hing
else, they feel so uncomfortable.

We want more common sense in the rearing of churches. There is no excuse
for lack of light when the heavens are full of it, no excuse for lack of
fresh air when the world swims in it. It ought to be an expression, not
only of our spiritual happiness, but of our physical comfort, when we
say: "How amiable are Thy tabernacles, O Lord God of Hosts! A day in
Thy courts is better than a thousand."

My dedication sermon was from Luke xiv. 23, "And the Lord said unto the
servants, go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come
in that my house may be filled." The Rev. T.G. Butter, D.D., offered the
dedicatory prayer. Other clergymen, whose names I do not recall, were
present and assisted at the services. The congregation in attendance was
very large, and at the close of the services a subscription and
collection were taken up amounting to $13,000, towards defraying the
expenses and cost of the church.

In less than a year later the congregation had grown so large and the
attendance of strangers so pressing that the new church was enlarged
again, and on September 10, 1871, the Tabernacle was rededicated with
impressive services. The sermon was preached by my friend the Rev.
Stephen H. Tyng, D.D. He was a great worker, and suffered, as many of us
in the pulpit do, from insomnia. He was the consecrated champion of
everything good, a constant sufferer from the lash of active work. He
often told me that the only encouragement he had to think he would sleep
at night was the fact that he had not slept the night before. Insomnia
may be only a big word for those who do not understand its effect. It
has stimulated intellectuality, and exhausted it. One of the greatest
English clergymen had a gas jet on each side of his bed, so that he
might read at nights when he could not sleep. Horace Greeley told me he
had not had a sound sleep in fifteen years. Charles Dickens understood
London by night better than any other writer, because not being able to
sleep he spent that time in exploring the city.

I preached at the evening service from the text in Luke xvi. 5: "How
much owest thou unto my Lord?" It was a wonderful day for us all. Enough
money was taken in by collections and subscriptions at the morning and
evening services to pay the floating debt of the church. We received
that one day $21,000.

I quote the following resolution made at a meeting in my study the next
Thursday eveni