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However, the big new Tabernacle IS NOT YET PAID FOR--far
from it. I am happy to report to you that every payment has been
met promptly ON TIME, according to the agreement made with the
Behlen Manufacturing Company, and we have paid them to date
$178,000. BUT, NOTICE CAREFULLY!! The total cost is more than
$330,000 for the work already done. It is just barely over half
paid for. WE NOW ARE BOUND TO MAKE LARGER PAYMENTS OF $18,000 PER
MONTH, until paid out.
The present Tabernacle should be paid out by July of next
year. BUT--we have to make the huge building 50% bigger by next
October! I do not yet have any price from the manufacturers and
contractors, but it probably will cost somewhere near an additional
$170,000. If the Behlen Manufacturing Company will assume
contractual responsibility for this entire additional project, and
will agree to let us pay for it at the rate of $18,000 per month,
beginning next July, with a special double-payment to be raised at
the next Festival of $36,000, then we would have paid by the end of
the next Festival $412,000 of a total of a half million, leaving
five additional months' payments at $18,000 per month. Thus it
will take us until March, 1960--year after next--or another year
and a half, to get it completely paid for.
But this is a truly H U G E operation, as I know all of
you realize who attended the Festival and saw this monstrous,
gleaming. aluminum-coated building with your own eyes.
THINK OF IT, Brethren! Already in five short months, we
have paid in $178,000. In less than two years, IF WE KEEP UP OUR
PAYMENTS, we shall have erected and paid for a HALF MILLION DOLLAR
BUILDING--one of the largest auditoriums anywhere in the world.
Perhaps, when finished, it will be the largest CHURCH
auditorium, so far as actual seating capacity is concerned, on
earth! Perhaps Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome at the Vatican is
larger in actual area--I think it is. Perhaps the world-famous
Episcopal Church's Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York is
larger in area. But these vast cathedrals are mostly great halls
and lobbies which people walk through, and are not filled with
seats. We may be building the largest Church auditorium, or true
tabernacle, on earth! I will try to do some research into this and
find out. And to pay for it in less than two years--21 months is
paying for this tremendous operation IN LESS TIME THAN MOST PEOPLE
PAY FOR THEIR AUTOMOBILES. Do not most of you buy cars on 24 or
30-month contracts?
I say that this is something to REJOICE over!
But it also lays on us a STERN RESPONSIBILITY! As I have
said before, the Behlen Manufacturing Company have extended us this
great amount of credit on faith. Up to now we have given them no
security, although upon complete finishing of the present building
(which was not completely finished before the Festival) we are to
give them a mortgage on that part of the ground on which the
Tabernacle stands. Mr. Walter Behlen, president of the Behlen
Manufacturing Company, has extended this large line of credit
primarily because of faith in me personally. I have made three or