The Bossier banner., 1894-06-21

to us than to those supernal beings
who were never tempted, or sick, or
bereaved, or tried, or disappointed. So
you may well take my text out of the
minor key and set it to some tune in the
major key. "One generation passeth
away and another generation cometh."
During the passage of the last gener-
alton some peculiar events have un-
folded. One day while resting at
Sharon Springs, N. Y, l think it was
in 1870, the year after. my settlement
in Brooklyn, and while walking in the
park of that place, l found myself ask
ing the question: II wonder if there is
any special mission for me to execute
in this world? If there is, may God
show it to me!' There soon came up
on me a great desire to preach the
Gospel through the secular printing
press. / realized that the vast
majority of people, even in Christian
lands, never enter a church, and that
it would be an opportunity of useful
ness infinite if that door of publica-
tion were opened. And so | recorded
that prayer in blank book, and Of
fered the prayer day in and day out
until the answer came, though in a
way different from that which l had
expected, for it came through the mis-
representation and persecution of
enemies, and l have to record
it for the encouragement of all
ministers of the Gospel who are
misrepresented, that if the mis-
representa- ton be virulent enough
and bitter enough, and continuous
enough, there is nothing that so
widens ones field of usefulness as hos
tile attack, if you are really doing the
Lords work. The bigger the lie told
about me, the bigger the demand to
| see and hear what L really was doing.
From one stage of sermonic publica-
tion to another the work has gone
on, until week by week, and for
| about twentythree years, / have
had the world for my audience,
| as no man ever had, and to-day
m ore so than at any other time. The
! syndicates inform me that my sermons
| go now to twenty-five million people
| in all lands. | mention this not in vain
| that God answers prayer. Would God
| had better occupied the field and
been more cOnsecrated to the work!
| May God forgive me for lack of service
in the past, and double, and quadru-
pie, and quintuple my work in future.
| In this my quarter-century sermon,
record the fact that side by side with
the procession of blessings has gone a
| procession of disasters. | am teaching
to-day in the fourth church building
since l began in this city. My first
sermon was in the old church on
! Schermerhorn street, to an audience
chiefly of empty seats, for the
church was almost extinguished.
That church filed and overflow
| ing, we built larger church,
which after two or three years dis
appeared in flame. Then we built an
| other church, which also in line of
fiery succession, disappeared in the
same way. Then we put up this build
ing, and may it stand for many years,
q fortress of righteousness, and a
| light house for the storm tossed, its
| gates crowded with vast assemblages
long after we have ceased to frequent
| them!
We have raised in this church over
one million and thirty thousand dol
lars for church charitable purposes
during the present pastorate, while we
| have given, free of all expense, the
| Gospel to hundreds of thousands of
strangers. year by year. record with
! gratitute to God that during this gen
Grafton of twenty-five years l remem-
| Der but two Sabbaths that l have
missed service through anything like
| physical indisposition. Almost a IA
natic on the subject of physical exer-
else, l have made the parks with which
our city is blessed, the means of good
| physical condition. A daily walk and
run in the open air have kept me ready
| for work and in good humor with all
the world. l say to all young minis
! ters of the Gospel, it is easier to keep
! good health than to regain it when
| lost. The reason so many good men
! think the world is going to ruin is be-
cause their own physical condition is
on the down grade. No man ought to
| pICdcu w no HIS ii tII5CdScA liver, or q
enlarged spleen. There are two things
ahead of US that ought to keep us
cheerful in our work-Heaven and the
millennium.
And now, having come up to the
| twenty-ffth milestone in my pastorate,
/ wonder how many more miles | am
to travel. Your company has been ex-
ceedingly pleasant, o my dear people,
and | would like to march by your side
until the generation with whom we are
now moving abreast, and step to step,
! shall have stacked arms after the last
battle. But the Lord knows best, and
we ought to be willing to stay or go.
Most of you are aware that l pro-
pose at this time, between the close of
my twenty-ffth year Of pastorate and
before the beginning OF my twenty
sixth year, to be absent for a few
months, in order to take journey
around the world. l expect to sail
from San Francisco in the steamer AL
ameda, May 81. My place here on
Sabbaths will be fully occupied, while
on Mondays. and every Monday, l W i'll
continue to speak through the print