The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1894-05-31
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIvINE'S SUN.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "a Cheerful Church."


Higher criticism says that this book 0
| Soiomon's song is n love scene, a forlorI
! maiden signing for her beau. II so, 1t is al
unclean and debauched utterance inserte,
in the pure word of God and is not fit 70
common reading. Ny opinion is that it s al
inspired ode setting forth tho feeling o
Christ toward the church and of the chur Il
toward Christ. Christ is the bridegroom
and the church is the bride The sam,
words we can utter o-day truthfully, whether
in regard TO the church of God in general Oh
| this church in particular, "Behold, thou arr
| fair. my love "
The past week has been one OF prolonged
| congratulation for that we have for twenty
| five years been permitted to associate with
each other in the relation Of pastor and peo-
| pie. When / came to Brooklyn, I found a
small band of Christian disciples who from
various causes had become less and less until
they stood upon the very verge of extinction
as church, and the question was being
agitatei from time to time whether it would
he possible to maintain church life longer
Indeed. had not those men and women been
| consecrated and earnest. they would have
surrendered to the adverse circumstances.
They marshaled a congregational meeting
and gathering up all the forces possible they
cast nineteen votes for pastor, all of which
| am happy to have received
IT was not through any spirit of personal
courage or reckless adventure that was led
from one of the warmest and most con genial
pastorates in Philadelphia that man ever
enjoyed TO this then most uninviting field.
but it was the feeling that God had called me
to the work, and was sure He would see me
through
have thought that it might be profitable
to us to state briefly what kind of a church
we have been trying to establish.
In the first place, remark that we have
been trying to build here Christian church
-distnctively such-in other words, a
church where we should preach the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucifed. My theology
is all gone into five letters-Jesus. Jesus,
the pardon of all offenses. Jesus, the
foundation for all structures. Jesus, the
balm for all wounds. Jesus, the eye salve
for all blindness. Jesus, the guide through
all perplexities. Jesus the hope for all dis
couragements. Jesus. the reform for all
wrongs.
| have faith TO believe that there is more
power in one drop of the blood of Jesus
Christ to cure the woes of the world than
in an ocean full Of human quackery. Jesus
Is the grandeSt note in any minstrelsy. He
is the brightest gem in any crown height
overlapping all height the centre of every
circumference the circumference to every
centre; the pacifler of all turbulence the
umpire of all disputes. Jesus, Jesus, At
throne all worlds are to revolve. He is to
be the irradiation Of the universe. Jesus,
Jesus! 1t is that truth that we have tried
to preach in his Tabernacle.
Do you ask more minutely what we be-
leve? 1 can tell you. We have no dry,
withered, iuiceless theology. We believe in
God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth, the deliverer of the distressed,
the home Tor the homeless, the friend for the
Griendless. We believe in Jesus Christ able
to save TO the uttermost. pardoning the
guilty, imputing His righteousness to the
believer. We believe In the Holy Ghost,
the comforter. the sanctifer, cheering up
the heart in life's ills and kiniing bright
lights in every dark landing place. We be-
lieve that the whole race is SO sunken in sin
that nothing but the omnipotent arm OF God
can ever lit it out. We believe in grace
free grace, sovereign grace. triumphant
grace, eternal grace. We believe in Bible
authentic in its statements, immaculate
In its teachings, glorious in its promises.
We believe in heaven, the abode of the
righteous, and in hell. the residence OF those
who are soul suicides-of their own free
choice refusing the divine mercy We be-
lieve in the salvation of all men who accept
Christ by faith. be they sprinkled or i'm
mersed, worship they in cathedral or in log
cabin, believe they in Presbyterianism or
Episcopacy, dwell they under Italian skies
or in Siberian snowstorms, be they Ethiopian
or American. All one in Christ. One Lord
one faith, one baptism, on the way to heaven.
We built this Tabernacle for the pur pose of
setting forth these great theories OF the gos-
pei of the Son OF God Would that we had
been more faithful in the pulpit Would
that we had been more faithful in the pew
remark, further, that VIC have tried here
TO build a church distinctively unconven-
tonal. Instead of asking, as some people
are disposed'to do, how other people d it,,
We have asked the question how people do
not do 1t. Imperious custom has decided
that churches shall be angular cherries,
gloomy, unsympathetlc, forgetting that what
men call pious gloom is impious, and that
that church has the best architecture where
the people are the most comfortable and
that that is the most efficient Christian SER
vice where the people are made most sick OF
sin and most anxious after Christ and heaven.
And so we called the architects together for
our first church building and said "Gve us
an amphitheater" is. IA large family
circle, gathered around fireplace.
| For many years we had felt that an amphi-
theater was the only proper shape for an
audience room. The prominent architects
ofthe country said at cannot be done
| You need church building" And so We
had plan after plan OF churchly building:
| presented. but in due time God sent a mar
| far from being a failure, il satisfied our want
and all our three churches were built on thu
amphitheatrical plan. and scores of churches
all over the country have adopted the same
| plan.
And, my brethren and sisters, we fail II
our work just in proportion as we try to b.
like other churches. We believe that God in
tended every church, like every man, to b.
individual. gathering up all its peculiaritie
and idiosyncracies and hurting them all to
ward some good and grand object. In othe
| words no two churches ought ever to be jus
alike Here is a church. for instance, who's
object is 20 prepare philosophers and artist
and critics for heaven. God speed them Il
the difficult work Here is a church. ON tn
other hand, that proposes to bring only tn
poor into the kingdom CT Jesus Christ, look
ing not after the rich. God speed such
church in its undertaking But there is
larger idea that a chu-ch may take-bringin
in the rich and the poor, the wise and tn
ignorant, the high and the low, SO that knee
ing beside each othershall be the man farm
sumptuously every day and the man VIII
could not get his breakfast. God speed sue
church
Oh, my friends we need to break ava
from slavery to ecclesiastical custom. W
dare not sing if anybody hears us. We dar
not preach unless we have rounded of on
Al Il