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.

TEXT: 1hn oehotd, door tpdS opened
IN heorcn. Rev. iv., I.
John had been the pastor Of church In
Ephesus. He had been driven from his
position IN that city by an indignant pop
ulace. 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
yurprised that the blind man makes an
outcry OF pain when the surgeon removes
the cataract from his eye. IL Is a good sign
when you see men uneasy in the church pew,
and exhibiting impatience at some plain ut
terancc Of truth which smites n 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 il is
thought 10 bo good sign when he begins 10
be q little cross. And so | notice that spir-
itual invalids nre in fair way for recovery
when they become somewhat irascibe and
choleric under the treatment OF the truth
But John had so nightly inculpatcd public
iniquity that he had been banished from his
church and SEN 20 Potmas. a desoate island
oply mile In breadth, against whose rocky
coasts the sea rose and mingled its voice with
the prayers and hymnngs 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 and
thrilling. Both had been honored and de-
spiscd. Both were imperial natures. Both
had been turned Off to die. Yet mark the
infinite difrerenco-one had fought for tho
periShnble crown OF worldly authority, the
other for one cternally mstrous The one
had marked his path with the bleached skulls
Of his followers, the other had introduced
peace and good will among men. Tho one
had lived chiefly for self-aggrandisemen
and the other for the glory of Christ. The
successes of the one were achieved amid tho
breaking Of thor 1dnds OF hearts and tho
acute, heaven-rending cry Of orphanage aud
widOwhood while the triumphs ot tho other
made joy In heaven among the ange,s OF
Col.
The heart OF one exile was filled with re-
morse and despair, while the other was
lighted up vita thanksgiving and mex
huguishable hope. Over st. Helena gath
cred the blackneSs and darkness, clouds,
lighted up by no sunrising but rent aud
fringcd and heaving with the lightnings of
wralhful God, and tho spray flung over
the rocks seemed to hiss with the condemna-
ton, "rhe way Of the ungodly shall perish"
But over Patmos the heavens were opene /,
and 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 hoarse blast of contend
ing elements around his suffering body was
drowned in the trumpeting of trumpets and
theharping OF harps the victorious cry Of
multtudes like the voice of many waters
and the hoSanna OF hosts in number like the
stars
What n dull spot upon which to stand and
have such a glorious vision, Had Patmos
been some tropical island arbored with tho
mxuriance OF perpetual summer, and drowsy
with breath of cinnamon and caSsia and tes-
selated with long aisles OF geranium and cac-
tuS VIC would not have been surprised at the
spendor of the vision. But the last place
you would go to IL you wanted 10 find beau
tful visions would be the island of Patmos.
Yet IL is around such gloomy spots that God
makes the most wonderful revelation. 1. was
looking through the awful shadows of a
prison that John Bunyan saw the gate of the
celestial city God there divided the light
from the darkness. In that gloomy abode,
on scraps OF old paper picked up about his
room, the great dream was written.
II was while John Calvin was refugee
from bloody persecution, and was hid in n
house at Angouleme, that ho conceived the
idea OF writing his immortal Institute ~
Jacob had many time seen the sun break
ing through the mists, and kindling them
into shafts and pillars Of fiery splendor that
might well have been a ladder for the angels
saw scared through gloomy night over the
wilderness. The night Of trial and desola-
tlon is the scene OF the grandest heavenly
revelations. From the barren, surf beaten
rock OF Patmos John looked up and saw that
door was opened in heaven.
Again, the announcement OF such an
Openel entrance suggests the truth that Col
islooking down upon the earth and obsory.
ant OF all occurrences. III we would gain a
wide prospect we climb up into "A tower or
mountain. The higher up we arc the broad
er the landscape we behold. Yet our most
J comprehensive view Is limited To only u few
ieagues-here river and there a lake and
yonder n mountain peak. But what mus&
must be the glory of the earth in tho eye OF
him who from the door of heaven bcholds at
one glance all mountains and :',kes aud prai-
ries and oceans, lands bespanglei with trop-
lcal gorgcousness and Arctic regions white
WIN everlasting SHOWS, Lebanon ma jcstic
win cedars and American wids solemn with
unbroken forests OF pine, African deserts OF
Sllstening sand and wildernessas OF water
unDrokon by ships keel, continents covered
win harvests OF wheat and rics aud maize.
The glory Of every zone, the whole worh oI
mountains and seas and forests anl islands
GNen IN ina single glance OF their great
As we take our stand upon some high point
single objects dwindle into such insignicenc,
that we cease To see them in the minutip ant
we behold only the grand points Of the
scenery But not so with God. Although
standing far up in the very tower of heaven
hothinS by reason Of its smallness escapes His
VISION. Every lily OF the field every violet
under the grass. the tinest heiotrope aster
anu gentan are as plainly seen by Him n.
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
IA hospital or workshop or dungeon but He
sees IL aud in high heaven makes record Of
Its fall
The worlds inquities in all their ghastli-
ness glover under His vision. Wars AMI
tulnults, and the desolations of famine and
earthquake, whirlwind and shipwreclS
spread out before Him. II there were no
being In all the universe but God He could
De happy with such an outlook as the door
OF heaven. But there He stands no more
disturbed by the fall Of u kingdom than the
uropplng OF a leaf no mord excited by the
rising OF throne than the bursting OF bud,
Tue falling Of "A deluge than the trckling of
hralndrop. Earthly royalty clutches ner-
No,siy Its scepter and waits in suspense the
Mlll OF lnilamed subjects, and the crown Is
tossed from one family 10 another. But
above al earthly vicissitudcs aud the us-
ault OF human passions in unshaken security
a1ui Sais lns hlns OF Kings watching all tho