The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1886-07-09
TALMAGE's SERMON.
A Discourse Delivered Amid the
Thousand Isles.
"An Island vision''-The Celestial City and
Its PeaEIy Gates-The Reality Of Heav-
en- Described-The Gatelxeeper and
the Final Password.

/ anQr1d Bay among the 1nOQSanQ lSA6SNS
Of the st. Lawrence, on recent Sabbath.
| When the preacher addressed the congre-
/ CATION he took for his subject "An Island
/ Vision his texts being:
! I, John, was in the isle that is called Pat
mos.-lRevelation, T.,
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls
| Revelation, XXI, 81
| The preacher said: Sabbath morning
/ finds us amid the Thousand Isles of the ST.
I 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 geoIogist's account of how this region
/ was formed, I 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 bhe 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, a 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
1 more impressive than all, the island of
Patmos, of which my text speazs and from
which st. John, the exiled Ephesian Cos
/ pelizer, saw the twelve pearline gates. If
! God will help US, we can from these Thou
/ sand Isles, on this Sabbath morning, see
the same glittering portals.
/ Our subject speaks of a great metropolis,
/ the existence of which many have doubt
/ ed. Standing on the wharf and looking of
/ upon the harbor, and seeing the merchant
! men coming up the bay, the flags 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 is from South
ampton, and that is from Havana"
/ And your supposition is accurate. But
/ from the city of which 1 am now speaking
/ no weathe beaten merchantmen or frig-
ates with SCARED bulkheads have ever
/ come. There has been a 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. 81 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 iguratively. I bring in reply to
4 this what Christ said, and he ought to
know
I go to prepare
Not theory, not principle, not q senti-
ment; but
go to prepare a place for you.
The resurrected body implies this. If
my foot is to be reformed from the dust it
! must have something to tread on. If my
/ hand is to be recon structed it must have
something to handle. If my eye, having
gone out in death, is to be rekindled, /
must have something to gaze on. Your
adverse theory seems to imply that the
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 Heaven
will be cramped and hindered in its en-
| joyments; but answer: Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the gar
| den of Eden? Although only few miles
/ would have described the circumference
of that place, they had ample room. And
do you not suppose that God in the i'm
mensities can build place large enough
to give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms?
Herschel looked into the heavens. As a
! Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock between
! the glaciers and crosses over from crag to
/ crag, so Herschel planted his telescope be-
| tween the worlds that glided from star to
| star until he could announce to us that we
| live in part of the universe but sparsely
strewn with worlds, and he peers out into
/ immensity until he finds region no larger
/ than our solar system, in which there are
/ $4,000 worlds moving. And Prof. Lang
! says that by philosophic reasoning there
! must be somewhere world where there
! is no darkness, but everlas ting suns hine;
| so that do not know but that it is simply
| because we have no telescope powerful
enough that we can not into the land
where there is no darkn ess at all, and
catch glimpse of the burning pinnacles.
| As conquering army marching on to take
|, a city comes at nightfaIl to the crest of a
| mountain from which, in the midst of the
/ landscape, they sec the castles they are to
| capture, and rein in their chargers and
| halt and take good look before they pitch
| their tents for the night, so, now, coming
as we do on this mountain top Of pros
! pect, command this regiment of God to
| rein in their thoughts and halt, and before
they pitch their tents for the night take
one good, long look at the gates of the
great city.
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 have
an ornamented gateway. Sometimes they
spring an arch of masonry; the posts of
the gate flanked with lions in statuary;
the bronze gate a representation of inter
twining foliage, bird haunted, until the
hand of architectural genius drops ex-
hausted, all its life frozen into the stone,
Babylon had a hundred gates, so had
Thebes. Gates of wood and iron and
stone guarded nearly all the old cities.
Moslems have inscribed upon their gate
ways inscriptions from the Koran of the
Mohammedan, There have been great
many fine gateways, but Christ set his
hand to the work, and for the upper city
swung a gate such as no eye ever gazed
on, untouched of inscription. With the
nail of his own cross he cut into its won
derful traceries stories of past suffering
and of gladness to come. There is no
wood or stone or bronze in that gate, but
| from top to base and from side to side it is
| all of pearl Not one piece picked up from
/ CeyIon banks, and another from piece
/ from the Persian Gulf, and another from
] the Island of Margarette; but one solid
| pearl picked up from the beach of ever
! lasting light by heavenly hands, and
4 hoisted and swung amid the shouting of
angels. The glories Of the alabaster vase
/ and porphyry pillar fade out before this
| gateway. It puts out the spark of field
| spar and Bohemian diamond. You know
] hn.z ona little nrecious etona ON your fin