The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1891-05-01
OPEN AGAIN.
DR.. Tatmage Discourses in His New
Tabernacle.
= The Story of the Crossing of the Jordan
L-essaRs Taught BY the Destruction
and Rebuilding Of the
Church.

-nacle at Brooklyn DR.. TaImage preached |
TO great union meeting from the text: |
what mean ye by these stOnes2'' |
Joshua, iv. 8. The pastor said:
The Jordan, like the Mississippi, has /
bluffs on the one side and fats on the |
sother. Here and there a sycamore |
shadows it Here and there willow |
dips into it. IT was only little over
waist deep in December when I waded |
through it, bnt in the months of April
and May the SHOWS on Mount Lebanon
: thaw and flow down into the valley,
and then the Jordan overfiows its banks.
Then it is wide, deep, raging and i'm
petuous- At this season of the year I
hear the tramp of 40. 900 armed men
coming down to cross the river. You
say, why do they not go up nearer the
rise of the river at the old camel ford?
lAh, my friends, it is because it is not
safe to go around when the Lord tells
to go ahead. The Israelites had been
going around for forty years, and they
had enough of it. do not know how
it is with you, my brethren, but 1 have
always got into trouble when I went
around, but always got into safety when
1 went ahead.
There spreads out the Jordan. n rag
ing torrent much of it snow water just
come down from the mountain top; and
1 see some of the Israelites shivering at
the idea of plunging in, and one old
can you swim?'' And another says: IF
we get across this stream we will get
there with wet clothes and with dam
aged arnOr, and the Canaanites will
slash us to pieces with their swords be-
fore we get up the other bank" But it
is no time to halt. The great host
marches on. The priests carrying the
ark go ahead, the people follow. I hear
the tramp of the great multitude.
The priests have now come within
stones throw of the water Yet still
there is no abatement of the flood.
Now they have come within four
five feet of the stream, but there is no
abatement of the flood. Bad prospects!
1t seems as if these Israelites that
crossed the desert are now going to be
drowned in sight of Canaan But for
ward" is the cry. The command rings
all along the line of the host. For
ward!' Now the priests have come
within one step of the river. This time
they lift their feet from the solid
ground and put them down into the
raging stream. no sooner are their
feet there than the Jordan flies. On the
right hand God piles up a great noun
tain of floods; on the left the waters
flow off toward the sea. The great
river, for hours. halts and rears. The
back waters, not being able to flow
over the passing Israelites, pile wave on
wave until perhaps a sea bird would find
water
cliff. Now the priests and all the peO-
pie have gone over on dry land. The
water the left hand side by this
time had reached the sea; and now that
the miraculous passage has been made,
stand back and see this stupendous pile
of waters leap. God takes the, hand
from that wall of floods and like hun
'dred cataracts they plunge and roar in
--thunderOus triumph to the sea.
How are they to celebrate this pas
sage? Shall it be with music? I sup
pose the trumpet and Gym balls were all
worn out before this. Shall it be with
banners waving? o, no; they are all
faded and torn. Joshua cries out: ~
viii tell you how to celebrate this:
Build monument here to common
-Orate the event." and every priest puts
n heavy stone on his shoulder and
marches out and drops that stone in the
--tiivinely appointed place. 1 see the pile
growing in height, in breadth, in sig
nifcance, and in after years men went
by that spot and saw the monument and
cried one to another, in fulfillment OF
the prophecy of the text: what mean
We by these stones?''
Blessed be God, he did not leave ou1
church in the wilderness! We have
been wandering about for year and &
half Yvorshiping in the Academy Of
Music, Brooklyn. and the Academy O.
Music, New York. And some thought
we would never reach the promised
land. Some said we had better take
this route, and others that. Some said
we had better go back, and some saiC
there Were sons of Analx in the way
that would eat us up; and before the
smoke had cleared away from the sky
after our tabernacle had been con
sumed, people stood on the very site o
the place aad said: ''This church viii
never again be bslilt" We came dow
to the bank of Jordan; we looked of
upon the waters. Some OF the sympa
thy that was expressed turned out t.
be snow water melted from the top O
Lebanon. Some said: ''YOu had bette
not go in; you will get your feet wet
But we yvaded in, pastor and people
further and further, and in SOM
way, the Lord only knows how
we got through; and tonight 1 go al
around about this great house. erecte'
by your prayers, and sympathies. an