The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1894-09-28

are discussing the question, for tele-
grams frsm across the Atlantic az well
as nom many parts of this country show
that the fiery news had leaped every
whittier Three vast structures dedicat-
ed to God and the work of trying to
make tho world better gone down, and
all this within few years. They were
Well built as to permanence and dura-
bility, All the talk about these bnild.
ings as mere firotraps Is tho usual cant,
Tor there is MS much secular cant rs re.
hgious cant. Have you heard in tho
last 40 years of any church, or any hall,
or any theater which. after destruction,
was not called frotrapy That charge
always makes lively opening for any
description of n fire.
There have been no better structures,
secular or religions, put up in tho last
20 years than the three Brooklyn Taher.
naoies, and the modes of egr,ss from
them so ample that tie thousands of
worshipers assembled in any Of them
could be put safely On the street inside
OF five minutes. Tho fact is that there is
nothing in this world incombustible.
When the great Chicago and Boston fires
took place, they burned up stones and
iron. The human race will go on build
ing understandable churches, and incon.
sumable banks, and inconsumable store.
houses, ard understandable cities, and
4 then all will be consumed in the worlds
last fire.
Builders who had large experience
and establisAcd reputation pronounced
the Brooklyn Tabernacles perfect struc.
lures. Eut what is the meaning of the
three fires? There may be hundred diff
ferent lessons learned by a hundred diff
ferent people, and legitimate lessons.
As for myself, adjourn the most of the
meaning to the next world. We will
learn there in two minutes more than
we can find out here in so years With
that anticipation, mysteries do rot often
bother me.
One reason for these consecutive dis,
asters may DO that the patience of the
best people in the world, the members
Of the Brooklyn tabernacle, was to be
perfected. Purified by fire. Mighty
discipline for one of the Lords hosts.
Whether ever meet them ON earth or
not, twill be theme of heavenly refs
1niscence. We shall talk it all over, the
story Of the three fires
Another reason why tho last church
went down may have been that some of
us were idolizing the building, and tho
Lord will not allow idolatry. The
house was such Midsummer Nights
Dream" Of beauty. Enchan.mcnt lifted
in galleries and sprung in arches and
glorified in the light that came through
windows, touching it with their dcftest
fingers. The acoustics SO rare that
thousands of ears We're in easy reach OF
common aocentuation An organ Which 1
was a halleluiah set up in pipes and
banked in keys waiting for musicians
manipulation, that would lead the con-
gregatioDal song as an archangel might
lead heaven. Glorious organ When
1t died down into the ashes of that fire,
perhaps its soul went up, where Handel |
and Haydn began to play on it. The
most superb audience room that ever
gaZod Ion Or ever expect to see until l enter |
the temple Of the sun. On one memorial I
wall Of that building, a stone which |
had rolled down from Mount Calvary,
where our Lord died, and two tables of |
stone that were sawed off from Mount
Sinai and brought on camels across the
desert by my arrangement and a part
of Paul's pulpit. which the queen of |
Greece allowed me, from Mars hill.
Architecture so chaste, so grand, SO ap-
propriate, SO suggestive, SO stupendous!
One of the doxologics of heaven alight-
ed Well, perhaps we thought too much
of it. When we think too much of our
children, the Lord takes them, and
when we think too much of our church
the Lord summarily removes it.
suppose another reason for the de-
parture of that house was that it had
done its work. Church buildings, like
individuals, accomplish what they were
built for and then go. One person lives
80 years, another 40 years, another three
years, and when God takes an individ-
ual, whether at 80 or 40 or years,
his mission is ended. This last church
stood three years, and any person who
knows what multitudes have there as
sembled, and what transactions for
eternity have there taken place, will
admit that it was well to build it, even
if we had known at tho start that it
would only last from 1891 to 1894.
Another reason why think this last
church went down was to keep me
humble. The Lord had widened my
work through Christendom, and with
two receptions the week before the con-
dagration, the one q city reception pre-
sided over by cur mayor, and the other
a national and international reception
presided over by one of the chief men
Of the nation, who had recently stepped
from the presidential cabinet, and the
occasion honored by addresses and let
ters and cablegrams from men of world
wide fame i'll church and state, and the
whole scene brilliant beyond descrip-
ion, and i'll compliment to myself, who
was brought up a farmers boy, there
was danger that / might become pulled
up and my soul be weakened for future
work. did not yet feel any STRINGS of
hat sort, and had only felt humble
gratitude for what had been said and
lone by friends transatlantic and cisat-
antic, but had ordered full reports of
he meeting laid aside for future perusal,
md had engaged the fleetest stenog- (
apher | know of to take down every
word, from the opening doxology Of the
irst reception to the benediction of the
asst reception, and some time, when
ess busy, would take in all the elo-
Iuence and kindness and splendor of
hat memorable week. What might have |
'een the result upon myself know not.
have seen upon others the whitening {
fleet of human praise A cold chill of I
he worlds neglect is no more destruct- I
We than tho sunstroke from too much q
eat OF popular approval. The disaster &
nay have been needed, and it came SO 6
lose upon the adulation that it acted as t
n everlasting prevention. In the light
that awful blaze of that Sabbath in /
lay, 1894, no self suf1iciency could
tand second. b
Another reason for the fires. I think. y