Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-04-08

without any suggestion from me- took pos
session Of the church with twenty-four po-
llcemen to see that no harm was done. That
excitement opened many doors, which en-
tered 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 although
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 Chistendom and
more than Christendom for my weekly
audience. On the demolition of each church
we got a better aud larger church, ana not
disaster, not a caricature, not persecu-
ton, not an assault, during all these twenty
three years, but turned out for our acvan-
tage, and ought not TO believe that all
things work together for goody Hosannan!
Another lesson Ihave learned during these
twenty-three years is that it is not necessary
to preaca error or pick flaws in the old
Bible in order to get an au iience; the old
Book without any fixing up is good enough
for me, and the higher criticism as it is
called, means lower religion. Higher
criticism is another form OF inddelity, and
its disciples will believe less and less, until
many of them will land in Nowhere aud
become the worshipers of an eternal What
is it.n The most of these higher critics seem
to be seeking notoriety by pitching into the
Bible. 1t is such brave thing ID strike
your grandmother. The old Gospel put in
modern phrase and without any OF the
conventionalities, and adapted to all the
wants and woes Of humanity, ] have founI
the mightiest magnet, and we have never
lacked an audience.
Next to the blessing Of my own family
account the blessing that have always had
great multitude of people to preach TO-
That old Gospel l have preached TO you
these twenty-three years OF my Brooklyn
pastorate, and that old Gospel | will preach
till die. and charge my son, who is on the
way to the ministry, to preach 1t after me,
for remember Paups thunderbolt "lf any
man preach any other Gospel, let him DO
accursed." And now. as | stand here onmy
twenty-third anniversary, | see two audi
ences. The one is made up OF all those who
have worshiped with us in the past but have
been translated to higher realms
What groups of children-too fair and too
sweet and too lovely for earth, and the Lord
took them, but they seem present to-day.
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 gloriied children 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 vour gray locks and where you STOPPING
shoulders, We blessed old folks? "Ohp 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 stalls,
hut scepters" Hail, fathers and mothers in
Israel; how glad we are to have you cone
back to greet Us. But the other audience L
see in imagination is made up OF all those to
whom we have had opportunity as church,
directly or indirectly, OF presenting the
Gosuel. Yea, all my parishes seem to come
hack to-day. 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
Tabernacles. Look at them, and all those
whom, through the printing press, we have
invited to God and heaven, now seeming 70
sit in galleries above galleries, fifty galleries,
q hundred galleries, q thousand galleries
high.
/ greet them all In your name AMI In
Christ's name, all whom have contronted
from nv first sermon in my first village
charge, where my lips trembled and my
knees knocked together from alright, speak
ing from the text jeremiah l., q, "Ah, Lord
God behold | cannot speak, for | am
child!"until the sermon preach to-day from
Luke tx, 80, Let us make three taber-
nacles," 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 misimproved opportunities, all
hopeful for eternal raptures, and while the
visible and the invisible audiences OF the
present and the past commingse, give out
10 be sung by those who are here to-day, and
TO be sung by those who shalt read Of this
scene of "reminiscences and congratulation,
that hymn which has been rolling on since
Isaac Watts started it one hundred and fifty
years age:
Our God our help in ages past.
Our hope for years TO come;
Our shelter from the stormy last,
And our eternal hOLe.