The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-01-18
Rev. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINEs SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Coming Glory"

lat the Brooklyn Tabernacle the Rev. 7. De Wnt
Tamage, D. D., announced tAat next Sabbath he
would begin course OF sermons to the women OF
America with practical hints for men, the follow
Ing subjects among others: .The Women Hho
Worldly Success, without Reference to Moral Char:
acter;"'"1s Engagement as Binding as Marriage?"
"Women Who Are Already Uncongaulally Mar:
Women" "Wifely Ambition Right and Wrong"
"What Kind OF Men Women Should Avoid }" "SiHl-
pliclty IS Opposed to Afectaiton," "RefoImation
In Dress" "Plain Women" "The Female Skeptic''
and "Christian Housewifey.1
TEXT: "Eye hath not seen. nor oar heard,
neither haze Entered into the heart Of man,
the things ,ohich God hath prepared for
them that loue him."-L Corinthians, H., ..
Eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. How
strange it looks, and how strange it sounds!
Not. only Is the past year dead but the CEN
is .lS dnS Cd 4py yyaDt tssys w Sn,e long
pired. None Of the past centuries will
be present at the obsequies. Only
the twentieth Century will see the Nine
teenth buried. As all the years are hasten
ing past, and all our lives on earth will soon
be ended, l propose to cheer myself and
cheer you with the glories to come, which
shall utterly eclipse nll the glorics past; for
my text tells US that eye hath not seen nor
ear heard anything like the advancing splen-
dors.
The city Of Corinth has been called the
Paris Of antiquity. Indeed, for splendor the
world beholds no such wonder to-day. 1t
stood on an isthmus washed by two seas, the
one sea bringing the commerce of Europe,
the other sea bringing the commerce Of Asia.
From her wharves, in the construction of
which whole Kingdoms had been absorbed,
war galleys with three banks of oars pushed
out and confounded the navy yards OF all the
world. Huge-handed machinery, such as
modern invention cannot equal, lifted ships
from the sea on one side and transported
them on trucks across the iSthmus and sat
them down in the sea on the other side.
The revenue officers Of the city went
down through the olive groves that lined
the beach to collect tariff from all nations.
The mirth Of all people sported in her
Isthmian games, and the beauty Of all lands
sat in her theatres, walked her porticos and
threw itself on the altar Of her stupendous
designations. Column, and statue and tenn
ple bewildered the beho!der There were
white marble fountains into which, from
apertures at the side, there rushed waters
everywhere known for health giving quail
ties. Around these basins, twisted into
wreaths of stone, thero were all the beauties
of sculpture and architecture; while stand
ing, as if to guard the costly display,
was a statue of Hercules of bur
nshed Corinthian brass. Vases Of terra
Gotta adorned the cemeteries OF the
dead-vases SO costly that Julius Cesar was
not satisfied until he had captured them for
Rome. Armed officials, the corintharii,
paced up and down to see that no statute was
defaced, no pedestal overthrown, no bas,re,
lief touched. From the edge Of the city a hill
arose, with its magnificent burden of columns
and towers and temples Il 900 slaves waiting
at one shrine), and citadel 80 thoroughly
impregnable that Gibraltar is heap of sand
compared with it. Amid all that strength
and magnificence Corinth stood and defied
the world.
Oh! it was not to rlstics who had never
seen anything grand that Paul uttered this
text. they had heard the best music that
had come from tho best instruments in all
the world; they had heard songs floating
from morning porticos and melting In even.
ing groves: they had passed their whole lives
among pictures and sculpture and architect
ure and Corinthian brass, which had been
nodded and shaped until there was no chariot
wheel in which it had not sped, and no tower
in which it had not glittered, and no gate.
was bold thing for Paul to stand there
amid all that and say: "All this is
nothing. These sounds that come from the
temple Of Neptune are not music compared
with the harnonies Of which speak. These
waters rushing in the basin Of Pyrene are
not pure. These statues Of Bacchus and
Mercury are not exquisite. Your citadel OF
Acrocorinthus is not strong compared with
that which offer to the poorest slave that
puts down his burden at that brazen gate
You Corinthians think this is splendid city;
you think you have heard all sweet sounds
and seen all beautiful sights; but tell you
eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have
entered into the heart Of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love
Him."
You see my text sets forth the idea that,
however exalted our ideas may be Of heaven,
they come far short of the reality. Some
wise men have been calculating how many
furlongs long and wide is the New Jerusalem;
and they have calculated how many inhabit-
ants there are on the Garth; how long the
earth will probably stand; and then they
come to this estimate; that after all the
nations have been gathered to Heaven, there
will be room for each soul-a room sixteen
feet long and fifteen feet wide. 1t would not
be large enough for me. am glad to know
that no human estimate is sufficient to take
the dimensions Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard" nor arithmetics calculated.
frat remark that we can in this world
get no idea of the health Of heaven. When
YOU were child, and you went out in the
morning, how you bounded along the road
or street-you had never felt sorrow or sick
ness Perhaps later you felt glow in your
cheek, ana spring IN your step,and an eXu.
berance Of spirits, and clearness OF eye, that
made you thank God you were permitted to
live The nerves were harpstrings, and the
sunlight was doxology, and tho rustling
leaves wero the rustling OF the robes OF q
great crowd rising up to praise the LORD.
You thought that you knew what it was to be
we'll, but there is no perfect health on earth.
The diseases of past generations came down to
us. The airs that float now upon the earth
are like thosa which floated above Paradise.
They are charged with impurities and dls'
tempers. The most elastic and robust health
of earth, compared with that which those eH-
perience before whom the gates have been
opened, is nothing but sickness and emacla-
tion. Look at that soul standing be-
foro the throne On earth she was lifelong
invalid. See her step now, and hear her
voice now. Catch, if you can, one breath OF
that celestial air. Health in all the pulses
health Of vision, health Of spirits, immortal
health No racking cough no 10 sharp p,ea-
ing pains, no hospitals Of wounded
men. Health swinging in tho air;
health flowing in all the streams;
health blooming on the banks. No head
aches, no sideaches, no backaches. That
child that died in the agonies Of Group, hear
her voice now ringing in the anthem. That
old man that went bowed down with the in
firnlities of old age, SEQ him walk now with
the step Of an immortal athlete-for ever
young again. That night when the needle
woman tainted away in the garret, O wave
Of the heavenly air resuscitated her forever.
For everlasting years 10 have neither ache,
nor pain, nor weakne34her fatigue: Eye
hath not seen It, ear hath not heard It,"
I remark, further, that we can, In thi.
world, get no just idea OF the splendors OF
heaven. John tries to describe them. He
SAWS s.tha twelve gatea are twelve pearls, y