The Globe-republican., 1892-04-18

Last Sunday was festival day at the
Tabernacle. DR.. Talmage celebrated
the twenty-third anniversary of his
settlement in Brooklyn. In white flow
ers embedded in green at the back Of
the pulpit stood the inscription, "1s69
and 1892" DR.. Talmages's subject was
''The Three Tabernacles, a Story of
Trials and Triumphs.' and his text.
Luke tx, 33, LET US make three taber-
nacles."
Our Arab ponies were almost dead
with fatigue, as, in December, 1889, we
rode near the foot of Mount Hermon in
the Holy Land. the mountain called by
one "a mountain of ice;" by another,
''a glittering breastplate Of ice;" by an
other 1.-The Mont Blanc of Pal
estine." Its top has an almost unearthly
brilliance. But what must it have been
in the time to which my text refers.
Peter and James and John were on that
mountain :op with Jesus, when suddenly
Christ's face took Oh the glow Of the
MONDAY sun, and Moses apd Elijah, who
had been dead for centuries, came out
from the heavenly world and talked
with our Saviour. What an overwhelm-
ing 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 propO-
sItion, 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 tabernacle, much less material
enough to build two tabernacles. and,
still less, how would they get the ma
terial for building three? Where would
they get the hammers? Where the gold?
Where the silver? Where the curtainS9
Where the costly adornments? Hermon
is barren peak, and to build one taber-
nacle in such place would have been an
undertaking beyond human achieve
ment, and Peter was prOpOunding the
imposSiblewhen he cried out in enthu-
siasm. ''Letus build three tabernacles."
And yet that is what this congrega-
tion have been called to do and have
done. The first Brooklyn Tabernacle
was dedicated in 1870 and destroyed by
fire in 1s.2 The second Brooklyn Tab
ernacle was dedicated in 1874 and de-
stroyed by fire in 1889. The third
Brooklyn Tabernacle was dedicated in
April, 1891, and in that We are worship
ing to-day, What sounded absurd for
Peter to propose, when he said on Mount
Hermon, in the words of my text LET
US build three taberpacles," we have
not only done, but in the mysterious
providence of God were compelled to
do.
We have been uniustly criticised by
people who did not keOw 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 demominational project. and no
explanation has yet been made. Before
/ get through with the delivery of this
sermon and its publication and distri-
button, l shall show that no church on
earth has ever done more magnificently,
and that no church ever conquered more
trials, and that no membership ever had
in it more heroes and heroines than this
Brooklyn Tabernacle, and l mean to
have ii known that any individual or
religious newspaper or secular news
paper that hereafter casts anv reflection
on this church's fidelity and generosity,
Is guilty of q wickednesS for which God
will hold him or it responsible.
One year it was sent out through
syndicate Of newspapers that this church
was doing nothing in the way Of liberal
fty, when we had that year raised S94,-
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,
S99s, 900, or practically million dollars.
Not an Irish famine. or Charleston
earthquake, or an Ohio freshet. or Chi
cago conflagration, but our church was
among the first to help. We have given
free seats in the morning ana evening
services TO 2iO, 900 strangers year. and
that in twenty years would amount to
4. 500, 900 auditors We have received
into our membership 1857 members, and
that is only small portion of the num-
Der of those who have here been con-
verted TO God from all parts of this land
and from other lands.
Under the blessing o: 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 few
days ago that my printed sermons every
week, in this and other lands, 90 into
the hands Of a5. .OOO. 900 people. During
the last year, I am authoritatively in
formed, over 2, 600 different periodicals
were added to the list of those who
make this publication, and yet there are
ministers Of the gospel and religious
that systematically and
industriously and continuously charge
this church with idleness and seltishness
and parsimony.
call the attention of the whole earth
to this outrage that has been heaped
upon the Brooklyn Tabernacle, though
q more consecrated, benevolent and
splendid convoca alton Of men and women
were never gathered together outside of
Heaven. l have never before responded
to these injustices and probably will
never refer to them again. but wish
the people Of this country and other
countries to know that what they read
concerning the selfishness and Incidence
and lack Of benevolence and lack of
missionary spirit on the part of this
church is from top to bottom and from