The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-01-09
:. rALMAeE.s ELoougNcE.


to the Brooklyn Tabernacle is the inn
mense organ. Promptly at 7:15 o clock
the organist runs his fingers over the |
ivory keys, and plays two or three
selections. At the exact moment OF |
1880 Doctor Talmage walks on the plat |
form. His black broadcloth frOck coat |
is thrown open. a turned-down collar |
encircles his neck and a black tie covers !
his snowy shirt front. He drops into !
blue plush chair, and moment IS
spent i'm prayer. Then he adjusts his
glasses to his eyes and opens his Bible.
The organ peals forth, praise God
from Whom All Blessings Flow" A
stout, well-built man steps on small
platform and waves his right hand.
In his left he holds q silver cornet.
This he puts to his mouth and leads
the vast audience in song. There is no
choir or uuartette in the Tabernacle.
The singing is entirely by the cOngre-
cation. After this DR.. Talmage steps
forward. The peal of the organ has
hardly died away before he announces
his Bible reading. He holds the good
book i'm his right hand, close to his face
His left hand steals around TO his back
and clutches nervously at his coat-tail-
He begins in a well-rounded but not
musical voice. The vast audience is
hushed in expectancy. The fall OF
pin could be heard. Slowly the preach
er proceeds. 1t is the ever delightful
story of Ruth that he has selected. He
reads sentence after sentence and in
conversational way injects comments
until the old story that all the world
has laughed and cried over is invested
with new light and new meaning.
After this another hymn and then the
collection. As the pennies, dimes and
quarters jingle musically together IN
the collection boxes the cornetist plays
again. The great church is by this
time full to OVERLOOKING. There isn't
standing room anywhere. Massive
chandeliers light up the building per-
fectly, and the stained glass windows
make pretty and effective background.
Then the sermon begins. The preacher
comes down to the front of the plat
form without notes or even a book in
his hand. He doesn't use a table or
pulpit He stands alone. Every eye
is on him. He gives out his text in
clear, loud, ringing voice, and repeats
it twice. He usually begins the sermon
by hasty word picture of the scene
where the text is laid, or by an anec-
dote. The sermon lasts forty minutes
1t is full of vigor and earnestness.
Indeed, that is the chief characteristic
Of Talmage on the platform. He
is in earnest. He talks quickly,
nervously. He PAGES up and down
the platform, and now tells story in
low, sweet voice, and again he
belches forth like Vesuvius, and makes
the chandeliers rattle with the sound
of his voice. At times he is intensely
humorous. Again, he has the audience
in tears. Again, he is so dramatic that
the conviction forces itself upon you
that if he had taken to the stage in
stead of the pulpit he would have made
great actor.
What words did the Master use
when the winds and waves dashed
Galilee into furyP' he shouts.
He steps back half-dozen feet, and
for moment there is silence. Then
he comes rushing down the platform
like q tornado until he reaches the very
edge. His hands are uplifted. He
turns his face to the ceiling until his
mouth is on a straight line with his
ears, and in pleading voice says,
softly, unsteady: "Peace!
Quick as a flash his hands come
down. His face has lost its sweet
ness. His voice is changed and harsh,
and the sentence is completed by an
awful and intensely dramatic yell: "Be
stlllr' 1t is the voice of authority.
Galilee is stilled. There are ''Ohs' in
the audience, and q man in a pew in
front of me leans over to his compan-
ion and whispers: Il never understood
the meaning of that sentence before.
The vast audience never loses inter
est. 1t is an audience made up Of fully
two-thirds of men between the ages OF
twenty-five and thirty-five. They be-
long to all walks of life. Some are
students, others are actors and play
wrights, young ministers, bankers,
brokers, lawyers, and storekeepers.
They laugh at the anecdotes, and they
cry and they listen reverently, tender
ly, to the manly pleading to come to
Jesus.
The preacher knows every lutte string
in the human heart.
He draws magnificent pictures in
words, but he never forgets to send
home solid truths.
tits like panorama.
The curtain is rising and falling on
respondent pictures. They dazzle the
listeners. The eye is soothed and the
ear charmed.
The big clock in the rear of the
church points to nine.
Not a soul moves.
The sermon is nearly over.
Look! the last picture is shown!
1t IS Gethsemane!
There is the Mountain, the Gross anC
the Saviour of Men!-FOSter Coates, a.
NJ l. Mail and Express.
jay Gould is reported to have sale
that the spectators have made play
thing of his health for years, and tina
he could shake Wall street to its found
- alton by simply standing on the step
of the Stock Exchange building strik
ing his forehead with his hand an