The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-07-08

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 hsaven-built walls
And pearly gates behold,
Thy bulWarks with salvation strong
And streets Of shining gold?
Oh, heaven is not dull place! Heaven
is not contracted place. Heaven is not a
stupid place. 81 saw the twelve gates and
they We're twelve pearls"
In the second place, l want you to count
the number of those gates. Imperial parks
and lordly manors are apt to have one ex-
pensive gateway and the others are ordi-
nary; but look around at these entrances to
heaven and count them. Hear it, all the
earth and all the heavensl Twelve gates.
/ admit this is rather hard on sharp Sec
tarianisms. If Presbyterian is higoted,
he brings his Westminster assembly
catechism, and he makes gateway out of
that, and he says TO the world: "You go
through there, or stay out" If a Meth
odist is bigoted, he plants two posts, and
he says: Now you crowd in between
those to posts or stay out" Or perhaps
an Episcopalian may say: "Here is q
liturgy out of which mean to make gate.
Go through it or stay out" Or a Baptist
may say: "Here is water gate You go
through that or you must stay out" And
so in all our churches and i'll our denomi-
nations, there are men who make one gate
for themselves and then demand that the
whole world go through it. I abhor this
contractedness in religious views. Oh,
small-souled man, when did God give you
the contract for making gates? l tell you
plainly will not go in that gate. l will
go in at one of the twelve gates I choose.
&c Nr.1,C
easily and more closely approach God
brother, then use the PRAYER book" Here
is a man who says: 81 believe there is only
one mode of baptism, and that is INNER
Sion" Then say: "Let me plunge you. T"
Anyhow I say: "Away with the gate Of
rough panel and rotten posts and rusted
latch, when there are twelve gates, and
they are twelve pearls.
"What," say you, would you resolve all
the Christian church into one kind Of
church? Would you make all Christendom
worship in the same way, by the same
forms?" o no! You might as we'll decide
that all people shalt eat the same kind of
food without reference to appetite, or wear
the same kind of apparel without reference
to the shape Of their body. Your ancestry,
your temperament, your surroundings, will
decide whether you go to this or that church,
and adopt this or that polity. One church
will best get one man to heaven and an
other church another man. I do not care
which one of the gates you go through, if
you only 60 through one of the twelve gates
that Jesus lifted.
Looking out at the 144, 600 and you can
mo- t." at what gate they came in. One
Lord. Une faith. One baptism. One
CLASSY sea. One doxology. One triumph.
One heaven. "Why, Luther, how did you
get in?" 81 came through the third gate"
"Cranmer, how did you get in?" IL came
through the eighth gate" "Adoniram Jud-
son, how did you get through" 81 came
through the seventh gate" "Hugh Nc
Kali, the martyr, how didyou get through"
II came through the twelfth gate" Glory
to God. Twelve gates, but one heaven.
In the third place, notice the points of
the compass toward which these gates look.
They are not on one side, or on two sides,
or on three sides, but on four sides. This
i, no fancy of mine, but distinct annouce-
ment. On the north, three gates; on the
south, three gates; on the east, three gates;
on the west, three gates. What does that
mean? Why, il means that all nationalities
are included, and it does not make any diff
ference from what quarter of the earth a
man comes up; if his h art is right there is
a gate open before him. On the north,
three gates. That means mercy for Lap
land, and Siberia, md Norway, and
Sweden. On the south, three gates. That
means pardon for Hindostan, and Algiers,
and Ethiopia. On the east, three gates.
That means salvation for China, and Japan,
and Borneo. On the west, three gates.
That means redemption for America. 1t
does not make any difference how dark
skinned or how pale-faced men may be,
they will find a gate right before them.
Those plucked bananas under a tropical
sun. These shot across Russian SHOWS
behind reindeer. From Mexican plateau,
from Roman cNmpana, from Chinese tea
field, from Holland dixie, from Scotch
highlands, they come, they come. Heaven
is not a monopoly for q few precious souls.
1t is not a Windsor castle for royal families.
1t is not small town with small popula-
ton, but John saw it and and he noticed
that an angel was measuring it, and he
measured it this way, and then he meas
ured it that, and whichever way he meas
ured it, it was fifteen hundred miles; so
that Babylon and Thebes, and Tyre and
Nineveh, and st. Petersburg and Canton,
and Pekin and Paris, and London and
New York, and all the dead cities of the
past and all the living cities of the present
added together would not equal the census
of that great metropolis.
Walking along the street you can, by the
contour of the dress or of the face, guess
where man came from. You say: "That
is a Frenchman; that is a Norwegian; that
is an American" But the gates that gather
in the righteous will bring them in ire
spective of nationality. Foreigners some
times get homesick. Some of the tenderest
and most pathetic stories have been told Of
those who left their native cline and longed
for it until they died. But the Swiss COM
ing to the high residence of heaven will not
long any more for the Alps standing on the
eternal hills. The Russian will not long
any more for the luxuriant harvest fields he
left, now that he hears the hum and the
rustic of the harvests of everlasting light.
The royal ones from earth will not long to
go back again to the earthly court, now
that they stand in the palaces Of the sun.
Those who once lived amid the groves Of !
spice and oranges will not long to return,
now that they stand under the trees of life !!
that bear twelve manner of fruit.
While speak an ever-increasing throng !
is passing through the gates. They are |
going up from SenegamDla, from Pata- |
gonia, from Madras, from Hong Kong.
"Whati" you say, "do you introduce all the !
heather into glory?" tell you the fact is
that the majority of the people in those
climes die in infancy, and the infants all |!
go straight into eternal life, and SO the vast |
majority of those who die in China and !
India, the vast majority of those who die !
in Africa 60 straight into the skies-they |
die in infancy Ono hupdrad md S;vkyy I
generations have been born since |
the world was created, and SO |
estimate that there must be fifteen thou !
sand million children in glory. If at !
a concert two thousand children sing your |
anIl is a1araIatiarad 1,-iIl.i.. Ql, I