The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-04-26

BROOKLYN, April 23-Rev. DR. Talmage
today preached his twenty-fourth anniycr-
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
the pulpit in flowers were the figures ''1S69'
and 1883" The text was Revelation ", 4,
"And round about the throne were fourand
twenty seats, and upon the seats L saw four
and twenty elders"
This text / choose chiefly for the numer-
ais il mentions-nasnely, four and twenty.
That was the number of elders seated
around the throne OF God. But that is the
number of years seated around ~ Brook
lyn ministry, and every pulpit Is q throne
of blessing or blasting. throne of good or
evil And today in this my twenty-fOurth
anniversary sermon, p years come and sit
around me, and. they speak out in n reminis-
cence Of gladness and tears. Twenty-fOur
years ago arrived in this city to shepherd
such q flock as might come, and that day |
carried in on my arms the infant 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.
We have received into our membership
over :, 700 souls, but they, think, are only
small portion of the multitudes who,
coming from all parts of tNS earth, have
In our house OF God been blest and saved.
Although we have Is a church raised
s1,l00, coo 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 5000 or 1000 people crowded into this
room and the adjoining rooms we are con-
fronted with the question whether l shall
60 on with my work here or 20 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 misapprehenSiOn Is abroad that the
financial crigCHcy Of this church is past.
Through journalistic and opCTSOnGl
friends breathing SpCu has been afford
ed us, but before us yet arc financial OBJ
IigdtioHs 1Chicb must promptly DC met, or
speedily this house Of God tCiU 90 into
tCorldIy uses and become q thCdtcr or
concert hall The $4,000 raised cannot
cancel q floating debt of $4,000. Through
the kindness Of those to lChOm 1Cc are in
debted 10000 lCOuld set US fOrCUcr free.
/ am glad TO SAY that the case is not hope
less We are daily IN receipt Of touching
ertdences Of practical sympathy from all
classes Of the community and from all
sections Of the country, aud it 1CGS but
yesterday that by ny OtrR hand ! sent
Tor contributions gratefully TCceiUed,
nedrIy 50 acknowledgements cast. aCCSt
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 I dis
miss the financial subject and return 10 the
spiritual This morning the greatness of
Gods kindness obliterates everything. and
if wanted 10 build a groan do not know
in what forest I would hew the timber, or
from what quarry I would dig the founda-
ton stone, or who would construct for me
an organ with tremolo for the only stop
and 50 this morning l occupy my time in
building one great, massive, high, deep,
broad, heaven piercing halleluiah. In the
review of the last p years think it may
be useful to consider some of the character
istics of a Brooklyn pastOrate.
In the first place, | remark that n Brook
lyn pastOrateis always difficult pastorate.
No city under the sun has a grander array
of pulpit talent than Brooklyn. The Meth
odists, the Baptists, the Congregationalists,
the EDiscopaliaus, al the denominations
send their brightest lights here. He who
stands in any pulpit in Brooklyn preaching
NAV know that he stands within l5minutes
walk OF sermons which a Saurin, and a
BOurdalOUc, and a John NJ. Mason, and a
George Whitefield would not be ashamed
Of No city under the sun where a poor ser
mon IS such drug on the market.
For 40 years Brooklyn has been sur
charged with homiletics, an electricity OF
eloquence that struck every time it flashed
ba oil 11r1fr rul7 rod
the powers Of Bethune, and Cox, and a
Spencer, and a Spear, and a Vinton, and a
Farley, and Il 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 aD-
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 a Brooklyn
pulpit that it is always a difficult pastor
ate. 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 be-
fore you, if you fail in an argument, 80
logicians in a fldget. If you make a slip in
the use Of a commercial figure of speech,
there will be 500 merchants who will notice
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
navigationl So it will be place Of hard
study. If you are going to maintain your
self, you viii find Brooklyn pastorate a
difficult pastorate.
A PROMINENT PULPIT.
/ remark still further, Brooklyn pas
torate is always a conspicuous pastorate.
The printing press of the country has no
greater force than that 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 organ
lied army. Many Of them have collegiate
education and large culture, and they are
able 10 weigh Grafton or address or sermon.
If you say a silly thing, you will never hear
the end Of it, and If you say a wise thing il
viii go into perpetual multiplication. There
is no need of decrying that fact. Men whose
influence has been built by the printing
press spend the rest of their lives in de-
nOuncing newspapers. The newspaper is
the pulpit on the wing More preaching
done on Monday than on Sunday. The om-
nivorous, all eyed printing press is ever
vigilant.
Besides that Brooklyn passionate is al
ways 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 anxi-
cites and their business troubles, and by
the time they have greeted their families in
4