The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-05-14
A CHURCH OF GOOD CHEER.
Talmage Tells Of His Aims in Build
Ing the Tabernacle.

mph1theater as the only PROPER
Shape for an Audience Room.
Brooklyn. May Il. The Tabernacle
was crowded 10 the doors to-day when
Rev DR.. Talmage took for the subject of
his forenoon sermon passage Of Scrip
ture which has been made the subject of
much discussion and various interpreted
ton by modern theologians. His theme
was, "A Cheerful Church" and the text
was selected from Solomon's Song, Al:
"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 unclean and debauched utterance in
serted in the pure Word of God, and is
not fit for common reading. My opinion
is that it is an inspired ode setting forth
the feeling of Christ toward the church
and of the church toward Christ. Christ
is the Bridegroom, and the church
is the Bride. The same words
we can utter to-day truthfully,
whether in regard to the church
of God in general Of this church in par
ticular; Behold, thou art fair, my
love" The past week has been one Of
prolonged congratulation for that we have
for twenty-five years been permitted to
associate with each other in the relation
OF pastor and people. When I came to
Brooklyn found a small band of Chris
tian disciples who, from various causes,
had become less and less, until they
stood upon the verge of extinction as a
church and the question was being agi-
taJed from time to time whether it would
be possible to maintain a church life
longer Indeed, had not those men and
women been consecrated and earnest,
they would have surrendered to the ad-
verse circumstances. They marshalled
congregational meeting, and, gathering
up all the forces possible, they cast nine
teen 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
led me, from one of the warmest and most
congenial pastorates in Philadelphia that
man ever enjoyed, to this then most I'M
inviting field; but it was the feeling
that God had called me to the work, and
I was sure he would see me through.
! have thought that it might be prof
liable to US to state briefly what kind
of church we have been trying to es-
tablish.
In the first place l remark that we
have been trying to build here a Christian
Notwithstanding SUCH in other
words, a church where we should
preach the Lord Jesus Christ and
him crucified. My theology is all gone
into five letters-Jesus-Jesu the
pardon of all offenses. Jesus, the
foundation for all structures. Jesus
the balm of all wounds. Jesus, the eve
saIve for all blindness. Jesus, the guide
through all perplexities. Jesus, the hope
for all discouragements. Jesus, the re-
form for all wrongs. | have faith to be-
lieve 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 bright
est gem in any crown. Hight overtop-
ping all hight. The center of every cir
conference. The circumference to every
center. The paciter of all turbulence.
The umpire of all disputes Jesus! Jesus
AT his table all nations are to sit.
Around his throne all worlds are to re-
voive. He is to be the irradiation of the
universe. Jesus Jesus! 1t is that truth
that we have tried TO preach in his taber-
nacle
Do you ask more infinitely what we be-
lieve2 / 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 homeless, the
Friend for the friendless. We believe in
Jesus Christ, able to save to the utter
most, pardoning the guilty, imputing his
righteousness to the believer. We believe
IN the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, the
Sanctiter cheering up the heart in 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 omnipotent arm
of God can ever lift it out.
We believe in grace-free grace, SOW
ereign grace, triumphant grace, eternal
grace. We believe in a Bible-au-
thentic IN its statements, immaculate in
its teachings, glorious in it's 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 log cabin, believe they in
Presbyterianism or Episcopacy, dwell
they under italian skies or in Siberian
snow-storms, be they Ethiopian or Amer
lean. All one in Christ One Lord, one
faith, one baptism, on the way to one
heaven. We built this tabernacle for the
purpose of setting forth these great theo-
ries of the gospel of the Son of God.
F'ONAN SAAoS sfO nav DCC4 lLOAC ldibL1 VI III
the pulpit! Would that we had been
more faithful In the pew!
/ 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 1t, we have asked the question how
people do not do it. Imperious custom
has decided that churches shall be
angular, cherries, gloomy, unsympa-
thetic; forgetting that what men call a
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
service where the people are made most
sick of sin, and most anxious after Christ
and heaven And so we called
the architects together for our first
church building, and said, Give
US an mphitheater'-that is, large
family circle, gathered around a fire.
place. For many years we had felt that
an amphitheater was the only proper
shape for an audience room. The proIni-
nent architects of the country said, lit
cannot be done. You need a churchly
building" And so we had plan after
plan of churchly buildings presented; but
in due time God sent a man who grasped
our idea and executed it. So far from
being failure, it satisfied our want, and
all our three churches were built on the
amphitheatrical plan, and scores of
churches all over the country have
a tod y .waNr.