Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1892-04-04

lation and produces good health.
But this continuous misrepresentation
of my beloved church. III the name OF
Almighty God, | tleilousce. while ap-
peal to the fair minded men and women
to see that Justice is done this people,
who within a few years, have gone
through IL struggle that no other church
in any land or any age has been called
TO endure, and | pray God that no other
church may ever be called to endure.
VIZ, the building of three tabeInacles-
[ ask the friends of the Brooklyn Tabor
nacle to cut out this sermon from the
newspapers and put it in their pocket
books, so that they can intelhgently
answer our falsifers, whether clerical
or lay.
And with these you may put that
other statement, which recently went
through the country, and which | saw IN
Detroit, which said that the Brooklyn
Tabernacle had hard financial strug
gle because it had all along been paying
such enormous salaries to its pastor, DR..
Talmage, when the fact is that, after
our last disaster and for two years,
gave all my salary to the church build
ing fund and | received Sc, 600 less than
nothing In other words, III addition to
serving this church gratuitously for two
wears, let it have SIS, 600 for building
purposes Why is it that people could
not do US justice and say that all our
financial struggle as a church came
from doing what Peter, IN my text, alb
surdly proposed to do, but which, IN
the inscrutable providence OF God, we
were compelled to do-build three tabef-
nacles.
Now, | feel better that this is off my
mind. The rest Of my sermon Will be
spun out of hoSannahs. announce to
YOU this day that we are at last, as
church, in smooth waters Arrange
ments 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 belong to
YOU and your children after you, and
ANYTHING you see contrary to this you
NAV put down to the confirmed habit
which some people have got Of 1nisrepre-
senting this church and they cannot stop.
When | came to Brooklyn ! came to a
small church and big Indebtedness
We have now this. the largest Protestant
church in America, and financially as q
congregation we are worth, over and be-
yond all Indebtedness. considerably more
than $3.50, 600.
have preached here twenty-three
years, and expect, if my life and health
are continued, to preach here twenty
three wears longer, although we will all
do well to remember that our breath IS
in our nostrils, and any hour we may be
called to give an account Of our stew
ardship. All we ask for the future is
that YOU do your best, contributing all
YOU can to the support of our inssitu-
tions. Our best days are yet TO come;
our greatest revivals of religion and our
lnightiest 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 Won 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 ali blessings flow.
Praise him. all Great ures here below,
Praise him above ye heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Yes, twenty-three years have passed
since came to live ia Brooklyn, and
thew have been to he eyentful years 1t
was a FRUSTRATED church 20 which |
came, a church SO fat down it could
drop no further Through controversies
which it would be useless to rehearse it
was well nigh extinct. and for Il long
while it had been without pastor. But
nineteen members coaid be mastered to
sign a call Cor my coming. As com
lnittee was putting that call before me
in an upper room IN my house III Ph1la-
delphia. there We're two other committees
on similar errands from other churches
in other rooms, whom my wife was en-
tertaining and keeping apart from I'M
happy collision.
The auditorium OF the Brooklyn
/ church to which | came defied ali the
laws of acoustics; the church had q
steeple that was the derision of the
town. and high box pulpit which shut
in the preacher as though he were dan
/ gerous to be let loose, or it acted as &
T baTricade that was unnecessary to keel
back the people, for they were so few
/ that q minister OF ordinary muscle coulo
/ have kept back all who were there. M
first Sabbath in Brooklyn was 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 ministry
died, and the tidings Of his deceas'
reached me at o'clock in the evening
and was to preach at half past Z.
But from that day the blessing of Coo
was on us, and in three months we began
the enlargement Of the building. Befor'
the close of that year we resolved t.
construct the first Tabernacle 1t wa
to be temporary structure, and, there
fore, we called it a tabernacle instead
of temple. What should be the styl
Of architecture was the immediate ques
ton. | had always thought that tn