Milford chronicle., 1892-04-08

/ uedlcalOfy prayer anu some ilAtASA tAcI4s9
men during the day taking part ia the
/ services. HOsannahi
/ Is69-1s02
/ How suggestive to many of us are the
( words spelled out in flowers above the pull
pit-"1S5g' and ''ls92"-for those dates
bound what raptures, what griefs, what
struggles, what triumphs. Imention it as
a matter Of gratitude to Gcd that in these
tgenty-1e zee years I have missed but one
Sabbath thrvpgh physical indisposition,
and but three in the thirty-six years
Of my ministry And now, having reach
ed this twenty-third milestone, l start
anew. have in my memorar Nv
books analyses Of more sermons "A 4
have ever yet preached, and ~
preached, as near as / can tel abOuU=
During these past years l have lear
two or three things. AmonE others
have learned that ''all things NEOFk t.
gether for good" My positive model o.
preaching has sometimes seemed to stir
the hostilities of all earth and hell. Feel
ing called upon fifteen years agOto explore
underground New York city life, that 1
might report the evils to be cOmbated, i took
with me two elders Of my church and New
York police commissioner and a policeman,
and I explored and reported the horrors
that needed removal aud the allurements
that endangered our young men. There
came upon me an Outburst of assumed in
dignation that frightened almost every
body but myself That exploration put
into my church thirty or forty newspaper
correspondents from north, south, east and
west; which opened for me new avenues in
which to preach the Gospel that otherwise
would never have been opened.
Years passed on and preached a series
Of sermons on Amusements, and false
report of what did say-and one Of the
sermons said to have been preached by
me was not mine in single wOrd-roused
a violence that threatened me with poison
and dirk and pistol and other forms Of
extinguishment until the chief Of Brook
Ign police, without any suggestion from
me, took possession of the church with
twenty-f0ur policemen to see that no harm
was done. That excitement opened many
doors, which entered for preaching the
Gospel
After awhile came an ecclesiastical trial,
in which was arraigned by people who
did not like the way did things, and al
though | 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
Christendom and more than Christemdom
for my weekly audience. On the demOli-
ton Of each church we got a better and a
larger church, and not disaster, not a
caricature, not a persecution, not an as
sault, during all these twenty-three years,
but turned out for our advantage, and
ought not to believe that ''all things work
together for good2n Hosannahi
NOT NECESSARY TO PICK FLAWS.
Another lesso. learned during
these twenty-three it is not
necessary to preach erroI - IN
the old Bible in order to get an ats1Ae Ae;
the old Book without any fixing up is go5ei
enough for me, and higher criticism, as it
is called, means lower religion. Higher
criticism is another form of infidelity, and
its disciples will believe less and less, un-
til many of them viii land in Nowhere
and become the worshipers of an eternal
what is il. The most of these higher
critics seem to be seeking notoriety by
pitching into the Bible. It is such a brave
thing to strike your grandmother. The
old Gospel put in modern phrase, and with
out any Of the cOnventiOnalities, and
adapted to all the wants and woes Of hui
nanity, l have found the mightiest mag
net. ana we have never lacked an audience.
Next to the blessing Of my own family
account the blessing that / have always
hsd a great multitude of people 70 preach
to. That old Gospel / have preached to
You these twenty-three years Of my Brook
In pastorate, and that old Gospel will
preach til / die, and charge my son, who
s. on the way to the ministry, to preach it
after me, for 1 remember Paul's thunder
bolt, "If any man preach any other Gospel,
Let him be accursed" And now, as stand
here on my twenty-third anniversary, /
sle two audiences. The one is made up OF
all those who have worshiped with US in
tie past, but have been translated to high
er realms.
What groaps Of children-too fair and
too sweet and too lovely for earth, and the
Lord took Them, but they seem present
today. 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
glorilicd childrcni How glad am to have
you come b. tx TO US today And here,sit
those aged ones, who departed this life
leaving an ,tNil vacancy in home and
church. Where are your staffs, and where
aie your gray locks and where your stoop-
Ing shoulders, We blessed old fOlksf "Oh"
t7.sy say, I'VE are all young again, and
"a Lath in rne river from uudeF the
+ rome has made Us agile and bounding,
in the place esom which we come they
NO no staffs. bun scepters!" Hail, fathers
and mothers in Israel; how glad we are
to have YOU come back to greet us. But
tie other audience see in imagination Is
made M OF all those to whom we have had
opportunity as a church, directly or indi-
rrctlv. Of presenting the Gospel. YEA all
my parishes seem to come back today. The
ocople of my FIST charge in Belleyille, New
Jersey. The people of my second charge
In Svracuse, New York. The people OF
my third charge in Philadelphia. And
the people of all these three Brooklyn Tab
ernacles. 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,
fiftv galleries, hundred galleries, thou
sand galleries high.
greet them all in your name and in
Christis name, all whom have confronted
from nv first sermon in my first village
charge, where my lips trembled and my
knees knocked together from alright
speaking from the text, jeremiah !, O.
"Ah. Lord God, behold | cannot speak,
for am a childI' until the sermon preach
TODAY from Luke tx, 83, Let us make
three tabernacles," those Of the past and
The present, all gather in Imagination, if
not in reality, all Of rs grateful to God for
mast mercies. all of us sorry for misim-
proved opportunities, all hopeful for eter-
nal 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 today, and 60 be sung
by those who shall read Of this scene Of
"Reminiscences and congratuiations that
bvmn which has been rolling on since
isaac Watts started it one hundred and
fifty years ago;
Our Cod our help in ages past
Our hope for years to Gomez
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home