The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1890-08-07
DIR, TALMAGE'S SERMON.
What he Has to say About the Open
Gates of Heaven.
Dreams of Mntchless splendor Which
Cnmo in Barren Spots.

TEXT: "And, behold, door ,cas opened
in hcuren."-Rev. iv.. /.
John had been the pastor of q church IN
Ephesus. He had been driven from his
position in that city by al indignant pop
ulacc. The preaching Of pure and earnest
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
surprised that the blind man makes an
outcry 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 exhibiting impatience at some plain ut
terance of truth which smites pet sin that
they arc 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 gool sign when he begins to
be little cross. And so I notice that spir-
itual 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 inculpated public
iniquity that he had been banished from his
church and sent to Potmas, adesolate 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.
this bainished 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 desolation and
barrenneSs because of offenses committed.
Both bad passed through lives eventful and
thrilling. Both had been honored and de-
spised. Both were imperial natures. Both
had been turned of to die. Yet mark the
infinite difference-one had fought for the
perishable crown of worldly authority, the
other for one eternally lustrous. The one
had marked his path with the bleaclled skulls
o. his followers, tho other had introduced
peace and good will among men. The one
had lived chiefly. for self-aggranlisemen
and the other for the glory of Christ. The
successes Of the one were achieved amid the
breaking of thousands Of hearts and tho
acute, heaven-rending cry of orpha,age and
wldowhood, while the triumphs OF tho other
made joy in heaven among tho angels OF
God.
The heart of ono exile was filled with re-
morse and despair, while the oGher vos
lighted up witt thanksgiving and in, :.
tinguishable hope. Over st. Helena gat,>.
cred the blacEncss and darkness, clouds,
lighted up by no sunrising, but rent and
fringed and heaving with the ltghtnings OF
q wrattful God, anil the spray flung over
the rocks seemed to hiss with the condemna.
ton, '1'he 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 barreancss
of the ground under tho apostle was forgot
ten as above him he saw the trees o. life oil
bending under the rich glow Of heavenly
fruitage, while the hoarse blast Of contend
ing clements around his suffering Eody was
drowned in the trumpeting of trumpets and
theharping Of barpS the victorious cry OF
mulitudes like the voice Of many waters
and the hosanna of hosts in number like the
stars.
What dull spot upon which to stand and
have such glorious vision! HaG Patmos
been some tropical island. arbored with tho
luxuriance of perpetual summer, and drowsy
with breath Of cinnamon and caSsia, and tes-
selated with long aisles of geranium and cac-
tus, we would not have been surprised at the
splendor of the vision. But tho last place
you would go to if you wanted to find beau
tiful visions would be the island Of Patlnos.
Yet it is, around such gloomy spots chat God
makes the most wonderful revelation. ItwaS
looking through tho awful shadows Of q
prison that John Bunyan saw the gete of the
celestial city. God there divided Ehe light
from the darkness. In that gloomy abode,
on scraps of old paper picked up about his
room, the great dream was written.
1t was while John Calvin was {. refugee
from bloody persecution, and was hid in
house at Angouleme that lc conceived the
idea of writing his immortal Institutes"
Jacob had many time seen the sun break
ing through the mists, and kindinS them
into shafts and pillars Of fiery splendor that
might we'll have been q ladder for the angels
to tread on, but the famous ladder which he
saw scared through gloomy night over the
wilderness. The night Of trial and desola-
tion is the scene of tho grandest heavenly
revelations. From the barren, surf beaten
rock of Patmos John looked up and saw that
q door was opened in heaven.
Again, the announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that GoI
is Shocking down upon the earth and obsery-
ant of ell occurrences. If we would gain n
wide prospect we climb up into tower or
mountain. The higher up wo are the broad
er the landscape we behold. Yet our most
comprehensive view is limited to only few
leagues-hcre q river and there lake aud
yonder q mountain peak. But what must
must be tho glory Of the earth in tie eye OF
Him who from the door Of heaven bcholdS at
one glance all mountains and lakes and prai-
ries and oceans, lands bespangled with trop-
fcal gorgeousness and Arctic regions white
with everlasting SHOWS, Lebanon majestic
with cedars and American wilds solemn with
unbroken forests of pine, African deserts OF
glistening sand and wildernesses OF water
unbroken by ships keel, continents covered
with harvests Of wheat and rice aud maize.
the glory Of every zone, the whole world Of
mountains and seas and forests and islands
taken in In q single glance of their great
Creator. .E
As we take our stand upon some high point
single objects dwindle into such insignifcence
that we cease to see them in the minutioe, and
we behold only the grand points OF the
scenery. But not so with God. Although
standing far up in the very tower Of heaven,
nothing by reason of its smallness escapes His
vision. Every lily Of the field every violet
ander the grass, the tiniest heliotrope, aster
and gentian are as plainly seen by Him as
the proudest magnolia, and not one vein OF
color In their leaf deepens or fades without
his notice. From this door in heaven Col
sees all human conduct and the worlds
moral changes. Not one tear of sorrow falls
in hospital or workshop or dungeon but He
bees it, and in high heaven makes record Of
It's fall.
The worlds iniquities in all their zhastli-
hess glover under His vision. Wars and
tumults, and the desolations of famine and
Earthquake, whirlwind and shipwreck
spread out before Him. If there we're No
being in all the universe but God Hs could
be happy with such an outlook Us the door
Of heaven. But there He stands, no mere
disturbed by the fall of a kingdom than the
dropping of leaf, no more exciteo by the
rising of throne than the bursting OF bud,
the falling of a deluge than the trickling of
raindrop. Earthly royalty clutches ner-
Yously its scepter and waits in suspense the
will of infanied subjects, and the crown is
tossed from one family to another. But
above all earthly vicissitudes and the u.s.
sault of human passions in unshnken security
stands the King OF Kings watching all the
"a tho Lnics .aE