Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-21
SERMON BY DIR. TALMAGE
THE WIDE OPEN DOOR" THE TITLE
OF AN EXCELLENT DISCOURSE.


BROOKLYN, July 2O.-The title of DIR.
Talmage's sermon today was THE Wide
Open Door" and his text is found in Rev
Nv, 1: "And, behold a door WIS 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 pop
ulace. 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 preach
ing. Men will finch under the sword
strokes of truth. You ought not to be
surprised that the blind man makes an
cutlery Of pain when the surgeon reno
the cataract from his eye. II Is good
sign when you see men uneasy in the
church pew, and exhibiting impatience at
some plain utterance OF truth which smites
"A pet sia that they are hugging to their
hearts. After the patient has been 50 low
that for weeks he said nothing and noticed
nothing, it is thought TO be a good sign
when he begins to be n little cross. And
so notice that spiritual invalids are in a
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 a
mile in breadth, against whose rocky
coasts the sea rose and mingled its voice
with the prayers aud hymnings of the
heroic exile.
TWO EXILES CoNTRAsTED.
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. He
lena. Both were suffering among dcsola-
ton and barrenness because Of otfenses
committed Both had passed through
lives eventful and thrilling. Both had
been honored and desDised Both were
imperial natures. Both had been turned
off to die Yet mark the infinite differ
ence-one had fought for the perishable
crown of worldly authority, the other for
one externally 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
successes of the one were achieved amid
the breaking of thousands of hearts and
the acute, heaven rending cry of orphan
age and wdowhood, while the triumphs of
the other made joy in heaven among the
angels of God.
The heart of one exile was filled with re-
morse and despair, while the other was
lighted up with Thanksgiving and mex
tinguishable hope, Over St Helena gath
cred the blncknes3 of darkness, clouds
lighted up by no sunrising, bat rent and
fringed and hclying with the lightnings
OF wrathful Col, and the spray flung
over the rocks seemed to hiss with the con-
demnation, "Ihc way of the ungodly shall
perish" But over PItmOs the heavens
were opened, and the stormy sea beneath
was forgotten in TIE roll and CLEAN of
waters from under the throne like crystal:
and the barrcunes5 of the ground under
the apostle was forgotten az above him he
saw the trees of life all bending under the
rich glow Of heavenly fruitage, while the
hoarse blast OF conteGdng elementsarouud
his suffering body was drowned in the
trumpeting Of trumpets and the harping
OF harps, the victorious cry of multtudes
like the voice of many waters and the no
sauna of hosts in num12r like the stars.
A DULL sp0r FOR A GLORIOUS VISION.
What dull spot upon which to stand
and have such glorious visionl Had
Patmos been some tropical island, arbored
with the luXuriance of perpetual summer,
and drowsy with breath Of cinnamon and
cassia, and tessclatod with long aisles of
pcranium and cactus we would not have
been surprised at the spicndor Of the vision.
But the last place yoa 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 look
ing through the awful shadows of a 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 prosecutions and was hid in
house at Angoulemp. that he conceived the
idea of writing his immortal INSTITUTES.
Jacob had many n time seen tho sun break
ing Through the mists, and kindling item
into shafts and pillars of fiery spendop
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. Tho night Of
trial and desolatioa Is the scene Of the
grandest heavenly revelations. From the
barren, surf beaten rock of Patmos John
looked up and SAW THAI n door was opened
in heaven.
Again, the announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth that
God II looking down upon the earth and
obseryaut Df all occurrences. II we would
gain "A 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 few lcagucs-here river and there
n lake and yondgr mountain peak. But
what must be the glory Of the earth in the
eye of him who from the door Of heaven
beholdA Gt one glance all mountains and
lakes Ind prairies and oceans, lands be-
spaugled with tropical gorgeousncss and
Arctic regions white with everlasting
SHOWS. Lebanon majestic With cedars and
American Wiids solemn with Hnbrokep
forests of pine, African deserts Of glistep-
ing sand and wildernesscs of water un.
broken by ships keel, continents covered
with haryesis of wheat and rice and maize,
the glory of every zone, the whole world of
mountains and sens and forests and islands
taken in in II single glance of their great
Creator.
NOTHING ESCAPES GODS VISION.
As we take our stand upon some high
point single objects dwndle into such in
significance that we cease TO see them in
the minute, and we behold only the grand
points VI 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
lilly Of the field, every violet under the
grass, the tinicst heliotrope rster and gen
tian are rs plainly seen 10y him as the
proudest magnolia, and not one vein OF