Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-04-14

Annlgnly f5od the wClK wOuIu not nave
been done. But 1t Is done, and all good
people who behold the structure feel in
their hearts. IL they do not utter il with
their lips, "How amiable are thy taber-
nacles, D Lord of Hostsr' On the third
Sabbath of last April this church was ded-
icated, DIR. Hamlin, of Washington,
preaching an inspiring sermon, DIR. Wen
dell Prime, Of New York, Offering the
dedicatory prayer and some fifteen clergy
men during the day taking part in the
services. Iosannahl
IS69-1S92.
How suggestive to many of us are the
words spelled out in flowers above the pull
pit-"lSGy' and "lS92"-for those dates
bound what raptures, what griefs, what
struggles, what triumphs. mention it as
a matter of gratitude TO Gcd 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, l 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 $3.50.
During these past years have learned
two or three things. Among others !
have learned that "all things work to-
gether for good" My positive mode of
preaching has sometimes seemed to stir
the hostilities of all earth and hell. Feel
ing called upon fifteen years ago to explore
underground New York city life, that l
might report tine evils to be combated, 1 took
with me two elders of my church and New
York police commissioner and a policeman,
and l explored and reported the horrors
that needed removal and 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 ana preached series
Of sermons on Amusements, and false
report of what did say-and one of the
sermons said to have been preached by
me was not mine in single word-roused
a violence that threatened me with poison
anu uAlh anu PlotOl dIA ObhCE kOTluo VI
extinguishment, until the chief of Brook
lyn 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
Christendom and more than Christemdom
for my weekly audience. On the demoli-
larger church, and not disaster, not a
caricature not persecution, not an as
sault, during all these twenty three years,
but turned out for our, advantage, and
ought not to believe that "all things work
together for goodS" Hosannah!
NOT NECESSARY TO PICK FLAWS.
Another lesson l have learned during
these twenty-three years is that it is not
necessary to preach error or pick flaws in
the old Bible in order to get an audiences;
the old Book without any fixing upis 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 un-
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
,tols s,,k1 ., u L.
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 hu-
manity, have found the mightiest mag
net, and we have never lacked an audience.
Next to the blessing of my own family |
account the blessing that have always
had a great multitude of people to preach
to. That old Gospel l have preached to
you these twenty three years of my Brook
lyn pastorate, and that old Gospel l will
preach till die, and charge my son, who
is on the way to the ministry, to 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,
see two audiences. The one is made up of
all those who have worshiped with us in
the past, but have been translated to high
er realms
What groups Of children-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
cheek, and they have on them the health
and radiance of heaven. Hail groups of
glorilied childrenl 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 shoulders, ye blessed old folks9 "Oh!"
they say. 1--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 staffs, but scepters" 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 to 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 ofmy 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, a hundred galleries, thou
sand galleries high.
l 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, g.,
"Ah, Lord God, behold l cannot speak,
for am child" until the sermon Ipreach
tnJou fro,1, 7 Y3I-o no In