The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1894-05-25
n CHEERFUL CHURCH."
EcT. d.. Talmsge Lays Down Some
Excellent Precepts
IS 20 How TO Keep the Church Cheerful
aEd st the Same Time Preserve
the Fear and Love OF God
"A Prayer for Mercy.

"A Prayer for Mercy.
The following sermon was delivered
by Rev. L. Dewitt Talmagc to con-
gregation that filed every nook of the
Brooklyn tabernacle, and which had
barely been dismissed when fire once
more deprived the church of house
OF worship. The subject was: "a
Cheerful Church, and the text:
Behold thou art fair, my loVe.-SoloRon's s
Song. iV.. I.
Higher criticism SAYS that this
book OF Solomon's Song is love scene,
forlOrn maiden signing for her beau.
If so, it is an unclean and debauched
utterance 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 ChurIh is the bride. The same
words we can utter to-day truthfully.
whether in regard to the Church of
God in general or 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 peo-
pie. When came to Brooklyn found
n small band of Christian disciples who
from various causes had become less
and less, until they stood upon the
very verge of extinction as a church,
and the question was being agitated
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 surrenderd
TO the adverse circumstances. They
marshalcd a congregational meeting,
and, gathering up all the forces possi-
bic, they cast 10 votes for pastor, all
OF which am happy to have received.
IT was not through any spirit of per-
sonal courage or reckless adventure
that led me, from one of the warmest
and most cengenial pastorates in Phil
adclphia that man ever enjoyed, to
this most uniuviting field; but it was
the feeling that God had called me to
the work, and l was sure that He would
see me through.
| have thought that it might be
profitable to us to state briefly what
kind of a church we have been trying
TO esta blish.
In the first place, remark that we
have been trying TO build here Chris
tjan church; distinctively such; in
other words, 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 offenses Jesus, the foundation
of all structures, Jesus, the balm of
all wounds. Jesus, the eyesalve for
all blindness. Jesus, the guide through
all perplexities. Jesus, the hope for
all discuragements. Jesus, the reform
for all worngs. l have faith to be-
live 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 hu-
man qUackery. Jesus is the grandest
note in any minstrelsy. He is the
brightest gem in any crown. The CEN
ter of every circumference. The cir
cUmference of every center. The paci-
fer of all turbulance. The umpire of
AL disputes Jesus! Jesus! At His
tn bic all nations are to sit. Around
this throne all worlds are to revolve.
He is TO be the irradiation of the uni
verse. Jesus! Jesus! 1t is that truth
that we have tried to preach in this
tabernacle.
Do you ask more minutely what we
believe? l can tell you. We have no
dry, withered, juiceless theology. We
believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of Heaven and earth, the deliv-
erer of the distressed, the home for the
homeless, the friend for the friendless.
We believe in Jesus Christ, able to save
to the uttermOst, pardOning the guilty,
imputinG the Righteousness to the be-
iievcr. We believe in the Holy Ghost,
the comforter, the sanctifier, 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
sunlxen in sin that nothing but the
omnipOtent arm of God can ever lift it
ont We believe in graee-free grace,
sovereign grace, triumphant grace,
eternal grace. We believe in Bible
authentic in its statements, immacu-
late 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 re-
fusing the divine mercy. We believe in
the salvation of all men who accept
Christ by faith, be they sprinlzled
or immersed, worship they in cathe-
dral or in log cabin, believe they in
Presbyterianism or Episcopacy, dwell
they under Italian skies or in Siberian
snow storms, be they Ethiopian of
American. All one in Christ, one
Lord, one faith. We built the taber-
nacle 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 faith
full in the pew.
remark, further, that we have tried
here TO build church distinctively uIt-
conventional Instead of asking, as
some people are disposed to do, how
other people do il, we have asked the
question how people do not do it. I'm
perious custom has decided that
churches shall be angular, cherries,
gloomy, unsympathetic; forgetting g
that what men call a Pious gloom is
impious, and that that church has the
best architecture VIII ere tine people are
the most comfortal lie, and that that
is the most efficient Christian service
whore the raOr,la ore made most sick