The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-07-23
HEAVENS OPEN DOOR.
Johns Beautiful Vision on the Isle
Of Patmoa
The Entrance to Heaven Through Which
Il Our Prayers Ascend and Gods Bless
ings Descend-A Sermon by Rev.
4. Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID. W

recent sermon at the Brooklyn Academy
Of Music was on the Wide Open Door,
and his text, Rev. iv. 1. "And behold,
the door was opened in heaven" Fol-
lowing is his sermon:
John had been the pastor Of 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 be surprised that the blind man
makes an outcry Of pain when the sur-
geon removes the cataract from his eyes
II is good sign when you see men un-
easy in the church pew and exhibiting
impatience at some plain utterance OF
truth which smites 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,
It is thought to be agood sign when he
begins to be little cross, And SO no
tice that spiritual invalids are in fair
way for recovery, when they become
somewhat irascible and choleric yDder
the treatment Of the truth. But John
had 80 nightly inculpated public in
iquity that he had been banished from
his church and sent to Patmos, desc
late island, only mile In breadth,
against whose rocky coast the sea rose
and mingled its voice with the prayers
and hymnings Of the heroic exile.
You can not but contrast the condition
Of this banished apostle with that Of an
other famous exile. Look at the apostle
on Patmos and the Frenchman on st.
Helena. Both were suffering among
desolation and barrenness because Of
offenses committed. Both had passed
through lives eventful and thrilling.
Both had been honored and despised.
Both we're imperial natures. Both had
been turned of to die. Yet mark the
infinite difference: one had fought for
the peri3hable crown Of worldly author
ity, the other for one eternally lustrous.
The one had marked his path with the
bleached skulls Of his followers, the
other had introduced peace and good
will among men. The one had lived
chiefly for self-aggrandizement and the
other for the glory Of Christ The sue
cesses OF the one we're achieved amid
the breaking Of thousands Of hearts and
the acute, heartrending cry Of orphan
age and widowhood, 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
wan lighted up with thanksgiving and
inextinguishable 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 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
meas Of the ground under the apostle
was forgotten as above him he saw the
tree 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 harpA the victorious cry Of
multitudes like the voice Of many
waters and the hosanns Of hosts in num-
ber like the stars.
What dull spot upon which 10 stand
and have such glorious visioni Had
Patmos been some tropical island, ar
bored with the luxurianoe Of perpetual
summer and drowsy with breath Of cin.
namon and cassia, and tesselated with
long aisles Of geranium and cactus, we
would not have been surprised at the
spiendor OF the vision. But the las,
place you would 60 II you wanted to find
beautiful visions would be the islands Of
Patmos. Yet 1t is around such gloomy
spots that God makes the most wonderful
revelation. 1t was looking through the
awful shadows Of prison that John
Bunyan saw the gate OF the celestial
Ncity. 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 O refugee
frsm bloody persecution and was hid In
ahouse at Angouleme that he conceived
the idea Of writing his immortal Insti
tutes. Jacob had many time seen the sur
breaking through the Inists and kind
ling them into shafts and pillars Of fiery
splendor that might we'll have been {
ladder for the angels TO tread on, bu'
the famous ladder which he saw SCARED
through gloomy night over the will
derness. The night Of trial and desola
ton is the scene OF the grandest heav
emily revelations. From the barren, surf
beaten rock Of Patmos John looked W
and saw that door was open in Heaven
Again: The announcement OF such ar
opened entrance suggests the truth tina
God is looking down upon the earth ant
observant OF all occurrences. IL WI
would gain a wide prospect, we climi
up into q tower or mountain. The
higher up we are tho broader the land
scape we behold. Yet our most compre
hensive view Is limited 10 only few
leagues-here river and thero lak'
and yonde- mountain peak. But wha
must be the glory Of the earth in the
eye OF him, who, from tho door o
Heaven, beholds at one glance noun
tains and lakes and prairies and oceans
lands bespangled with tropical gorge
business and arctic regions white with
everlasting SHOWS, Lebanon majestic