The Banner-Democrat. [volume] (Lake Providence, East Carroll Parish, La.) 1892-current, 1895-10-19
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
The Glories Of Heaven Pictured
by a Master Hand.
"Eye Hath Not Seen Nor Ear Heard"-Ne
Sickness and No Troubles There
The Great Family Reunions
Songs of Heaven.

Songs of Heaven.
Rev. r. Dewitt Talmage prepared
the following sermon on Surprising
Splendors" for publication this week.
1t is based on the text:
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard-I Cor.
H.,
81 am going to Heaven! am going
to Heaven! Heaven! Heaven! Heaven
These were the last words uttered
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. 1t stood on an isthmus
washed by two seas, the one sea bring
ing the commerce of Asia. From her
wharyes, 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
ell 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
in the sea on the other side. The rev
enue officers of the city went down
through the olive 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 stupendous
designations. Column, and statue,
and temple bewildered the beholder.
There were white marble fountains
into which, from apertures at the side,
there rushed waters everywhere known
for henlth-giving qualities Around
these basins, twisted into wreaths Of
stone, there were all the beauties o.
sculpture and architecture; while
standing, as if to guard the costly dis
play, was a statue of Hercules oi
FURNISHED Corinthiar brass. Vase:
of terra-cotta adorned the GENE
teries of the dead-vases SO cost
ly 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 thai
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 (ont
thousand slaves awaiting at ont
shrine), and a citadel SO thoroughly
impregnable that Gibraltar is hear
of sand compared with it. Amid al
that strength and magnificence
Corinth stood and defied the world.
Oh! it was not to rustics who had
never seen anything grand that st
Paul uttered this text They hat
heard the best music that had coms
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 Corinthian brass, which had beer
nodded and shaped, until there wa
no chariot wheel in which it had no
sped. and no tower in which it hat
not glittered, and no gateway tina
it had not adorned. All, it was ;
bold thing for Paul to stand Their
amid all that, and say: "All this j
| nothing. These sounds that come
from the temple of Neptune are no
music compared with the harmony o
which speak. These waters rushin,
in the basin of Pyrene are not pure
These statues of Bacchus and Mercury
are not exquisite. Yon citadel of Aero
corinthus is not strong compared wit
that which offer to the poorest slav
that puts down his burden st tina
brazen gate. You, Corinthians, thin
this is splendid city; but | tell yov
eye hath not seens nor ear heard
neither have entered into the heart O
man, the things which God hath pre-
pared for them that love HIM."
You see my text sets forth the ide,
that however exalted our ideas ma
be of Heaven. they come far short @
the reality. Some wise men have bee
calculating how many furlongs Ion
and wide is Heaven; and they hav
calculated how many inhabitants ther
are on the earth; how long the cart
will probably stand; and then the
come to this estimate: that after a.
the nations had been gathered t
Heaven, there will be room for eac
soul--a room sixteen feet long and Fl
teen feet wide. 1t would not be larg
enough for me. l am glad to kno'
that no human estimate is sufficier
to take the dimensions Eye hat
not seen, nor ear heard" nor arithm,
tic calculated.
j first remark that we can in tn
world get no idea of the health {
Heaven. When you were child, an
you went out in the morning. how 70
bounded along the road or street-yo
had never felt sorrow or sickness
Perhaps later-perhaps in these yer
summer days-you felt glow in yor
cheek. and q spring in your step, IN
an exuberance of spirits, and a cleal
ness of eye, that made you thank Go
you were permitted to live. Tt
nerves were harp strings, and the sui
light was q doxoloRy, and the rustlin
leaves were the rustling of the robes
great crowd rising up to praise til
Lord. You thought that You kne
what it was to be well. but there is Z