So we built an exceedingly large church. The new Tabernacle seated
comfortably 5,000 people. It was open on February 22, 1874, for worship,
and completed a few months later.




THE FIFTH MILESTONE

1877-1879


Without boast it may be said that I was among those men who with eager
and persistent vigilance made the heart of Brooklyn feel the Christian
purpose of the pulpit, and the utility of religion in everyday life. The
fifteen years following the dedication of the new Tabernacle in 1872
mark the most active milestone of my career as a preacher.

A minister's recollections are confined to his interpretation of the
life about him; the men he knows, the events he sees, the good and the
bad of his environment and his period become the loose leaves that
litter his study table.

I was in the prime of life, just forty years of age. From my private
note-books and other sources I begin recollections of the most
significant years in Brooklyn, preceding the local elections in 1877.
New York and Brooklyn were playmates then, seeming rivals, but by
predestined fate bound to grow closer together. I said then that we need
not wait for the three bridges which would certainly bind them together.