The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1892-04-06

man, and l explored and reported the
horrors that needed removal and the |
allurements that endangered our young |
men. There came upon me an outburst |
of assumed Indignation that frightened |
almost everybody but myself. The ex-
ploration 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 |
| q 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 sim
gle word-roused violence that threat
ened me with poison and dirk and pis-
tol and other forms of extinguishment,
until the chief of Brooklyn police, with
out any suggestion from me, took pos
session Of the church with twenty-four
policemen to see that no harm was
DONE That excitement opened many
doors, which | entered for preaching
the gospel. After while came an &C.
clesiastical trial, in which | was ar
raigned by people who did not like the
way did things, and, although was
acquitted of all charges, the contest
shook the American Church. That bat
tie made me more friends than anything
that ever happened and gave me Chris
tendon and more than Christendom for
my weekly audience. On the demoli-
ton of each church, we got better and
larger church, and not a disaster, not
caricature, not a persecution, not an
assault, during all these twenty-three
years, but turned out Cor our advantage,
and ought not TO believe that AL
things work together for good?" Ho-
sannahl
Another lesson l have learned during
these twenty-three years is that it is not
necessary to preach error or pick flaws
in the old Bible in order to get an audi
ence. The old book without any fixing
up is good 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, until many of them
will land In nowhere, and become the
worshipers of an eternal "What-is-it?'
The most Of these higher critics
seem to be seeking notoriety by pitch
ing into the Bible. 1t is such a
brave thing to strike your grand
mother. The old gospel put in modern
phrase, and without any of the conven-
tionalities, and adapted to all the wants
and woes of humanity, have foundthe
mightiest magnet, and we have never
lacked an audience. Next to the bless
: ing of my own family account the
: blessing that have always had great
" multitude of people to preach TO- That
old gospel have preached to you these
= twenty-three years of my Brooklyn pas.
o torate, and that old gospel | will
v preach till | die, and charge my
c son, who is on the way TO the
o ministry, TO preach it after me, for | re
$ member Paurs thunderbolt "If any
h man preach any other gospel, let him bt
Y accursed.n And, now, as | stand here
d on my twenty-third anniversary, se'
q two audiences. The one is made up o
n all those who have worshiped with us il
d the past, but have been translated Il
g higher realms. What children-too fai
s and too sweet and too lovely for earth
n and the Lord took them but they seen
u present to-day. The Group has gone GU
d of the swollen throat, and tine pallo
d from the cheek, and they have ON then
P, the health and radiance of Heaven. Hail
n groups of glorifed childrenl How glad
W am to have you come back to us to-day
y And here sit those aged ones, who dc
G. parted this life leaving an awful vacnnc.
y: in home and church. Where are you
< STATS. and where are your gray locks
a and where your STOPPING shoulders, y
in blessed old folks? "oh!" they say, Nv
le are all young again, and the bath in tn
j. river from under the throne has mad
e MS agile and bounding. In tn
z place from which we come the
I'd use no stats, but scepters!" Hal
t, fathers and mothers in Israel; hoy
is glad we are to have you com
70 back to greet us. But the other aud
vi ence see in imagination is made up q
u all those TO whom we have had oppol
H. tunity rs church, directly or indirect
'e ly. of presenting the gospel. Yea, a
IT, my parishes seem to come back to-day
r. The people of my first charge in Belle
ir vile, New Jersey, the people OF m
n, second charge in Syracuse, New Yorl
h. The people of my third charge |
IL philadelphia. And the people {
re all these three Brooklyn table
n nacles. Look at them, and all thos
m whom, through the printing presses
IN we have invited to God and Hcavel
IN now seeming TO sit in galleries abOy
OF galleries. fifty galleries. hundred ga
ms leries, thousand galleries high. g-"'
Tn them all in your name and in Christ
nc name. all whom / have confronted irol
ut my first sermon in my first villa2
'e- charge, where my lips trembled and m
Is, knees knocked together from affrigh
rs, speaking from the text, jeremiah !,
U "Ah, Lord God, behold cannot spea
tn for am a child!'' until the sermon
IL preach to-day from Luke tx, 3
N, "Let us make three tabernaclcs
)r. those of the past the present, a
ng gathered in imagination, and
en- not in reality, all Of us grateful to &c
'rt for past mercies, all of us sorry for mi
improved opportunities, all hopeful f
he eternal raptures, and while the visib
he and the invisible audiences Of the pre-
'se ent and the past cop1mingle, give ol
is, TO those who are here to-day, and to
m sung by those who shall read Of tn
cd scene Of "reminiscences and congratul