Beecher, Henry Ward (1813-1887), the son of Lyman Beecher, was an eloquent, dramatic, and witty Protestant preacher. His sermons were original and timely. In sermons and in the book Evolution and Religion (1885), Beecher tried to reconcile the Bible and evolution.
Beecher was born on June 24, 1813, in Litchfield, Connecticut, and graduated from Amherst College and Lane Seminary. He served as the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, from 1837 to 1839. Between 1839 and 1847, he served a Presbyterian church in Indianapolis. From 1847 until his death, he was pastor of the Congregationalist Plymouth Church in the Brooklyn section of New York City. He edited the Independent from 1861 to 1863, and the Christian Union from 1870 to 1881.
His works include Seven Lectures to Young Men (1844), Star Papers (1855), Freedom and War (1863), Aids to Prayer (1864), and a novel, Norwood (1867). The first volume of his Life of Jesus the Christ was published in 1871. It was completed in 1891 with excerpts from his sermons. Beecher died on March 8, 1887.
