Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-04-04
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TWENTY-THiRD ANNIVERSARY OF
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE.

of the History of the Three Taher-
the Doctors Church.
BROOKLYN, april 5.-This is a festival
day at the Tabernacle. DR.. Talmage is
celebrating the twenty third anniversary
pf his settlement in Brooklyn. In white
flowers embedded in green at the back
of the pulpit stood the inscription. 1859
and 1892" DR.. Talmages subject was
1.-The Three Tabernacles, a Story OF
Trials and Triunpfs,' and his text, Luke
TX, :3S. Let us make three tabernacles.
Our Arab ponies were almost dead
with fatigue, as, in December, 1899, we
rode near the foot of Mount Her1non III
the Holy Land, the mountain called by
one "a mountain of ice;" by another, "a
glittering breastplate of ice;' by another,
1.-THE Mont Blanc of Palestine" Its top
has an almost unearthly brilliance. But
what must it have been in the time to
which NV text refers! Peter and James
and John We're on that mountain top
with Jesus, when suddenly Christ's face
took on the glow of the MONDAY sun,
and Moses and Elijah, who had been
dead for centuries, came out from the
heavenly world and talked with our
Saviour. What an overwhelming three
Moses, representing the law; Elijah
representing the prophets and Christ
representing all worlds.
Impetuous Peter was SO wrought upon
by the presence Of this wondrous three
that without waiting for time to con-
slider how preposterous was the PROPOSE
tion. he cried out, Let us make three
tabernacles; one for thee, one for Moses
and one for Elijah" Where would they
get the material for building one taber
nacIe, much less material enough to
build two tabernacles, and, still less,
how would they get the material for
building three? Where would they get
the hammers? Where the gold? Where
the silver? Where the curtains? Where
the costly adornments? Hermon is q
barren peak. and to build one tabernacle
In such place would have been an I'M
dertaking beyond human achievement,
and Peter was propounding the impossi-
bic when he cried out in enthusiasm,
LET rs build three tabernacles.
And vet that is what this congrega-
ton have been called to do and have
done The first Brooklyn Tabernacle
was dedicated in 1870 and destroyed by
fire in 1872. The second Brooklyn Taber
nacle was dedicated in 1874 and de-
stroyed By fire in 1899. The third Brook
lyu Tabernacle was dedicated in April.
1891. and in that we are worshiping to-
day. What sounded absurd for Peter
to propose, when he said on Mount Her
mon. in the words Of my text, LET us
build three tabernacles," we have not
dence Of God were compelled to do.
We have been unjustly criticised BY
people who did not know the facts
sometimes for putting so much money
in church buildings, and sometimes for
not giving as much as we ought to this
or that denoninatiOnal project, and no
explanation has yet been made. Before
get through with the delivery Of this
sermon and lis publication and distribu-
ton, | shall show that no church on
earth has ever done more lnagnificently,
and that no church ever conquered
more trials. and that no membership
ever had in 1t more heroes and heroines
than this Brooklyn Tabernacle, and /
mean to have it known that any individ-
ual or religious newspaper or secular
newspaper that hereafter casts any re
Fiction on this church, fidelity and gen
crosby. is guilty of a wickedness for
which God viii hold him or it respon-
sible
One year it was sent out through d
syndicate Of newspapers that this church
was doing nothing in the way OF LIBERAL
ity. when we had that year raised %94,-
600 in hard cash for religious uses.
There has been persistent and hemi-
spheric lying against this church We
have raised during my pastorate, for
church building and church purposes,
1895. coo, or practically million dol
lars. Not an Irish famine or Il Charles
ton earthquake, OF an Ohio freshet, or a
Chicago confiagration, but our church
was among the first TO help. We have
given free seats in the morning and
evening services to 240,0 strangers q
year, and that in twenty years would
amout to 1, 100000 auditors. We have
received into our membership 1857
members, and that is only small pOr-
ton of the number of those who have
here been converted to God from all
parts of this land and from other lands.
Under the blessing of God and through
the kindness of the printing press my
sermons now go every week into every
neighborhood in Christendom, and are
regularly translated into nearly all the
great languages of Europe and Asia
The syndicates having charge of this
sermonic publication informed me a few
days ago that my printed sermons every
week, in this and other lands, go int
the hands of $4,000, 600 people. During
the last year, am authoritatively i'll
Formed Ovar . 600 different Terioffica1
were added to the list Of those whC
make this publication, and yet there al,
ministers of the Gospel and religious