Although the Central Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn of which I was
pastor was one of the largest buildings in that city then, it did not
represent my ideal of a church.

I learned in my village pastorates that the Church ought to be a great
home circle of fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. That would be a
very strange home circle where the brothers and sisters did not know
each other, and where the parents were characterised by frigidity and
heartlessness. The Church must be a great family group--the pulpit the
fireplace, the people all gathered around it. I think we sometimes can
tell the people to stay out by our church architecture. People come in
and find things angular and cold and stiff, and they go away never again
to come; when the church ought to be a great home circle.

I knew a minister of religion who had his fourth settlement. His first
two churches became extinct as a result of his ministry, the third
church was hopelessly crippled, and the fourth was saved simply by the
fact that he departed this life. On the other hand, I have seen
pastorates which continued year after year, all the time strengthening,
and I have heard of instances where the pastoral relation continued
twenty years, thirty years, forty years, and all the time the confidence
and the love were on the increase. So it was with the pastorate of old
Dr. Spencer, so it was with the pastorate of old Dr. Gardiner Spring, so
it was with the pastorate of a great many of those old ministers of
Jesus Christ, of whom the world was not worthy.

I saw an opportunity to establish in Brooklyn just such a church as I
had in my mind's eye--a Tabernacle, where all the people who wanted to
hear the Gospel preached could come in and be comfortable. I projected,
designed, and successfully established the Brooklyn Tabernacle within a