The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1892-04-15
THREE TABERNACLES.
DR.. Talmage breaches His Twenty
third Anniversary Sermon.
Story of Trials and Triumphs EIoquentIy
Misrepresentation Severely
Denounced-All Things Work To-
gether For Good.

Il
Trials and Triumphs," and his text was
from Luke tx. SO: Let us make three
tabernacles." He said:
Our Arab ponies were almost dead
with fatigue and in December, 1889, we
rode near the foot of Mount Hermon in
the Holy Lond, the mountain called by
one "a mountain of ice;.' by another "a
| glittering breastplate of ice;;" by another
1.-The Mount Blanc of Palestine" It's
top has an almost unearthly brilliance.
But what must it have 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!
4 Moses, representing the law; Elijah,
representing the prophets, and Christ,
representing all worlds. Impctuous
| Peter was so wrought upon by the
presence of this wondrous three, that,
without waiting for time to consider
how preposterous was the proposition,
| he cried out: Let us make three taber-
! nacles; one for Thee, one for Moses and
one for Elijah" Where would they get
the material for building one tabernacle,
much less to build two tabernacles, and,
| still less, how would they get the ma
| terial for building three? Where would
they get the hammers? Where the gold?
where the silver? Where the curtains?
Where the costly adornments? uermOn
! is a barren peak, and to build one tlber-
nacle in such n place would have been
an undertaking beyond human achieve
ment, and Peter was pr.pOunding the
impossible when he cried out in en-
thusiasm: Let Us build three taber-
nacles." And, yet, that is what this
| congregation has been called to do and
have done. The first Brooklyn taber-
nacle was dedicated in 1870 and de-
stroyed by fire in 1872. The second
Brooklyn tabernacle was dedicated in
1874 and destroyed by fire in 1889. The
third Brooklyn tabernacle was dedicat-
ed in April, 1891, and in that we are
worshiping to-day. What sounded alb
surd for Peter to propose, when he said
on Mount Hernon, in the words OF my
text: Let us build three tabernacleS, :"
we have not only done, but, in the mys-
terious providence of God, were COM
PEELED to do.
We have been unjustly criticised BY
people who do not know the facts. some
times for putting SO much money in
church buildings and sometimes for not
giving as much as we ought to this or
that denominational project, and no ex-
PLANTATION has yet been made. Before
get through with the delivery of this
sermon and its publication and distri-
button l shall show that no church on
earth has ever done more magnificently
and that no church ever conquered more
trials and that no membership ever had
in it more heroes and heroincs than this
Brooklyn tabernacle, and | mean to
have it known that any individual or
religious newspaper or secular new
paper that hereafter casts any reflec-
tions on this church's fidelity and gen.
crosby is guilty of wickedness for
which God will hold him or itresponsible.
One year it wnS sent out through a syn
dictate of newspapers that this church
was doing nothing in the way of liber-
atty, when we had that year raised
So, 600 in hard cash for religious uses.
There has been persistent and hemis-
pheric lying against this church. We
have raised during my passionate for
church building and religious purposes
s99S, 900, or practically s1,0O0,000. Not
an Irish famine, or Charleston earth
quake, or an Ohio freshct, or Chicago
confagration. but our church was among
the first to help. We have given free
seats in the morning and evening SER
vices to 100000 strangers a year, and
that in twenty years, would amount to
4,SO0,OOO auditors. We have received
into our membership 1857 mem
bers, and that is only small
portion of the number of those who
have been converted to God from all
parts of this land and from other lands.
And yet there are ministers OF the Cos
pei and religious newspapers that
systematically and industriously and
continuously charge this church with
idleness and selfshness and parsimony.
/ call the attention of the whole earth
to this outrage that has been heaped
upon the Brooklyn tabernacle, though
a more consecrated, benevolent, and
splendid convocation of men and women
were never gathered together outside of
Heaven.
But this continuous misreprepresenta-
ton of my beloved church, in the name
of Almighty God, l denounce, while APP
peal to the fair-minded men and women
to see that justice is done this people, who
within few years have gone through
a struggle that no other church in any
land or any age has been called to en-
dure, and l pray God that no other
church may ever be called on to endure,
viz: the building of three tabernacles.
ask the friends of the Brooklyn tab
ernacle to cut out this sermon from the
newspapers and put it in their pocket
books, so that they can intelligently
answer our falsifers, whether clerical
or lay. And with these you may put
that other statement, which recently
went through the country, which said
that the Brooklyn tabernacle had
hard financial struggle because it had
all along been paying such enormous
salaries 10 its pastor, Dr.Talmage, when
the fact is that, after our disaster
and for two years, l gave all my
salary to the church building fund,
and 1 received $1,000 less than moth
ing, in other words. in addition
to serving this church gratuitously for
two years let it have 5000 for build
ing 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