The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-04-20

struggles. what tr1umphs. mention It as q
matter Of gratitude to God that in these
twenty years have missed but one
Sabbath through physical indisposition, and
but three in the thirty six years OF nv min
istry. And now, having reached this
twenty-third. milestone, I start anew. 1
have In my memorandum books analyses
of more sermons than I have ever yet
preached, and have preached, as near as
can tell about 1880.
During these past years have learned two
OF three things. Among others I have
learned that '.all things work together for
good" My positive mode Of preaching has
Sometimes seemed to stir the hostlittes Of all
earth and hell. Feeling called upon fifteen
wears ago to explore underground New York
city life, that might report the evils to be
combated, took with me two elders OF my
church and New York police commissioner
and a policeman, and I explored and re,
ported the horrors that needed removal and
the allurements that endangered our young
men. There came upon me an outburst OF
assumed indignation that frightened almost
everybody but myself. That exploration
put 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 tnat
otherwise would never have been opened.
Years passed on and l preached q series
of sermons on Amusements, and q false re-
mort of what did say-snd one Of the SER
mons said to have been preached by me was
not mine In single word-roused violence
that threatened me with poison and dirk
and pistol and other forms Of extinguish'
ment, until the chief Of Brooklyn police,
without any suggestion from me, took pos
session of the church with twenty-four po-
licemen to see that no harm was done. That
excitement opened many doors, which en-
tered for preaching the Gospel.
After awhile CANA an ecclesiastical trial,
In which was arra:gned by people who did
not like the way did things and although
was acquitted Of all the charges. the contest
shook the American church. That battle
made me more friends than anything that
ever happened and gave me Chistendom and
more than Christendom for my weekly
audience. On the demolition Of each church
we got better and larger church, and not
disaster, not 9 carieas:re, not persecu-
tion, not an assault, during all these twenty
three years but turned out for our acvan-
tage, and ought I not to believe that AL
things work together for good?' Hosannahl
Another lesson have learned during these
twenty-three years is that it is not necessary
to preach error or pick flaws in the old
Bible in order to get an audience; the old
Book without auy fixing up is good enough
for me, and the higher criticism, as it Is
called, means lower religion. Higher
criticism is another form Of inadelity, and
its disciples will believe less and less, until
many Of them will land in Nowhere and
become the worshipers Of an eternal "What
Is it," The most Of these higher critics seem
to be soaking notoriety by pitching into the
Bible. It is such brave thing to strike
your grandmother. The old Gospel put in
Nf hn
conventionalities, and adapted to all the
wants and woes Of humanity, have found
the mightiest magnet, aud we have never
lacked an audience.
Next to the blessing Of my own family
account the blessing that have always had
a great multitude Of people to preach to.
That old Gospel have preached 70 you
these twenty-three years Of my Brooklyn
pastorate, and that old Gospel will preach
till die, and charge my son, who IL on the
way to the ministry, to preach 1t after me,
for remember PauPs tnunderbolt, "f any
man preach any other Gospel, let him Do
twenty-thlrd anniversary, see two audi
ences. The one Is made up OF all those who
have worshiped with us In the past but have
been translated to higher realms.
What groups of children-too fair and TOO
sweet and too lovely for earth, and the LORD
took them, but they seem present to-day.
The Group has gone out Of the swollen throat
and the pallor from the cheek, and they have
on them the health and radiance Of heaven.
Hail, groups Of glbrified children! How glad
/ am to have you come back to us TODAY!
And here sit those aged ones, who departed
this Ire ieav1ns an awrui vacancy In nome
and church. Where are your stats and where
are your gray locks, and where you STOPPING
shoulders, ye blessed old folks? ''Ohp they
say, 1--WE are all young again, and
the bath in the river from under the throne
has made us agile and bounding. In the
place from which we come they use no stats,
but scepters!" Hail, fathers and mothers in
Israel; how glad we are to have you come
back to greet US. But the other audience
see in imagination is made up Of all those to
whom we have had opportunity as church,
directly or indirectly, Of presenting the
back to-day. The people OF my first charge
in Belleville, New Jersey. The people OF my
second charge in Syracuse, New York. The
people of my third charge in Philadelphia.
And the people of all these three Brooklyn
Tabernacles. Look at them, and all those
whom, through the printing press, we have
invited to God and heaven, now seeming to
sit in galleries above galleries. fifty galleries,
q hundred galleries. thousand galleries
high.
I greet them all In your name and in
Christ's name, all whom have confronted
from my first sermon in my first village
charge, where my lips trembled and my
knees knocked together from alright, speak.
ing from the text, Jeremiah l., 6, "Ah, Lord
God, behold I cannot speak, for l am
child !"until the sermon preach to-day from
Luke *, 80, "Let US make three taber-
nacles," those of the past and the present, all
gather in imagination, if not in reality, all
OF us grateful to God for past mercies, all of
US sorry for misimproved opportunities, all
hopeful for eternal raptures, and while the
visible and the invisible audiences Of the
present and the past commingle, give out
to be sung by those who are here to-day, and
to be sung by those who shall read OF this
scene of "reminiscences and congratulation,
that hymn which has been rolling on since
Isaac Watts started it one hundred and ffty
years ago:
Our God, our help In ages past,
Our hope for years 70 come;
Our shelter from the stormy bllst
And our eternal hetae.
WORDS OF WISD0I