Life thoughts, gathered from the extemporaneous discourses of Henry Ward Beecher. By one of his congregation.

PREFACE.
SOME two years since, while visiting friends in a distant
city, they proposed that I should take notes for them of
Mr. Beecher's sermons. Upon my return I commenced
doing so, without a thought of their going be yond the little
circle for whom they were first intended. But, as page
after page was added to my note-book, and read occasionally to one and another, it began to be suggested that
they ought not to be confined to the few, but should be
published in a volume and given to the many. Thus the
present book came into being.
With rare exceptions, these notes have been taken from
the Sabbath sermons and Wednesday evening lectures,
since the date at which they were commenced. Most of
them have never been written till now; for Mr. Beecher's
best thoughts are not usually'those which are beforehand
committed coolly to paper; they are those which spring
from the inspiration of the moment, and have no record
(iii)