Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1895-04-08

| light by heavenly hands anu nCiSted
and swung amid the shouting OF angels
The glories of alabaster vase and por-
phyry pillar fade out before this gate
way 1t puts out the spark OF feldspar
and diamond You know how one little
precious stone on your finger will flash
under the gaslight. But, oh the bright
ness when the great gate Of heaven
swings, struck through and dripping
with the light of eternal monday.
Gate of Pearl.
Julius Caesar paid 1875, 900 crowns
for one pearl. The government of Portu-
gal boosted of having pearl larger than
pear Cleopatra and Philip II dazzled
the worlds vision with precious stones.
But gather all these together and lift
them and add to them all the wealth Of
| the pearl fisheries and set them in the
| panel of one door, and it does not equal
this magnificent gateway. An almighty
| hand hewed this. swung this, polished
this. Against this gateway, on the one
side, clash all the sple 7dors of earthly
beauty Against this gate on the other
sido beat the surges of eternal glory
Oh, the gate, the gate! 1t strikes an in
finite charm through every one that
passes H. OL0 nlGD OI1IS S1C6 VI UIl0 SdGO
and we are paupers. One step the other
side Of the gate and we are kings. The
pilgrim of earth going through sees in
the one huge pearl all his earthly tears
in crystal Oh, gate Of light, gate of
pearl, gate of heaven, for our weary
souls at last swing openl
When shall these eyes thy heaven built walls
And pearly gates behold;
Thy bulWarkS with salvation strong
And streets of shining gold?
Oh, heaven is not dull place!
Heaven is not a contracted place
Heaven is not stupid place IT saw
the IL gates, and they were ID pearls .
In the second place 7 want you to
count the number of those gates. Impe-
rial parks and lordly manors are apt to
have one expensive gateway, and the
others are ordinary, but look around at
these entrances TO heaven and count
them. One, two three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.
Hear it, all the earth and all the heav-
ems! Twelve gates!
Hard Sectarianisnns
I admit this is rather hard Oh sharp
sectarianisms! If Presbyterian is big
oted, he brings his Westminster assem-
bly, catechism, and he makes a gateway
out of that, and he says to the world,
"You go through there or stay out. - IF
a member of the Reformed church is
bigoted he makes q gate out Of the Hell
delberg catechism, and he says, ''You
go through there or stay out " Ii q
Methodist is bigoted, he plants two
posts. and he says, "Now, you crowd in
between those two posts or stay out y
Or perhaps an Episcopalian may say:
"Here is a liturgy out of which | mean
to make gate. Go through it or stay
out, " or a Baptist may say: Here is
water gate. You go through that, or
you must stay out, " and SO i'll all our
churches and in all our denominations
there are men who make one gate for
themselves and then demand that the
whole world go through it. abhOr this
contractedness in religious views O
small souled man, when did God give |
you the contract for making gates? | |
tell you plainly [ Will not go III that |
gate. I will go in at any one of the 70
gates choose. Here is man who says, |
81 can more easily and more closely ap-
proach God through a prayer book. "
I say, my brother, then use the prayer
lieve there is only ole mode of baptism, |
and that is immersion. Then I say,
''Let me plunge you. Anyhow, say, |
away with the gate of rough panel and |
rotten posts and rusted latch, when there
are 10 gates and they are IL pearls.
The fact is that a great many of the
churches in this day are being doctrined |
to death. They have been trying to find
out all about Gods DEGREES, and they
want to know who are elected to be
saved and who are reprobated to be |
damned, and they are keeping on dis
cussing that subject when there are
millions OF souls who need to have the
truth put straight at them. They sit |
counting the number of teeth in the |
jawbone with which Samson slew the |
Philistines They sit on the beach and |
see vessel going to pieces in the offing, |
and instead of getting into boat and |
pulling away for the wreck, they sit |
discussing the different styles of oar
locks. God intended US to know some
things and intended us not to know !
Others | have heard scores of sermons
explanatory of Gods DEGREES, but came
away more perplexed than when |
went The only result of such discussion
is great fog. Here are two truths
which are to conquer the world: Man,
a sinner; Christ, a Saviour. Any man
who adopts those two theories in his re-
ligious belief shall have my right hand
in warm grip of Christian brotherhood.
Empty Handed.
A man comes down to river in time |
of f1eshet. He wants to get across. He |
has to swim. What does he do? The
first thing is to put off his heavy ap-
parel and drop everything he has in his
hands. He must go empty handed if he
iS u0inor 70 the other hank And I tell |