The Iola register., 1890-08-01
THE OPEN DOOR.
DR. Talmage Discourses on the In
vitations to Heaven.
The Wonderful Vision on the Isle OF Pat
mos-rhs Lord wstchfui of EARTHLY
1hings-Heaven Ever Open to
the Christians Appeal.

lyn by Kew. Il. DE Witt Iaimage was
"The Wide Open Door," and his text
Revelations iv. L: sand, behold, door
was opened in Heaven" Following 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 eye.
1t is good sign when you see men un-
easy in the church pew and exhibiting
impatience at some plain utterance of
truth which smites a 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 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 desolats
island, only 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-
ion of this banished apostle with that
Of another famous exile. Look at the
apostle on Patmos and the great French
man on St Helena 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 perishable crown of
worldly authority, 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-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 filled with
remorse and despair, while the other
was lighted with thanksgiving and in
extinguishable hope. Over st. Helena
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
Pstmos the heavens were opened, and
the stormy sea beneath was forgotten in
the roll and gleam 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 num-
Der like the stars
What dull spot upon which to stand
and have such a glorious vision. Had
Pstmos been some tropical island. ar
bored with the luxuriance Of perpetual
summer and drowsy with breath of Gin
namon and cassia, and tesselated with
long aisles of geranium and cactus, we
would not have been surprised at the
splendor of the vision. But the last
place you would go to if you wanted to
find beautiful visions would be the ISL
and of Patmos. Yet it 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 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. 1t was while John
Calvin was a refugee from bloody perse-
cution and was hid in the house az An
gouleme, that he conceived the idea of
writing his immortal institutes. Jacob
had many a time seen the sun breaking
the mists and kindling them
into shafts and pillars of fiery splendor
that might well have been a ladder for
the angels to tread on, but the famous
ladder which he saw scared through a
gloomy night over the wilderness. The
scene of the grandest heavenly revela-
tions- From the barren, surf-beaten
rock of Patmos John looked up and
saw that door was opened in Heaven.
Again: Tho announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that
God is looking down upon the earth and
observaut of all occurrences II we
would gain wide prospect We climb up
into q tower or mountain. The higher
I'D we are the broader the landscape we
behold. Yet our most comprehensive
view is limited to only a few leagues
here a river and there lake and yonder
a mountain peak. But what must be
the glory of the earth in the eye of Him
who, from the door of Heaven, beholds
1t one glance all mountains and lakes
and prairies and oceans, lands be-
spangled with tropical gorgeousness and
arctic regions white with everlasting
SHOWS, Lebanon majestic with cedars
and American wilds solemn with un-
broken forests of pine. African deserts
Of blistering sand and wildernesses of
water unbroken by ships keel, conti-
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