The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-15

| debtedneSs. We now own this, the
largest Protestant church in America
and financially as congregation we
are worth, over and beyond all indebt
edness, considerably more than $3.50, 900
have preached here twenty-thret
years, and expect, if my life and health
are continued, to preach twenty-three
years longer, although we will all dc
well to remember that our breath is oul
nostrils, and any hour we may be called
to give an account of our stewardship
All we ask for the future is that you dc
your best, contributing all you can &c
the support of your institutions.
My first Sabbath in Brooklyn was a
sad day, for / did not realize how far
the church was down until then, and on
the evening of that day my own brother,
through whose pocket l entered the
ministry, died, and the tidings of his
! decease reached me at six o'clock in
the evening, as l was to preach at half
past seven. But from that day the
blessing of God was on us, and in three
months we began the enlargement of
the building. Before the close of that
year we resolved TO construct the first
tabernacle. 1t was to be temporary
structure, and therefore we called it a
tabernacle instead of n temple.
We expected to pay for the new
church by the sale of the old building.
The old one had been sold, but Just at
the time we must have the money the
purchasers backed out and we had two
churches and no money. BY the help
of God and the indomitable and unpar-
alleled energy of our trustees, we got
the building ready for conservation,
and on September 25, 1870, morning and
evening dedicatory services were held,
and in the afternoon the children with
sweet and multitudinous voices, con-
secrated the place to God. Twenty
thousand dollars were raised that day
to pay floating debt. In the morning
old DIR. Stephen III. Tying, the glory of
the Episcopal church and the chrysos-
tom of the American pulpit, preached a
sermon, which fingered in its gracious
effects aslong as the building stood. He
read enough out of the Episcopal prayer
book to keep himself from being repri-
manded by his bishop for preaching at
at a non-episcopal service; and we, al
though belonging to another dcnomina-
ton, responded with heartiness, as
though we were used to the liturgy,
Good Lord, deliver u.s.
During the short time we occupied
that building we had constant down
pour of religious awakening. HosaD-
nan! Ten million years in Heaven will
have no power to dim my memory of the
glorious times we had in that first taber-
nacle, which, because of its invasion of
the usual style of church architecture,
was called by some 'Talmage's Hippo
drome," by others, Church of the Holy
Circus" and by other mirthful nomen-
claturc. But it was building perfect
for acoustics, and stood long enough to
have its imitation in all the large cities
of America and to completely revolu-
tonic church architecture.
On Sunday morning, in December,
1872, the thermometer nearly down to
zero, was on my way to church. There
was an excitement in the street and
much smoke III the air Fire engines
dashed past. But my mind was on the
sermon l was about to preach, until
someone rushed up and told me that
our church was going up in the same
kind of chariot that Elijah took from
the banks of the Jordan.
We were, as n church, obliterated.
but arise and build" said many voices.
But how to raise the money for such an
expensive undertaking was the ques-
tion-expensive not because of any
senseless adornment proposed, but ex-
pensive because of the immense size of
the building needed to hold our congre-
CATION. 1t was at that time when for
years our entire country was suffering,
not from a financial panic, but from
that long continued financial depression
which all business men remember, as
the cloud hung heavy year after year
and commercial establishments with
out number went down. Through
what struggles we passed, the eternal
God and some brave souls to-day re-
member. Many time would 1 have
gladly accepted calls to some other
fields, but could not leave the flock in
the wilderness. At last, after, in the
interregnum, having wOrshipped in our
beautiful Academy of Music on the
morning of February %, 1874, the ami
versary of the Washington who con-
quered impossibilities and on the Sab
bath that always celebrates the resur-
rection, DR.. Byron Sunderland, chaplain
of the United States senate, thrilled us
= \, oil,
sermon from Haggai ii. o: 1.-The glory
of this house shall be greater than that
of the former, saith the Lord of Hosts"
That second tabernacle! What
"Reminiscences, But if the Peter of my
text had known what an undertaking
it is to build two tabernacles ne would
not have proposed two, to say nothing of
three. As an anniversary sermon must
needs be somewhat photographed,
let me say have not been idle. During
the standing of those two tabernacles
fifty-two books, under as many titles,
made up from my writings, We're pub
lished. During that time also was
permitted to discuss all the great ques-
tons of the day in all the great cities
of this continent, and in many of them
many times, beside preaching and lect-
uring ninety-six times in England, Scot
land and Ireland, in ninety-four days.
During all that time, as well as since,
was engaged in editing religious news
paper, believing that such periodical
was capable of great usefulness, and
have been constant contributor to
newspapers and periodicals.
Meanwhile all things had become easy
in the Brooklyn tabernacle. On Sab
bath in October, 1889. announced to
my congregation that would in few
weeks visit the Holy Land, and that the