The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-07-25
THE OPEN DOOR.
DR. Tamage Discourses on the In
vitations to Heaven.
Tho Wonderful Vision the Isle OF Pat
mos-rho Lord watchfuI OF Earthly
TAiDEs-Heavsn Ever Open to
the ChrIstian's Appeal


The subject OF late sermon at Brook
1yn by Rev. T. De Witt Talmage was
;'The Wide Open Door," and his text
Revelations iv. L: ''And, behold, q door
was opened in Heaven" Following is
his Sermon;
John had been the pastor OF a church
in Ephesus. He had been driven from
his position in that city by an indignant
populace.- The preaching OF pure and
earnest Gospel had made an excitement
dangerous to every form of iniquity.
This will often be the result of pointed
preaching. Men will finch under the
sword strokes of truth. You ought not
TO no surprised that the blind man
makes an outcry of pain when the sur
geon removes the cataract from his eye.
IL is good sign when you see men I'M
easy in tho church pew and exhibiting
fmPaticnce at some plain utterance of
truth which smItes pet sin they are
hugging to their hearts. After the pa
tient has been so low that for weeks he
said nothing and noticed nothing it is
thought to be a good sign when he be-
gins to be little cross. And SO notice
that spiritual invalids are in fair way
for recovery when they become some
what 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 Patmos, a desolate
island, only a mile in breadth, against
whose rocky coasts the sea rose and
mingled its voice with the prayers and
hymnings of the heroic exile.
You can not but contrast the condi-
ton of this banished apostle with that
OF another famous exile. Look at the
apostle on Patmos and the great French
man on St Holena Both were suffer-
ing among desolation and barrenness
because of offenses committed. Both
had passed through lives eventful and
thrilling. Both had been honored and
despised. Both were imperial natures
Both had been turned off to die. Yet
mark the infinite difference: one had
fought for the perishablo crown of
worldly authority, the other for one
eternally lustrous. The one had marked
his path with the bleached skulls of his
followers, tho other had introduced
peace and good will among men. The
one had lived chiefly for self-aggrandize-
ment and the other for the glory of
Christ The successes of the one were
achieved amid the breaking of thou
sands OF hearts and the acute, heaven
rending cry OF orphanage and widow
hood, while the triumphs of the other
made joy in Heaven among the angels
of God.
The heart of one exile was filed with
remorse and despair, while the other
was lighted with thanksgiving and in
extinguishable hope. Over ST. Helena
gathered the blackness OF darkness,
clouds lighted up by no sunrising but
rent and fringed and heaving with the
lightnings of a wrathful God, and the
spray flung over the rocks seemed to
hiss with the condemnation: 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 rich
glow of heavenly fruitage, while the
hoarse blast of contending elements
around his suffering body was drowned
in the trumpeting OF trumpets and the
harping OF the harps, the victorious cry
OF multitudes like the voice of many
waters and the hosanna of hosts in mum
Der hike the stars
What dull spot upon which to stand
and have such glorious vision. Had
PatmosSbeen some tropical island, ar
bored with the luxuriance of perpetual
summer and drowsy with breath of Gin
namon and cassia, and tesselated witt
long aisles of geranium and cactus W,
would not have been surprised at the
splendor of the vision. But the las
place you would go to II you wanted t.
find beautiful visions would be the isl
and OF Patmos Yet IL is around such
gloomy spots that God makes the mos
wonderful revelation. 1t was looking
through the awful shadows of a prison
that John BunSan saw the gate of the
celestial city. God there divided the
light from the darkness In tina
gloomy abode, on scraps OF old pape
picked up about his room, the grea
dream was written. 1t was while JohI
Calvin was refugee from bloody perse
cution and was hid in the house at An
Rouleme, that he conceived the idea o
writing his immortal Institutes Jacol
had many n time seen the sun breakin;
through the mists and kindling then
into shafts and pillars of fiery SPLENDID
that might we'll have been a ladder 70
the angels to tread on, but the famous
ladder which he saw scared through
gloomy night over the wilderness Th'
night of trial and desolation is the
scene OF the grandest heavenly revefa
tions. From the barren. surf-beateI
rock of Patmos John looked up anC
saw that a door was oERned in Heaven
Again: Tho announcement of such al
opened entrance suggests ne truth tina
God is looking down upon rye earth anC
observant of all occurren, IS. If w,
would gain wide prospect we climb NJ
into tower or mountain. The highe
up we are the broader the landscape W,
beholA Vet our most comprehensive
view u limited to only a few leagues
here . river and there a lake and yonde
a mountain peak. But what must b.
the glory of the earth in the eye of Hin
who, from the door of Heaven, behold
at ono glance all mountains and lake.
and prairies and oceans, lands be
spangled with tropical gorgeousness and
arctic regions white with everlasting
SHOWS, Lebanon majestic with cedar.
and American wilds solemn with un
broken forests of pine. African desert:
of blistering sand and wildernesses o
water unbroken by ships keel, cont
nents covered with harvests of wheat
and rice and maize, the glory of every
zone, the whole word of mountains anC
seas and forests and islands taken in
single glance of their 6 reat Greater.
As we take our stand upon some higl
point single objects dwindle into sucf
< insignihcance that We cease to see then
In the minutie, and we only behold the
grand scenery. But not so with God
Although standing far up in the very
tower of Heaven, nothing by reason o.
its smallness escapes His vision Ever,