Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-04-29

TWENTY-FOUR YEARS
DR.. TALMAeE's ELOQUENT ANNIvER-
SARY SERMON.

SARY SERMON.
Brooklyn Prominently m intellectual
Center-How Those Shrewd and Talent
cd Newspaper Men Spread the Gospel
Even Willie Aiming at Their Own Aggr
BROOKLYN, April 23.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today preached his twenty-fourth
anniversary sermon. Subject, ga Brook
Ign Passionate" The occasion was an
unusually interesting one, and the great
audience was visibly impressed during
the services. Over the pulpit in flowers
were the figures 1850" and 1883" The
text was Revelation iv, 4, "And round
about tho throne were four and twenty
seats, and upon the seats saw four and
twenty elders"
This text 1 choose chiefly for the nu-
merals it mentions-namely, four and
twenty. That was the number of elders
seated around the throne Of God, but
that is tho number of years seated
around my Brooklyn ministry, and ev-
cry pulpit is a throne Of blessing or blast
ing, throne Of good or evil. And today
in; this my twenty-fourth anniversary
sermon "A yenrs come and sit around
me, and they speak out in arominiscence
of gladness and tears. Twenty-four
years ago arrived in this city to shep-
herd such flock as might come, and
that day I carried in on my arms the III
FAINT son who in two weeks from today
will help ordain to the gospel ministry,
hoping that he will be preaching long
after my poor work Is done.
MARVELLOUS WORK.
We have received into our membership
over 5000 souls, but they, 1 think, are
only small portion of the multitudes
who, coming from all parts Of the earth,
have In our house of God been blessed and
saved. Although we have as church
raised 81, 100, 900 for religious purposes,
yet we arc in the strange position of not
knowing whether in two or three months
weshall have any church at all, and with
audiences of 5000 or 1000 people crowd
ed into this room and the adjoining
rooms we arc confronted with the ques-
ton 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 fire.
a m,isapprelension is abroad that the
financial erigency of this church is past.
Through journalistic and personal
friends q breathing spell has been afford
edals, but before us get are financial OBJ
legations achicl must promptly be met, or
speedily this house Of God will 90 into
,rorldly uses and become Mcater or q
concert hall. The $4,000 raised cannot
cancel floating debt Of $4,000.
Through the Kindness Of those to achom
,ce are indebted $50, 900 acouM set us for
ever free I am glad to sag that the case
is not hopeless. We are daily in receipt
oftoucling evidences of practical synlpa-
thu from all classes of the community and
tfroi4s an ctions the country, and it
uas. bat gssterd :aaas oscsS hand Z
s5fi, % ecsiced
nearly so Acknowledgements east. ,cest
north and south.
Our trust is in the Lord who divided
tho Red sea and made the mountains
skip like lambs" With this paragraph l
dismiss the financial subject and return
to the spiritual. This morning the great
ness of Gods kindness obliterates every
thing, and if wanted to build a groan
do not know in what forest would
hew the timber, or from what quarry /
would dig the foundation stone, or who
would construct for me an organ with q
tremolo for the only stop. And SO this
morning occupy my time in building
one great, massive, high, deep, broad,
heaven piercing halleluiah. In the re-
view Of the last "a years think it may
be useful to consider some Of the char
acteristics of Brooklyn passionate.
DEMANDS OF A BROOKLYN PAsToRATE.
In the first place I remark that a
Brooklyn pastorate Is always difficult
pastorate. No city under the sun has a
grander array of pulpit talent than
Brooklyn. The Methodists, the Bap-
fists, the Congregationalists, the Epis-
copalians, all the denominations send
their brightest lights here. He who
stands in any pulpitin Brooklyn preach
ing may know that he stands within Is
minutes walk of sermons which Sau-
rim, and Bourdaloue, and John NJ.
Mason, and George White6eld would
not be ashamed OF. No city under the
sun where poor sermon is such drug
on the market.
For forty years Brooklyn has been sur
charged with homiletics, an electricity
Of eloquence that struck every time it
flashed from the old pulpits which
quaked with the powers of Bethune,
and Cox, and Spencer, and a Spear,
and Vinton, and Farley, and Beech
err, not mentioning the names Of the mag
nifcent 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
preference.
Now, let me say to all ministers of the
gospel who are ambitious for a Brooklyn
pulpit that it is always difficult pas
torate. If 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 an ar
gument, so logicians in q fdget. If you
make slip in the uss of q commercial
figure of speech, there will be 500 mer-
chants who will notice it. If you throw
out an anchor or furl sail in the wrong
way, there will be ship captains 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 maintain yourself, you will
find a Brooklyn pastorate difficult pas
torate.
THOSE TALENTED JOURNALISTS.
remark still further, a Brooklyn pas
torate is always conspicuous pastorate
The printing press Of the country has no