Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1892-04-07

ItSs IMAM nOllllng. IN Otnef words, IN aUul-
ton to serving this church gratuitously fol
two years, ] let it have 5000 for building
purposes. Why is it that people could not
do W. justice aud say that all our financial
struggle as a church came from doing what
Peter, in my text, absurdly proposed to do,
but which, in the inscrutable providence of
God, we were compelled to do-build three
tlhcrnacles.
IN SMOOTH WATERS AT LAST.
Now / feel better that this is off my
mind. The rest of my sermon will be spun
out of hCsannahS. ! announce to you this
day that we are at last, as a church, in
smooth waters. Arrangements 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 be-
long 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 q
small church and big Indebtedness We
have now this, the largest Protestant
church in America, and financially as a
congregation we are worth, over and be-
You'd all Indebtedness, considerably more
than Sl50,0O0.
have preached here twenty three years,
and | expect if my life and health are con-
tinued, to preach here twenty three years
longer although we will all do well to re-
member that our breath is in our nostr ils
and any hour we may be called to give an
account of our stewardship. All we ask
for the future is that you do your best
contributing all you can to the support of
come; our greatest reyivals of religion, and
our Dightest 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 iow
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 eventful years. 1t was Il pros
trated church to which came, a church so
fiat down it could drop no farther Through
controversies which it would be useless to
rehearse it was well nigh extinct, and for a
long while it had been without pastor
But nineteen members could be mustered
to sign a call for my coming.
As committee was putting that call
before me in an upper room in my house
in Philadelphia, there were two other COM
mittces ON similar errands from other
churches in other rooms, whom my wife
was entertaining and keeping apart from
unhappy collision. phe auditorium of the
brooklyn church to which l came defied
all the laws OF acoustics; the church had a.
stcepe that was the derision of the town.
and high box pulpit which shut in tho
preacher as though he were dangerous to
be let loose or it acted rs a barricade that
was unnecessary to keep back the people,
for they were so few that a minister of
ordinary muscle could have kept back all
who were there.
My first sabbath in Brook yn was a 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 minis
try, died, and the tidings of his decease
reached me at o'clock in the evening,
aud WIS 10 preach at half past :. But from
tnat day the blessing OF God was on US, and
in three months we began the enlarge
tuat year We resolved 10 construct the
frs Tabernacle. 1t was to be a temporary
structure, and therefore we called it a
Tabernacle instead of a Temple. What
should be the style OF architecture was the
immediate question. ] had always thought
that the Mphithcatrical shape would be
appropriate for church.
Two distinguished architects were en-
piOyed, and after much lowering over de-
signs they announced to US that such a
building was impossible for religious pur-
poses. As ii would not be churchly, and
would subject themselves and us to ruin
GUS criticism; in other words, they were
not ready for revolution in church archi-
lecture. Utterly disheartened as to nv
fayOrite style of architecture, I said to the
trustees, 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 plan for our
church, ! said, No, and what we want
We cannot get" "What style of building
do you Waut?' he asked. And taking out
a l,aa pencil and letter envelope from
my pocket in less than 4 minute by few
curved hue- indicated in the rough
what We wanted. "But," | said, "old
architects tel us it can't be done, and
Nitic is no use IN YOUR lfSlDS.' lie sad:
Il can DO it. How long can have to make
ont the plans' | said, This evening at
So'clocl, everything is to be decided"
TWO CHURCHES AND 10 MONEY.
At O'Clock OF that evening the
architect presented his plans, and the bids
Of builder and mason were presented, and
in five minutes after the plans were pre-
scented they were unanimously adopted
So that | would not be in the way of the
trU stccs during the work l went to Europe,
and when | - back the church was well
nigh done I,Gt here came in a staggering
hiudwuCc. We expected to pay for the
new church by the sale of the old building.
The old one had been sold, but just at the
time we must have the money the pur-
chaser5 backed out and we had two
churches and 10 money.
BY the help Of God and the indomtable
and Unparalleled energy of our trustees
(Lere and there one of them present today,
but The most in better world) we got the
building ready for conservation, and on
Sept. %, 1870, morning and evening ded-
catory services were held, and in the after
noon The children, with sweet and multi