The Russellville Democrat., 1890-05-22
THE ASCENSION.
Tie Final Scene in the Earthly
Mission Of Christ.
The Opening Of the Everlasting Doors
for the Admission Of the King Of
Glory; Doors that stand Open
for All who VIII Enter.


The following discourse on the ascen-
sion was delivered by Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage in the Brooklyn Academy Of
Music, from the text:
Lift up your heads, o ye gates: and be ye
| lifted up, ye everlasting doors and the King
| OF Glory shall come In -Psalm xiv, J.
! In olden times when great con-
queror returned from victorious war the
people in wild transport would take
hold of the gates of the city and lift
them from their hinges, as much as to
say: This city needs no more gates
to defend it since this conqueror has
got home of from the hinges the
gatesl" David who was the poet Of
poets, foretells in his own way the tri-
umphal entrance OF Christ into Heaven
after His victory over sin and death
| and hell. 1t was as If the celestial in
habitants had said: ''Iiere He comes
Make way for Him. Push back the
bolts OF diamond Take hold Of the
doors of pearl and hoist them from their
hinges of goldl Lift up your heads, o
ye gates; and be We lifted up we ever
| lasting doors; and the King OF Glory
shall come in"
Among the mountains Of Palestine no
one is more uplifting than Mount 0liyet.
1t was the peroration of our Lords
ministry. On the roof Of house in
Jerusalem asked, (Which is Olivet?p
and the first glance transfxed me. But
how shall | describe my emotions when,
near the close of journey, in which we
had for two nights encamped amid the
shattered masonry of OLD Jericho, and
tasted the acrid waters of the Dead Sea,
that crystal sarcophagus Of the buried
cities of the plain, and waded down into
the deep and swift Jordan to baptize a
man, and visited the ruins of the house
of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, we
found ourselves in stirrups and on
horse, lathered with the long and diff
fcult way, ascending Mount olivet?
Oh, that solemn and suggestive ridge.
| 1t is limestone hill mile in length,
and three hundred feet high, and TWEEN
/ ty-seven hundred feet above the level of
the sea. Over it King David fled with a
broken heart. Over it Pompey led his
devastating hosts. Here the famous
| Tenth Legion built their batteries in
besiegement The Garden of Gethsem-
ane weeps at the foot Of it. Along the
base of this hill flashed the lanterns
and torches of those who came to arrest
| Jesus. From the trees of this hill the
| boughs were torn off and thrown into
| the path of Christ's triumphal process
sion. Up and down that road jesus had
walked twice day, from Bethany to
Jerusalem, and from Jerusalem to Beth
any There, again and again, He had
taught His disciples. Half way up to
this mount lie had uttered His lamenta-
ton: 20 Jerusalem, Jerusalemr'
From its heights Jesus took flight home
ward when He had finished His earthly
mission. There is nothing more for
Him to do. A sacrifice was needed to
make peace between the recreant earth
and the outraged Heaven, and He had
offered it. Death needed to be con-
quered, and He had put His resurrec-
tion foot upon it. The thirty three
| years of voluntary exile had ended.
! The grandest, tenderest mightiest
| goodbye ever heard was now to be ut
tered
On Mount Olivet Jesus stands in a
/
been together in many scenes of sadness
and persecution, and had been the more
endeared by that brotherhood of suffer-
ing. They had expected Him to stay until
| the day Of coronation when He would
take the earthly throne and wave a
scepter mightier, and rule dominion
wider than any Pharaoh, than any
David, than any Caesar. But now all
these anticipations collapse. Christ
has given His last advice. He has Of
fered His last sympathy. He has spoken
His last word. His hands are spread
| apart as one is apt to do when he pro-
nounces a benediction, when suddenly
the strongest and most stupendous law
/ of all worlds is shattered. 1t is the law
which, since the worlds we're created,
holds them together. 1t is the law
which holds every thing to the earth
or, temporarily hurled from earth re-
turns it; the law which keeps the plan
cts whirling around our sun, and our
solar system whirling around other sys-
tens, and all the systems whirling
around the throne OF God--the law of
gravitation. That law is suspended, or
relaxed, or broken, to let the body of
Jesus 40. That law had laid hold of
Him thirty-three years before, when He
| descended. 1t had relaxed its grip Of
! Him but once, and that when it declined
to sink Him from the top Of the waves
on Lake Galilee, on which He walked,
to the bottom of the lake.
That law of grayitation must now
| give way to Him who made the law. 1t
may hold the other stars, but it can not
longer hold the Morning Star of the
| Redemption. 1t may hold the MONDAY
! sun, but it can not hold the Sun of
Righteousness. The fingers of that law
are about to open To let go the most
| illustrious being the world had ever
seen, and whom it had worst maltreat-
ed. The strongest law of nature which
| philosophers ever weighed or measured
must at last give way. IL viii break
! between the rock of Olivet and the heel
OF Christ's foot Watch it, all We
| disciplesl Watch it. ali the earth!
| Watch it, all the heavens! Christ about
70 leave this planet. How? His friends
will not consent 10 have Him go. His
enemies catching Him would only at
tempt by another Calvary to put Him
into some other tomb. ! will tell you
how, The chain OF the most tremend-
Gus natural law is unliked. The sacred
foot of our Lord and the limestone rock
part forever.
Leaning back, and with pallid cheek
and uplifted eyes the disciples see
their Lord rising from the solid earth.
Then, rushing forward, they would
grasp His feet TO hold Him fast, but
they are out of reach, and il is too late
to detain Him. Higher than the tops OF
the fig trees from which they had
plueked the fruit; higher than the
olive trees that shaded the mount;
higher, until He is within sight Of the
Bethlehem where lie was born, and the
Jordan where He was baptized and the
Golgotha where lie was slain; higher,
until on stairs OF fleecy cloud He steps;
higher, until into sky bluer than the
lake that could not sink Him He disap-