“I send herewith the volume which I have taken the liberty of inscribing to you. If you shall find between these brief lines any deeper sentiment than there appears, any grateful acknowledgment of a friendship which I have been fortunate and proud to possess, which I have sought to deserve and which has been most fondly returned; of thanks for many kindnesses on the threshold of my struggle for recognition, and of your continual helpful and welcome encouragement; of sincere gratitude too toward my pastor, who from earliest youth has quickened my aspirations toward a high ideal of character and a life of usefulness and integrity;--if you shall discover these and thus learn how close a place you hold in my affections, then you shall read truly the spirit of my dedication. “With hopes that the coming Christmas may be blest with peace and joy to you and yours and that your helpful companionship may be spared to all of us with health and happiness to yourself and with continual beneficence to others for many years to come, “Believe me, “Yours affectionately, “W. HAMILTON GIBSON.” An interesting side-light is thrown on a now memorable event in Plymouth Church in another letter, written on the same day on which Mr. Beecher delivered his famous sermon in denunciation of Calvinism, and made his outspoken and unmistakable revolt against the stern dogmas of an older day. There is little doubt that Gibson was one of the quickest and heartiest in the applause which he describes: “Mr. Beecher delivered, this morning, to an immense audience the finest sermon of his life,--the most eloquent effort, without doubt, that ever escaped his lips. He was heartily applauded throughout the house several times, as he vehemently denounced the right of bishops and other ecclesiastical heads, to usurp authority in the Church. True Christianity, he said, implied liberty. Men should not turn their hearts to Christ through fear but through love. The God that has been and is still preached in the churches throughout the land, is not a god but a devil. If he could picture a monster the most horrible and cruel imaginable it would be the God which is preached in many of our churches and to thousands of our people. He maintained his utter independence, and said that no man could say to him what he should do or what he should not do, he was responsible to God alone, and if he was inspired to preach the gospel to his people he would do it with all his heart and all his soul and would give utterance to every thought he chose. ‘Men say I shall not, I say I shall.’ Christianity, he said, had been trampled under foot by the spirit of ecclesiastical authority, that the time was approaching when liberty in the church was to rule triumphant and until it did the world would suffer.