The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-04-13

bound what raptures, WhaJ kficis, WhuJ
struggles, what triumphs mention IL AZ
matter Of gratitude 10 God that in these
twenty-three years / have missed but one
Sabbath through physical indisposition,
and but three In the thirty.six years
of my ministry. And now, having reach
ed this twenty-third milestone, / start
anew. l have in my memorandum
books analyses OF more sermons than /
have ever yet preached, and / have
preached, as near as can tell, about 1880
During these past years | have learned
two or three things. Among others l
have learned that FALL things work to-
gether for good" My positive mode of
preaching has sometimes seemed TO stir
the hostilities of all earth and bell. Feel
ing called upon fifteen years ago 90 explore
underground New York city life, that
might report the evils TO be combnted, i took
with me two elders of my church and New
York police commissioner and policeman,
and / explored and reported the horrors
that needed removal aud the allurements
that endangered our young men. There
came upon me an Outburst Of assumed in
dignation that frightened almost every
body but myself. That exploration put
into my church thirty or forty newspaper
correspondents from north, south, east and
west; which opened for me new avenues in
which TO preach the Gospel that otherwise
would never have been opened.
Years passed ON and preached a series
of sermons on Amusements, and a false
report of what did say-and one of the
sermons said 10 have been preached by
me was not mine in a single word-roused
violence that threatened me with poison
and dirk and pistol and other forms Of
extinguishment, until the chief of Brook
Ign police, without any suggestion from
me, took possession OF the church with
twenty-four policemen to see that no harm
was done. That excitement opened many
doors, which entered for preaching the
Gospel.
After awhile came an ecclesiastical trial,
in which | was arraigned by people who
did not like the way did things, and al
though was acquitted of all the charges,
the contest shook the American church.
That battle made me more friends than
anything that ever happened and gave me
Chrstendom and more than Christemdom
for my weekly audience. On the demoli-
tion of each church we got better and a
larger church, and not n disaster, not a
caricature, not persecution, not an as
sault during all these twenty-three years,
but turned out for our advantage, and
ought l not To believe that ''all things work
together for good!" Hosannah
NOT NECESSARY TO PICK FLAWS.
Another lesson | have learned during
these twenty-three years is that il is not
necessary TO preach error or pick flaws in
the old Bible in order 10 get an audience;
the old Book without any fixing up is good
enough for me, and higher criticism, as it
is called, means lower religion. Higher
criticism is another form of infidelity, and
its disciples will believe less and less, I'M
til many of them will land in Nowhere
and become the worshipers of an eternal
"What is it," The most OF these higher
critics seem TO be seeking notoriety by
pitching into the Bible. 1t is such brave
thing TO strike your grandmother. The
old Gospel put in modern phrase and with
out any Of the conventionalities, and
adapted TO all the wants and woes of hui
manity, have found the mightiest mag
net, and we have never lacked an audience.
Next to the blessing of my OWE family l
account the blessing that l have always
had great multitude of people to preach
to. That old Gospel 1 have preached to
you these twenty-three years of my Brook
Ign pastOrate, and that old Gospel / will
preach till | die, and charge my son, who
is on the way 70 the ministry, 20 preach it
after me, for ] remember Paul's thunder
bolt, IF any man preach any other Gospel,
let him be accursed." And now, as l stand
here on my twenty-third anniversary, l
see two audiences The one is made up of
all those who have worshiped with US in
the past, but have beer translated to high
er realms.
What groups of chiidren-too fair and
too sweet and too lovely for earth, and the
Lord took them, but they seem present
today. The Group has gone out of the
swollen throat, and the pallor from the
check and they have on them the health
and radiance of heaven. Hail groups of
glori6ed childrcnl How glad am TO have
you come back to us today! And here sit
those aged ones, who departed this life
leaving an awful vacancy in home and
church. Where are your stats, and where
are your gray locks and where your stoop-
ing should we blessed old folks? "Oh"
they say, We are all young again, and
the bath in the river from under the
Throne has made us agile and bounding.
In the place from which we come they
use no stats, but sceptersp Hail, fathers
and mothers in Israel; how glad we are
TO have you come back to greet us. But
the other audience / see in imagination is
made up of all those 70 whom we have had
opportunity as church, directly or indi-
rectly, of presenting the Gospel. Yea, all
my parishes seem to come back today. The
people of my first charge in Belleville, New
Jersey. The people Of my second charge
in Syracuse, New York The people of
my third charge in Philadelphia. And
the people OF all these three Brooklyn Tab
ernacles. Look at them, and all those
whom, through the printing press, we
have invited TO God and heaven, now
seeming to sit in galleries above galleries,
fifty galleries, hundred galleries. thou
sand galleries high
/ greet them all in your name and in
Christ's name, all whom have confronted
from my first sermon in my first village
charge, where my lips trembled and my
knees knocked together from alright,
speaking from the text, Jeremiah i, q,
"Ah Lord God, behold | cannot speak,
for | am childw until the sermon Ipreach
today from Luke tx, 33, Let US make
three tabernacles," those of the past and
the present, all gather in imagination, if
not in reality, all of us grateful to God for
past mercies all of us sorry for misim-
proved opportunities, all hopeful Tor eter-
nal raptures, and while the visible and the
invisible audiences of the present and tho
past commingle give out to be sung by
those who are here today, and to be sung
by those who shall read of this scene of
reminiscence and congratulation, that
hymn which has been rolling on since
Isaac Watts started 1T one hundred and
fifty years ago:
Our God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come;
Our shelter from the stormy blast,