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

cant De done. and theic i'r" uss n you
trying" He said: IA can do It. How
long can have to make ont the plansS
said, This evening at o'clock every
thing is 10 be decided.
AT 8 o'clock Of that evening tn
architect presented his plans and tn
bids Of builder and mason were pre-
sented. and in five minutes after th
plans were presented they were unani
mnnsly adopted. SO that / would no
lie way Of the trustees during th'
went TO Europe. and when ] go
aa the church was well nigh done
,jut here came in a staggering hin
drance. We expected TO pay for th'
new church by the sale of the cid build
ing. The old one had been sold, bu
lust at the time we mugt have th'
money the purchasers backed out, ant
we had two churches and no money.
By the help of God and the indomit
able and unparalleled energy Of oul
trustees (here and there one Of then
present today, but the most in bettei
world). we got the building ready fol
conservation, and on Sept %, 1870
morning and evening dedicatory serv
ices were held, and in the afternoon the
chill lrCn with sweet and multitudinou:
voices consecrlted the place to God
Twenty thousand dollars were raised
that day TO pay a fOating debt. la the
morning old Dr. Stephen II. Tying, the
/ glory of the Episcopal church and the
| Chrysostom Of the American pulpit
preached sermon which fingered in Its
! gracious effects as long as the building
stood He read enough out Of the Epis-
copal prayer book to keep himself from
| being repfiJnanded by his Lishop fol
preaching at a non-Episcopal service,
and we, although belonging to another
| denomination. responded with hearth
ness. as though we were used TO the
liturgy Good Lord, deliver usr'
During the short time we occupied
that building we had constant down
pour of religious awakening. Hoaannahl
Ten million years in heaven will nave no
power to dim my memory of the glorious
times we had in that first Tabernacle,
which. because of its invasion Of the us
uGl style of church architecture, was
called by some "Tallnage's Hippo
droIne," by others, Church of the Holy
Circus" and by other mirthful nomen-
clature. But it was a building perfect
for acoustics. and stood long enough to
have its imitation in all the large cities
of America and to completely revolu-
tionize church architecture. People
saw that it was the common sense way
of seating an audience.
Instead of putting them in an angular
church. where each one chiefly saw the
back part of somebody elses head, the
audience were arranged in senicircle,
so that they could see one another's faces,
and the auditorium was a great family
circle seated around fireplace, which
was the pulpit 1t was an iron struc-
ture, and we supposed tireproof, but the
insurance companies looked at it, and
after we had gone too far to stop in its
construction they declined to insure it,
except for a mere nothing, declaring
that, being of iron, if q inflammable
material between the sheets of iron took
fire no engine hose could play upon it,
And they were right. During those
days we educated and sent out from a
lay college under our charge some
twelve hundred young men and women,
many of them becoming evangelists and
many of them becoming regularly or
dained preachers, and | meet them in
all parts of the land toiling nightly for
God.
One Sunday morning in December,
1879, the thermometer nearly down to
zero, was on my way to church. There
was an excitement in the street and
much smoke in the air. Fire engines
dashed past. But my mind was on the
sermon was about to preach, until
some one rushed up and told me
that our church was going up in the
same kind of chariot that Elijah took
from the banks of the Jordan. That
Sunday morning tragedy, with its
wringing of hands and frozen tears on
the cheek of many thousands standing
in the street. and the crash that shook
the earth, is as vivid as though it were
yesterday. But it was not perfect loss.
All were anxious TO do something,
and as on such occasions sensible people
are apt 10 do unusual things, one of the
members, at the risk of his life, rushed
in among the fallen walls, mounted the
pulpit and took glass Of water from
the table and brought it in safety to the
street. SO you see it was not total
loss. Within an hour from many
churches came kind invitations to oc-
cupy their buildings, and hanging against
lamppost, near the destroyed building,
before l2 o'clock that morning, was a
board with the inscription, "The con-
gregation of Brooklyn Tabernacle will
worship tonight in Plymouth church."
MIR. Beecher made the opening prayer,
which was full of COMMUNICATION for me
and my homeless flock, and preached
that night tho sermon that intended to
preach that morning in my own church,
tho text concerning tho precious ala
baster box broken at the feet of Christ,
and sure enough we had one very pre-
cious broken that day. We were, as a
church, obliterated. "But arise and
build" said many voices. Another
architect took the amphitheatrical plan
of church, which, in the first instance.
was necessarily somewhat rale, and de-
veloped it into an elaborate plan that
was Immediately adopted. But how 10
raise the money for such an expensive
undertaking was TIE quesuon-expensive
not because of s.sy senseless adornment
proposed, but expensive because of the
immense size of the building needed TO
hold our congregation,
ltwas at that time when for years our
entire country was suffering, not from a
financial panic, but from that long con-
tinued financial depression which all
business men remember, as the cloud