Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-07-24
THE WIDE OPEN DOOR.
SUBJECT OF DIR. TALMAoE's
SERMON SUNDAY. JULY 20.
The Brooklyn Divine Tells of the wonder
full Reception Power of Heaven The
Poor. the Rich, the Sick, the Wen. the

Poor. the Rich, the Sick, the Wen. the
Learned, and the Ignorant An Welcome.
The Wide Open Door was the subject Of
DR.. Talmage's sermon, the text being Rev.
~. 1: And. behold, door was opened in
Heaven
John had been the pastor of church in
Ephesus. He had been driven from his
position In that city by an indignant popu-
lace. 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 outery of pain when
the surgeon removes the cataract from his
eye,
1t is good sign when you see men un-
easy In the church pew and exhibiting i'm
patience at some plain utterance Of truth
which smites a pet sin that they are hug
ging to their hearts. After the patient has
been so low that for weeks he said nothing
and noticed nothing it is thought to be a
good sign when he begins to be little
cross. And so / notice that spiritual in
valids are in q 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 Patmos, a desolate
island, only mile in breath. 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 condition 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 DESC
'lation 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
foughtfor the perishable crown of worldly
authority, the other for one eternally lus-
trous. 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 successes of one were
achieved amid the breaking of thousands of
hearts and the acute, heaven -rending cry
OF orphanage and widowhood, while tho
triumphs Of the other made Joy in Heaven
among the angels Of God.
The heart Of one exile was filed with re-
morse and despair, while the other was
lighted up with thanksgiving and mex
tinguishable hope. Over st. Helena gath
cred the blackness of darkness, clouds
lighted up by no sunrising. but rent and
fringed and heaving with the lightnings of
awrathful God, and the spray flung over
the rocks seemed to hiss with the condem-
nation; THE way of the ungodly shall
perish" But over Patmost 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
barrenness 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
Nf tnv SwNa dI .kr
ing body was drowned in the trumpeting OF
trumpets and the harping OF harps, the
victorious cry OF multitudes like the voice
of many waters and the hoSanna of hosts
in number like the stars.
What a dull spot upon which to stand and
have such a glorious yisionl Had Patmos
been some tropical island arbored with the
iuxuriance Of perpetual summer, land drowsy
with breath OF cinnamon and cassia, and
tessellated 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 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 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 pa
pOI plthtu up dDQub LIS TOOUl, INC RrGuI
dream was written.
1t was while John Calvin was a refugee
from bloody persecution and was hid in a
house at Angouleme that he conceived the
idea of writing his immortal Institutes"
Jacob had many time seen the sun break
ing through the mists and kindling them
into shafts and pillars of fiery splendor that
might well have been 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
desoiation is the scene of the grandest
heavenly revelations. From the barren.
surf beaten rock of Patmos John looked up
and saw that door opened in heaven.
Again, the announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that
God is looking down upon the earth and
observant OF all occurrences, If we would
gain wide prospect we climb up into
tower or mountain. The higher up we are
the broader the landscape we behold. Yet
our most comprehensive view is limited to
only a few leagues-here river and there
lake and yonder mountain peak. But
what must be the glory Of the earth in the
eye OF him who. from the door of Heaven.
beholds at 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 Ameri-
can wilds solemn with unbroken forests of
pine: African deserts of gliStening sand
and wildernesseS of water unbroken bv
ships keel; continents covered with har-
vests OF wheat and rice and maize; the
glory of every zone, the whole world of
mountains and seas and forests and islands
taken in in u single glance of their great
Creator.
AS we take our stand upon some high
point single objects dwindle into such in
significance that We cease to see them in
the minutiR, and we behold only the grand
points of the scenery. But not so with
God. Although standing far up in the very
tower of Heaven, nothing by reason of its
smallness escapes His vision. Every lily of
the field, every violet under the grass. the
tiniest heliotrope. aster and gentian are as
plainly seen by Him as the proudest mag
nolia. and not one vein Of color in their leaf
deepens or fades without His notice. From
this door in Heaven God sees all human
conduct and the worlds moral changes.
Not one tear OF sorrow falls in hospital or
workshop or dungeon but He sees it. and In
high Heaven makes record of its fall.
The worlds iniquities in all their ghastli-
ness glover under His vision. Wars and
tumults and the desolations of famine and
earthquake. whirlwind and shipwreck
spread out before Him. If there we're no
being in all the universe but God He could
be happy with such an outlook as the door
Of Heaven. But there He stands, no more
disturbed by the fall OF a kingdom than the
dropping Of leaf; no more excited by the
rising OF a throne than the bursting Of a
bud. the falling OF deluge than the trick
ling OF raindrop. Earthly royalty clutches
nervously its scepter and waits in suspense
the will of infiamed subjects, and the crown
is tossed from one family to another. But
above all earthly vicissitude and the as
HflIIlt of human naSsions in unshakan se