The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1886-08-13
TALNAGES SERMON.
A Discourse Delivered Amid tae
Thousand Isles.
Gan Island vision.,-The Celestial City and
Its PesrIy Gates-The Reality of H~av-
en- Described-The Gatek.epsr and
the Final Password.

Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, large portion
Of his congregation and a multitude from
surrounding villages assembled at Alex.
andria Bay, among the Thousand Isles
of the st. Lawrence, on a recent Sabbath.
When the preacher addressed the congre-
VISION" his texts being:
1, John. was in the Isle that Is called Pat
MISREPRESENTATION, l., q
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls
(Revelarion, 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: "Whetber in the body or out of the
body, can not TELL" Not having read
the geologist's 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 houk much the islands Of the
world have had SOsio with sacred and pro-
fame history. Eliza, from which Napoleon
started for his last struggle, aud st. Hele-
ma, where he ended it.; the island Of
Guernsey, where the great soul Of Victor
Hugo chafed in exile until republicanism
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
more impressive than all, the island OF
Patmos. of which my text speaks and from
which st. John, the exiled Ephesian COS.
pelixer, saw the twelve pearline gates. II
God will help us, we can from these Thou
sand Isles, on this Sabbath morning, see
the same slittering portals.
Our subject speaks of great metropolis,
the existence of which many have doubt
ed. Standing on the wharf and looking OF
upon the harbor, and seeing the merch ant
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 Won say:
"That is from Hamburg, and that il
from Marseilles, and that is from South.
ampton, and that is from Havana"
And your superstition 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 q vast immigration
into that city, but no emigration from it
20 far as our natural vision can descry.
ssThere is no such city," says the unde-
vout astronomer. 81 have stood in high
towers with q 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 II no such city"
Even very good people tell me that
Heaven is not material organism, but
grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible
descriptions Of it are in all cases to be
taken figuratively. bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
go to prepare
Not theory, not . principle. not senti-
ment; but
90 to prepare place for you.
The resurrected body implies this. II
my foot is to be reformed from the dust It
must have something to tread on. II my
hand Is to be reconstructed il must have
to handle. II my eye, having
gone out in death, 10 to be rekindled, /
must have something to gaze ON. Your
adverse theory seems 70 imply that the
body Il TO be hung on nothing,
or to walk in air. or to float amid the ma
terial organisms, then 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 Edeni 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 inn
can build place large enough
10 give the whole race room. even though
here be material organisms.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearis
In the first place, want you to examine
the architecture of those gates. Proprie-
tors OF large estates are very apt to have
IN ornamented gateway. Sometimes they
'pring an arch of masonry; the posts Of
the gate fanks.i It'll lions i'm ststuary;
the bronze ga. Il representation of inter.
winning foliage, bird-haunted, until the
hand OF architectural genius drops exc
all its life frozen into the stone.
Babylon had a hundred gates, so had
rhebes. Gates of wood and iron and
'tone guarded nearly all the old cities.
Aoslems have inscribed upon their gate
ways inscriptions from the Koran of the
There have been q great
many fine gateways, but Christ set his
Rand to the work, and for the upper city
'wung gate such as no eye ever gaxed
IN, untouched Of inscription. With the
hail Of his own CROSS he cut into its won-
ierful traceries stories OF past suffering
md OF gladness to come. There IL NO
wood or stone or bronze in that gate, but
rom top TO base and from side to side It il
III of pearl Not one piece picked up from
ceylon banks, and another from piece
rom the Persian Gulf, and another from
he Island Of Aargarette; but one solid
'eari picked up from the beach of ever
asting light by heavenly hands, and
loisted and swung amid the shouting Of
Ingels. The glories Of the alabaster vase