The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-05-05
CHURCH WORK.
DR.. Talmage Reviews the Work Of
Nearly Quarter of Century.
Three Great Churches BuiIt-Dihiculties
and Pleasures of a Brooklyn PASTOR
ate-Essentials of Success in
Church Work.

round about the throne were four anC
twenty seats, and upon the seats saw
four and twenty elders" The preacher
said:
This text 1 choose chiefly for the
numerals it mentions, namely four anC
twenty. That was the number of elder:
seated around the throne of God. But
| that is the number of years seated
around my Brooklyn ministry, anC
every pulpit is throne of blessing OF
| 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 Renaissance of gladness and
tears. Twenty-four years ago l ar
| rived in this city to shepherd such a
| flock as might come, and that day
| carried in on my arms the infant son
| who in two weeks from to-day l will
help ordain to the gospel ministry, hop.
ing that he will be preaching long after
my poor work is done.
We have received into our membership
thousands of souls, but they, l think,
are only small portion of the multi
| tudes who, coming from all parts of the
| earth, have in our house of God been
blest. and saved. Although we have as
| a church raised 81, 1905 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 crowded into this
room and the adjoining rooms, we are
| confronted with the question whether
| l shall go on with my work here Or 90
| on 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 misrepresentation 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 a concert hall. The $4,000
raised cannot cancel floating debt of
! $4,000. Through the kindness of those
| to whom we are indebted $50. GOO would
set us forever free. 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 con-
tributions gratefully received, nearly
fifty acknowledgements east, west,
north and south.
Our trust is in the Lord who divid-
ed the Red sea and made the mount
aims skip like lambs" With this
paragraph l dismiss the financial sub
ject and return to the spiritual.
In the first place. | remark that n
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
Episcopalians, all the denominations
send their brightest lights here. lie
who stands in a Brooklyn pulpit
preaching, may know that he stands
within fifteen minutes walk of sermons
which a Saurin, and Bourdaloue. and
John NJ. Mason. and a George Whit
field would not be ashamed of
For forty 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 power of
Bethune, and a Cox, and Spencer. and
a Spear. and n Vinton, and a Farley,
and a Beecher, not mentioning the
names of the magnificent men now
manning the Brooklyn pulpits. So dur
ing all the time there has been some
thing to appeal to every mans taste,
and to crafty every mans preference.
Now let me say to all the minister of
the gospel who are ambitious for
Brooklyn pulpit, that it is always a diff
ficult paStorate. If man shall come
and stand before any audience in al
most 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 To-
gicians in u fidget. If you make slip
in the use of a commercial figure of
speech, there will be five hundred 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 ig-
norant of theology as you are of navi-
CATION. So it will be place of hard
study. If you are going to maintain
NJ
torate most difficult pastorate.
l remark still further, a Brooklyn
pastorate is always a conspicuous pas
torate. The printing press of the coun-
try has no greater force than that on
the sea coast. Every pulpit word, good
or bad, wise or ignorant, kind or mean,
is watched. The reportorial corps of
Many of them have collegiate educa-
ton and large culture, and they are
able to weigh grafton, or address, or
sermon. If you say a silly thing you
will never hear the end of if, and if you
say a wise thing it will go into per-
petual multiplication.
Besides that, Brooklyn passionate is |
always conspicuous in the fact that |
everybody comes here. Brooklyn is
New York in its better mood. Stran- |
gers have not seen New York until they |
have seen Brooklyn.
Again remark, that Brooklyn pas
torate is characterized by brevity. l |
myself of but three ministers
of the gospel now preaching here, who
were preaching when l came to Brook
lyn. Most of the pulpits around me
have changed seven or eight times since
my arrival.
Sometimes the pastorate has been