Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1894-05-18
A CHEERFUL CHURCH
REV. DR.. TALMAGE INTERPRETSA PAS
SAGE FROM SOLOMON'S SONG.

SAGE FhOM OSLOMOlN y OO'N0'
The Worlds Great Preacher Explains the
Kind of Church He Has Tried to Make of
the Tabernacle-A Few Earnest Words
of FAREWELL Sweet Name.
BROOKLYN, May 13.-The Tabernacle
was crowded to the doors today when
Rev. DR.. Talmage took for the subject
of his forenoon sermon a 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, l, Behold, thou art fair, my
love-"
"Higher criticism" says that this book
of Solomon's song is love scene, a for
lorn maiden signing for her beau. If
so. it is an unclean and debauched ut
terance inserted in the pure word of
God and is not fit for common reading.
Nv opinion is that it is an inspired ode
setting forth the feeling Of Christ to-
ward the church and Of the church to-
ward Christ. Chrisis the bridegroom,
and the church is the bride. The same
words we can utter today truthfully,
whether in 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-
lonced Generalization for that we have
for % years been permitted to associate
with each other in the relation Of pastor
and people. When came to Brooklyn,
I 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 posi-
BILE to maintain a 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 cOngrega'
tional meeting, and gathering up al the
forces possible they cast 10 votes for a
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 in Philadel-
phia that man ever enjoyed to this
then most uninyiting 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 profit
able to us to state briefly what kind of
church we have been trying to establish.
The Tabernacle Church.
In the first place, remark thatwe 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 crucifed.
Ny 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 salye for all
blindness. Jesus, the guide through all
perplexities. Jesus, the hope for all dis
couragements. Jesus, the reform for all
wrongs.
1 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
uuackery. 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 to every center;
the paciier of all turbulence; the umpire
Of all disputes. Jesus, Jesus. At his Ia
BILE all nations are to sit. Around his
throne all worlds are to revolve He is
to be LIBERALIZATION Of the universe. Je-
sus. Jesus! 1t is that truth that we have
tried to preach in this Tabernacle.
Do you ask more infinitely 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 to
the uttermost, pardoning the guilty, i'm
putting his righteousness TO the believer.
We believe in the Holy Ghost, the COM
forter. the sanctifer, cheering up the
heart in Hfe'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 omnipOtent
arm. of God can ever lift it out. We be-
lieve 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 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 in Siberian
snowstorms, be they Ethiopian or Amer
lean. All one in Christ. One Lord, one
faith, one baptism, on the way to 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 distinctively un-
conventional. Instead Of asking, as some |
people are disposed to do, how other peo-
pie do it, we have asked the question |
how people do not doit. Imperious Gus
tom has decided that churches shall be |
angular, cherries, gloomy. unsympa-
thetic, forgetting that what men call
pious gloom is impious, and that that |
church has tho best architecture where
the people are the most comfortable, and |
that that is the most efficient Christian
service where the people are made most
sick Of sin and most anxious after Christ
and heaven. And so we called the archi-
tects together for our first church build
ing and said, "Give rs an amphithea-
r