The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1889-11-07


twenty years glad in all its prosperi-
ties, and sad in all its misfortunes?"
And still small voice came to me,
voice that is no longer still or small
but most emphatic and commanding,
through pressure OF hand, and news
paper column, and telegram and let
ter, and contributions saying: "Go
forward p
/ have made and l now make ap.
peal to all Christendom to help US.
We want all Christendom to help, and
l will acknowledge the receipt of every
contribution, great or small, with my
own hand. We want to build larger
and better. We want it national
church, in which people of all creeds
and all nations may find home. The
contributions already sent in make a
small hearted church forever impossi-
BILE. Would not l be sorry spectacle
for angels and men if, in a church
built by Israelites and Catholics, as
we'll as all the styles of people COM
monty called evangelical, should, in
stead of the banner of the Lord God
Almighty, raise a futtering rag of
small sectarianism? If we had three
hundred thousand dollars we would
put them all in one great monument
to the mercy of God. People ask on
all sides about what we shall build.
answer, it depends on the contribu
tions sent in from here and from the
ends of the earth. I say now to all
the Baptists, that we shall have in it
baptistery. say to all Episcopalians,
we shall have in our services as hereto
fore at our communion table portions
of the Liturgy. l say to the Catholics
we shall have cross over the pulpit
and probably on the tower. l say to
the Methodists, we mean to sing there
like the voices of mighty thunderings.
l say to all denominations, we mean
to opreach religion as wide as Heaven
and as good as God. We have said
we had total loss. But there was
one exception. The only things we
saved were the silver communion chal-
ices, for they happened to be in an
other building, and l take that fact as
typical that we are to be in commun-
ion with all Christendom. 81 believe
in the communion of saints -
l think, if all the Brooklyn fremen
and all insurance companies should
search among those ruins on Scher
merhorn street, they would not find
splinter large as the tip end of the lit
tie finger marked with bigotry. And
as it is said that the exhuned bricks of
the walls of Babylon have on them the
letter N, standing for Nebuchadnezzar,
l declare to you that if we ever get a
new church the letter we should like
to have on every stone and every tim
Der would be the letter G, for that
would stand both for Christ and Ca
tholicy. The last two words uttered
in the old church on Friday night,
some of you may remember, were
" Hallelujah! Amen!"
| The two words that | utter now as
most expressive of my feelings in this
our first service after the Baptism of
Fire, are Hallelujah! Amen! "None
of these things move me-"
We are kept in this mood by two or
three considerations. The first is, that
God rules. In what way the church
took fire do rot know. 1t has been
charged on the lightnings. Well, the
Lord controls the lightnings. He
managed them several thousands Of
years before our electricians were born.
The Bible indicates that, though they
fash down the sky recklessly, God
builds for them a road to travel.
In the Psalms it is said: "He made
way for the lightning and thunder"
Ever since the time of Benjamin
Franklin the world has been trying to
tame the lightnings, and they seem to
be quite we'll harnessed, but they oc-
casionally kick over the traces. But
though we cannot master great natural
forces, God can and does, and that
God is our Father and best Friend,
and this thought gives us confidence.
We are also reinforced by the in
creased consolation that comes from
fraternity of sorrow. The people who,
during the last sixteen years, sat on
the other side of the aisle, whose faces
were familiar to you, but to whom you
had never spoken-you greeted them
this week with smiles and tears as you
said: "Well, the old place is gone. p"
You did not want to seem to cry, and
so you swept the sleeve near the corner
of the eye, and pretended it was the
sharp wind made your eyes weak.
All! there was nothing the matter
with your eyes; it was your soul bub-
bling over. l tell you that it is i'm
possible to sit for years around the
same church freside and not have
| sympathies in common. Somehow
you feel that you would like those peo-
. pie on the other side of the aisle, about
whom you know but little, prospered
and pardoned and blessed and saved.
You feel as if you were in the same
. boat, and you want to glide up the
same harbor and want to disembark
at the same wharf
Il If you put gold and iron and lead
5 and zinc in sufficient heat. they will