The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-07-14
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse Delivered Amid tae
Thousand Isles.
can Island vision"-The Celestial City ana
Its Pearly Gstes-The Reality OF Heav'
en- Described-The Gatekeeper shA
the Final Password.

Its Pearly Gates-Ths Reality Of Heav.
en- Described-The GateIeeper snA
the Final Password.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, large portion
Of his congregation and a multitude from
villages assembled at Alex.
ludria Bay, among the "lhousand Isles"
Of the St. Lawrence, on recent Sabbath.
When the preacher addressed the congre.
CATION he took for his subject IAN Island
Vision," his texts being:
I, John. was in the Isle that Is called Pat
mos Revelation, i,a
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls
XXI, 81
The preacher said: Sabbath morning
finds us amid the Thousand Isles of the st.
Lawrence. Amid the enchantment OF the
scenery some of US are like Paul when he
said: "Whether in the body or out OF the
body, can not tell" Not having read
the biologists account of how this region
was formed, may surmise that after the
st. Lawrence began its majestic roll these
islands were dropped into it out of the
heavenly landscape. Islands above Us,
islands below US, islands all around US,
am reminded how much the islands of the
world have had to do with sacred and pro-
fame history. Elba, from which Napoleon
started for his last struggle, and st. Hele.
ma, where he ended it; the island of
Guernsey, where the great soul Of Victor
Hugo chafed in exile until republication
in France drove back despotism; the isle
of Borneo, where Adoniram Judson
stood, flaming evangel; the island of
Caprera, where Garibaldi rested after the
emancipation of Italy; the island of Cy.
prus, where Barnabas preached; the island
of Melita, on which Paul was shipwrecked;
and last of all, but mightier than all and
more impressive than all, the island Of
Patmos. of which my text speaks and from
which st. John, the exiled Ephesian Cos
pelizer, saw the twelve pearline gates. II
God will help US, we can from these Thou
sand Isles, on this Sabbath morning, see
the same glittering portals.
Our subject speaks Of great metropolis,
the existence of which many have doubt
ed. Standing on the wharf and looking off
upon the harbor, and seeing the merchant
men coming up the bay, the aags of for.
eign nations streaming from the top gal
lants, you Immediately make up your
mind that those vessels came from foreign
ports, and you say:
"That is from Hamburg, and that is
from Marseilles, and that 10 from South.
ampton, and that is from Havana"
And your supposition is accurate. But
from the city of which am now speaking
no weather. beaten merchantmen or frig.
ates with SCARED bulkheads have ever
come. There has been vast immigration
into that city, but no emigration from it
so far as our natural vision can descry.
"There is no such city," says the unde-
vout astronomer. ~ have stood in high
towers with mighty telescope, and have
swept the heavens, and have seen spots
on the sun and caverns in the moon; but
no towers have ever risen on my vision,
no palaces, no temples, no shining streets,
no massive wall. There Is no such city,
Even very good people tell me that
Heaven is not material organism, but a
grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible
descriptions of it are in all cases to be
taken figuratively. I bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
Igo to prepare--
Not theory, not a principle, not senti.
nient; but
I yn t0 q Nils SOv xyO,
The resurrected body implies this. Il
my foot is to be reformed from the dust il
must have something to tread on. II my
hand is to be reconstructed it must have
something to handle. II my eye, having
gone out in death, is to be rekindled,
must have something to gaze on. You
adverse theory seems to imply that thu
resurrected body is to be hung on nothing
or to walk in air, or to float amid the ma
terial organisms, then a soul in HEAVIER
will be cramped and hindered in its en-
joyments; but l answer: Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the gar
den of Eden! Although only few mile
would have described the circumference
of that place, they had ample room. Ant
do you not suppose that God in the i'm
mensties can build place large enough
to give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms?
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.
In the first place, want you to examine
the architecture of those gates. Proprie
tors of large estates are very apt to hav
an ornamented gateway. Sometimes the.
spring an arch Of masonry; the posts o
the gate fanked with lions in statuary
the bronze gate representation of inter
twining foliage, bird-haunted, until tn
hand Of architectural genius drops ex
hausted, all its life frozen into the stone
Babylon had a hundred gates, so ha'
Thebes. Gates of wood and iron an
stone guarded nearly all the old cities
Moslems have inscribed upon their gate
ways inscriptions from the Koran of tn
Mohammedan, There have been a grea
many fine gateways, but Christ set hi
hand to the work, and for the upper cit.
swung gate such as no eve ever gaze'
on, untouched of inscription. With tn
nail Of his own cross he cut into its won
derful traceries stories Of past sufferin
and of gladness to come. There is n
wood or stone or bronze in that gate, bu
from top to base and from side to side it i
all of pearl. Not one piece picked up fror
Ceylon banks, and another from piec
from the Persian Gulf, and another fror
the Island of Marguerite; but one soil
pearl picked up from the beach of ever
lasting light by heavenly hands, an