Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-06-19

lead heaven. Glorious Organl 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
gazed on or ever expect to see until l enter
the temple of the sun. On one memorial
wall of that building, q 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 doxologies 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
tho Lord summarily removes it.
l 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
so 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 the 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-
flagration, the one city reception pre-
sided over by our 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 in church and state, and the
whole scene brilliant beyond descrip-
ton, and i'll compliment to myself, who
was brought up a farmers boy, there
was danger that / might become puffed
up and my soul be weakened for future
work. l did not yet feel any STRINGS of
that sort, and had only felt humble
gratitude for what had been said and
done by friends transatlantic and cisat-
lantic, but | had ordered full reports of
the meeting laid aside for future perusal,
and 1 had engaged the fleetest stenog
rapher l know of to take down every
word, from the opening doxology of the
first reception to the benediction of the
last reception, and some time, when
less busy, l would take in all the elo-
luence and kindness and splendor of
that memorable week What might have
been the result upon myself | know not
have seen upon others the whitening
effect of human praise. A cold chill of
he worlds neglect is no more destruct'
We than the sunstroke from too much
leat of popular approval. The disaster
nay have been needed, and it came so
lose upon the adulation that it acted as
IN everlasting prevention. In the light
If that awful blaze of that Sabbath i'll
May, 1894, no self sufficiency could
stand a second.
Another reason for the fires, think,
IS that somehow, and in way that |
Know not, my opportunities are to
widen. After each of the other fires new
loors were open. l prayerfully expect
hat such will be the sequence of the last
Will the Brooklyn Tabernacle be re.
quilt? l know not. What or when or
where shall be my work l cannot even
guess, nor have the least anxiety. Moth
ng but an inspired utterance of the
Bible could bear such repetition as /
nave for the last 12 days given to the
words of the psalmist, ''The Lord reign
,th; let the earth rejoice.
have safely arrived on the Pacific
coast A startling question was asked |
ne Just before reached here. l was in
leep slumber in a section OF sleeping |
,ar when the curtain was pushed back, |
md venerable lady seized hold Of me |
md shrieked, "Who are you, and what |
ire you doing here?" 1t was a sudden
Ealing of the roll of passengers, and
lid not feel like answering to my name. |
The question was repeated in more |
with louder voice. l could |
lot at first understand why the interro- |
yation as to my identity, but after gath
ring my senses together l mildly sug- |
rested that perhaps she had mistaken |
ny place for her own. This was no |
Ioubt the case, and she made quick |
etreat The fact is that the sections
nd berths of sleeping car are very |
much alike. The new mode of hang |
ng the number Of the berth in large |
Igures on the outside of the drapery of |
he sleeping place is great improve
nent, but midnight perambulation, even
Inder the best of circumstances, is more |
r less confusing The mistake that the
lady made is mistake that
thousands of people make, for they think
ome one else has their place. Most OF
he struggle in the world is in trying to
ret some one else's berth. Better 60
Jack contented and take the place as