The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-04-29
TWEATY-FOUR YEARS.
DR.. Talmage'S Eloquent Anniversary
Sermon.

BROOKLYN Rre-eSa1nentIy an Intellectual
Center-Efow Those Shrewd and Talent
ed Newspaper Men Spread the Gospel
Even Thilo Aiming at Their Own Aggr
BROOKLYN, April a3.-Rev. DR.. Tai
mage today preached his twenty-fourth
anniversary sermon. Subject, "a 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 1859" and ''1993." The
text was Revelation iv, A, "And round
about the throne were four and twenty
seats, and upon the seats saw four and
twenty elders"
This text choose chiefly for the nu-
merals it mentions 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 ev-
cry pulpit is a throne of blessing or blast
ing, q throne Of good or evil. And today
in this my twenty-fourth anniversary
sermon "a years come and sit around
me, exs4s they speak out in reminiscence
Of gladness and tears. Twenty-four
years ago arrived in this city to shep-
herd SUN flock as might come, and
that Gay Carried in on my arms the in
fant&sSa whe'ia two weeks from today
win help oEsaadn to the gospel ministry,
hoping thas he will be preaching long
after my poor work is done.
T. a MARVELLOUS WORK.
I We. haveTeceived into cur membership
over 5000 souls, but they, I think, are
only @ small portion of the multitudes
who, coming from ali parts of the earth,
havein orrhanse.of God been blessed and
saved. Although we have as a church
raised 81 LOO, 008 for religious purposes,
yet We arasin the. strange position of not
knowing in two or three months
.weshall have any church atgall, and with
audiences of {; 900 orr 900 people crowd
ed into this room and the adjoining
roomsswe ara ,con4Eonted with the cues
ton wheshsr I.ahsll go On with my work
here or go .teBome other field. What an
awful necessity that we should have been
obliged to hnila hreeimmense churches,
two Of them destroyed by fire.
a ppre7seasios IS abroad that the
financial erigssey of tlsis church is past.
Through journalistic and personal
friends a breathing spell has been afford
ed us, bat before as get ore financial OBJ
legations selsach must promptly be met, or
speedily this hoaise of God suiU go into
scorzdlg uses asad becowae.a theoter or q
concert hail. TIE S1S, 900 raised cannot
cancel a floating debt of $4,000.
Through the Kindness Of those to au7som,
aoe are indebted $50, 600 avo,tld set as for
euer free. I am glad to sag that the case
as not hopeless. We orr, daily in receipt
of touching evidences of practical sanapa-
ting from all classes of the community and
from oil sections of the country, and it
scos but yesterday that By nay oao7a hand I
sent for contributions gratefully receiged
nearly so Acknowledgements east, scest,
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 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 l
would dig the foundation stone, or who
would construct for me an organ with
tremolo for the only stop. And SO this
morning I occupy my time in building
one great, massive, high, deep, broad,
heaven piercing halieluiah. In the re-
view of the last "A years I think it may
be useful to consider some of the char
acteristics Of q Brooklyn pastorate.
DEMANDS OF A-BRooKLYN PAsToRATE.
In the first place I remark that
Brooklyn passionate is always a difficult
pastorate. No city under the sun has a
grander array of pulpit talent than
Brooklyn. The Methodists, the Bap-
fists, the Congregationahsts, the Epis-
copalians, all the denominations send
their brightest lights here. He who
stands in any pulpit in Brooklyn preach
ing may know that he stands within Is
minutes walk of sermons which Sau-
rim, and Bourda1oue, and John M.
Mason, and a George Whitefeld would
not be ashamed of. No city under the
sun where q poor sermon is such drug
on the market
For forty years Brooklyn has been sur
charged with homfletics, an electricity
of eloquence that struck every time it
flashed from the old pulpits which
quaked with the powers~of a Bethune,
and Cox, and a Spencer, and Spear,
and Vinten, and a Farley, and Beech
er, not mentioning the namesof then
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 messy to all ministers of the
gospel who are ambitious for Brooklyn
pulpit that it is always difficult pas
torate. IF a man shall come and stand
before any audience in almost any church
in Brooklyn, hewill 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 az
gument, SO logieians in a fidget. If you