Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-05-10
REv. DIR. TALNAGR,
The Brooklyn Divine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject; "a brooklyn Pastorate.s

~
four aud tirenfv seats, and upon the seats
! sdtO four and tlUsnty elderS"-Reyelatior
w., {.
This text l choose chiefly for the numerals,
II mentions-namely four and twenty. That
was the number Cf elders seated aroun tba
throne OF God, but that is the number of
years seated around nv BrookIyn miniStry
and every pulpit is a throne of BLESSING 0r
blasting, a throne OF good or evil. And to.
day IN this my twenty-fourth anniversary
sermon "A years come and sit around mo
and they speaS out in a reminiscence Of
gladness ahi tearS twenty four years ago
arrived in this city to shepherd such a fiock
as might come, and that day / carried in on
my arms the infant son who in two weeks
from 10 day Will help ordaiu to the gosn,I
ministry, hoping that he will be preaching
long after my poor work is done.
We have received into our r,enbarsbin
over $3.50 souls, but they, 1 think, ara only a
small portion of the multitu les who cSn1-
ing from all parts of the earth, have in our
house of God been bleSsei and saved
Although We have as church raised 81, ,1Ol,-
OO Tor religious purposes, yet we are in tho
strange position of not knowing whether
In two or three months We shall have anv
church at all, and with audiences of GOOD or
IOOO people crowded into this room and the
adjoining rooms we are confronted with
the question whether | shall go on with nv
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 destroye by fire.
A misapprehension is abroad that tn,
financial exigency of this church is past
Through journalistic and nersonal friends a
breathing spell has been afr IT led US but be.
lore US yet are financial obligations which
must promptly be met, or speedily this house
OF God will go into worldly uses and become
theater or a concert hall. The xl2 OOl
raised cannot cancel a floating debt OF
$40, 900. Through the Kindness of those To
whom we are indebted $1,000 would set us
forever free. l am glad to say that 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 | sent for
contributions gratefully received nearly 80
Acknowledgements east, west, north and
south.
Our trust is in the Lord who divided ths
Red Sea and made the mountains skin like
lambs" With this paragraph | dismiss the
financial subject and return TO the spiritual
This morning the greatness of Gods kind.
DesS obliterateS everythiny :, and if [ wanted
70 build groan | do not know in what for
est would hew the timber, or from what
quarry would dig the foundation stone, or
who would construct for me an organ with
tremelo for the only stop. And so this
morning occupy my time in building one
great, massive, high, deep, broai, heaven
last "a years l think it may bs useful TO
consider some of the characteristics of
Brooklyn pastorate.
In the first place 1 remark that a Brook
lyn pastorate is always difficult pastorate.
No city under the sun has grander array
Of pulpit talent than Brooklyn. The Metho-
dist, the Baptist, the Congregntionalist. the
Episcopalaus, all the denominations send
their brightest lights here. He who stands
In any pulpit In Brooklyn preaching may
- L., l. az.
walk OF sermons which a Saurin, AMI q
Bourdalone and John NJ. Mason and a
George Whitefield would not be ashamed OF.
No city under the sun where a poor sermon
Is such drug on the market.
For forty years Brooklyn has been sur
charged with hOmiletiCs, electricity of
sloQusnce that struck every time it flashed
from the old pulpits which quaked with the
powers OF Bethune, and Cox and a
Bpencer, and Spear, ard a Ninton, and a
Farley, and a Beecher, not mentioning 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 preference.
Now. let me say to all ministers of the
gospel who are ambitious for a Brooklyn
pulpit that it Is always difficult pastorate.
II 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
miEhtiest way. You will have before you,
II you fail in an argument, ii ty logicians in
hdget. If you make a slip in the use of
commercial figure of speech. there will be
800 merchants who will notice it. IL you
throw out an anchor or turl sail in the
wrong way, there will be ship captains right
on who will wonder If you are as ignorant
of theology az you are OF navigationl So
Il win be place of hard study. Ii you
are going to maintain yourself, you will
find Brooklyn pastorate diff ,ult pas
torate.
remark still further, a Brooklyn pasto-
rate Is always a conspicuous pastorate. The
printing press of the country has no reater
Force than on the seacoast. Every pulpit
word, good or bad, wise or ignorant kind
or mean, Is watched. The reportorial corps
Of these cities is an organized army. Many
OF them have collegiate education and large
culture, and they are able to weigh Grafton
or address or sermon. If you say silly
thing, you will never near the end OF 1t, and
II you say a wise thing it will go into per-
petual multiplication There Is no need or
decrying that fact. Men whose influence
has been built by the printing press spend
the rest Of their lives in denouncing news
papers. The newspaper is the pulpit on the
wing. More preaching done on Monday
than on Sunday. The omnivorOus, all eyed
printing press is ever vigilant-
Besides that, Brooklyn pastorate
always conspicuous In the fact that every
body comes here. Brooklyn is New York
In its better mood. Strangers have not seen
New York until they have seen brooklyn.
The East River is the chasm in which our
merchants drop their cares, and their
anIieties. and their business troubles and
by the time they have greeted their families
IN the home circle they have forgotten all
about Wall street and Broadway and the
shambles II they commit business sins IN
New York during the day, they come over
70 Brooklyn TO repent OF them:
bndu here.
bridge entrance or at the ferry gates on
Eabbath morning at 10 o'clock, or Sabbath
evening at O'clock and you see north,
south, east west-Europe, Asia, Africa,
New Zealand, notwithstanding 20 brooh- OK
lyn to spend the Sabbath, or part or II In the
persons of their epresentatlves-some OF
them fresh from the sea. They have JUST
landed, and they want to seek the house OF
God publicly to thank the Lord FOR their
deliyerancs from cyclones and fog banks on
Newfoundland Every song sung, every
PRAYER offered, every sermon preached IN
New York and Brooklyn and all along TINS
sea coast in some shape goes all rouno
the world. A Brooklyn pastorate Is AZ
che greatest altitude of conSpicuity.
Again remark that Brooklyn pastoraUe
is characterized by brevity. | bethlnk my
self Of but three ministers of the gospel now
preaching here who were preaching wnen L
came to Brooklyn. Most OF the pulpIts
around me have changed seven or eign'
times since my arrival.
Sometimes the pastorate has been @ @pTieI
for one reason and sometimes for another
reason Sometimes the ministers OF the gSs-
pei have been too good for this world, ana
heaven has transplanted them. Sometimes
they changed places by the decree OF their
denomination. Sometimes they came Win
great blare Of trumpets, proposing 10 caIiy
everything before them, and got extin-
guis6ed before they were distinguished
Some got preached out in two or three Zears
and told the people all they knew. So-ne
with holy speed did in a short time worn
which It takes a great many years to do
Whether for good or ba reasons Brook.
tyn pastorate is characterized by breyity,
not much of the old plan by which a minis
Ter OF the gospel baptized an infant, then re-
ceived him into the church, after he hal be
come an adult married him, baptized ms