UNHOLY AMBITION by J. O. C.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · March 3, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 9

UNHOLY AMBITION.

By J. O. C.

Beecher’s popularity has sadly waned. He was advertised to lecture a few evenings ago in Chickering Hall, New York, and less than one hundred persons went to hear him. The former favorite of Plymouth pulpit evidently felt the slight very keenly. At half past eight he appeared on the platform, and announced to the few assembled that there would be no lecture, and that the admission money would be refunded at the door. It is well known that any man of prominence can secure a good audience for a lecture in New York. Beecher’s failure to do so ought to be evidence to him that his hold upon the public mind is about lost. He would show a little good sense now if he would no longer pose before the public for that favor he has long since forfeited by his continued indiscretions. His descent from the dignity of the pulpit to the political arena, and his inconsiderate utterances in the last campaign, have proved the finishing misfortune to what might have been a beneficial career. It were surely better to die respected by all in the midst of one’s days, than to allow inordinate ambition to sully the character in old age, and then depart “without being desired.” The results seen from the course of the Brooklyn preacher should be a warning to others who are engaged in the work of the gospel. The words of Shakspeare are applicable to all such :—

“Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition; By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then, The image of his Maker, hope to win by ’t?”

J. O. C.