The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1890-09-19
THE WIDE OPEN DOOR.
slIBJECT OF DR.. TAlMAGE'S SER
MON FOR SUNDAY, JULY 20.


MON FOR SUNDAY, JULY 20.
The Brooklyn Divine Tells Of tho Won |
derful Receptive Power Of Heaven-Ths |
Poor, the Rich, the Sick. the We'll, the |
Learned and the Ignorant All Welcome. |
BROOKLYN, July 2O.-'"The Wide
Open Door" was the subject Of DR.. Tai
IMAGES sermon today, the text being
Rev. iv, 1: "And, behold, a door was
opened in heaven"
John had been the pastor of a church
in E2hesus. He had been driven from
his position in that city by an indig-
nant populace The preaching of a
pure and earnest gospel had made an
excitement dangerous to every form of
iniquity. This VIII often be the result
of pointed preaching. Men viii finch
under the sword strokes of truth You
ought not to be surprised that the
blind man makes an cutlery Of pain
when the surgeon removes the cataract
from his eye.
1t is good sign when you see men
uneasy in the church pew and exhibit
ing Impotence at some plain utterance
of truth which smites pet sin that
they are hugging to their hearts. After
the patient has been so low that for
weeks he said nothing and noticed
nothing it is thought to be good sign
when he begins to be a little cross.
And 80 notice that spiritual invalids
are in fair way for recovery when
they become somewhat irascible and
choleric under the treatment of the
truth. But John had SO nightly i'm
culpated public iniquity that he had
been banished from his church and
sent to Patmos, 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 condi-
ton of this banished apostle with that
of another famous exile. Look at the
apostle on Patmos and the great
Frenchman on st. Helena. Both were
suffering among desolation and bar.
renness because of offenses committed.
Both had passed through lives event
full and thrilling. Both had been hon
.ored and despised. Both were impe-
rial natures. Both had been turned
off to die Yet mark the infinite diff
ference: one had fought for the perish
able crown of worldly authority, the
other for one eternally 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 ACKNOWLEDGMENT and the
other for the glory of Christ. The sue
cesses of the one were achieved amid
the breaking of thousands of hearts
and the acute, heaven rending cry OF
orphanage and widowhood, while the
triumphs of the other made Joy in
heaven among the angels of God.
DESPAIR-HOPE.
The heart of one exile was filed
with remorse and despair, while the
other was lighted up with thanksgiv-
ing and inextinguishable hope Ovel
st. Helena gathered the blackness Of
darkness, clouds lighted up by no sun
rising, but rent and fringed and heav
ing with the lightnings of wrathful
: God, and the spray flung over the
rocks seemed to hiss with the condem
nation: 1.-THE way of the ungodly
shall perish" But over Patmos the
heavens were opened, and the stormy
sea beneath was forgotten in the roll
and CLEAN Of waters from under the
throne like crystal, and the barren
ness of the ground under the apostle
was forgotten as above him he saw the
trees of life all bending under the rict
glow of heavenly fruitage, while the
hoarse blast of contending element.
around his suffering body was drowned
in the trumpeting of trumpets and the
harping of harps, the victorious cry Of
multitudes like the voice of many
waters and the hosanna of hosts il
number like the stars
What dull spot upon which to stand
and have such a glorious vision! Hac
Patmos been some tropical island ar
bored with the luxuriance of perpetual
summer, and drowsy with breath O
cinnamon and cassia, and tessellateG
with long aisles of geranium and Gao
tus, we would not have been surprised
at the splendor of the vision. But thu
last place you would go to if you wanted
to find beautiful visions would be thu
island of Patmos. Yet it is around sucf
gloomy spots that God makes the mos
wonderful revelation. 1t was looking
through the awful shadows of a prison
that John Bunyan saw the gate of thu
celestial city. God there divided the
light from the darkness. In that gloomy
abode, on scraps of old paper picked ur
about his room. the great dream wa.
written.
1t was while John Calvin was 9
refugee from bloody persecution and
was hid in house at Angouleme thai
he conceived the idea of writing hi.
immortal Institutes" Jacob hal
many time seen the sun breaking
through the mists and kindling then
into shafts and pillars of fiery splendol
that might well have been a ladder fol-
the angels to tread on, but the famous
ladder which he saw scared through {
gloomy night over the wilderness. The
night of trial and desolation Is thu
scene of the grandest heavenly revela
tons. From the barren, surf beater
rock of Patmos John looked up and