Connecticut western news., 1894-05-17
A CHEERFUL CHURCH
REV. DR. TALMAGe eiNTERPRETSA A PAS SAGE FROM SOLoMON'S SONG.

SN1E fHom OSLOnoiN o OOiNS. The Worlds Great Preacher Explains the | Kind of Church He Has Tried to Make of | the Tabernacle-A Few Earnest Words | of Farewell-A Sweet Name. BROOKLYN, May 1S.-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 theoiogians. His theme was, "A Cheerful Church." and the text was selected from Solomon's Song iv, 1, ..Behold, thou art fair, my love-"
 Higher criticism" says that this book of Solomon's song is love scene, 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. My 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. Christ IS 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 longed congratulation for that we have for 20 years been permitted to associate with each other in the relation of pastor and people. When came to Brooklyn, found small band of Christian disci- ples 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- ble to maintain church life longer. ln- 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 all the forces possible they cast 19 votes for a pastor, all of which am happy to have received.
 It was not through any spirit of per sonal courage or reckless adventure that I was led from one of the warmest and most congenial pastorates in Philadel- phia that man ever enjoyed to this then most uninviting field, but it was the feeling that God had called me to the work, and was sure he would see me through.
 Ihave thought that it might be profit able to us to state briefly what kind of a church we have been trying to establish.
 The Tabernacle Church.
 In the first place, remark that we have been trying to build here Christian church = distinctively such; in other words, 8 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 lenses. 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.
 I 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 to every center; the pacifier of all turbulence; the umpire of all disputes. Jesus, Jesus! At his ta- ble all nations are to sit. Around his throne all worlds are to revolve. He is to be theirradiation of the universe. Je- sus. Jesusi It is that truth that we have frso fr, oh ivrf fhio To1 oclo
 Do you ask more minutely what we believe? I 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, inn putting his righteousness to the believer. We believe in the Holy Ghost, the com forter, the sanctiier, cheering up the heart in ife's ills and kindling bright lights in Sery 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 it's 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 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 ican. 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 cus- tom has decided that churches shall be angular, cheerless, gloomy. unsympa- thstic, 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 archi- tects together for our first church build ing and said, "Give us an amphithea- ter"-that is, large family circle. gath cred around 8 fireI lace.
 For many years we had felt that an amphitheater was the only proper shape for an audience room. The prominent architects of the country said: Ut can not be done. You need churchly build