News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1892-04-07
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
TWENTY-THlRD ANNIVERSARY OF
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE.

An Interesting and Instructive Review
of the History of the Three Taber-
naeles That Have Been the Home OF
the Doctors Church.
BROOKLYN, April 3.-This is a festival
LAY at the Tabernacle. DR.. Talmage is
celebrating the twenty-third anniversary
of his settlement in Brooklyn. In white
flowers embedded in green at the back
of the pulpit stood the inscription, 1850
and 1892" DIR. Talmage's subject was
THE Three ~Tabernacles, a Story of
Trials and Triumphs," and his text, Luke
tx, 80, "Let us make three tabernacleS."
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 another,
'the Mont Blanc of Palestine" Its top
has an almost unearthly brilliance. But
what must it nave been in the time to
which my text refers! Peter and James
and John were on that mountain top
with Jesus, when suddenly Christ's face
took on the glow of the MONDAY sun,
and Moses and Elijah, who had been
dead for centuries, came out from the
heavenly world and talked with our
Saviour. What an overwhelming 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 PROPOSE
ton, 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 taber-
nacle, much less material enough to
build two ~tabernacles, and, still less,
how would they get the material for
building three? Where would they get
the hammers? Where the gold? Where
the silver? Where the curtains? Where
the costly ~adornments? Hermon is a
barren peak, and to build one tabernacle
in such a place would have been an I'M
dertaking beyond human achievement,
and Peter was ~propounding the impossi-
BILE when he cried out in enthusiasm.
Lei us build three tabernacles."
And yet that is what this congrega-
ton have been called to do and have
done. The first Brooklyn Tabernacle
was dedicated in 1870 and destroyed by
fire in 1872. The second Brooklyn Taber-
nacle was dedicated in 1874 and de-
stroyed by fire in 1889. The third Brook
lyu Tabernacle was dedicated in April,
1891, and in that we are worshiping to-
day. What sounded absurd for Peter
to propose, when he said on Mount Her
mon, in the words of my text, LET us
build three tabernacles," we have not
only done, but in the mysterious proYi-
dence of God were compelled to do.
We lave been unjustly criticised by
people who did not know the facts,
sometimes for putting so much money
in church buildings, n sometimes for
not giving as much as we ought to this
or that UNCONVENTIONAL project, and no
explanation has yet been made. Before
1 get through with the delivery of this
sermon and it's publication and distribu-
ton, shall show that no church on
earth has ever lone 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 /
mean to have it known that any individ-
nal or religious newspaper or secular
newspaper that hereafter casts any re-
Election on this church's fidelity and gem
erosity, Is guilty of a wickedness for
which God will hold him or it respon-
sible.
One veal it was sent out through a
syndicate of newspapers that this church
was doing nothing in the way of liberal
ity, when we had that year raised $94,-
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,
1898 900, or practically a million dol
lars. Not an Irish famine, or a Charles
ton earthquake, or an Ohio freshet, or a
Chicago c~onfiagration, but our church
was among the first to help. We have
given free seats in the morning and
evening services to 240, 900 strangers a
year, and that in twenty years would
amout to 1850, 900 auditors. We have
received into our membership 1857
members, and that is only a small por-
ton of the number of those who have
here been converted to God from all
parts of this land and from other lands.
Under the blessing of God and through
the kindness of the printing press my
sermon now go every week into every
ne~ighborhood 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 a few
days ago that my printed sermons every
week, in this and other lands, go into
the hands of %, 000, 900 people. During
the last year, l am authoritatively in
formed, over 1900 different periodicals
were added to the list of those who
make this publication, and yet there are
ministers of the Gospel and religious {
newspapers that Systematically and in -,
dustriously and continuously charge
this church with idleness and seltishness |
and parsimony. l
| call the attention of the whole earth I
to this outrage hat has been heaped !
upon the Brooklyn Tabernacle, though /
a more consecrated, benevolent and Z
splendid c~onvocation of men and women 3
were never gathered together outside of {,
heaven. | have never before responded u
TO these injustices and probably will 7
ACICA ~ blClA again. Dub L WISH ,
the people of this country and other d
countries to know that what they read u
concerning the s~elishness and Incidence II
and lack of benevOlence and lack of .
missionary spirit ON the part of this I
church is from top to bottom and from +
stem to stern falsehood-dastardly false l
hood-diabolical falsehood. What is =
said against myself has no effect, except /
like hat of a coarse Turkish towel, the v
rubbing down by which improves circu- u
Iation and produces good health. 9
But this continuous Misrepresentation u
my beloved church. in the name of =
Almighty God, | denounce, while | ap- G
peal to the fair minded men and women Il
20 see that justice is done this people, d
who, within a few years, have gone "
through a struggle that no other church u
N any land or any age has been called 81
10 endure, and | pray God that no other Oh
;hurch may ever be called to endure,
7iz., the building of three t~abernacles. ci
ask the friends of the Brooklyn Taber- h
lacle to cut out this ermon from the al
newspapers and put it in their pocket sc
books, SO that they can intelligently al
answer our falsifiers. whether clerical CT
II lay. W
And with these you may put that u
'ther statement, which recently went IL
through the country, and which | saw in al
Detroit, which said that the Brooklyn &C
tabernacle had a hard financial strug- e1
81