Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1895-04-12
TWELVE WIDE GATES
REV DR.. TALMAGE ON THE EN-
FRANCES TO HEAVEN.

Great Academy of Music In New York.
His Subject, THE Gates Of Heaven"
New YORK, April THE bright
spring weather has brought still larger
crowds to the Sunday afternoon services
conducted by Rev DR.. Talmage. He
took for his subject today 1.-THE Gates
Of Heaven, the text being Revelation
Xxi, I3, "On the east three gates; on
the north three gates; on the south three
gates; on the west three gates.
The Cashmere gate Of Delhi, where
converged a heroism that makes ones
nerves tingle, the Lucknow gate, still
dented and SCARED with sepoy lombard
ment the Madeline gate with its en-
blazonry in bronze, the hundred gates
Of Thebes, the wonder of centuries, all
20 out Of sight before the gates Of my
text
Our subject speaks Of great metrop-
oils, the existence Of which many have
doubted. Standing on the wharf and
looking off upon the harbor and seeing
the merchantmen coming up the bay,
the flags of foreign nations streaming
from the topgallants, you Immediately
make mp your mind that those vessels
come from foreign ports, and you say,
THAT is from Hamburg, and that is
from Marseilles, and that is from South
ampton, and that is from Havana,
and your supposition is accurate. But
from the city Of which am now speak
ing no weather beaten merchantmen or
frigates with SCARED bulkhead have
ever come. There has been vast emf
grafton into that city, but no emigration
from it, so far as our natural vision can
descry.
There is no such city, " says the un-
devout astronomer. Il have stood in
high towers with a mighty telescope
and have swept the heavens, and | have
seen spots on the sun and caverns in the
moon. but no towers have ever risen on
my vision, no palaces, no temples, no
shining streets, no massive wall There
is no such city" Even very good peo-
pie tell me that heaven is not material
organism, but a grand spiritual fact,
and that the Bible descriptions Of it are
in all cases TO be taken fguratively. /
bring in reply to this what Christ said,
and he ought to know, 81 go to pre-
pare"-not a theory, not a principle,
not a sentiment, but 81 go to prepare a
place for you. T." The resurrected body
implies this If my foot is to be reform
ed from the dust, it must have some
thing to tread on. II my hand is to be
reconstructed, it must have something
to handle If my eye, having gone out
in death, is to be rekindled, l must
have something to gaze on. Your ad-
verse theory seems to imply that the
resurrected body is to be hung on moth
ing. or to walk in air, or to float amid
the intangibles You may say if there
be material organisms then a soul IN
heaven will be cramped and hindered in
its enjoyments, but | answer, Did not
Adam and Eve have plenty of room in
the garden of Eden? Although only a
few miles would have described the cir
cumference Of that place, they had
ample room. And do you not suppose
that God, in the immensities, can build
a place large enough to give the whole
race room, even though there be mate
.;al oroapicrnco
The Prospect.
Herschel looked into the heavens. AS
a Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock be.
tween the glaciers and crosses over from
crag to crag, so Herschel planted his tele'
scope between the worlds and glided
from star to star until he could an
nounce to US that we live in part Of
the universe but sparsely strewn with
worlds, and he peers out into imm enslty
until he finds region no larger than
our solar system in which there are 90,
600 worlds moving. And Professor
Lang says that by philosophic reason
ing there must be somewhere a world
where there is no darkness, but everlast-
ing sunshine, so that do not know but
that it is simply because we have nc
telescope powerful enough that we can
not see into the land where there is nc
. darkness at all and catch glimpse OF
the FURNISHED pinnacles. As a conquer
ing army marching on to take city
comes at nightfall to the crest Of a
J mountain from which, in the midst OF
the landscape, they see the castles they
are TO capture and rein in their wal
chargers and halt to take a good look be-
fore they pitch their tents for the night,
so now, coming as we do on this noun
tain top of prospect, | command this
regiment of God to rein in theil
thoughts and halt, and before they pitch
their tents for the night take one good,
, long look at the gates Of the great city.
ION the east, three gates; on the north,
three gates; on the south, three gates,
! and on the west three gates.
In the first place, | want to examine
the architecture of those gates. Pro
: prietors Of large estates are very apt tC
, have an ornamented gateway. Some
p times they spring an arch OF masonry,
J., the posts Of the gate fianked with lions
y In statuary, the bronze gate represen
] tation Of INTERVENING foliage, birC
= haunted, until the hand of architecture
genius drops exhausted, all its life fro
zen into stone Gates of wood and iroI
and stone guarded nearly all the ole
D cities Moslems have inscribed upol
A their gateways inscriptions from thu
Koran of the Mohammedan. There hav'
!. been a great many fine gateways, bu
+. Christ sets his hand to the work and fo
the upper city swung a gate such as NJ
eye ever gazed on, untouched of In
spiration. With the nail Of his owl
cross he cut into its wonderful tracerie
a stories Of past suffering and of gladnes
to come. There is no wood or stone o
bronze In that gate, but from top 4
base and from side to side it is eli Q