The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1886-07-29
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
A Discourse Delivered Amid the
Thousand Isles.

Gan Island vision"-The Celestial City and
Its Pearly Gates-The Reality Of Heav-
en- Described-The Gatekeeper and
the Final Password.
Rev. T. Dewitt Talmage, large portion
Of his congregation and 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-
cation he took for his subject San Island
Vision" his texts being:
I, John, was in the isle that is called Pat
mos Revelation, t., 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 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 as, islands all around US,
ann reminded how much the islands of the
world have had to do with sacred and pro-
fame history. Elba, from which Napoleon
started for bis last struggle, and st. Hele-
ma, where he ended it; the island of
Hugo chafed in exile until republicanism
in France drove back despotism; the isle
of Borneo, where Adoniram Judson
stood, 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
pelizer, saw the twelve pearline gates. II
God will help us, we can from these Thou
sand Isles, on this Sabbath morning, see
the same glittering portals.
Cur 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 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-
vout astronomer. II have stood in high
towers with 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 is no such city. !"
Even very good people tell rue that
Heaven is not material organism, but a
grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible
descriptions of it are in all cases to be
taken fguratively. I bring in reply to
this what Christ said, and he ought to
know:
go to prepare
Not theory, not principle, not senti-
ment; but
go 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. If nv
hand Is to be reconstructed it must have
something to handle. II my eye, 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 float amid the ma.
terlai organisms, then a soul in Heaven
VIII be cramped and hindered in its en-
joyments; but answer: Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the gar.
den OF Edena 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 i'm
mensities can build place large enough
to give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms?
And the twelve gates were twelve pearls.
In the first place, I want you to examine
the architecture of those gates. Proprie.
tors OF large estates are very apt to have
an ornamented gateway. Sometimes thew
spring an arch Of masonry; the posts of
the gate fanked with lions in statuarv.
the bronze gate representation of inter.
twining foliage, bird-haunted, until the
hand OF architectural genius drops ex-
hausted, all its life frozen into the stone.
babylon had hundred gates, 80 had
Thebes. Gates of wood and iron and
stone guarded nearly all the old cities.
Moslems have inscribed upon their gate.
ways inscriptions from the Koran of the
Mohammedan, There have been a 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
derful traceries stories Of past suffering
and Of gladness to come. There is no
wood or stone or bronze in that gate. but
from top to base and from side to side 1t is
all OF pearl Not one piece picked up from
Ceylon banks, and another from piece
from the Persian Gulf, and another from
the Island of Marguerite; but one solid
pearl picked up from the beach of ever
lasting light by heavenly hands. and
1&ST Uka u