News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-04-07

Nn6l L Cdl1t 10 DEOOklNU L CdlIlG 10 Il
small church and a big indebtedness.
We have now this, the largest Protestant
church in America, and financially as a
congregation we are worth, over and be-
yond all Indebtedness, considerably more
han $3.50 900.
| 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 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 III institu-
tions. Our best days are yet to come;
our greatest r~evivals 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 D~oxology:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below,
1IdlSe MIN aDON6. gc heavenly LOSl,
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Yes, twenty-three years have passed
since | came to live in Brooklyn, and
they have been to me eventful years. 1t
was a Frustrated church to which |
came, a church so fiat down it could
drop no further. Through controversies
which it would be useless to rehearse it
was well nigh extinct, and for a long
while it had been without a pastor. But
nineteen members could be mustered to
sign a call for my coming. As a COM
mittee was putting that call before me
in an upper room in my house i'll 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 I'M
happy collision.
The auditorium of the Brooklyn
church to which l came defied all the
laws of acoustics; the church had a
steeple that was the derision of the
town, and Il high box pulpit which shut
in the preacher as though he were dan
gerous to be let loose, or it acted as a
barricade that was unnecessary to keep
back the people, for they were so few
Ll1Ib a Al VI 1 h1liSO1C NOIllu
have kept back all who were there. NY
first Sabbath in Brooklyn was Il sad day,
for | did not realize how far the church
wasdown until then, and on the evening
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 | was to preach at half past Z.
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 a temporary structure, and, there
fore, we called it a tabernacle instead
of a temple. What should be the style
of architecture vas the immediate ques-
ton. | had always thought that the
amphitheatrical shape would be appro-
pirate for a church. Two distinguished
architects We're employed, and after
much lowering over designs, they an
nounced to us that such a building was
impossible for religious purposes, as it
would not be churchly, and would sub
ject themselves and us to ruinous criti-
cism; in other words, they were not
ready for a revolution in church archi-
lecture.
Utterly disheartened as to my f~avorite
style of architecture, | said to the trus-
tees, Build anything you please and |
must be satisfied" But one morning a
young architect appeared at my house
and asked if we had yet selected a plan
for our church. | said, mo, and what
We want we cannot get" "What style
of building do you want?" he asked.
And taking out a lead pencil and a let
ter envelope from my pocket, in less than
a minute, by a few curved lines, | indi-
Gated in the rough what we wanted.
But" | said, "old architects tell us it
can't be done, and there is no use in your
trying" He said: Il can do it. How
long can | have to make out the plans?"
| said, "This evening at s o'clock every
thing is to be decided"
At s o'clock of that evening the
architect presented his plans and the
bids of builder and mason were pre-
sented, and in five minutes after the
plans were presented they were unani-
mously adopted. So that | would not
be in the way of the trustees during the
work went to Europe, and when | got
back the church was well nigh done.
But here came in a staggering him
drance. We expected to pay for the
new church by the sale of the old build
ing. 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 indomit-
able and unparalleled energy of our
trustees (lere and there one of them
present today, but the most in a better
world, we got the building ready for
conservation, and on Sept. %, 1870, =,
morning and evening dedicatory serv-
were held, and in the afternoon the
children with sweet and ~multitudinous :
voices consecrated the place to God. ,
Twenty thousand dollars were raised {
that day to pay a floating debt. In the :
morning old DR.. Stephen H. Tying, the :
glory of the Episcopal church and the 9
.hrysostOm of the American pulpit, :
preached a sermon which fingered in its ,
gracious effects as long as the building .
He read enough out of the Epis- .
,opal prayer book to keep himself from :
being reprimanded by his bishop 70, q
preaching at a non-EpiscOpal service, 6
we, although belonging to another =
denomination, responded with hearth :
less, as though we were used to the :
"Good Lord, deliver us!" =
During the short time we occupied
hat building we had a constant down =
of religious awakening. Hosannah! l.
million years in heaven will have no :,
to dim my memory of the glorious f
we had in that first Tabernacle, y
which, because of its invasion of the us =
lal style of church architecture, was o
;alled by some ''Talmage's Hippo /
by others, Church of the Holy +
Ilrcus," and by other mirthful nomen- !,
.lature. But it was a building perfect II
or acoustics, and stood long enough to n
ave its imitation in all the large cities g
f America and to completely revolu- h
ioniZe church architecture. People n
that it was the common sense way h
( seating an audience. q
Instead of putting them in an angular
hurch, where each one chiefly saw the IL
ack part of somebody else's head, the o.
ndience were arranged in semicircle, fl
o that they could see one another's faces, Sc
the auditorium was q great family a.
lrcle seated around a fireplace, which cC
vas the pulpit. 1t was an iron struc- W
ure, and we supposed fireproof, but the te
companies looked at it, and 81
tier we had gone too far to stop in it's G
obstruction, they declined to insure it. hi
kept for a mere nothing, declaring in
AnE A1w-- 81 n-Aa