The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-12
ASCENSION DAYS STORY.
ITS LESSONS FULL OF INsPIRA-
TION AND GLORY.

Rule the World.
BROOKLYN, May ii.--After reading ap-
propriate passages of scripture, and the
usual prayers and musical exercises, DR..
Talmage preached the following sermon in
the Academy of Music this morning from
the words, Lift up your heads. o ye gates
and be ye lifted up, yei everlasting doors;
and the king of glory shall come inn
Psalms XIV, z:
In olden times when O great conqueror
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. OFF from the hinges with the
gates" David, who was the poet of poets
foretells in his own way the triumphal en-
trance OF Christ into heaven after his vic
tory over sin and death and hell. 1t was as
if the celestial inhabitants had said: "Here
he comesl Make way for him Push back
the bolts of diamondt Take hold Of the
doors of pearl and hoist them from their
hinges of gold Lift up your heads, o ye
gates; and be We lifted up, We everlasting
doors; and the king of glory shall come inn
Among the mountains of Palestine no
one is more uplifting than Mount Olivet
1t was the peroration Of our Lords minis
try. On the roof of house in Jerusalem
l asked, (which is Olivetp and the first
glance transfixed me. But how shall
describe my emotions, when, near the close
of a journey, in which we had for two
nights encamped amid the shattered ma
sonry OF old Jericho, and tasted of the acrid
wafarG NJ tho DaQn that al ar
cophagus of 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 long and difficult
way, ascending Mount Olivet. o, that
solemn and suggestive ridgel 1t is lime
stone hill, mile in length, and three hun
dred feet high, and twenty-seven hundred
feet above the level Of the sea. Over it
King David fed with broken heart. Over
it Pompey led his devastating hosts. Here
the famous Tenth Legion built their bat
teries In besiegement. The Garden of
Gethsemane weeps at the foot of 1t. Along
the base of this hill flashed the lanterns and
torches of those who came to arrest Jesus
From the trees on this hill the boughs were
torn off and thrown into the path of Christ's
triumphal procession. Up and down that
TOhu Jesus uau Wdlkeu Twice uay
from Bethany to Jerusalem, and from
and again, he had taught his
disciples. Half way up this mount he ut
tered his lamentation, 20 Jerusalem Jeru-
salemln From its nights Jesus took flight
homeward 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 out
ragged heaven. and he offered it. Death
needed to be conquered, and he had put his
resurrection foot upon it. The thirty-three
years of voluntary exile had ended. The
grandest tenderest mightiest good-by ever
heard was now to be uttered.
On Mount Oliyet Jesus stands in a group
of Galilee fishermen. They had been to-
gether in many scenes of sadness and per-
secution, and had been the more endeared
by that brotherhood of suffering They
had expected him to stay until the day of
coronation, when he would take the earthly
throne and wave scepter mightier, and
rule a 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 offered
his last sympathy. He has spoken
his last word. His hands are spread
apart as one is apt to do when
he pronounces benediction. when suddenly
the strongest and most stupendous law of
all worlds is shattered. 1t is the law which,
since the worlds were created, holds them
together. 1t is the law which holds every
thing to the earth or, temporarily hurled
from earth, returns it; the law which keeps
the planets whirling around our sun, and
our solar system whirlirg around other
systems, 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 60 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
of the lake. That law of gravitation must
now give way to him who made the law !.
1t may hold the other stars, but it cannot
longer hold the Morning Star of the Re-
demption. 1t may hold the MONDAY SUI,
but it cannot 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
maltreated. The strongest law of nature
which philosophers ever weighed or meas
ured must at last give way. 1t will break
between the rock of Olivet and the heel Of
Christ's foot. Watch it, all ye disciples!
Watch it, all the earth Watch it, all the
heavensl Christ about to leave this planet.
Hows His friends will not consent to have
him go. His enemies catching him would
only attempt by another Calvary to put
him into some other tomb will tell you
how. The chain of the most tremendous
natural law is unlinked. The sacred foot
of our Lord and the limestone rock part,
and 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 ase out OF reach, and it
is too late to detain him. Higher than the
tops of the fig trees from which they had
pluckei the fruit. Higher than the olive
trees that shaded the mount. Higher until
he is within sight of the Bethlehem where
he was born, and the Jordan whore he was
baptized, and the Golgotha where he was
slain. Higher, until on stairs OF deecy
cloud he steps, Higher, until, into a
sky bluer than the lake that could
not sink him, he disappears into
splendors hide him. The fishermen watch
and watch, wondering If tho law of nature
will not reassert itself. and he shall in a
few moments come back again, and they
shall see him descending; first his SCARED
feet coming in sight, then the SCARED side,
then the SCARED brow, and they may take
again his SCARED hand. But the moments
pass by, and the hours, and no reappear-
ance. Gone out Of sight OF earth. but come
within sight OF heaven. And rising still,
not welcomed by one angelic choir like
those who one Christmas night escorted
IL III L -