第25章 Memory of Our Fathers 关于先辈的回忆

Lyman Beecher, 1775-1863, a famous congregational minister of New England, was born in New Haven, graduated from Yale College in 1797, and studied theology with Dr. Timothy Dwight. His first settlement was at East Hampton, L. I., at a salary of three hundred dollars per year. He was pastor of the church in Litchfield, Ct., from 1810 till 1826, when he removed to Boston, and took charge of the Hanover Street Church. In the religious controversies of the time, Dr. Beecher was one of the most prominent characters. From 1832 to 1842, he was President of Lane Theological Seminary, in the suburbs of Cincinnati. He then returned to Boston, where he spent most of the closing years of his long and active life. His death occurred in Brooklyn, N. Y. As a theologian, preacher, and advocate of education, temperance, and missions, Dr. Beecher occupied a very prominent place for nearly half a century. He left a large family of sons and two daughters, who are well known as among the most eminent preachers and authors in America.

We are called upon to cherish with high veneration and grateful recollections, the memory of our fathers. Both the ties of nature and the dictates of policy demand this. And surely no nation had ever less occasion to be ashamed of its ancestry, or more occasion for gratulation in that respect; for while most nations trace their origin to barbarians, the foundations of our nation were laid by civilized men, by Christians. Many of them were men of distinguished families, of powerful talents, of great learning and of preeminent wisdom, of decision of character, and of most inflexible integrity. And yet not unfrequently they have been treated as if they had no virtues; while their sins and follies have been sedulously immortalized in satirical anecdote.

The influence of such treatment of our fathers is too manifest. It creates and lets loose upon their institutions, the vandal spirit of innovation and overthrow; for after the memory of our father shall have been rendered contemptible, who will appreciate and sustain their institutions? "The memory of our fathers" should be the watchword of liberty throughout the land; for, imperfect as they were, the world before had not seen their like, nor will it soon, we fear, behold their like again. Such models of moral excellence, such apostles of civil and religious liberty, such shades of the illustrious dead looking down upon their descendants with approbation or reproof, according as they follow or depart from the good way, constitute a censorship inferior only to the eye of God; and to ridicule them is national suicide.

The doctrines of our fathers have been represented as gloomy, superstitious, severe, irrational, and of a licentious tendency. But when other systems shall have produced a piety as devoted, a morality as pure, a patriotism as disinterested, and a state of society as happy, as have prevailed where their doctrines have been most prevalent, it may be in season to seek an answer to this objection.

The persecutions instituted by our fathers have been the occasion of ceaseless obloquy upon their fair fame. And truly, it was a fault of no ordinary magnitude, that sometimes they did persecute. But let him whose ancestors were not ten times more guilty, cast the first stone, and the ashes of our fathers will no more be disturbed. Theirs was the fault of the age, and it will be easy to show that no class of men had, at that time, approximated so nearly to just apprehensions of religious liberty; and that it is to them that the world is now indebted for the more just and definite views which now prevail.

The superstition and bigotry of our fathers are themes on which some of their descendants, themselves far enough from superstition, if not from bigotry, have delighted to dwell. But when we look abroad, and behold the condition of the world, compared with the condition of New England, we may justly exclaim, "Would to God that the ancestors of all the nations had been not only almost, but altogether such bigots as our fathers were."

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莱曼·比彻（1775 ～1863年），新英格兰著名的公理教会牧师，出生在纽黑文，1797年毕业于耶鲁大学，他和提摩西·德怀特博士一同研究神学。他最开始定居在东汉普顿，每年薪水300美元。1810～1826年，担任利奇菲尔德教堂的牧师。搬到波士顿之后，主持汉诺威街教堂的布道工作。在宗教争议的那段时期，比彻是声名显赫的人物之一。1832 ～1842年，他是莱恩神学院的主席，莱恩神学院位于辛辛那提的郊外。在那之后，他又回到波士顿，之后很多年都在波士顿度过。他在纽约布鲁克林去世。作为一名神学家、传教士，同时也是教育、节制和使命的积极倡导者，比彻在半个多世纪里一直具有重要影响力。他留下了一个大家庭，有几个儿子和两个女儿，他们都跻身于美国最有名的传教士和作家之列。

在上帝的召唤下，我们以崇高的敬意和深切的怀念来回忆我们的先辈。无论是亲情的纽带还是神的命令，都要求我们这么做。毫无疑问，没有哪个国家会因为自己的祖先而感到羞愧，他们更多的是在对先辈表达敬意中得到满足。因为绝大多数国家的历史都可以追溯到野蛮时期，我们的国家是由文明人、基督徒建立的，他们中的许多人都来自声名显赫的家族，他们有着过人的天赋、良好的学识、超常的智慧以及不可动摇的信念。异乎寻常的是，人们认为他们拥有无可挑剔的美德，与此同时，在讽刺味十足的奇闻趣事当中，他们的罪恶和愚蠢行为反而名垂千古。

如此对待我们的先辈所产生的影响是显而易见的：创立制度然后任由其被破坏，创新和颠覆都带有野蛮人的特征。对先辈的这种回忆被证明为卑劣做法以后，还会有谁重视和维护他们的制度呢？对我们先辈的回忆应该是响彻这块大地的自由口号，虽然他们并不完美，在之前的世界也没有和他们相似的人，而且我们担心从今以后也不会再有这样的人了。这样道德完美的典范，这样持之以恒追求国家和宗教自由的传道先驱，无论是用赞美还是鄙视的目光看待他们后代的杰出先辈所留下的罪恶，无论他们遵守还是摒弃美德，他们都只是在做给上帝看。嘲弄先辈，无异于这个国家在自我毁灭。

我们先辈的教条具有愚昧、迷信且非理性的特点，而且具有放纵倾向。不过，当其他制度引导出忠诚的虔诚、纯净的道德、无私的爱国主义、快乐的社会状态时（这也正是他们的制度所能取得的最常见的结果），那么我们就该寻找对这种反对声音的答案了。

我们先辈所实施的一些迫害行为，使他们的名誉受损。事实上，这是极其错误的，尽管他们有时会实施迫害。不过，如果让那个其祖先的罪恶并不比他多十倍的人向他的先辈抛掷第一块石头的话，那么我们先辈的在天之灵就不会再惶恐不安了。他们的错误是时代导致的，很容易就可以证明当时并不存在这类人，他们只是近乎对宗教自由的忧虑。对于他们来说，这个世界现在享受先辈的眷顾越多，这种盛行的观点就会越明确。

我们先辈的迷信和偏执是他们的一些后人谈论的主题，这些后人本身并不迷信，倘若不是偏执，他们会对此心安理得。不过，当我们放远视野，观察当时世界的情况，并把它和新英格兰相比较的话，我们或许会公平地高呼：“既然上帝让所有民族的祖先都是平等的，为何唯独让我们的祖先变得如此偏执！”