The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1895-09-06
SURPRISING sPLENDORs,
Rev. DR.. TalmAec Depicts the Clio
rioo Of the Next World
The People Ue Earth Can Form RIO Con.
eeptlon Of the uiorIea OF Heaven
A Place where sickness and
Sorrow Cannot Come.

for publication this week. Il is based
on the text:
Eye hath not seen ner ear heard.-1 Cor.
f., 3.
81 am going to Heavenl am going
TO Heavenl Heavenl Heaveni Heaveni"
These were the last words uttered a
few days ago by my precious wife as
she assembled to be with God forever,
and Is it not natural. as well as Chris
tianly appropriate, that our thoughts
be much directed toward the glorious
residence of which st. Paul speaks in
the text have chosen.
The city Of corinth has been called
the Paris OF antiquity. Indeed, for
splendor, the world holds no such won
der to-day. IL stood on an isthmus
washed by two seas, the one sea bring
ing the commerce of Asia. From her
wharves, in the construction of
which whole Kingdoms had been
absorbed, war-galleys with three
banks OF oars pushed out and
COMPOUNDED the navy yards of
all the world. Huge-handed machin-
cry, such as modern invention cannot
equal, lifted ships from the sea on one
side and transported them on trucks
across the isthmus and set them down
I'm the sea on the other side. The rev
enue officers of the city went down
through the ollsn groves that lined
the beach to collect tariff from all
nations. The mirth OF all people
spOrted in her isthmian games, and
the beauty of all lands sat in her thea
tiers, walked her porticoes, and threw
itself on the altar Of her stupendods
designations. Column, and statue,
and temple bewildered the beholder.
There were white marble fountains
into which, from apertures at tho eide,
there rushed waters everywhere known
for health.giving qualities. Around
these basins, twisted into wreaths of
stone, there were all the beauties of
sculpture and architecture; while
standing, as If to guard the costly dis
play, was a statue OF Hercules of
FURNISHED Corinthian brass, Vases
of terra-cotta adorned the ceme-
teries of the dead-vases so cost
~ that Julius Caesar was not salts
fed until he had captured them for
Rome. Armed officials; the "Corinth-
iarii," paced up and down to see that
no statue was defaced, no pedestal
overthrown, no bas-relief touched.
From the edge OF the city hill arose,
with its magnificent burden of col.
umns, and towers, and temples Zone
thousand slaves awaiting at one
shrine), and citadel so thoroughly
impregnable that Gibraltar is a heap
of sand compared with it. Amid all
that strength and magnificenee,
Corinth stood and defied the world.
OH it was not 10 rustics who had
never seen anything grand that st.
Paul uttered this text. They had
heard the best music that had come
from the best instruments in all the
world, they had heard songs floating
from morning porticoes and melting
in evening groves; they had passed.
their whole lives away among pic
lures, and sculpture, and architecture,
and Oorinthian brass, which had been
nodded and shaped, until there was
no chariot wheel in which il had not
sped, and no tower ia which it had
not glittered, and no gateway that
1t had not adorned. All, it was
bold thing for Paul to stand thepe
amid all that, and cay. "All this is
nothing. These sounds that come
from the temple of Neptune are not
music compared with the harmony of
which l speak. These waters rushing
in the basin of Pyrene are not pure.
These statues of Baochus and Mercury
are not exquisite Yon citadel of Aero
corinthns Is not strong compared with
that which offer TO the poorest slave
that puts down his burden at that
brazen gate. You, Corinthians, think
this is splendid city; but I tell you
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of
man. the things which God hath pre-
pared for them that love Hun"
You see my text sets forth the idea
that however exalted our ideas may
be of Heaven, they come far short of
the reality. Some wise men have been
calculating how many furlongs long
and wide is Heaven; and they have
calculated how many inhabitants there
are on the earth; how long the earth
will probably stand; and then they
come to this estimate: that after all
the nations had been gathered to
Heaven, there will be room for each
soul-a room sixteen feet long and fif-
teen feet wide. 1t would not be large
enough for me. am glad to know
that no human estimate is sufficient
to take the dimensions. Eye hath
not seen, nor ear heard" nor arithme-
tic calculated
first remark that we can in this
world get no idea of the health of
Heaven When you were a child, and
you went out in the morning. how you
bounded aloHg the road or street-you
had never felt sorrow or sickness.
Perhaps laier-perhaps in these very
summer dAys-you felt a glow in your
cheek. and spring in your step, and
an exuberance of spirits, and a clear
ness of eye, that made you thank God
you were permitted to live. The
nerves were harp strings, and the sun
light was a doxology, and the rustIing
leaves were the rustlipg of the robes of
a great crowd rising up to praise the
Lord. You thought that you knew
what il was TO be well, but there is no
perfect health on earth. The diseases
of past generations come down to us.
The airs that float now on earth are
unlike those which floated above Par
adise. They are charged with i'm
purities and distempers. The most
elastic and robust health on earth,
compared with that which those expe-
rience before whom the gates have
been opened. is nothing but sickness
and emaciation. Look at that soul
standing before the throne. On earth
she was lifelong invalid. See her