CHARLES BEECHER

'Charles Beecher' (October 1, 1815 – April 21, 1900) was an American minister, composer of religious hymns, and prolific author.
Beecher was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the son of Lyman Beecher, an abolitionist Congregationalist preacher from Boston and Roxana Foote Beecher. He was the brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous author of ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'', and the brother of renowned Congregationalist minister, Henry Ward Beecher. He also had another prominent and activist sister, Catharine Beecher.
He attended Bos­ton La­tin School and Law­rence Acad­e­my in Groton, Connecticut, graduated from Bowdoin College in 1834, and then attended Lane Theological Seminary in Ohio. He taught music classes in Cincinnati, Ohio, and received his preach­ing li­cense from the Pres­by­tery of Indianapolis, Indiana. Beecher married Sarah Leland Coffin (1815-1897) in 1840 and they had six children. He served as pas­tor of the Se­cond Pres­by­ter­i­an Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, from 1844 until 1851.
In 1851, he moved east and ministered to the First Free Presbyterian Church in Newark, New Jersey. The church, known as a stronghold of abolitionism, was expelled from the Presbyterian Synod in 1853, and re-organized as a Congregationalist church. Beecher left in 1857 for a pastorate in Georgetown, Massachusetts. Following the Civil War, he moved to Florida to help his sister Harriet and her husband minister to newly freed slaves. He eventually became Florida’s state superintendent of public instruction from 1871–1873. He finished his ministry as act­ing pas­tor in Wysox, Pennsylvania, from 1885–1893. Beecher died in Georgetown, Massachusetts.
Beecher’s major publications include:

★ ''The Incarnation, or, Pictures of the Virgin and her Son'' (1849)

★ ''The Duty of Dis­o­be­di­ence to Wick­ed Laws'' (1851)

★ ''David and his Throne'' (1855)

★ ''Pen Pictures of the Bible'' (1855)

★ ''The Life of David King of Israel'' (1861)

★ ''Autobiography, Correspondence, etc. of Lyman Beecher'' (1863)

★ ''Redeemer and Redeemed'' (1864)

★ ''Spiritual Manifestations'' (1879)

★ ''The Eden Tableau, or, Object Bible-Teaching'' (1880)

★ ''Patmos; or, the Unveiling'' (1896)
He also published two music texts and was one of the mu­sic edit­ors for his bro­ther Henry’s 1855 ''Ply­mouth Col­lect­ion''. He published several antislavery tracts, including ''A Sermon on the Nebraska Bill'' (1854) and ''The God of the Bible Against Slavery'' (1855). His travel journal was re-published in 1986 by the Stowe-Day Foundation under the title ''Harriet Beecher Stowe in Europe''.

Contents

References

References

★ The Duty of Disobedience to Wicked Laws. A Sermon on the Fugitive Slave Law

★ cyberhymnal.org bio of Beecher