Connecticut western news., 1894-06-21
THOSE THREE FIRES.
DR. TALMAGE DISCUSSES THE BURN ING OF THE TABERNACLES.


 ING OF THE TABERNACLES.
 They Arc Mysteries Which He VIII Wait
 to Have Solved In the Great Beyond-The
 First Stage In the Great Preachers Trip
 Around the World.
 At half past o'clock on the night of May IA, 1894, descended the front steps of my home in Brooklyn. The sen- sation of leaving for journey around the world is not all made up of bright anticipation. The miles to be travelled are so numerous, the seas to be crossed are so treacherous, the peradventures are so many, that the solemnities out number the expectations My family accompany me to the railway train. Will we all meet again? The climatic changes, the ships, the shoals, the hur- rioanes, the bridges, the cars, the cpl demics, the possibilities, hinder any positiyeness of prophecy, I come down the front steps of my home. Will ever again ascend them? The remarks made
  ings before at the public reception-on the conclusion of my twenty fifth year of Brooklyn pastorate-though uttered in facetiousness, were consolatory. He said, 'tDr. Talmage ought to realize that if he goes around the world he will come out at the same place from which he started" '" May the God who holds the winds in one fist and the ocean in the hollow of the other hand protect usl
 I leave home while the timbers of our destroyed church are still smoking Three great churches have been con- stunned. Why this series of huge calami- ties know not. Had I not made all the arrangements fsr departure and been as- sured by the trustees of my church that they would take all the responsibilities upon themselves, would have post poned my intended tour or adjourned it forever, but all whom have consulted tell me now is the time to go, and my face is toward the setting sun.
 Six times before this have I crossed the American continent, and I have seen the sun rise from the golden cradle of the eastern sky and seen him buried beneath the pomp of the western hori- zon. Three girths have been put around the American continent-the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Southern Pacific. All these girths have been frightened, and the buckles are moving ever and anon until the conti- nent is less and less in circumference. When I first crossed it, it took fully seven days. Instead of the elegant din ing cars of today, we stopped at restau- rants with table covers indescribable, for they had on them layers of other strata of breakfasts insulting in appear ance. The first time I ever saw Judge Field of the United States supreme court was at one of these tables on the Rocky mountains. Like myself, he had dismounted from the Union Pacific train. We sat opposite each other. The different courses of food were put upon the table, but his appetite and mine de- clined everything presented. Our eyes met, and we burst into a guffaw of laughter that was the introduction of a friendship that has been valuable to me ever since. A smile as well as tear may open a chapter of hearty acquaint- anceship.
 What is the meaning of the three fires? As I leave, people in many lands are discussing the question, for tele- grams from across the Atlantic as well as from many parts of this country show that the fiery news had leaped every whither. Three vast structures dedicat- ed to God and the work of trying to make the world better gone down, and all this within few years. They were well built as to permanence and dura- bility. All the talk about these build ings as mere firetraps is the usual cant, for there is as much secular cant as re- ligious cant. Have you heard in the last 40 years of any church, or any hall, or any theater which, after destruction, was not called firetrap? That charge always makes a lively opening for any description of fire.
 There have been no better structures, secular or religious, put up in the last 25 years than the three Brooklyn Taber- nacles, and the modes of egress from them so ample that the thousands of worshipers assembled in any of them could be put safely on the street inside of five minutes The fact is that there is nothing in this world incombustible. When the great Chicago and Boston fires took place, they burned up stones and iron. The human race will go on build ing inconsumable churches, and incon- sumable banks, and inconsumable store houses, and inconsumable cities, and then all will be consumed in the world s last fire.
 Builders who had large experience and established reputation pronounced | the Brooklyn Tabernacles perfect struc- lures. But what is the meaning of the three fires? There may be hundred diff ferent lessons learned by hundred diff ferent people, and legitimate lessons. As for myself, I adjourn the most of the meaning to the next world We will learn there in two minutes more than we can find out here in 50 years. With that anticipation. mysteries do not often bother me.
 One reason for these consecutive dis asters may be that the patience of the best people in the world, the members of the Brooklyn Tabernacle, was to be perfected. Purified by fire" Mighty discipline for one of the Lords hosts. Whether I ever meet them on earth or not, it will be theme of heavenly rem iniscence. We shall talk it all over, the story of the three fires.
 Another reason why the last church went down may have been that some of us were idolizing the building, and the Lord will not allow idolatry. The house was such Midsummer Nights Dream" of beauty. Entertainment lifted in galleries and sprung in arches and glorified in the light that came through windows, touching it with their deftest fingers. The acoustics so rare that thousands of ears were in easy reach of common acoentuation. An organ whicL