Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-04-04


lation aud produces good health.
But this continuous misrepresentation
Of my beloved church, in the name Of
Almighty God. denounce, while | ap
peal 10 the fair minded men and womer
to see that justice is done this people
who, within few years, have gone
through struggle that no other cbugcf
in any land or any age has been called
TO endure, and pray God that no otIel
church may ever be called to endure
viz, the building of three tabernacles
| ask the friends of the Brooklyn Taber
nacle to cut out this sermon from the
newspapers and put it in their pocket
books, so that they can intelligently
answer our falsifers. whether clerical
or lay.
And with these you may put that
other statement, which recently went
through the country, and which | saw in
Detroit, which said that the Brooklyn
Tabernacle had hard financial strug-
gle because it had all along been paying
such enormous salaries TO its pastor, DR..
Talmage, when the fact is that, aft er
our last disaster and for two years,
gave all my salary to the church build
ing fund, and received 900 less than
nothing. In other words, in addition to
serving this church gratuitously for two
years, / let it have $4,000 for building
purposes. Why is it that people could
not do us justice and say that all our
financial struggle as a church came
from doing what Peter, in my text, alb
surdly proposed to do, but which, in
the inscrutable providence Of God, we
were compelled to do-build three taber.
nacles.
Now, feel better that this is off my
mind. The rest of my sermon will be
spun ont of hosannahs. announce TO
you this day that we are at last, as a
church, in smooth waters. Arrange
ments have been made by which our
financial difficulties are now fully and
satisfactorily adjusted. Our income
will exceed our outgo, and Brooklyn
Tabernacle will be yours and belong to
you and your children after you, and
anything you see contrary to this you
may put down to the confirmed habit
which some people have got Of misrepre-
senting this church and they cannot stop.
When came to Brooklyn | came to
small church and a big Indebtedness.
We have now this, the largest Protestant
church in America, and financially as q
congregation we are worth, over and be-
yond all Indebtedness. considerably more
than $l50,000.
| 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 we'll to remember that our breath is
in our nostrils, and any hour we may be
called to give an account Of our stew
ardship. All we ask for the future is
that You do your best, contributing all
you can to the support of our insitu-
tions. Our best days are yet to come;
our greatest revivals of religion and our
mightiest outpourings of the Holy
Ghost. We have got through the Red
sea and stand today on the other bank
clapping the cymbals of victory.
Do you wonder that last Sabbath |
asked you in the midst of the service to
rise and sing with jubilant voice the
long meter Doxology;
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below,
Praise him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Yes, twenty-three years have passed
since | came to live in Brooklyn, and
they have been to me eyentful years. II
was n prostrated church 10 which
came, church so fiat down it could
dropno further, Through controversies
which it would be useless to rehearse 1t
was well nigh extinct, and for long
while II had been without pastor. But
nineteen members could be mustered TO
sign call for my coming. AS com
mittee was putting that call before me
in an upper room In my house In Phila-
delphia, there were two other committees
ON similar errands from other churches
in other rooms, whom my wife was en-
tertaining and keeping apart from un.
happy collision.
The auditorium of tho Brooklyn
church to which | came deied all the
laws of acoustics; the church had a
steeple that was the derision of the
town, aud a high box pulpit which shut
in the preacher as though he were dan
gerous TO be let loose, or II acted as a
barricade that was unnecessary TO keep
back the people, for they were SO few
that minister of ordinary muscle could
have kept back all who We're there. My
first Sabbath in Brooklyn was 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 | entered the ministry,
died and the tidings of his decsase
reached me at q o'clock in the evening,
and was TO preach at half past z.
But from that day the blessing OF God
was ON as, and in three months we began
the enlargement of the building. Before
the close OF that year we resolved TO
construct the first Tabernacle II was
10 be temporary structure, and, there
fore. we called Il "A tabernacle instead
Of a temple. What should bo the style
Of architecture was the immediate ques-
ton. ! had always thought that the
shape would be appro-
pirate for a church. Two distinguished
architects wero employed, and after
much lowering over designs, they am
nOunced 10 us that such building was
for religious purposes. as il
would not be churchly, and would sub
ieot themselves and ms TO ruinous erih-
,ismi in other words. they were not
ready for a revolution In church archi.
lecture.
Utterly diaheartened as TO my favorite