The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-05-05
TWENTY-FOUR YEARS.
Anniversary Sermon by Rev. T.
Dewitt Talmage.
A Review OF Twenty-Four Years Work I'm
the Brooklyn Tabernacle-The Es-
sentIaIs of Success In
Church Work.

sentIaIs of Success In
Church Work.
The following discourse was delivered
on the twenty-fourth anniversary of his
pastorate by Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage
in the Brooklyn tabernacle, from the
text:
And round about the throne were four and
twenty seats, and upon the seats saw four and
twenty yelders.-Revelations iv., l.
This text choose chiefly for the nu-
merals il mentions, namely four and
twenty. That was the number of ell
ders seated around the throne of God
But that is the number of years seated
around my Brooklyn ministry, and ev-
cry pulpit is throne of blessing or
blasting, a throne of good or evil. And
to-day in this, my twenty-fourth ami
versary sermon, twenty-four years come
and sit around me, and they speak out
in a reminiscence of gladness and
tears. Twenty-four years rgo / arrived
in this city to shepherd such 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, hoping that he
will be preaching long after my poor
work is done.
We have received into our member
ship thousands of souls, but they,
think, are only 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 one million one
hundred thousand dollars 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 crowed into this room and the
adjoining rooms, we are confronted
with the question whether l 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 destoyed by fire.
A misapprehension is abroad that the
financial exigency of this church is past.
Through journalistic and personal
friends breathing spell has been af-
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 concert hall The twelve
thousand dollars raised can not cancel a
floating debt of one hundred and forty
thousand dollars. Through the kind
ness of those to whom we are indebted
sixty thousand dollars would set us for
ever free. am glad to say that the
Te 80 n
receipt of touching evidences of prac-
teal sympathy from all classes of the
community and from all sections of the
country, and it was but yesterday that
by my own hand i sent, for contribu-
tions gratefully received, nearly fifty
acknowledgements east, west, north and
south.
Our trust is in the Lord who divided
the Red sea and made the mountains
skip like lambs" With this paragraph
dismiss the financial subject and re-
turn to the spiritual. This morning
the greatnes of Gods kindness oblit-
crates everything, and if / wanted to
build a groan l 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 a tremolo for the
only stop, and so this morning 1 oc-
cupy myself in building one great,
massive, high, deep, broad, heaven
piercing hallelujah. In the review of
the last twenty-four years / think it
may be useful to consider some of the
characteristics of Brooklyn pastor
ate.
In the first place, I remark that a
Brooklyn pastorate is always difficult
pastorate. No city under the sun has
grander array of pulpit talent than
Brooklyn. The Methodists, the Bap-
lists, the Congregationalists, the Epis-
copalians, all the denominations send
their brightest lights here. He who
stands in Brooklyn pulpit, preaching,
may know that he stands within fff-
teen minutes walk of sermons which a
Saurin, and Bourdaloue, and a John
NJ. Mason, and a George Whitefeld
would not be ashamed of. No city un-
der the sun where poor sermon is such
q drug on the market.
For thirty years Brooklyn has been
surcharged with homiletics, an cleo
tricity of eloquence that struck every
time it flashed, from the old pulpits
which quaked with the powers of a
Bethune and Cox, and Spencer, and
Spear, and a Vinton, and a Farley,
and a Beecher, not mentioning the
names of the magnificent men now
manning the Brooklyn pulpits. So
during all the time there has been
something to appeal to every mans
taste, and TO CRAFTY every mans pref
erence.
Now let me say to all the ministers
of the Gospel who are ambitious for a
Brooklyn pulpit, that it is always a
difficult pastorate. If a man shall
come and stand before any audience in
almost any church in Brooklyn, he will
find before him men who have heard
the mightiest themes discussed in the
mightiest way. You will have before
you, If you fail in argument, fifty logi-
clans in fdget. If you make slip in
the use of a commercial figure of
speech, there will be five hundred
merchants who will notice it. If you
throw out an anchor or furl sail in
the wrong way there will be ship cap
tains right off who will wonder if you
are as ignorant Of theology as you are
of navigation! So it will be place of
hard study. If you are going to main
tain yourself you will find Brooklyn
pastorate a most difficult pastorate.
/ remark still further, Brookly pas
torate is always a conspicuous pastor
ate. Theprinting press of the country
has no greater force. than that on the
sea coast. Every pulpit word, good or
loa ..-;.. ~ ;frro,-a M hind 0r ruaan ic