Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-07-10
Morality and Charity Cannot be Used as
Pass Words.

ALEXANDRIA BAY, N. Y, May 81,
18S6.-The congregation of the Brook
lyn Tabernacle this year have made
pilgrimage to this place. accompanied
by the Rev. L. Dewitt Tonnage, ID. d.,
their pastor. Many hundreds Of them
left Brooklyn on Saturday, June 26, ar
irving here the evening of the same
day. and will remain until Tuesday.
Special trains of cars were provided for
Asem. A multitude from the surround
ing villages joined them to-day, and
DR.. Talmage preached the following
His subject was,
A ISLAND VISION
and his texts, Revelation i, 9; II, John.
was in the isle that is called Patmos;"
ard Revelation xxi, 81: ''And the
twelve gates were twelve pearls" 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 / cannot tell" Not having read
the biologists account of how this re-
gion was formed, | may surmise that
sstor tho c. J,vurapco boron 80 r,,;os
tic roll, these Islands were dropped in
To it out of the heavenly landscape.
Islands above us, islands below us,
isIands all around us, / am reminded
how much the islands of the world have
had TO do with sacred and p~rofane his
tory. Elba, from which Napoleon
started for his last struggle; and st.
Helena, where he ended It; the Island Of
Guernsey, where the great soul of Vic
tor Hugo chafed in exile until repub-
licanism in France drove back despot-
ism; the Isle of Borneo, where Adoni-
ram Judson stood, n flaming evangel;
the Island of Caprerus, where Carl
ssAhttl IcSbSu dlbtI VIC GIlltllClDttlou vi
Italy; the Island of Cyprus, where
Bsrnabas preached; the Island of
Melita, on which Paul was shipwercked;
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 Gospelizer,
saw the twelve pearline gates. If God
will help us, we can, from these thou
sand isles, on this Sabbath morning,
ee the same glittering portals.
Our subject speaks of a great me-
tropolis, the existence of which many
have doubted. Standing on the wharf
and looking off upon the harbor, and
seeing the merchantmen coming up the
bay, the flags offoreign nations stream
ing from the top gallants, you immedi-
ately make up your mind that those
vessels came from foreign ports, apd
you say: THAT is from Hamburg, and
that is from Marseilles, and that is from
southampton, and that is from Ha-
~vana," and your supposition is ac-
curate But from the city Of which |
am o Speeding no weather-beaten
merchantmen or frigates with scared
bulkhead have ever come. There has
been a vast emigration from that
oity, but TO emigration from it--so far
rs our natural vision can descry.
''There as no such CITY," says the
undevout astronomer. II have stood
in high towers with "a mighty telescope
and have swept the heavens, and | have
seen spots on the sun and caverns in
tho moon; but no towers have ever
risen on m, 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 n
MATERIAL ORGANISM,
bnt a grand spiritual fact, and that the
Bible descriptions of it are in all cases
To be taken figuratively. l bring in
reply to this what Christ said, and he
mght to know: Il 90 to prepare
not a theory, not a principle, not a
smtiment; but II GO to prepare a place
FIR 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
atructed 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 80 imply that the resuI-
Geoted body is to be hung on nothing,
Or to walk in air, or to float amid
tie intangibles. You may say: IF
there be material organisms, then II
soul in heaven will be cramped and
bindered in its enjoyments; but / an
Swer: Did not Adam and Eve have
plenty of room in the garden of Edenp
Although only a 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 a place large
enough TO give the whole race room,