The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1886-07-08
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
q Discourse Delivered Amid the
Thousand Isles.
"An Island vIsion"-The Celestial City and
Its Pearly Gates-The Reality of Heav-
en- Described-The Gatekeeper and
the Final Password.

Of the St. Lawrence, on a recent Sabbath.
When the preacher addressed the congre-
cation be took for his subject Gan Island
Vision" his texts being:
I. John. was in the isle that Is called Pat.
Revelation, l., g.
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls
Revelation, 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: Whether 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 surmse 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 the islands of the
v ld have had to do with sacred and pro-
fame history. Eliza, from which Napoleon
started for his last struggle, and St Hele-
ma, whore ne ended it: the island of
Guernsey, where the great soul of Victor
Hugo chafed in exile until republicanism
in France drove lack despotism; the isle
of Borueo, where Adoniram Judson
stood, a flaming evangel: the island of
Caprera, where GarbaIdi rested after the
emanyi alton Of Italy; the island of Cy-
prus, where Barnabas preached; the island
Of Melita on which Paul was shipwrecked;
and last Of all, but migutier 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
lelizer, saw the twelve pearline gates. If
God viii help US, we can from these Thou
sand Isles, on this sabbath morning, see
the same -litterinz portals.
Our subject speaks Of a great metropolis.
the existence Of which many have doubt
ell. Stan ling on the wharf and looking off
upon the Aarbor, ana seeing the merchant
men coming up the hay. the flags of for
rigE nations streaming from the top gall
iauts, YOU Immediately make up your
mind that those vessels came from foreign
ports, and YOU say:
THAT is from Hamburg, and that is
from Marsciiles, and that is from South
ampton, and that is from Havana"
And your supposition is accurate. But
from the city OF which l am now speaking
no weather beaten merchantmen or frig-
ate- 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 iescry.
There IS no sucn city" says the unde-
vout astronomer - have stood in high
towers with a mighty telescope, and have
swept the heavens, and | have seen spots
nn 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 a
grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible
descriptions of it are in all cases to be
taken fguratively. | bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
go to prepare
Not theory, not a principle, not sentl-
ment; but
go to prepare 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 reconstructed it must have
something to handle. If my eye, having
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 HEAVIER
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 Sod in the i'm
mensities can build place large enough
30 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
she glaciers and crosses over from crag to
rag, so Herschel planted his telescope be-
.ween the worlds that glided from star to
sJaI until he could announce to us that we
1--WE N part of the universe but sparsely
strewn with worlds, and he peers out into
unmensity until he finds a region no larger
than our solar system, in which there are
$4,000 worlds moving. And Prof. Lang
says that 10y philosophic reasoning there
must be somewhere world where there
is no darkness, but everlas ting sunshine;
$50 that ! do not know tut that it is simply
Lt-a use we have no telescope powerful
enough that We can not see into the land
where there is no darkness at all, and
catch a glimpse of the burning pinnacles
AS cOnquerng army marching on to take
city comes at nightfall TO the crest of 6
mountain from which, in the midst of the
landscape, they see the castles they are tt
capture, and rein in their chargers and
halt aud take a good look before they pitcl
their tents for the night, so, now, coming
as We do on this mountain top of pros
poet, | command this regi ment of God tt
rein in their thoughts and halt, and before
they pit h 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 fanked with lions in statuary
the bronze gate representation of inter
twining foliage, rd-haunted, until the
hand of architectural genius drops ex-
hausted, all its life frozen into the stone
Babylon had hundred gates, so had
Thebes. Gates of wood and iron anC
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 gate such as no eye ever gazed
on, untouched of inscription. With the
nail of his own cross he cut into its won