Connecticut western news., 1889-10-23
TABERNACLE PULPIT.
"THE BAPTISM OF FIRE.~
Dr. Talmage's Discourse Yesterday.

Music this morning. his first sermon after the destruction of the Brooklyn Tabernacle by fire. His audience was of vast size, and pub lie interest was extraordinary. The opening hymn was:
 God moves In a mysterious way
 His wonders to perform;
 He plants his footsteps in the sea,
 And rides upon tue storm.
 Dr. Talmage's subject was "The Baptism of Fire" and he took us his text Acts xx, 24, "None of these things move me-" He said:
 But, Paul, have you not enough afflction to move you? Are you not an exile from your native land? With the most genial and loving nature, have you not. ill order to be free for missionary journeys, given yourself to celibacy? Have you not turned away from the magnificent worldly successes that would have crowned your illustrious genius? Have you not endured the sharp and stnying neu- ragias, like Il thorn in the flesh? Have you not been mobbed oil the land and shipwrecked on the sea; tic sanhedrim against you; the Roman government against you; all the world and all hell against you?
 "What of that' says Paul. "None of these things move mel" It was not because he was a hard nature. Gentlest woman was never more easily dissolved into tears. He could not even bear to see anybody cry, for in the midst of his sermon when he saw some one weeping her sobs aloud, ..What
 
 for am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus" What then did Paul mean when he said, "None of these things move mc?' He meant, II will not be diverted from the work to which have been called by any and all the adversities and ca!amities."
 l think this morning I express not only my own feelings but that of every man, woman and little child belonging to Brooklyn Tabernacle. or that was converted there, or | look toward the blackened ruins of the dear and consecrated spot and with an aroused faith in loving God, cry out: sNone of these things move me-"
 When I say that do not mean that we have no feeling about it. Instead of stand- would be more consonant with my feelings to sit down among the ruins and weep at the words of David: 'sIf forget thee, o JeruSa- lem, let my right 6and forget her cunning Why, let me say to the strangers here today in explanation of the deep emotion of my flock, we had there in that building six'een years of religious revival. I believe that a hundred thousand souls were born there. They came from all parts of the earth, and we shall never sec them again until the books are opened. Why, sirs our children were there baptized, and at those altars our young men and maidens took the marriage VOW, and out of those gates we carried our dead. When from the roof of my house last Sunday morn- ing at 5 o'clock l saw our church in flames, I said: ''That is the last of the building from which we buried our De Witt on that cold December day when it seemed all Brooklyn wept with my household" And it was just as hard for you to give up your loved ones as for us to give up ours. Why. like the beauti- full vines that still cover some of the fallen walls, our affections are clalnbering all over the ruins, and I could kiss the ashes that mark the place where 1t once stood. Why, now that I think of it, cannot think of it us an inanimate pile, but as a soul, a mighty soul, an indestructible soul. I am sure that majestic organ had a soul, for we have often heard it speak and sing and shout and vail, and when the soul of that organ entered heaven, I think Handel, and Haydn, and Mozart, and Mendelssohn, and Beethoven were at the gates to welcome it. So l do not use the words of my text in heartless way but in the sense that we must not and will not be diverted from our work by the ap- paling disasters which have befalen us. We will not turn aside one inch from our de- termination to do all we can for the present and everlasting happiness of all the people whom we may be able to meet. "None o1 these things move me. None of these things move you"
 When looked out through the dismal rair from the roof of my house and saw tho church crumbling brick by brick and timber by timber, said to myself: Does tt is mean that my work in Brooklyn is ended? Does thi leImllute ny dSsoClatlon Wltn Ine GUY, where 1 have been more than twenty years glad in all it's prosperities, and sad in all it's misfor- ! tunes? And still small voice came to me, voice that Is no longer still or small but mos emphatic and commanding, through pressure of hand, and newspaper column, and tele gram and letter and contribution, saying "Go forwardp'
 have made and now make appeal to al Cbristendom to help us. We want all Chris. tendon to help, and I will acknowledge tho receipt of every contribution, great or small with my own hand. We want to build larger in which people of ali creeds and al nations may find home. The contributions already sent in make sma-hearted church forever impossible. Would not be sorry spectacle for angels and men if, in church built by Israelites and Catholics, as well as all the styles of people commonly called evan gelical, should, instead Of the banner of the Lord God Almighty, raise futtering rag o1 small sectariansm? If we had three hun dred thousand dollars we would put them al People ask on all sides about what we shall build. answer, 1t all depends on the con tributions sent In from here and from the ends of the earth. l say HOW to all the Bap lists, that we shall have in 1t baptistery. say to all the Episcopalians, we shall have in table portions of the Liturgy. say to the Catholics, we shall have cross over the pull pit and probably on the tower. I say to the Methodists, we mean to sing there like tho voices of mighty thurderings. I say to al denominations, we mean to preach 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 werl the silver communion chalices. for they hap pcned to be ln another building, and take that fact as typical that we are to be in com munion with all Christendom. "I believe ir the communion of saints"
 think, if all the Brooklyn fremen and al insurance companies should search among those ruins on Schermerhorn street, they would not find splinter large as the tip end as it is said that the cxhumed bricks of the walls of Babylon have on them the letter N standing for Nebuchadnezzar, I declare to you that if we ever get new church the let 1 ter we should like to have on every stone and every timber would be the letter c, for that would stand both for Christ and for Catholi city. The last two words uttered in the ole church on Friday night, some of you may re. memember. were '.Hallelujahl Amenv'
 The two words that I utter now as most expressive of my feelings in tlis our first ser vice after the Baptism of Fire, arc lIalielujah 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 I do not | know. It has been charged on the light | nings. We'll, the Lord controls the light | nings. He managed them several thousand! | of years before our electricians were born The bible indicates that, though they fast down the sky recklessly, God builds for then | q road to travel. In the Psalms it is said: "He made { | way for the lightning and the thunder Ever since the time of Benjamin Franklir the world has been trying to tame the light l nings, and they seem to be quite well har messed, but they occasionally kick over thu traces. But though we cannot master great natural forces, God can and does, and tha God is our Father and best Friend, and this thought gives us confidence.
 | We are also reinforced by the increased consolation that comes from confraternity o1 sorrow. The people who, during the las aisle, whose faces were familiar to you, but | to whom YOU had never SpOken-voiI oreetof