Connecticut western news., 1895-03-07
TELLING NEW GROUND
REV. OR. TAlMAGE PLEASED WITH
 HIS PRESENT WORK.

Special Attention Given In His Sermon to skeptics-The Cause of Goethe's Ire iiKion-Fields of Usefulness Seldom oc- cupied by the Church.
 NEW YORK, March 3.-Public inter sst in the services at the Academy of- Music is something phenomenal. AL though the arrangement is an innova- tion in religious methods ill New York, both as to time and place, there is no church in the city to which SO many people go or where so much eagerness to secure admission is displayed. The usual immense audience was present this afternoon to hear tho famous preacher. Dr. Talmage's subject was New Ground" and his text Romans xv, go, Lest I should build upon an other mana foundation,
 After, with the help of others, had built three churches in the same city, and not feeling called upon to undertake the superhuman toil of building Q fourth church Providence seemed to point to this place as the field in which I could enlarge my work, aud I feel sense of relief amounting to exultation. Where unto this work will grow I cannot prophecy. It is inviting and promising beyond anything l have ever touched. The churches are the grandest institu tions this world ever saw, and their pas tors have no superiors this side of heay- en. but there is work which must be done outside the churches. and to that work join myself for awhile, Lest l build on another mans foundation"
 Service In the Open Field.
 The church is a fortress divinely built. Now, fortress is for defense, and for drill, and for storing ammunition, but an army must sometimes be on the march far outside the fortress In the campaign of conquering this world for Christ the time has come for an advance movement, for a general engagement, for maesing the troops, for an invasion of the enemies country. Confident that the forts are we'll manned by the ablest ministry that ever blessed the church, propose, with others, for awhile, to join the cavalry and move out and on for service in the open field
 In laying out the plan for his mis- sionary tour Paul, with more brain than any of his contemporaries or predeces- sors or successors, sought out towns and cities which had not yet been preached to He goes to Cornith, a city mentioned for splendor and vice, and Jerusalem, where the priesthood and kanhedrin were ready to leap with both feet upon the Christian religion. He feels he has a special work to do, and he means to do it. What was the result? The grandest life of usefulness that man eyer lived. We modern Christian work CTS are not apt to initiate Paul. We build on other peoples foundations. If we erect a church, wo prefer to have it filled with families all of whom have been pious. Do we gather Sunday school class, we want good boysand girls, hair bombed, faces washed, manners at- tractive. So church in this city is apt to he built out of other churches. Some ministers spend all their time in fishing in other peoples ponds, and they throw the line into that church pond and jerk out Methodist, and throw the line into another church pond and bring out a Presbyterian, or there is religious row in some neighboring church, and the whole school of fish swim off from that pond, and we take them all in with one sweep of the net What is gained? Absolutely nothing for the general cause of Christ It is only as in an army, when a regiment is transferred from one division to another, or from the Four teenth regiment to the Sixty-ninth regi- ment. What strengthens the army is new recruits
 This Is Big World.
 The fact is, this is big world. When in our schoolboy days we learned the diameter and circumference of this planet, we did not learn half. It is the latitude and longitude and diameter and circumference of want and woe and sin that no figures can calculate. This one spiritual continent of wretchedness reaches across all zones, and if wore called to give its geographical boundary would say it is bounded on the north and south and cast and west by the great heart of Gods sympathy and love. Oh, it is great world. Since 6 o'clock this morning at least 80, 900 have been born, and all these multiplied popula- tions are to be reached of the gospel. In England or in eastern American cit ies we are being much crowded, and an acre of ground is of great value, but out west 500 acres is small farm, and 90, . 900 acres is no unusual possession. There is vast field here and everywhere unoc- cupied, plenty of room more, not build ing on another mans foundation. We need as churches to stop bombarding the old ironclad sinners that have been proof against 30 years of Christian assault, and aim for the salvation of those who have never yet had one warm hearted and point blank invitation. There are churches whose buildings might be worth $200, 900, who are not averaging five new converts year and doing less good than many log cabin meeting house with tallow candle stuck in wooden socket and minister who has never seen college or known the diff ference between Greek and Choctaw We need churches to get into sympathy withthe great atoutsideworld, and let them know that none are so broken hearted or hardly bestead that they will not be welcomed. "No! says some fastidious Christian; ''I don't like to be crowded in church. Don't put any one in my pew. My brother, what will you do in heaven? When great multitude that no man can number assemblies, they will put 50 in your pew. What are the So. leot few today assembled i'll the Chris, tian churches compared with the mightier millions outside of them!
 At least 3, 900. 900 people in this clus. ter of seaboard cities, and not more than 200, 900 in the churches. Many of the churches are like hospital that should advertise that its patients must have nothing worse than toothache or "rur arounds," but no broken heads, nc crushed ankles, no fractured thighs Give us for treatrnent moderate sinners