The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1890-07-22
THE VIDE OPEN DOOR.
SUBJECT OF DR.. TALmAeE's SER
MON For SUNDAY, july 20.

-
The Brooklyn Divine Tells of the Won
derTnl Receptive Power of Hehven-Th,
Poor, tho Rich, the Sick, the Well, tn,
Learned and tho Ignorant All Welcome
BROOKLYN, July 20.-'The Wide
Open Door, was the subject Of DIR. Tai
mage's sermon today, the text being
Rev. ", 4: "And, behold, door wa.
opened in heaven"
John had been the pastor of church
in E2hesus. He had been driven from
his position in that city by an indig
nant populace. The preaching of Q
pure and earnest gospel had made ar
excitement dangerous TO every form Of
iniquity. This will often be the result
of pointed preaching. Mon will finch
under the sword strokes of truth. You
ought not to be surprised that the
blind man makes an outcry of pair
when the surgeon removes the cataract
from his eye
II is good sign when you see men
uneasy in the church pew and exhibit
nag Impotence at some plain utterance
of truth which smites q pet sin thai
they are hugging to their hearts. After
the patient has been so low that fol
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 spiritual invalids
are in o fair way for recovery when
they become somewhat irascible and
choleric under the treatment of the
truth. But John had SO nightly in
culpated public iniquity that he had
been banished from his church and
sent to Pat1nos, desolate island, only
q 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 condi-
ton Of this banished apostle with that
of another famous exile. Look at the
apostle on Patnos and the great
Frenchman on st. Helena. Both were
suffering among desolation and bar
renness because of offenses committed.
Both had passed through lives event
full and thrilling. Both had been hon
ored and despised. Both were impe-
rial natures. Both had been turned
off to die. Yet mark the infinite diff
ference: one had fought for the perish
ablo crown of worldly authority, the
other for one eternaly lustrous. The
one had marked bis path with the
bleached skulls of his followers, the
other had introduced peace and good
vii among men. The one had lived
chiefly for self ACKNOWLEDGEMENT and the
other for the glory of Christ. The sue.
cesses Of the one were achieved amid
the breaking of thousands Of hearts
and the acute, heaven rending cry Of
orphanage and widowhood, while the
triumphs of the other made Joy in
heaven among the angels of God.
DEsPAIR-HoPE.
The heart Of one exile was filed
with remorse and despair, while the
other was lighted up with TIL nksgiv-
ing and inextinguishable hope. Over
st. Helena gathered the blackmess OF
darkness, clouds lighted up by no sun
rising, but rent and fringed and heav-
ing with the hghtnings of wrathful
God, and the spray flung over the
rocks seemed to hiss with the condem-
nation: S'Thc way of the ungodFy
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
ness of the ground under the apostle
was forgotten as above him he ssw the
trees Of lie all bending under the rioh
glow of heavenly frultage, while the
hoarse blast of contending elements
around his suffering body was drowned
IN the tDlrapeting of trslmpets and She
..as;aC:-p;ng of harps, the victorious cry Of
rsaltitudes like the voice Of Iaany
waters and the hesanna Of hosts in
number like the stars
What a duh spot upon which to stand
and have such glorious vision! Had
Patmos been some tropical island ar
bored with the luxuriance of perpetual
summer, and drowsy with breath Of
cinnamon and cassia, and tesseilated
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 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. Inthat gloomy
abode, on scraps of old paper picked up
about his room, the great dream was
written.
1t was while John Calvin was q
refugee from bloody persecution and
was bid in house at Angouleme that
he conceived the idea of writing his
immortal Institutes Jacob had
many q time seen tine sun breaking
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 q
gloomy night over the'wilderness. The
night of trial and desolation is the
scene of the grandest heavenly revela-
tons. From the barren, surf beaten
rock of Patmos John looked up and
saw that door was opened in heaven.
GOD SEES EVERYTHING.
Again, the announcement of such an
opened entrance suggests the truth
that God is looking down upon. the
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