The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1893-04-29
CHURCH WORK.
DR.. Talmage Reviews the Work of
Nearly a Quarter of a Century.
Three Great Churches Built-Dimculties
and Pleasures of II Brooklyn PASTOR
ate-EssentiaIs of Success I'm
Church Work.

SlIuEPh "OFK.
On Sunday, April 90, Rev. II. Dewitt
Talmage preached his twenty-fourth
annual sermon in Brooklyn, his text
being from Revelations, iv. 4: "And
round about the throne were four and
twenty seats, and upon the seats | saw
o and twenty elders" The preacher
said:
This text l choose chiefly for the
numerals it mentions, namely four and
twenty. That was the number of elders
seated around the throne of God. But
that is the number of years seated
around my Brooklyn ministry, and
every pulpit is a throne of blessing or
blasting, IL throne of good or evil. And
to-day liz this, my twenty-fourth ami
versary sermon, twenty-four years
come and sit around Inc. and they speak
out in a Renaissance of gladness and
tears. Twenty-four years ago I ar
rived in this city to shepherd sucn a
flock as might come, and that day |
carried in on my arms the infant son
who in two weeks from to-day | will
help ordain to the gospel ministry, hop
ing that he will be preaching long after
my poor work is done.
We have received into III membership
thousands of souls, but they, | think,
are only a small portion of the multi
tudes who, coming from all parts of the
earth, have in our house of God been
blest, and saved. Although we have as
a church raised 81, 100, 900 for religious
purposes, yet we are in the strange po-
sition of not knowing whether in two
or three months we shall have any
church at all. and with audiences OF
thousands of people crowded into this
and the adjoining rooms, we are
confronted with the question whether
shall go on with my work here or GO
on to some other field. What an awful
necessity that we should have been
obliged to build three immense
churches, two of them destroyed by
fire.
A misrepresentation is abroad that the
financial eXigency of this church is past.
Through journalistic and personal
friends a breathing spell has been at
forded us. but before us yet are finan-
cial obligations which must promptly
be met or speedily this house of God
will go into worldly uses and become a
theater or a concert hall. The $4,000
raised cannot cancel a floating debt OF
$40, 900. Through the kindness of those
to whom we are indebted $50, 900 would
set us forever free. l am glad to say
hat the case is not hopeless. We are
daily in receipt of touching evidences OF
practical sympathy from all classes OF
the community and from all sections OF
the country, and it was but yesterday
that by my own hand l sent, for con.
tributions gratefully received, nearly
fifty acknowledgements east, west,
north and south.
Our trust is in the Lord who divid-
ed the Red sea and made the mount
aims skip like lambs" With this
paragraph l dismiss the financial sub
ject and return to the spiritual.
In the first place, | remark that a
Brooklyn p~astorate is always a difficult
passionate. No city under the SUI has a
grander array of pulpit talent than
Brooklyn. The Methodists, the Bap'
lists, the Congregationalists, the
Episcopalians, all the denominations
send their brightest lights here. He
preaching, may know that he stands
within fifteen minutes walk of sermons
which q Saurin, and n B~ourdaloue, and
a John NJ. Mason, and u George Whit
field would not be ashamed of,
For forty years Brooklyn has been
surcharged with bomileties, an elec
tricity of eloquence that struck every
| time it flashed, from the old pulpits
which quaked with the power of a
Bethune, and a Cox, and a Spencer, an6
a Spear, and a Vinton, and a Farley
and a Beecher, not mentioning the
names of the magnificent men nov
manning.the Brooklyn pulpits. So dur
ing all the time there has been some
thing to appeal TO every mans taste
and to crafty every mans preference.
Now let me say to all the minister o
the gospel who are ambitious for {
Brooklyn pulpit, that it is always a diff
ficult p~astorate. If a man shall com
and stand before any audience in al
most any church in Brooklyn, he will
find before him men who have heart
1 III l lllItSD ilCliCo III III
mightiest way. You will have before
you, if you fail in argument, fifty 10
gicians in a fdget. If you make a slil
in the use of u commercial figure o
speech, there will be five hundred mer
chants who will notice it. If you throw
out an anchor or furl a sail in the wrong
way, there will be ship captains RICH
off who will wonder if you are as ig
norant of theology as you are of navi
CATION! So it will be a place of hare
study. If you are going to maintain
yourself, you will find a Brooklyn pas
torate a most difficult p~astorate.
| remark still further, u Brooklyn
p~astorate is always II conspicuous pas
torate. The printing press of the coun
try has no greater force than that Oh
the sea coast. Every pulpit word, gooC
or bad, wise Or ignorant, kind or mean
is watched. The reportorial corps o
these cities is an organized army
Many of them have collegiate educa
ton and large culture, and they ar,
able TO weigh grafton, or address, o
sermon. If you say a silly thing yo1
will never hear the end of If, and If yoI
say q wise unlHS III VIII go lHIo per
petual multiplication.
Besides that, u Brooklyn passionate 1
always conspicuous in the fact tina
everybody comes here. Brooklyn /
New York in it's better mood! Stran
gers have not seen New York until the,
have seen Brooklyn.
Again / remark, that q Brooklyn pas
torate is characterized by brevity.
bethink myself of but three minister
of the gospel now preaching here, VIII
were preaching when came to Brool'
lyn. Most of the pulpits around IN
have changed seven or eight times sine
my arrival.
Sometimes the passionate has bee
brief for one reason, and sometimes fo
another reason. Sometimes the minis
ters of the gospel have been too goo
for this world, and Heaven has trans
planted them. Sometimes they change
places by the decree of their denominp
tion Sometimes thaU oama with prea