Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-04-08

words, in addition to serving this
church gratuitously for two years,
let it have SO, 600 for building purposes.
have preached here twenty-three
years, and expect, if my life and
health are continued, to preach here
twenty-three years longer, although
we will all do well to remem-
Der that our breath is in our nostrils,
and any hour we may be called to give
an account of our stewardship. All we
ask for the future is that you do your
best, contributing all you can to tn
support of our institutions. Our best
days are yet to come; our greatest re-
vivals of religion, and our mightiest
outpourings of the Holy Ghost. We
have got through Red Sea and stand to-
day on the other bank clapping the
symbals of victory.
Yes, twenty-three years have passed
since l came to live in Brooklyn, and
they have been to me eventful years.
1t was Frustrated church to which 1
came, a church so fiat down it could
drop no further. Through controver-
sizes which it would be useless to re-
hearse it was well-nigh extinct, and
for long while it had been without
pastor. But nineteen members could
be mustered to sign call for my
coming. AS a committee was putting
that call before me in an upper room
in my house in Philadelphia, there
were two other committees ON similar
errands from other churches in other
rooms, whom my wife entertaining and
keeping apart from unhappy collision.
The auditorium of the Brooklyn church
to which l came defied all the laws
of acoustics; the church had
stceple that was the de-
rision of the town, and high box pull
pit which shut in the preacher as
though he were dangerous to be let
loose, or it acted as barricade that
was unnecessary to keep back the peo-
pie, for they were so few that minis
ter of ordinary muscle could have kept
back all who were there. My first
Sabbath in Brooklyn was n sad day, for
l did not realize how far the church
was down until then, and on the even
ing of that day my own brother,
through whose pocket / entered the
ministry, died, and the tidings of
his decease reached me at 6
o'clock in the evening, and l was
to preach at half-past seven.
But from that day the blessing of God
was on us, and in three months we be-
gan the enlargement of the building.
Before the close OF thai year, we
resolved to construct the first Taber-
nacle, and the first Tabernacle was the
result.
That second tabernacle! What a
stupendous "reminiscences! But if the
Peter of my text had known what an
undertaking it is to build two taber-
nacles, he would not have proposed
two, TO say nothing of three. AS an
anniversary sermon must needs be
somewhat autobiographical let me say
L have not been idle. During the
standing of those to tabernacles fifty
two hooks, under as many titles, made
up from my writings, were publish e !.
During that time also, was permitted
to discuss all the great questions of
the day in all the great cities of
this continent, and in many of them
many times, beside preaching and
lecturing ninety-six times in England,
Scotland, and Ireland, in ninety-four
days. During all that time, as well as
since, was engaged in editing reli-
gious newspaper, believing that such
periodical was capab bic of great useful
ness, and / have been constant con-
tributor to newspapers and periodicals.
Meanwhile all things had become easy
in the Brooklyn Tabernacle. On Sab
bath in October, 1880, announced to
my congregation that would in few
weeks visit the Holy Land, and that the
officers Of the church had consented to
my going, and the wish of lifetime was
about to be fulfilled. The next Sab
bath morning, about two o'clock or just
after midnight, member of my house
hold awakened me by saying that
there was a strange light in the sky.
thunderstorm had left the air full
of electricity, and from horizon to
horizon everything seemed TO blaze.
But that did not disturb me, until an
observation taken from the cupola of
my house declared that the second
Tabernacle was putting On red wings.
In three hours it was in ashes
There came upon me an out
burst of assumed indignation
that frightened almost everybody
but myself. That exploration pnt
into my church thirty or forty news
paper 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 false report of what
l did say-and one of the sermons said
to have been preached by me was not
mine in n single word-roused n VOL
ence that threatened me with poison
and dirk and pistol and other forms
of extinguishment, until the Chief of
Brooklyn Police, without any sugges-
ton from me. took possession of the
church with twenty-four policemen to
see that no harm was done. That
excitement opened many doors which