The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1890-07-24
THE wIDE-OPEN DOOR.
ALL GLASSES ARE WELCOME.
Rev. DR.. Talmsge shows How the Por-
tails of Heaven May be Passed.


gospel had made an excitement danger
Gus TO every form of iniquity. This will
often be the result of pointed preach.
ing. Men will finch under the sword
strokes of truth. You ought not to be
mrprised that tho blind man makes an
outcry Of pain when the surgeon removes
the cataract from his eye. IL Is good sign
when you sec men unensy in the church pew,
and exhibiting impatience at some plain ut
terancc Of truth which smites pet sin that
they are hugging to their hearts. After the
patient has teen so low that for weeks he
said nothing and noticed nothing. it is
thought 20 be n good sign when he begins 10
be q little cross. And so | notice that spir-
itual invalids are in n fair way for recovery
when they become somewhat irascible and
choeric under the treatment of the truth.
But John had so nightly inculpated public
iuiauty that he had been banished from his
church and sen. TO Potfuas, desolate island,
only mile in breadth, against whose rocky
coasts the sea rose and mingled its voice with
the prayers and hymnings of the heroic exile.
You cannot but contrast the condition OF
this banished apostle with that of another
famous exile. Look at the apostle on Pat
mos and the great Frenchman on st. Helena
Both were suffering among dcsolation and
barrenness because Of offenses committed
Both had passed through lives cventful aud
thrilling. Both had been honored and de-
spised. Both were imperial natures. Both
llu bcen OH 10 ults " llhTh llS
infinite diffcrencc-one had fought for the
perishnblc crown OF worldly authority, the
other for one cternally lustrous. The one
had marked his path with the bleached skulls
OF his followers, the other had introduced
peace and good will among men, The one
had lived chiefly for self-aggrandisemcn
and the other for the glory of Christ. The
successes of the ono were achieved amid the
breaking OF thor ands of hearts and tho
acute heaven-rending cry of orphanage and
wtdowhood while the triumphs OF tho other
made joy in heaven among the angels OF
Col.
Tho heart OF one exile was filed with re.
morse and despair, while the other was
lighted up vita thanksgiving and mex
hnguishable hope. Over st. Helena gath
cred the blackness and darkness clouds,
lighted up by no sunrising. but rent aud
fringed and heaving with tho lightnings of
wrathful God, and the spray flung over
the rocks seemed to hiss with the condemna-
ton, "The way Of the ungodly shall perish"
But over Patmos the heavens were openel,
aud the stormy sea beneath was forgotten
in the roll and CLEAN of waters from under
the throne like crystal; and the barrenness
Of the ground under the apostle was forgot
ten as above him he saw tho trees of life all
bending under the rich glow Of heavenly
fruitage, while the honrse blast of contend
ing elements around his suffering body was
drowned in the trumpeting of trumpets and
the heharping Of harps, the victorious cry OF
multitudes like the voice of many waters
and tho hosanna OF hosts in number like the
stars.
What dull spot upon which to stand and
have such n glorious vision Had Patmo,
been some tropical island arbored with the
luxuriance of perpetual summer, and drowsy
with breath of cinnamon and caSsia, and tes-
selated with long aisles OF geranum and cac.
tus, We would not have been surprised at the
ctalnplnr of the Vaipn tlnt tina Inst plurf
you would go to IL you wanted to find beau
tiful visions would be the island of Patmos
Yet il is around such gloomy spots that God
makes the most wonderful revelation. n wa.
looking through the awful shadows of a
prison that John Bunyau saw the gate OF the
celestial city. God there divided the light
from tho darkness. In that gloomy abode
on scraps of old paper picked up about hi,
room, the great dream was written.
IL was while John Calvin was n refugee
from bloody persecution, and was hid in
house at Angouleme, that no conceived the
idea of writing his immortal "Inst itutes .
Jacob had many time seen the sun break
ing through the mists and kindling their
into shafts and pillars OF fiery spendor that
might well have been ladder for the angels
otrcad on but the famous ladder which ht
saw scared through gloomy night over the
wilderness. The night OF trial and deSola
ton is the scene of the grandest heavenly
revelations. From the barren, surf beater
rock of Patmos John looked up and saw tina
door was opened in heaven.
Again, the announcement OF such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that Co.
islOoking down upon the earth and observ
ant of all occurrences. III we would gain
wide prospect we climb up into tower OF
mountain. The higher up we arc the broad
er the landscape we behold. Yet our mos
comprehensive view Is limited to only few
ieagues-here n river and there a lake anC
alaVa. IN..A. l..
must be the glory OF the earth i'll the eye o
him who from the door of heaven bcholds IA
one glance all mountains and :',kes aud prai
rles and oceans, lands bcspanglei with trop
lcal gorgeousness and Arctic regions whit
with everlasting SHOWS, Lebanon ma jesti
with cedars and American wids solemn witt
unbrOken forests of pine, African deserts o
glistening sand and Wilderness of waite
unbroken by ships keel, continents covere
WIN harvests of wheat and rico aud maizC
the glory Of every zone, the whole word Z
mountains and seas and forests anl island
taken in ina single glance OF their grea
Creator.
As we take our stand upon some high poir
single objects dwindle into such insignificant
That we cease to see them in the minutiR, an
we behold only the grand points OF th
scenery. But not so With God. Althoug
standing far up in the very tower of HEAVIER
nothing by reason of its smallness escapes Hi
vision. Every lily of the field, every viole
under the grass. the tniest heliotrope, aste
and gentan are as plainly seen by Him d
Tue proudest magnolia, and not one vein G
color IN their leaf deepens or fades withou
Ills notice. From this door in heaven Go
sees all human conduct and the world
moral changes Not one tear of sorrow fall
IN hospital or workshop or dungeon but III
sees IT. and in high heaven makes record o
It's fall.
The worlds iniquities in all their ghastli
ness glover under His vision. Wars an
tumults, and the desolations of famine an
earthquake whirlwind and shipwrec
spread out before Him II there were II
Delng in all the universe but God He coul
DO happy with such an outlook as the doc
Oh heaven. But there He stands, no MOI
disturbed by the fall of kingdom than th
propplng OF a leaf, no more excited by d
rising of n throne than the bursting OF Il hu,
The falling Of deluge than the trickling {
araindrop. Earthly royalty clutches ne
Nolisiy its scepter and waits in suspense u
WIZ OF lnilamed subjects, and the crown
tossed froln one family to another. Bl
above all earthly vicissitudcs and the II
Ault of human passions in mistaken securil
M9his the King OF Kings watching all th
Inairs OF His empire from the iutroluctio
head.
again, learn from the fact that a do
n heaven is opened that there IL "A way q
fntflnea for aftr al ~ O.,