Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1894-05-19
Highest Of all in Ieavenng Poweraes T. S Govt Report
Re-! g! Bssias BSxass9
ABSOLUTELY PURE
A CHEERFUL CHURCH
REV. DR.. TALMAGE iNTERPRETSA PAS
SAGE FROM SOLoMoN'S SONG.

The World. Great Preacher Explains the
/ Kind Of Church He Has Tried to Make oi
the Tabernacle a Few Earnest Words
Of Farewell 4 Sweet Name.
Brooklyn. May l3.-The Tabernacle
was crowded To- the doors today when
/ Rev. Dr. Talmage took for the subject
of his forenoon sermon q passage OF
/ Scripture which has been made the sub.
ject of much discussion and various in
] depreciation by modern theologians. His
/ theme was. "A Cheerful Church." and
/ the text was selected from Solomon's
/ Song iv, !. Behold, thou art fair, my
love"
Higher criticism" saws that this book
Of Solomon's song is love scene, for.
iorn maiden signing for her bean. II
So. it is an unclean and debauched ut.
terance inserted i'll the pure word OF
God and is not tit for common reading.
| My opinion j. that it is an inspired ode
setting forth the feeling of Christ TO.
/ ward the church and of the church to.
ward Christ. Christ Is the bridegroom,
and, the church is the bride. The same
words we can utter today truthfully,
whether i'll regard to the church of God
in general or this church in particular,
Behold, thou art fair. my love"
/ The past week has been one of pro.
| longed congratulation for that we have
for - years been permitted 10 associate
with each other in the relation of pastor
and people. When l came to Brooklyn.
| found a small band of Christian disci-
pies who from various causes had be-
come less and less until they stood upon
the very verge of extinction as church.
and the question WAS being agitated from
time TO time whether it would be possi-
bic to maintain church life longer. In
deed, had not those men and women been
consecrated and earnest they would have
surrendered TO the adverse circum-
stances. They marshaled a congrega-
tional meeting. and gathering up all the
pastor, all of which am happy to have
Received.
1t was not through any spirit of per-
sonal courage or reckless adventure that
was led from one of the warmest and
most congenial pastorates i'll Philadel-
phia that man ever enjoyed TO this
then most uninviting field, but il 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 profit
able 10 us 10 state briefly what kind of a
church We have been trying to establish.
The Tabernacle Church.
In the first place. l remark that we have
been trying To build here a Chistian
church - distinctively such: in other
words. church where we should preach
the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified.
My theology is all gone into five letters
Jesus. Jesus. the pardon of all Of
fenses. 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 center of every circumfer-
ence; the circumference tn every center;
the pacifier of all turbulence: the umpire
of all disputes. Jesus, jesus. At his ta-
BILE all nations are To sit. Around his
throne all worlds are 10 reyolve. He is
10 be the irradiation of the universe. Je-
sus, Jesus. II is that truth that We have
tried 10 preach in this Tabernacle.
DO YOU ask more minutely what we
believe: l can tell you. We have no
dry. withered. juiceless theology. We
believe in God. the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth. the deliverer
of the distressed, the home for the home
less, the friend for the friendless. We
believe in Jesus Christ. able TO save "a
the uttermost. pardoning the guilty. i'm.
putting his righteousness To the believer.
We believe i'll the Holy Ghost, the COM
forter, the sanctitier, cheering up the
heart i'll life's ills and kindling bright
lights in every dark landing place. We
believe that the whole race Is SO sunken
! in sin that nothing but the omnipoteni
arm of God can ever lift il out We be.
lieye i'll 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 oi
those who are soul suicides-of their own
free choice refusing the divine mercy.
We believe in the salvation of all men
who accept Christ by faith. be they
sprinkled or immersed. worship they in
cathedral or in log cabin. believe they in
Presbyterianism or Episcopacy. dwell
they under Italian skies or i'll Siberian
snowstorms, be they Ethiopian or Amer.
lean. All one in Christ One Lord. one
faith, one baptism. ON the way , heaven.
We built this Tabernacle for the purpose
of setting forth these great theories OF
the gospel 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.
An Unconventional Church.
/ remark. further. that we have tried
here To build church distincilvely un
conventional. Instead Of asking. as som,
people are disposed TO do, how other peo
pie do it, we have asked the qoestiou
how people do not doit. Imperious Gus
tom has decided that churches shall bs
angular, cherries. gloomy, unsyInpa
thetic, forgetting that what men call q
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