St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1886-07-17
YALMAGE's SERMON.
H. Discourse Delivered Amid the
Thousand Isles.
~~an Island vision"-The Celestial City and
Ess Pearly Gates-The Reality of Heav-
en- DescrIbed-The Gatekeeper and
R5 the Final Password

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, large portion
rsf his congregation and multitude from
Surrounding villages assembled at Alex
aaudria Bay, among the Thousand Isles"
of the st. Lawrence, on recent Sabbath.
When the preacher addressed the congre-
sEation he took for his subject Gan Island
VISION" his texts being:
T., John was in the isle that is called Pat
Inos.-f Revelation,i., 3.
and the twelve gates were twelve pearls
aRsveIarion, xxi. 81
The preacher said: Sabbath morning
aSnds 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
she biologists account of how this region
was formed, / may surmise that after the
St Lawrence began it's majestic roll these
ISLANDS were dropped into it out of the
heavenly landscape. Islands above US,
ISLANDS below us, islands all around us,
ann reminded how much the Islands OF the
world have had to do with sacred and pro-
tame history. Eliza, 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 republicanism
i'm 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 gos-
pelizer, saw the twelve pearlne 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
uaen coming up the bay, the flags of for
eign nations streaming from the top gall
lants, you Immediately make up your
snind that those vessels came from foreign
ports, and you say:
"That is from Hamburg, and that is
from Marseilles, and that is from South
sampton, and that is from Havana"
And your superstition is accurate. Bat
from the city of which am now speaking
no weather-beatenm merchantmen or frig-
ates with SCARED bulkheads have ever
come. There has been vast immigration
into that city, but no emigration from it
go far as our natural vision can descry.
tsqhere 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 a material organism, but
grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible
descriptions of it are in all cases to be
taken fguratively. l bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
I go to prepare
Not a theory, not a principle, not senti-
ment; but -.
] = go to prepAre placefo 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 instructed lit. must have
something to handle.E Ifmy eye, having
gone out in death, is Ito 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. thensa soul in Heaven
will be cramped and hindered in it's en-
loyments; but answer: Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the gar
den of Eden? Although only afew miles
would have described the circumference
of that place, they had ample room. And
do you not suppose that God in the inn
mensities can build place large enough
TO give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms?
And the twelve gates we're twelve pearls.
In the first place, I 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 am arch of masonry; the posts. of
the gate aanked with lions in statuary;
the bronze gate representation OF inter.
twining foliage, bird-haunted, until the
hand of architectural genius drops ex.
hausted, all it's 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.
Moslelns have inscribed upon their gate-
ways Inscriptions from the Koran of the
Mohammedan, There have been great
rnany fine gateways, but Christ set his
hand to the work, and for the upper city
swung gate such as no eye ever gazed
en-, untouched of inscription. With the
nail of his own cross he cut into its Won
derful traceries stories of past suffering