Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-02

nilcent specimen OF ndnnoou, anu
what he preached was essentially
what Kingsley described as
muscular Christianity These Wall
street men, you know, have an
idea that religion is woman's affair.
They pay pew rent, and she takes the
children TO church. 1t is the proper
thing, especially if you live in the
suburbs. But, a curious thing, there
was not woman to be seen at these
services. | wanted to take my mother
and some of her friends to hear the great
Boston orator, and | wrote to Dr. Dix
asking if it was possible to reserve seats
for them. He made a courteous and
lengthy reply that he had thought of
giving them seats in the organ loft,
but that the applications for seats for
women were so numerous that he felt 1t
would be unfair to reserve any seats for
them.
"When Phillips Brooks came in the
people crushed back and made a lane
for him, just as they would for a charge
of cavalry. His presence itself com
manded it. should say he is about six
feet three and splendidly proportioned.
The choir, stalls and the whole OF the
chancel, even the steps to the commun-
ion table, were all crowded. Mr.. Brooks
went straight to the pulpit, and reading
only one or two of the prayers for the
dav. Immediately gave out hymn.
"The audience were Immediately all
interest and expectation. Before THIS
their behavior was what might be
called reverence, but they were restless,
and looked often at their watches, and
probably some of them thought that the
fleeting moments might wipe out their
margins. For not only the big bankers
and brokers and leading lawyers were
there, but the curbstone brokers and
clerks, who had munched their lunch
on the way, in order to steal few
minutes to listen to the renowned
preacher.
"If puts and calls and profit and loss
stole into their minds after Mr.. Brooks
began his sermon nobody could notice
it in their faces. | did not because
was too much impressed by the speaker.
SO was everybody. Wonderful sermons
they were, and so cleverly adapted to
the logical acumen and hard business
sense of the great crowd. A Tribune
stenographer told me that Mr. Brooks
spoke an average of nearly three hun
dred words a minute, and yet every
word was clearly enunciated and heard
all over the church.
cit was a significant fact, too, that
when these sermons ended there was no
rush to get out. l had expected that
those gray-headed men, to whom frac-
ton on cable quotation might mean a
loss OF thousands of dollars, and who
had been lingering their watches so rest
lessly, would Immediately rush for their
offices as if the building was on fire.
They did nothing of the kind. They
stood up and sung the closing hymn,
and then decorously filed out. Even
when they gained the street it seemed
as il the chronic rush had been taken
out of them for the time being. Their
step was slow and thoughtful.
II attended nearly all the other SER
vices and invited many fellows on the
street to them. They laughed at first,
but | afterward noticed many OF them
in the church. Moody was holding re-
vivals in the city the same week. and
some fellows after enjoying Brooks
would say, Let's take in Moody to-
night But Moody had nothing like
the congregations Brooks had, and l
don't believe there ever were such
crowds in Old Trinity before or since.
1.-The last of the weeks MONDAY SER
mons was to me very impressive. 1t
was Saturday, and feverish market
was closing against me. yet before II |
was in the church. The sermon bore
especially, as all the series had, on the
freedom of the Christian religion, and
Brooks began by saying it would be i'm
possible for any man TO have addressed
such an audience so many times without
misgivings, lest out Of the multitude OF
things said the essential thing had been
misunderstood or left unsaid. How
modest this sounded from man OF such
learning and such eloquence, and such
handsome presence, too-for this has
an influence rarely estimated but always
felt
HE had a deep fear, he said, lest
the richness and simplicity and the alb
solute unity of the truth as it is in
Jesus Christ had been lost in mnlti-
tude of words. Man multiplied words,
yet the world came back to the simplicl-
ty of the fact that God so loved the
world that he sent his son to be its re-
demption. Controversial subjects in
might be interesting and well enough
in their place, he went on, but 1T seem
ed to him like the lfeboats on board a
steamer, (He seemed to be fond OF
using the Atlantic steamer as a figure
The lifeboats were there for an emer-
gency. He did not think of them as an
essential of his journey to Europe
feel the deck, he said, Il see the sails,
hear the throb Of the engine in the
hold.
NY faith is in these. Doctrines and
dogmas are but the boats upon the
thwarts, and do not reveal the essential
relationship between God and man
through Christ. Men are out at sea in
the boats. Go back TO the ship, my
brothers.
81 feel that he could not afford to'be
so broad-minded bishop. And then his
close. After brilliant rush of orat0ry,
so rapid that thought was scarcely able
to keep up with it. he said. Farewell,
my friends with the sweetest sympa-
thetic cadence. 1T is not for long-this
stage OF our glorious journey here-be-
fore the gates which shall be opened
upon journey yet more glorious.
Whatever may come hereafter, not this
particular opportunity to serve God will
come again. Catch to-day