Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-07-26
|DR. TALMAGH'S SERMON.
What He Has to say About the Open
Gates of Heaven.
Dreams of Mstchless splendor Which
Came I'm Barren Spots.

IN hcuCeh."-heV. w., J..
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 10 every form of iniquity. This will
often he the result of pointed preach
ing. Men will finch under the sword
strokes Of truth. You ought not TO BIO
surprised that the blind man makes an
cutlery of pain when the surgeon removes
the cataract from his eye. 1t is good sign
when you see men uneasy in the church pew,
and exhibiting impotence at some plain ut
terance of truth which snlites a 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 good sign when he begins to
be little cross. And so | notice that spir-
itual invalids are in fair way for recovery
when they become somewhat 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 Potmas, desolate island,
ouly mile in breadth, against whose rocky
coasts the sea rose and mingled its voice with
the prayers and hymnings of the heroic exile.
You cannot but contrast the con iition 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 desoation and
harrenncSs because of offenses committed.
Both had passed through lives eventful and
thrilling. Both had been honored and de-
spised. Both were imperial natures. Both
had been turned Off to die. Yet mark the
infinite difference--one had foua ut for the
perishab.e crown of worldly authority, the
other for one eternally lustrous. The one
had marked his path with the bleached skulls
O. his followers, the other had introduced
peace and good will among men. The one
had lived chiefly for -aggran1isement
and the other for the glory Of Christ. The
successes Of the one were achieved amid the
breaking of thousands of hearts and the
acute, hcaven-ren ling cry of orphauage and
widowhoo1, while the triumpas OF the other
made joy in heaven among the ange,s OF
/ God.
Tie heart of one exile was filed with re-
morse and despair, while the other was
| lighted up wit thanksgiving and mex
| tinguishable hope. Over st. Helena gath
| cred the blackneSs and darkness clouds,
| lighted up by no sunrising. but rent and
fringed aud heaving with the lightnings of
| a wrathful God, and the spray flung over
the rocks seemed to hiss with the condemna-
ton, 1.-The way of the ungodly shall perish"
! But over Patuos 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 barfenness
| of the ground under the apostle was forgot-
ten as above him he saw the trees of life all
bending under the rich glow Of heavenly
fruitage while the hoarse blast of contend
ing clements around his suffering body was
drowned in the trumpetng of trumpets and
the harping of harps, the victorious cry of
multitudes like the voice of many waters
and the hosanua of hosts in number like the
stars.
What dull spot upon which to stand and
have such glorious visonl Had Patmos
been some tropical island arbored with the
/ luxuriance of perpetual summer, and drowsy
with breath of cinnamon and cassia, and tes-
selated with long aisles of geranium and cac-
tus, we would not have been surprised at the
splendor of the vision. But the last place
you would 60 to if you wanted to find beau
tiful visions would be the island of Patmos.
Yet it is around such gloomy spots that God
makes the most wonderful revelation. 1t was
looking through the awful shadows of a
prison that John Bunyan saw the gate Of the
celestial city. Col 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 persecution, and was hid in q
/ house at Angouleme, that he conceived the
idea of writing his immortal Institutes y
Jacob had many a time seen the SUD 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
to tread on, but the famous ladder which he
saw scared through gloomy night over the
wilderness The night of trial and desola-
ton is the scene of the grau1est heavenly
revelations From the barren surf beaten
rock of Patmos John looked up and saw that
a door was opened i'll heaven.
Again, the announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that Col
4
ant of all occurrences. Ii we would gain a
wide prospect we climb up into a tower or
mountain. The higher up we are the bro1l-
I er the landscape we behold. 1et our most
comprehenslVe view is limited to only few
! leagues-here river and there a lake and
yonder mountain peak. But what must
must be the glory OF the earth IN the eye OF
MN VINO from the door OF heaven Oeholds al
one nance all mountains ana lakes and pral-
ries b VI oceans, lands bespangled with trop-
zeal goGgeouSnesS and Arctic regions white
WIN everlasting SHOWS Lebanon maleStlc
WIN cedars ana American wllds solemn with
unproken forests OF pine, African deserts oil
ghstenlng SAND and wlidernesses OF water
niini 9hen oy ships keei, continents covered
WIN 1arVeSts OF wheat ana rice ana maize,
/ the glory of every zone, the whole world o
mountains ami seas anil forests aul island
taken IN III single glance OF their great
/ creator.
AS we take our stand upon some high point
single OBJECTS dwludle into such insignific ance
,i"' we cease 70 see 'hem III the mluutie, and
! sco,,ar,- my 'no giau ! p9ihts OF the
/ StondiJ1 TO- LUZ ~. ho' 30 WIN uod. aithouSh
sCahalnS iar up IN the very tower of heaven,
moGnlhS ~ reason OF It's sma illness escapes His
nn@Ia, ,L s'I my ot Iue Iieid' every violet
onI ,ro,,t;s - euo ViulosV heiiotrope, asuer
IL Ssieia'i arc as ptilhly seen by HIM as
49, j., 49,; mona, ana NOT one VEN OF
tI;,,,1ti l''li u1spenS Vi laueS Without
.i's hotIce; FROM TINS door in heaven Col
,,,S.,i ~ nulilah conduct ana the worlds
no, al cna iSes. NOT one tear oil sorrow falls
. IN ho9SpIlai OF workshop or dungeon but He
i, Is ~ anu III hlgn heaven makes record of
''9 ,r t','i
o "olLu inquiries In all their ghastli-
80. ies9 6io"e' uhieT his vision. Wars AMI
o oatt..s, auu Vue uesoiations OF famine and
sr.oa n,it s Mnir I1' ana shlpwreck
sSPieau OUT before HIM II there were no
nc be'hs III an u. tne universe but God He could
ps naPpy WIN such an outlook as the door
u heaven; But there lie stands, no more
IIIsput peu oy tne Iail OF kingdom than the
cropping OIL leaf, no more excited by the
,La'T ol throne IMAM the bursting of bud,
ane !al,lh9 Oh deiu9e than the trickling of
la'1urop. Earthly royalty clutches ner-
n9uslF iIs Scepter ana waits in suspense the
WIN Oh unnamed subjects, and the crown is
o oIsSeu itoLl one FAMILY TO another. But
ea,,It az h ElciS:ieudeS aud the as
S'u'u u huulin PASSIONS III unshaken security
stan Is the King of Kings watching all the
AFFAIRS Oh HIS empire from the introduction
OF an era TO the counting of the hairs of your
mead
Again. learn from the fact that a door
IN heaven Is opened that there is way of
1neiance Ior our prayers ana OF egress for
,,,aii. ~ doeS not seem that QUE
t "eSh voice mas Strength enough to climb up
10 UOiS ear. Snau not our PRAYER be lost