Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-05-11

bCA( ~ A~Hst~.-c@@ % i1e1~@e ~A6 49,
preaching to-day In the fourth church
building since / began in this city.
My first sermon was in the old church
on Schermerhorn street, TO an audience
chiefly of empty seats, for the church
was almost extinguished. That
church filed and overlooking, we built
larger church, which after two or
three years disappeared in flame
Then we built another church, which
also in line of frey succession, dis
appeared in the same way. Then we
put up this building, and may il
stand for many years, a fortress of
righteousness, and lighthouse for
the storm-tossed, its gates crowded
with vast assemblages long after we
have ceased to frequent them!
We have raised in this church over
one million and thirty thousand dol
lars for church charitable purposes
during the present pastorate. while
we have given, free of all expense, the
gospel to hundreds of thousands of
strangers, year by year. l record
with gratitude to God that during this
generation of twenty-five years, re-
member but two Sabbaths that have
missed service through anything like
physical indisposition. Almost a
fanatic on the subject of ply
steal exercise, 1 have made the
parks, with which our city is blessed,
the means of good physical con-
dition. A daily walk and run in the
open air have kept me ready for work
and in good humor with all the world.
l say to all young ministers of the
gospel, it is easier to keep good health
than to regain it when once lost The
reason so many good men think the
world is going TO ruin is because their
own physical condition is on the down
grade. No man ought TO preach who
has diseased liver, or an enlarged
spleen . There are two things ahead
of us that ought to keep us cheerful j.
our work,-lleaven and Millennium.
And now, having come up to the
twenty-fifth milestone in my pastor
ate, wonder how many more miles
am 10 travel? Your company has
been exceedingly pleasant, o my dear
people, and l would like to march by
your side until the generation with
whom we are now moving abreast,
and step to step, shall have stacked
arms after the last battle. But the
Lord knows best, and we ought to be
willing to stay or 60.
But this sermon is not a dirge; ii is
an anthem. While this world is ap-
propriate rs n temporary stay, as an
eternal residence it would be dead
failure. 1t would be n dreadful sem
tence if our race were doomed TO re-
main here a thousand winters and n
thousand summers. God keeps us
here just long enough to give us an
appetite for heaven Had we been
born in celestial realms, we would not
have been able to appreciate the bliss.
1t needs good many rough blasts in
this world to qualify us to properly
estimate the superb climate of that
| good land where il is never too cold or
too hot, too cloudy or too glaring.
| Heaven will be more to us than those
supernal beings who were never
tempted, or sick, or bereaved, or tried,
or disappointed. So you may well
take my text out of the minor key and
set it to some tune in the major key.
lone generation passeth away, and
another generation cometh."
Nothing can rob us of the satisfac-
ton that uncounted thousands of the
generation just past were converted,
comforted and harvested for heaven
by this church, whether in the present
building, or the three preceding build
ings in which they worshipped The
two great organs of the previous
! churches went down in the memorable
fires, bat the multitudinous songs
they led year after year were not re-
called or injured. There is no power
in earth or hell to kill hallelujah.
lit is impossible to arrest n hosanna-
What satisfaction to know that
there are many thousands in
this church wrought mightilyl
Nothing can undo that work,
They have assembled, the multitudes
who served God in that generation
That chapter is gloriously ended.
But that generation has left its i'm
preston upon this generation. A
sailor was dying on shipboard and he
said to his mates, my lads / can only
think of one passage OF scripture, the
soul that sinneth it shall die" can't
you think of something else in the
bible to cheer me up?" Well, sailors
are kind and they tried TO think of
some other passage of scripture
with which to console their dying
comrnde, bnt they could not One
of them said, ''Let US call up the cabin
boy. His mother was a Christian,
and l guess he has a Bible" The
cabin boy was called up, aud the dy.
ing sailor asked him if he had Bible
lie said, YES" but he could not ex-
actly find it, and the dying sailor
scolded him, and said: "Aint you
ashamed of yourself not to read your
Bible" So the boy explored the bot
tom of his trunk and brought out the
Bible, and his mother had marked a
passage that just fitted the dying
sailors case: The blood of Jesus
Christ his Son cleanseth from all sin. 4"
That helped the sailor to die in peace
So one generation helps another, and