The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1892-04-21

| liturgy, Good Lord, deliver usF
During the short time we occupied thai
/! building we had constant doNnpour Of
| religious awakening, Hosannahl Ten mil
| lien years in heaven will have no power tx
! dim nv memory Of the glorious times W;
| had in the first Tabernacle, which, because
of its invasion of the usual style of church
architecture, was called by some "Talmage';
Hippodrone,' by others, Church of the
Holy Circus" and by other mirthful nomen
clature But it was a building perfect fol
acoustics, and stood long enough to have its
imitation in all the large cities of America
and to completely revoutonizs church arch
lecture People saw that it was the COM
mon sense way of seating an audience.
Instead of putting them in an angular
church, where each one chiefly saw the back
part of somebody else's head, the audience
were arranged in sernicircle, so that they
could see one another's tacas, and the audi
torium was a great family circle seated
around a fireplace which was the pulpit. II
was an iron structure, and we supposed fire
proof, but the insurance companies looked
at it, and after we had gone too far to stop
IN its construction they declined to insure 1t
except for mere nothing, declaring that,
being of iron, if the inf1ammable material
between the sheats of iron took fire no engine
hose could play upon it. And they were
right. During those days we educated and
sent out from q lay college under our charge
some twelve hundred young men and
women many of them becoming evangeiists
and many of them becoming regularly Or
dained preachers, and l meet them in all
parts of the land toling nightly for God.
One Sunday morning in December, 1872,
the thermometer nearly down to zero, ] was
on nv way to church. There was an excite
nent in the street and much smoke in the
air. Fire engines dashed past. But my
min was on the sermon l was about to
preach until some one rushed up and told
me that our church was going up in the same
kind Of a chariot that Elijah took from the
banks Of the Jordan. That Sunday morn
ing tragedy, with its wringin of hands and
frozen tears on the cheeks of many thou
sands standing in the street, AMI the crash
that shook the earth, is as vivid as though
it were Yesterday. But it was not perfect
loss.
All are anxious to do something, and as
or such occasions sensible people are apt to
60 unusual things, one of the members, at
the risk of his life, rushed in among the
fallen walls, mounted the pulpit and took a
glass of water from the table and brought it
in safety to the street 50 you see it was
not a total loss. Within an hour from
many churches came kind invitations to &C.
cupy their buildings, and hanging against
lamppost near the destroyed building, be-
fore 10 O'clock that morning, was board
with Jle 1lSCT1DGlOU, Iu6 COuSl SSdblOh VI
Brooklyn Tabernacle will worship tonight
in Plymouth Church"
Mr.. Beecher made the opening prayer,
which was full Of comm iseration for me and
my homeless flock, aud l preached that night
the sermon that | intended to preach that
morning in my own church, the text con-
corning the precious aiabaster box broken
at the feet of Christ, and sure enough we
had one very precious broken that day. We
+a1 p,,to ,ea
and build" said many voices. Another
architect took the amphitheatrical plan of a
church, which in the first instance was nee
essarily somewhat rude, and developed it
into an elaborate plan that was Immediately
adopted
But how to raise the money for such an
expensive undertaking was the question
expensive not because OF any senSeless
adornment proposed, but expensive because
of the immense size of the building needed
to hold our congregation. 1t was at that
time when Tor years our entire country was
suffering, not from financial panic, but
from that long continued financial depression
which all business men remember, as the
cloud hung heavy year after year and COM
mercial establishments without mum Der went
down. Through what struggles we passed
the eternal God and some brave souls to-day
remember. Many time would have glad
lY dCCGpJSu CdlIS W SOulS Ollltl lcIu,
but l could not leave the flock in the wilder
ness.
At last, after, in the interregnuul, having
wors hiped in our beautiful Academy of
Music. on the morning of February %, 1874,
the anniversary of the Washington who con-
ouered impossibilities and on the Sabbath
that always celebrates the resurrection, DR..
Byron Sunderland, Chaplain of the United
States Senate, thrilled US through and
with dedicatory sermon from
Haggai H., 9. THE glory of this house
shall be greater than that of the former,
saith the Lord of Hosts" The corner stone
of that building had been laid by the illus
trious and now enthroned DR.. Irenaus
Prime. On the platform on dedication day
sat, among others, DR.. Bowling, of the Bap-
fist Church, DR.. Crook, of the Methodist
Church, Mr.. Beecher, of the Congregational
Church, and DR.. French, of the Presbyterian
Church Hosannahi Another S35, 900 was
raised on that day.
The following Sunday 32S souls were re
ceived into our communion, mostly on
confession of faith. At two other commu-
mons over 800 souls joined at each one, At
another ingathering CPS souls entered this
and so many of those gathered
throngs have already entered heaven that
we expect to feel at home when we get there,
NY! nv! Won't we be glad to see them
the men and women wno stood by us IN days
that were dark and days that were jubilant !!
Hosannah The work done in that church
on Sehermerhorn street can never be
undone.
What self sacrifices on the part of many,
who gave almost till the blood camel What
halleluiahs What victories What we'd
ding marches played with full organ What
baptisms What sacraments! What obse-
quies One of them on a snowy Sabbath
afternoon, when all Brooklyn seemed to
sympathize, and my eldest son, bearing my
own name, lay beneath the pulpit in the last
sleep, and Florence Rice Knox sang. and a
score of ministers on and around the plat
form tried to interpret how it was best that
one who had just come to manhood, and
with brightest worldly prospects, should be
taken and we left with heart that will not
cease to ache until we meet where tears
never fall.
That second Tabernaclel What stupen =
dous reminiscencel But, if the Peter of my
text had known what an undertaking it is to
build two tabernaces he would not have
proposed two, to say nothing of three AS
an anniversary sermon must needs be some
what photographed. let me say [ have
not been idle. During the standing of those
two Tabernacles fifty-two books, under as
many titles, made up from my writings,
were published. During that time also | was
permitted to discuss all the great questions OF
h. a., oil ha oil Of