The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-07-09

ger will fash under the gaslight But o
! the brightness when the great gate of
heaven swings. struck through and drip.
ping with the light of eternal MONDAY!
Julius Cesar paid 125, 600 crowns for one
pearl. The Government of Portugal boast.
cd of having pearl larger than q pear.
Cleopatra and Philip II. daxsled the
gather all these together and lift them,
and add to them all the wealth of the pearl
fisheries, and set them in the panel of one
door, and it does not equal this magni-
| 6cent gateway. An Almighty hand bewed
this, strung this. polished this. Against
this gateway on the one side, dash all the
splendors Of earthly beauty. Against this
| gate on the other side, beat the surges OF
eternal glory. o, the gate! the gate! 1t
strikes an infinite charm through every
one that passes it. One step this side Of
that gate, and we are paupers. One step
the other side OF that gate, and we are
kings. The pilgrim of earth going through
sees in the one huge pearl all his earthly
tears in crystal. o, gate Of Ii ght, gate Of
heaven, for our weary souls at last swing
| open!
When shall these eyes thy heaven built wall
And pearly gates behold.
| Thy buiwarks with salvation strong,
And streets of shining gold?
o, heaven is not dull place! Heaven
is not contracted place. Heaven is not
| a stupid place. 81 saw the twelve gates
and thew were twelve pearls"
In the second place, want you to count
- s>I
parks and lordly manors are apt to have
| one expensive gateway and the others
are ordinary; but look around at these
entrances to Heaven and count them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine ten, eleven, twelve. Hear it,
all the earth and all the Heavens! Twelve
gates!
admit this 10 rather hard on sharp
sectarianisms. II Presbyterian is
bigoted he brings his Westminster
Assembly Catechism, and he makes
gateway out of that, and he says to the
| world:
"You 60 through there or stay out"
II Methodist is bigoted he plants two
posts ami he says:
Snow you crowd in between those two
posts or stay out.
Or perhaps an Episcopalian may say:
"Here is liturgy out Of which 1
mean to make gate; go through it or
| stay out"
Or Baptist may say:
Here is a water gate; you go through
| that or you must stay out"
And so in all our churches and in our
denominations Ghere are men who make
one gate for themselves and then demand
that the whole world go through it, l
abhor this contractedness in religious
! views. o, small souIed man. when did
God give you the contract for making
gates. 1 tell you plainly, will not go in
that gate. 1 will 90 in at any one of the
twelve gates I choose. Here is a man who
| says:
81 can more easily and more closely ap.
proach God through a prayer-nook."
l say: my brother, then use the
prayer-hook."
Here is man who says:
81 believe there is only one mode of
baptism, and THAI is immersion"
Then say: ''i.et me plunge YOU"
Anyhow 1 say, away with the gate Of
rough panel and rotten posts and rusted
latch, when there are twelve gates and
they are twelve pearls.
The fact is that a great many of the
churches in this day are being doctrned
to death. They have been trying to find
out all about Gods DEGREES, and they want
to know who are elected to be saved and
who are Teprobated to be damned. and
they are keeping on discussing that SUBJ
ject when there are millions of souls Who
need to have the truth put straight at
them. They sit counting the number of
teeth in the jawhone WITH which Samson
Sew the Phiiistiues. They sit on the
beach and see a vessel going to pieces in
the ofiing. and instead of getting into q
boat and pulling away for the wreck, they
set discussing the various styles of oar
locks. God intended us to know some
things and intended us not to know others.
Ihave heard scores Of sermons explanatory
of Gods DEGREES, but came away more
perplexed than when l went. The only
result of such a discussion is a great fog.
Here are two truths which are to conquer
the world: Man, sinner; Christ,
Saviour. ANY man who adopts these two
theories in his religious belief shall have
nv RICH. h"nd in warm grip of Christian
brotherhood.
A man comes down to a river in time OF
freshet. He wants to get across. He has to
swim. What does he do: The first thing
is to put off his heavy apparel and drop
| everything he has in his hands. He must
60 empty handed if he is going to the
other bank. And tell you when we have
L., 20 81, Of 4, nd ind
it swift and raging, we will have to put off
| all our sectariaaism and lay down our
cumbrous creed, and empty-handed put
out for the other shore.
"What," say you. "would you resolve
all the Chrstia an churches into one kind of
church: Would you make all Christen ION
worship in the same way, by the same
| forms!'
o, no. You might as well decide that
! all people shall 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 tina:
| church, and adopt this or that polity.
One church will best get one man to Heav-
en-, and another church another man. / do
not care which one of the gates you go
through, if you only go through one of the
twelve gates that Jesus lifted.
Looking out at the one hundred and
forty and four THOUSAND, and you can not
tell at what gate they came in. One Lord.
One 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:"
81 came through the eighth gate"