The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-07-09
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
4 Discourse Deliv cred Amid the
Thousand Isles.

sAn Island vision'-Ths Celestial CITY and
Its Pearly Gates-The Reality Of Heav-
En- Dsscribed-The Gatekeeper and
the Final Password.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, q large portion
o. his congregation and q multitude from
surrounding villages assembled at Alex.
andria Bay, among the Thousand Isles"
of the st. Lawrence, on q recent Sabbath.
when the preacher addressed the congre.
cation he took for his subject IAN Island
VISION" his texts being:
I, John was In the isle that IL called Pat.
mos.-f3evelation, l., B.
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 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, I
am reminded how much the islands of the
world have had to do with sacred and pro-
fame history. Elba, from which Napoleon
started for his last struggle, and 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
enamel ration of Italy; the island of Cy-
prus. where Barnabas preached; the island
of Melita, on which Paul was shipwrecked;
and last of all. but migitier than all and
more impressive than all, the island of
Patmcs. of which ny text speaks and from
which st. John, the exiled Ephesian Cos
pelizer, saw the twelve pearline gates. If
God will help US, we can from these Thou
ssnd Isles, on this Sabbath morning, see
the same glttering portals.
Our subject speaks of a great metropolis,
the existence of which many have doubt
ed. Standing on the wharf and looking off
upon the hsrbor, and seeing the merchant
men coming up the bay, the flags of for.
eign nations streaming from the top gall
lants, you Immediately make up your
mind that those vessels came from foreign
ports, and you say:
''That is from Hamburg, and that is
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 vast Immigration
into that city, but no emigration from it
So far as our natural vision can descry.
''There is no SUCH city," says the unde-
wont astronomer. II have stood in high
towers with a mighty telescope, and have
swept the heavens, and have seen spots
on me sun and caverns in the moon; but
no towers have ever risen OH my vision,
no palaces, no temples, no shining streets,
no massive wall. There is no such city"
Even very good people tell rue 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
t.; ken figuratively. 1 bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
go to prepare
Not theory, 10. principle, not a senti.
ment: but
Igo 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 it must have
something to handle. If my eve. having
gone out in death. is to be rekindled, I
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 fiat amid the ma
terial organisms then soul IN Heaven
will be cramped and hiniered in its en-
ioyments: but 1 answer: Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the gar
den of Eden: Although only few miles
would have described the circumference
OF that place, they had ample room. And
do you not suppose that God in tie inn
mcnsities can build place large enough
to give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms:
Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock between
the glaciers and crosses over from crag to
cag, so Herschel planted his telescope be-
tween the worlds that glided from star to
star until he could announce to us that We
live in a part of the universe but sparsely
strewn with worlds, and he peers out into
immensity until he finds region no larger
than our solar system, in which there are
$4,000 worlds moving. And Prof. Lang
says that by philosophic reasoning there
must be somewhere q world where there
is no darkness, but everlas ting sunshine;
SO that do not know but that it is simply
because we have no telescope powerful
enough that We can not see into the land
where there is no darkness at all. and
catch glimpse of the burning pinnacles.
As conqueriny army marching on to take
a city comes at nightfall to the crest of a
mountain from which, in the midst of the
Landscape, they see the castles they are to
capture. and rein in their chargers and
halt and take good look before they pitch
their tents for the night, so, now, coming
as We do on this mountain top of pros
Pect, 1 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 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 q representation of inter .