Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1893-1895, 1894-05-09

said Yes" but he could not exactly
find it, and the dying sailor scolded hin
and said, Amt you ashamed of your
self not to read your Bible?'' So the boy
explored the bottom of his trunk and
brought out the Bible, and his mother
had marked passage that Just fitted
the dying sailors case, '"The blood Of
Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth from all
SIN. That helped the sailor to die in
peace. So one generation helps another,
and good things written or said or done
are reproduced long afterward.
The World For an Audience.
During the passing of the last gener
alton some peculiar events have unfold
ed. One day while resting at Sharon
Springs N. Y, think it was in 1870,
the year after my settlement in Brook
lyn, and while walking in the park of
that place, found myself asking the
question: Il wonder if there is any spe-
cial mission for me to execute in this
world? If there is, may God show it to
mel" There soon came upon 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
usefulness infinite if that door of pub.
lication We're opened
And so l recorded that prayer in a
blank book and offered the prayer day
in and day out until the answer came,
though i'll way different from that
which / had expected, for it came
through the misrepresentation and per-
secution of enemies, and ! have to re-
cord it for the encouragement of all
ministers of the gospel who are misrep-
resented, that if the Misrepresentation
be virulent enough and bitter enough
and continuous enough there is moth.
ing that so widens ones field Of useful.
ness as hostile attack, if you are really
doing the Lords work. The bigger the
lie told about me, the bigger the de-
mand to see and hear what / really was
doing. From one stage of sermonic pub
lication TO another the work has gone
ON until week by week, and for about |
23 years, | have had the world for nv |
audience, as no man ever had, and to. |
day more so than at any other time. |
The syndicates inform me that my SER
mons go now to about $4,000, 900 of
people in all lands / mention this not
in vain boast, but as testimony to the
fact that God answers prayer Would
God l 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 quadruple
and quintuple my work in future.
In this my quarter century sermon l
record the fact that side by side with
the procession of blessings has gone q
of disasters. am preaching
today in the fourth church building
since began in this city. My first ser.
non was in the old church ON Scher-
street to an audience chiefly
If empty seats, for the church was al
most extinguished. That church filled
md overfiowing, we built larger
,hurch, which after two or three years
disappeared in fame. Then we built
mother church, which also in line of
iery succession disappeared in the same
way. Then we put up this building, and
nay 1T stand for many years, fortress
Il righteousness and a lighthouse for /,
he storm tossed. its gates crowded with
asst assemblages long after we have
eased, to frequent them!
A Noble Work.
We have raised In this church over
1, OS0, 600 for church charitable pur- !;
oses during the present pastorate, while
'e have given, free of all expense, the
ospel to hundreds of thousands of stran- !,
ers, year by year. l record with graf. :,
ude to God that during this genera !.
ON of 20 years / remember but two y
abbaths that / have missed service :"
lrough anything like physical indis- =
1sitions. Almost fanatic ON the sub. 3
ct of physical exercise, have made y
10 parks with which our city is bless a a
the means Of good physical condi- =,
on. A daily walk and run in the open :.
r have kept me ready for work and in d
'od humor with all the world. / say =
all young ministers of the gospel, it =
easier to keepgood health than to re- o
in it when once lost The reason SO
any good men think the world is go
g to ruin is because their own physic- - -
condition is on the down grade. No " "
an ought to preach who has diseased ~ ~
ler or an enlarged spleen. There are "a "a
o things ahead of us that ought to ~ ~
ep us cheerful in our work-heaven m m
d the millennium.
And now, having come up to the ts
enty-fifth milestone in my pastor 40
:, wonder how many more miles 81
! to travel? Your company has been 10
pleasant, o my dear people, as -.
d / would like TO march by your side -
til the generation with whom we are l.s
W moving abreast and step TO step O., a.
Ill have stacked arms after the last ,S ne
tile But the Lord knows best and s9y
ought to be willing to stay or go I'' Ia'
A summer Outing. -
Most Of you are aware that propose an
this time, between the close Of my NJ
,nty-fifth year Of pastorate and be- sel
Q the beginning of my twenty sixth xvo
r, TO be absent for "a few months in "a,
or IN faEa fonr..axv .~r..,.1 -