The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1895-04-17
S.HHEASY Il EMS CAFES,
AN III = Err IS SERMON OF RARE r oWEfs /
BY5REv. Or. 3-TALMAGE.

8 TwcIyc Gates and All of Pearl--Tlo Door
ksepers ana tho Passs,ord--A Fow Words
About Digotry, and sectarlanlsm- some
5fss Issro TcBris. " f
555ll EwSIY YoRK, April Z. Tho bright
q spring weather. has brought still larg-
n sseg crowds to the Sunday afternoon
services conducted by the Rev. DR..
Y, Esat,.hsS.sS He took for his subject to-
day THE Gates Of Heaven" tho text
s being Revelation xxi, 13: Son the
least three gates; on the north three
4 gates; on the south three gates Oh the
west three gates"
The Cashmere gate of, Delhi where
q convergcd q hcroism that makes one's
1 nerves Jingle, tho Lucknow gate still
dented and SCARED with sepoy bonn
bardment, the Madeline gate, with its
4 emit blazonry in bronze, the hundred
\ gates Of Thebes, the wonder Of centu-
& ries, all go out ofsight before the gates
of my text.
ssi. Our subject speaks of q great me-
,tropolis, the existence of which many
have doubted. Standingo OH the wharf
2 and looking off upon the harbor and
4 seeing the merchantmen coming up
1 the bay, the flags Of foreign nations
streaming from the topgallants, you
4 immediately make up your mind that
/ those vessels come from foreign ports,
snd you say, 'That is from Hamburg,
4 and that is from Marseilles, and that is
4 from Southampton, and that is IL ON
Havana" and your supposition is ac-
curate. But from the city Of which l
am now speaking no weather beaten
merchantmen or frigatcs with SCARED
bulkheads have ever come. There
( has been vast emigration into that
city, but no emigration from it so far
as our natural vision can descry.
There is no such city" says the
undevout astronomer. II have stood
in high towers with a mighty tele-
scope and have swept the heavens,
caverns in the moon, but no towers
aces, no temples, no shining streets,
no massive wall There is no such
city" Even very good people tell
me that heaven is not a material or
ganism, but q grand spiritual fact, and
that the Bible description Of it are III
oil cases to be taken fguratively. I
bring in reply to this what Christ said,
and he ought to know, st go to pro
pare"-not theory, not principle,
not q sentiment, but st go to prepare
place for you" Tho resurrccted
body implies this. IF my foot is TO be
reformed from the dust, it must have
something to tread on. If my hand
is to be Reconstructed it must have
something to handle If my eye, hay
ing gone out in death, is to be rekin-
died, must have something to gaze
on. Your adverse theol. seems to
imply that the resurrected oody is to
be hung Oh nothing, or to walk in air,
or to float amid the intangibles. You
may say if there be material organ
isms then soul in heaven will be
cramped and hindered in it's enjoy
ments, but l answer, Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty room in the gar
den Of Edon2 Although only few
miles would have described tho cir
cumference Of that place, they had
ample room. And do you not sup
pose that God, ip the immensities, can
build a place large enough to give the
whole race room, even though there
be material organisms2
Herschel looked into the heavens.
AS a Swiss guide puts his Alpine
stock between the glaciers and crosses
over from crag to crag, SO Herschel
planted his telescope between Tie
worlds and glidcd from star to star
until he could announce to us
that we live in part Of the universe
but sparsely strewn with worlds, and
he peers out into immensity until he
tinds region no larger than our solar
system in which there are $4,000
worlds moving. And Professor Lang
says that by philosophic reasoning
there must be somewhere world where
there is no darkness, but everlasting
sunshine, SO / do not know but that It
is simply because we have no telescope
powerful enough that we cannot SEQ
into the land where there is no dark
ness at all and catch glimpse of the
FURNISHED pinnacles. As conquer
ing army marching Oh to take city
comes at nightfall to the crest Of a
mountain from which, in the midst Of
the landscape, they SEQ the castles they
are to capture, and rein in their war
chargers, and halt to take good look
before they pitch their tents for the
night, SO now, coming as we do on
this mountain top of prospect, I com
mand this regiment Of God to rein in
their thoughts and halt, and before
they pitch their tents for the night
take one good, long look at the gates
of the great city. 7'On the cast three
gates on tho north three gates; on the
south three gates, and on the west
three gates"
In the first place / want you to ex-
anime the architecture of these gates.
Proprietors Of large estates are very
apt to have All ornamentcd gateway.
Sometimes they spring an arch of ma
sonry, the posts of the gate fjanked
with lions in statuary; the bronze gate
representation of INTERVIEWING foliage,
bird haunted, until the hand of archi-
tectural genius drops exhausted, all its
life frozen into the stone. Gates of
wood and iron and stonc guarded
nearly all the old cities. Moslems
have inscribed upon their gateways
inscriptions from the Koran of the
Mohammedan. There have been
great many fine gateways, but Christ
sets his hand to the work, and for the
upper city swung gate such as no
eye ever gazed on, untouched of in
spiration. With the nail of his own
cross he cut into its wonderful tracer
les stories Of past suffering and Of
gladness to come. There is no wood
or stone or bronze in that gate, but
from top to base and from side to side
It. is all Of pearl. Not one piece pick
oI III, fro,,, rn,y1D,, 10 l,e IL -.