ather hearing it read to me, in the impulse
of gratitude I replied in like sympathy. I thanked them, and remembering
that I had buried their dead, baptised their children and married the
young, my heart was with them. I sincerely felt then, and perhaps I
always did feel, that I would rather serve them than any other people on
the face of the earth. It was my conclusion that if the trustees could
fulfil the conditions they had mentioned, of building a new Tabernacle,
free of debt, I would remain their pastor.

My date for beginning my journey around the world had been May 14, the
day following the disaster. Before leaving, however, I dictated the
following communication to my friends and the friends of my ministry
everywhere:--

"Our church has again been halted by a sword of flame. The
destruction of the first Brooklyn Tabernacle was a mystery. The
destruction of the second a greater--profound. The third calamity we
adjourn to the Judgment Day for explanation. The home of a vast
multitude of souls, it has become a heap of ashes. Whether it will
ever rise again is a prophecy we will not undertake. God rules and
reigns and makes no mistake. He has His way with churches as with
individuals. One thing is certain: the pastor of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle will continue to preach as long as life and health last.
We have no anxieties about a place to preach in. But woe is unto us
if we preach not the Gospel! We ask for the prayers of all good
people for the pastor and people of the Brooklyn Tabernacle.

"T. DEWITT TALMAGE."

At half past nine o'clock on the night of May 14, 1894, I descended the
front steps of my home in Brooklyn, N.Y. The sensation of leaving for a
journey around the world was not all bright anticipation. The miles to
be travelled were numerous, the seas to be crossed treacherous, the
solemnities outnumbered the expectations. My family accompanied me to
the railroad train, and my thought was should we ever meet again? The
climatic changes, the ships, the shoals, the hurricanes, the bridges,
the cars, the epidemics, the possibilities hinder any positiveness of
prophecy. I remembered the consoling remark at my reception a few
evenings ago, made by the Hon. William M. Evarts.

He said: "Dr. Talmage ought to realise that if he goes around the world
he will come out at the same place he started."

The timbers of our destroyed church were still smoking when I le