The Penn's Grove record., 1892-04-08
PENIS GROVE. N. j., FRIDAY. APRIL 8. 1882

How suggestive to many OF us are the
words spelled out In flowers above the pull
pit-'.1S69' and 1882 for those dates
bound what raptures, what griefs, what
struggles. what triumphs. mention it as a
matter Of gratitude to God that in these
twenty-three years 1 have missed but one
Sabbath through physical iniisposition, n
but three in the thirty-six years of nv min
lstry. And now, having reached this
twenty-third milestone, / start anew. l
nave in my memorandum books analyses
If more sermons than l have ever yet
preached, and / have preached, as near as |
can tell, about 1880.
During these past years / have learnsltwo
or three things. Among others 1 have
learned that ',all things work together for
good" My positive mode Of preaching has
sometimes seemed to stir the hostilities of all
earth and hell. Feeling called upon fifteen
years ago to explore underground New York
city life, that l might report the evils to be
combated, l took with me two elders of my
church and a New York police commissioner
and q policeman, and / explored and re-
ported the horrors that needed removal and
the allurements that endan yersd our young
men. There came upon me an outburst of
assumed indignation chat 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 that
other wise would never have been opened.
Years passed on and / preached a series
Of sermons on Amusements, and q false re-
port OF what l did say-lni one Of the SER
mons said to have been preached by me was
not mine in a single ~word-roused a violence
that threatened me with poison and dirk
and pistol AMI other forms Of extingu:sh-
ment, until the chief Of Brooklyn police,
without any suggestion from mt, took pos
---.-- y .E1 .k.,r,h xrsff, A<fa-t1 f,tt- M.
Hcemeu to see that no harm was done. That
excitement opened many doors, which l en-
tered for preaching the Gospel.
After awhile came an ecclesiastical trial,
in winch l was arraigned by people who did
NOT like the way l did things. and although l
was acquitted OF all the charges, the contest
shook the American church. That battle
made me more friends than anything that
aver happened and gave me Chistendom and
more than Christendom for my weekly
audience. On the demolition Of each church
we got a better and a larger church, and not
q disaster, not q caricature, not a persecu-
ton, not an assault, during all these twenty
three years, but turned out for our acvan.
tage, and ought ] not to believe that 'all
things work together for goodg' Hosannan
Another lesson 1 have learned during these
t~wenty-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 any fixing up is good enough
for me, M the higher criticism, as it is
called, means lower religion. Higher
criticism is another form Of infdelity, and
its disciples will believe less and less, until
many OF them will land in Nowhere and
become the worshipers of al eternal "What
is it." The most of these higher critics seem
to be seeking notoriety by pitching into the
Bible, It is such o brave thing to strike
your grandmother. The old Gospel put In
.-xax.- -l-n.o anI euithat,t anu 0f the
conve~ntionalities, and adapted to all the
wants and woes Of humanity, I have found
tho mightiest magnet and we have never
lacked an audience.
Next to the hlessine of NV OWE family I
account the blessing that I have always had
q great multitude Of people to preach to.
That old Gospel I have preached to you
these t~wenty-three years OF ny Brookiyn
pastorate, and that old Gospel l will preach
ill I die, and charge my son, who is on the
way to the ministry, to preach it after me.
for I remember Paurs tnunderbolt, "lf any
man preach any other Gospel, let him be
accursed." And now, as / stand here on my
tw~enty-third anniversary, / see two audi
snces. The one is made up Of all those who
have worshiped with US In the past, but have
been translated to higher calm
What groups of c~hildren-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 check, and they have
on them the health and radiance Of heaven.
Hail, groups Of gloriied children! How glad
l am to nave you come back to US to-davl
And here sit those aged ones, who departed
this life leaving an awful vacancy in home
and church. Where are your stats and where
| are your gray locks, and where you STOPPING
shoulders, ye blessed old folksY 'Ohp' they
say, I'VE 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 sceptersl' Hail, fathers and mothers in
Israel; how glad we are to have you come
back to greet us. But the other audience l
| see in imagination is made up Of all those to
| whom we have had opportunity as a church,
directly OF indirectly, Of presenting the
back to-day. Tit 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
| Tabernacies. Look at them, and all those
whom, through the printing press, We have
| invited to God and heaven, now seeming to
q hundred galleries, a thousand galleries
hign.
/ greet them all in your name n In
Christ's name, all whom l have confronted
from my first sermon in my first village
| charge. where my lips trsmbled and my
knees knocked together from alright, speak
ing from the text, Jeremiah l., 9. "Ah, Lord
tod, behold I cannot speak, for l I'M q
| childi"until the sermon I preach to-day from
Luke tx, SO, 'Let US make three taber-
uacles,n those Of the past n the present, all
gather in Imagination, if not In reality, all
| Of US grateful to God for past mercies all of
rs sorry for misimproved opportunities, all
hopeful for eternal raptures, n while the
| visibls and the invisible audiences Of the
present and the past commingle, I give out
TO be sung by those who are here to-day, and
to DO wing by those who shall read Of this
scene Of Renaissance and congratulation,
thai hymn which has been rolling on since
Isaac Watts started It one hundred and fifty
gears ago:
Our God, our help In ages past.
Our hope for years to come;
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.