Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-10

Herschel looked into the heavens. A,
"A Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock be
tween the glaciers and crosses Over
from crag to crag, SO Herschel planted
his telescope between the worlds anC
glided from star to star, until he coulc
announce to us that we live in a part o.
the universe but sparsely strcwn with
worlds; and he peers out into immen.
sity until he finds IL region no larger
than our solor system, in which there
are
FIFTY THOUSAND WORLDS
moving. And Professor. Lang says
THAT by a philosophic reasoning. there
must be somewhere "A world where
there is no darkness, but everlasting
sunshine; SO that | do not know but
that it is simply because we have no
telescope powerful enough, that we
cannot see into the land where there is
nc darkness at all, and catch a glimpse
of the Furnished p~innacles. As "a con
quering army marching on to take II
city, comes ut nightfall to the crest of a
mountain from which in the midst of a
landscape they see the castles they are
to capture, and rein in their war
chargers and halt and take a good look
before they pitch their tents for
the night; so, now coming as
we do on this mountain top
of prospect. | 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 ex-
anime the architecture of those gates.
Proprietors 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 the lions in statuary; the bronze
| gate n representation Of INTERVIEWING
foliage, bird haunted, until the hand Il
architectural genius drops exhausted. 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. Mos
lens have inscribed upon their gate
ways inscriptions from the Koran of
the Mohammedan. There have been a
great many fine g~atcways, 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 wonderful 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
Ceylon banks, and another piece
from the Persian gulf, and another
from the Island of Marguerite; but one
solid pearl picked up from the beach of
everlasting light by heavenly hands,
and hoisted and swung amid the shout
ing of angels. The S..o.ies of alabaster
vase and porphyry pillar fade out be-
fore this gateway. 1t puts out the
spark of feldspar and Bohemian dia-
mond. You know how one little
precious stone on your finger will flash
under the gaslight. But o the bright
ness when the great gate of heaven
swings, struck through and dripping
with the light of eternal MONDAY!
julius Caesar paid a hundred and
twenty-five thousand crowns for one
pearl. The government Of Portugal
boasted of having E pearl larger than
a pear. Cleopatra and Philip III daz-
zled the worlds vision with precious
stones. But gather all these together
and lift them, and add to them all the
wealth of the pearl fisheries, and set
them in the panel of one door, and it
does not equal this
MAGNIFICENT GATEWAY.
An Almighty hand hewed this, strung
this, polished this. Against this gate
way on the one side, dash all the splen-
doris of earthly beauty. Against this
gate on the other side, beat the surges
of eternal glory. o, the gate! the gate!
1t strik an infinite charm through ev-
cry one that passes it. One step this
side of that gate and We are paupers.
One step the other side of that gate and
we are kings. The pilgrim of earth
going through sees in the n huge
pearl all his earthly tears in crystal.
o, gate of light, gate of pearl, gate of
heaven, for our weary souls at last
swing open!
"When shall these eyes thy heaven-bullt
walls
And pearly gates behold,
Thy hulwarks with salvation strong,
And streets Of shining goldE"
o, heaven is not "a dull place! Hea-
ven is not "A contracted place. Heaven
is not IA stupid place. Il saw the
twelve gates and they were twelve
pearls"
In the second place, / want you to
count the number of those gates. I'm
perial parks and lordly manors are apt
to have n expensive gateway and the
others are ordinary; but look around at
these entrances to heaven and count
them. One. two, three, four. five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Hear it. all the earth and all the heav-
ems! Twelve gates!
| admit this is rather hard on sharp
s~ectarianisms. If a Presbyterian is
bigoted he brings his Westminster As
sembly Catechism, and he makes a gate
way out of that, and he says to the
xynrlI. .tXnu pn brnnrh fbora Ne. etoy