor, high or low, educated or uneducated, white, black or
brown, as did Plymouth Church. No man, woman, or child was allowed to
feel out of place, or unwelcome. That this was and is true, is a notable
testimony to the influences that controlled the church from its very
beginning.

When we consider the guests, their number and quality, the ushers used
sometimes to wonder where they all came from. Truly, the fame of
Plymouth had gone into all the world. Travellers visited it, just as
they went to Washington or Niagara. It was "the thing" to hear Henry
Ward Beecher in Plymouth Church--usually the two were absolutely
identical. Distinguished men from all walks in life, in America and
every other country in Christendom, were there. Famous editors, popular
ministers, eminent statesmen, great generals, were to be seen in the
audience Sabbath after Sabbath. Among those whom I remember were Louis
Kossuth, Abraham Lincoln, General Grant, Charles Dickens, Wendell
Phillips, Theodore Parker, William Lloyd Garrison, Charles Sumner, the
poet Whittier, Horace Greeley, besides a host of others. During the
Civil War most of the so-called War Governors, Andrews of Massachusetts,
Buckingham of Connecticut, Morgan of New York, Curtin of Pennsylvania,
and others, were to be seen in the congregation, and it was not an
uncommon occurrence to see many of the New England regiments on their
way to the field, stop over Sunday and march into Plymouth Church. It
had become identified with those higher purposes and deeper principles
of the war which appealed most of all to the New England conscience.

Of course there were all sorts of experiences in seating these guests.
The ushers soon came to be able to tell where the strangers came from by
their form of expression. "Is this Ward Beecher's Church?" invariably
betokened an Englishman, as they always called him Ward Beecher in
England, and probably more of the foreigners who visit Plymouth come
from there than from any other country. "We are from Canada," is the
next most common salutation. "I am a clergyman from Oregon." "I am a
missionary from China." "I am from San Francisco and this is my first
visit here." "We are from New Jersey, and never heard M