Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1890-06-09
THE TABERNACLEPUL
SUBLIME VIEWS OF THE GLORlES OF
HEAVEN


HEAVEN.
sacramentaI and Baptisma1 Day Sermon
of DR.. Talmage-The Rainbow Seen
Around the Throne in the Apocalypse.
No SORROW or Signing There.
BROOKLYN, June S.-This is sacra-
mental and baptisinal day with the
Tabernacle congregation, an occasion
of especial impressiveness. The chill
dren were baptized before the sermon
and the sacrament administered after
sermon The subject of DR.. Talmage's
discourse was: ''All Troubles Past"
and the text Rev. iv, 3: "There was q
rainbow round about the throne" Fol
lowing is the sermon:
As, after a night of fearful tempest
at sea, one ship, more stanch than an
other, rides on unchanged among the
fragments of spars and hulks that float
about, so old Noah's ark, at the close
of the deluge, floats on over the wreck
of a dead world. Looking out of the
window of the ark, you see the
planks of houses, and the sheaves OF
wheat, and the carcasses of cattle,
and the corpses of men. No stower
is left to toll the burial; no mourn
ers to form in line of procession; no
ground in which to bury the dead.
Sinking a line twenty-seven feet long,
you just touch the tops of the noun
tains Ghastliness and horror The
ark, instead of walking the sea, like a
modern ship, in majesty and beauty,
losses helplessly; no helm to guide; no
sail to set; no shore to steer for. Why
piotract the agony of the good people
in such a craft, when they might in one
dash OF the wave have been put out of
their misery?
But at yOnder spot in the horizon we
see colors gathering in the sky; at just
the opposite point in the horizon other
cOlors are gathering. l find that they
are the two buttresses of an arched
bridge. The yellow, the red, the Or
ange, the blue, the indigo, the violet
are mingled and by invisible hands the
whole structure is hung into the sky,
and the ark has a triumphal arch to
sail under. An Angel of Light swings
his hand across the sky, and in the
seven prismatic colOrs he paints with
pencil of sunbeam the everlasting Gov
enant between God and every living
creature God lifted up that great
arched bridge and set it over his own
head in the heaven. John saw it, for
about the throne"
THE COVENANT OF MERCY.
| notice that none but the people who
were in the ark saw the rainbow 1t
cast its shadow clear down into the
water where the people were buried,
and lighted up the dead faces with a
strange radiance, but they could not see
it. So only those who are at last found
in Christ, the ark, will see the over
spanning glories of the throne Hence
you had better get into the ark! As
you call your family out at the close of
the shower to show them the sign in
heaven, so | want you all at last to see
the grander rainbow round about the
throne. Look there!" says Noah to
his wife, lat that bow in the clouds;
and, Shem and Japhet, lookl look!-
the green, the yellow, the red, and the
orange" L should not wonder if some
of your own children in the good land
should after a while cry out to you,
Look, father! look, motheri there is
a rainbow round about the thronep
You had better get into the ark with
all your families, if you want to see it.
| notice also that the chief glory of
81 Of NJ f,I,
no rainbow; no trouble, no brightness
of Christian consolation. Weavers are
sometimes, by reason of their work,
dusty and rough in their apparel; and
so it is the coarse clad tempest, whose
hand and foot swing the shuttle, that
weaves the rainbow. Many Christians
are dull, and stupid, and useless be-
cause they have not had disaster enough
to wake them up. The brightest scarf
that heaven makes is thrown over the
shoulders of the storm. You cannot
make a thorough Christian life out of
sunshine alone. There are some very
dark hues in the ribbon of the rain
bow; you must have in life the blue as
well as the orange. Mingling all the
colors of the former makes a white
light; and it takes all the shades and
sadnesses and vicissitudes of life to
make the white luster of a pure Chris
tan character.
Your child asks you, Father, what
makes the rainbow?' and you say, ''It
is the sunlight striking through the
rain Drops Therefore l wondered
how there could be a rainbow in
heaven, since there are no storms there;
but then l conclude that that rainbow
must be formed by the striking Of
heavens sunlight through the falling
tears of earthly sorrow. When we see
a man overwhelmed with trouble, and
his health goes, and his property goes
and his friends go, l say, ''Now we
shall see the glory of God in this good
mans deliverance" As at Niagara
Falls l saw, one day, ten rainbows
spanning the awful plunge of the cata-
ract, so over the abyss of the Christians
trial hover the rich hued wings of all
the promises.
EARTH's BEAUTIES TO BE GLORIFIED.
| notice that the most beautiful
things of this world are to be preserved
in heaven. When you see the last color
fade out from the rainbow of earth,
you need not feel sad, for you will see
the rainbow round about the throne
That story about the world burning up
has given me many pang. When l
read that Paris was besieged, | said,
Now the pictures and statues in the
Louvre and Luxembourg will be de-
stroyed; all those faces of Rembrandt,
and those bold dashes of Rubens, and
those entertainments of Raphael on can
vas, and those statues of Canova." But
is it not a more melancholy thought
that ruin is to come upon this great
glory of the earth, in which the mount
aims are the chiseled sculptures, and
upon the sky, in which the ''transtigu-
ration" of sunrise and sunset is hung
with loops and tassels of fire?
L was relieved when / found that the