Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-04-27
AT THE TABERNACLE.
rR. TALmAoE CELEBRATES HIS TWEEN
TY-FouRTH ANN!vEReARY THERE.

re Feels Like UtteFing Long and Loud
RAIIeluIAh. For the Talent Of the World
csAtsrs At brooklyn. and So the Gospel
Is Spread Abtos1.
BRooKLYS, April 2S.-Rev. DR.. Talmage
today preached his twensy-fourth anniver-
sary sermon. Subject, "A Brooklyn Pas
torate." The occasion was an unusually
interesting one, and the great audience was
visibly impressed during the services. Over
thepulpit in flowers were the figures 1850"
and "1s93." The text was Revelation iv, 4,
"And round about the throue were four and
twenty seats. anil upon tie seats saw four
and twenty elders"
This text choose chiefly for the numer-
ais 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 Brook
lyn ministry, and every pulpit is a throne
of blessing or blasting, throne OF good or
evil. And today, in this my twenty-fourth
anniversary sermon, "a years come and sit
around me, and. they speak out in reminis-
cence of gladness and tears Twenty-four
years ago I arrived in this city to shepherd
such a flock as might come, and that day /
carried in on my arms the infant son who
in two weeks from today l will help ordain
to the gospel ministry, hoping that he will.
DO preaching long after my poor work Is
done.
We have received into our membership
over 5000 souls, but they, think, are only
a small portion of the multitudes who,
coming from all parts of the earth, have
| in our house of God been blest and saved
Although we have as church raised
81, 100000 for religious purposes, yet we are
in the strange position of not knowing
whether in two or three months we shall
have any church at all, and with audiences
of 6,000 or 1000 people crowded into this
room and the adjoining rooms we are con-
fronted with the question whether shall
go on with my work here or go to some
other field. What an awful necessity that
we should have been obliged to build three
immense churches, two of them destroyed
| by iirel
4 miSdppreltension Is abroad that the
financial ertgency of this church is past.
| Through journalistic and personal
friends 1t breathing SpetI has been afford
cd us, but before us yet arc financial OBJ
legations eCIltclt must promptly be met, or
| SpecfJillJ this house of God acilL 90 into
uorldly uses and become thGGteT or q
concert hall. The $4,000 raised cannot
cancel q floating debt OF $l40,0OO. Through
The Kindness Of these to aUhom tUe are IN
dcbtsd $50, 600 aColtld set us fOreUer free.
! cin glad to sag that the case Is not hope
less. We are daily in receipt of touching
cvi5cnccs of practical sympathy from oil
classes of the community C1ld from all
Secti0ns of the country, and 1t tCds but
yesterday that by n1y oeCn hand l sent,
| for contributions gratefully received,
nearly so Acknowledgements east, GCeSt
north and south.
ADAY FOR HALLELUIAH.
Our trust is in the Lord, who divided the
Red sea and made the mountains skip
like lambs" With this paragraph dis
miss the financial subject and return to the
spiritual This morning the greatness of
Gods kindness obliterates everything, and
if wanted to build groan do not know
in what forest would hew the timber, or
from what quarry would dig the founda-
tion stone, or who would construct for me
an organ with tremolo for Tia only stop,
and so this morning occupy my time in
building one great, massive, high, deep,
broad, heaven piercing halleluiah. In the
review of the last "a years think it may
be useful to consider some Of the character
istics of a Brooklyn pastorate
In the first place, remark that Brook
lyn pastorate is always difficult pastorate.
No city under the sun has grander array
of pulpit talent than Brooklyn. The Meth
odists, the Baptists, the Congregationalists,
the Episcopalians, all the denominations
send their brightest lights here He who
stands in anypulpit in Brooklyn preaching
may know that he stands within Is minutes
walk of sermons which Saurin, and a
Bourdaloue, and John NJ Mason, and a
George Whitefeld would not be ashamed
Of No city under the sun where poor ser
mon is such drug on the market.
For 40 years Brooklyn has been sur
charged with homiletics, an electricity oi
eloquence that struck every time it flashed
from the old pulpits which quaked with
the powers of a Bethune, and Cox, and g
Spencer, and Spear, and Vinton, and q
Farley and Beecher, not mentioning the
names of the magnificent men now man
ming the Brooklyn pulpits. So during all
the time there has been something to ap
peal to every mans taste and to CRAFTY
every mans preference.
Now, let me say to all ministers of the
gospel who are ambitious for Brooklyn
pulpit that it is always difficult pastor
ate. If man shall come and stand before
any audience in almost any church IL
Brooklyn, he will find before him men who
have heard the mightiest themes discussed
in the mightiest way. You will have be
fore you, if you fail in an argument, 81
logicians in fidget. If you make slip il
the use of commercial figure of speech
there will be 500 merchants who will notict
it. II you throw out an anchor or furl {
sail in the wrong way, there will be shiI
captains right off who will wonder if you
are as ignorant of theology as you are O.
navigationl So it will be place of hare
study. If you are going to maintain your
self, you will find Brooklyn pastorate {
difficult pastorate.
A PROMINENT PULPIT.
I remark still further, a Brooklyn pas
torate is always a conspicuous pastorate
The printing press Of the country has nj
greater force than that on the seacoast
Every pulpit word, good or bad, wise O.
ignorant, kind or mean, is watched. Th
reportorial corps of these cities is an organ
lied army. Many of them have collegiate
education and large culture, and they ar
able to weigh oration or address or sermon
If you say silly thing, you will never hea
the end of it, and if you say wise thing i
will go into perpetual multiplication. Their
is no need Of decrying that fact Men who's
influence has been built by the printing
press spend the rest of their lives in de
nouncing newspapers. The newspaper
the pulpit on the wing. More preaching
done on Monday than on Sunday. The ON
nivorous, all eyed printing press is eve
vigilant
. Besides that Brooklyn pastorate is al
ways conspicuous in the fact that every
body comes here. Brooklyn is New Yorl
In its better moodl Strangers have not seel
Nosrr Ynrk 1antil thau have saan Rrnnklun