The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1895-04-10
THE GATES OF HEAVEN.
There Is World Somewhere Where
There is No Darkness.
Twelve Gates Through Which You Can PRss
to Enter It-A Few Words About BigOtry
and sectarianism-SermOn by Rev.
DIR. T. Dewitt Talmage, ID. ID.

ject Sunday "The gates Of Heaven"
the text being Revelation xxi, 10; "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 heroism that makes ones
nerves tingle, the Lucknow gate still
dented and Scared with sepoy bonn
bardment, the Madeline gate, with its
em blazonry in bronze, the hundred
gates of Thebes, the wonder of CEN
turies all go out of sight before the
rates of my text.
Our subject speaks of a 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 up your mind that those vessels
came from foreign ports, and you say !:
That is from Hamburg, and that is
from Marseilles, and that is from
southampton, and that is from Ha-
rana," and your supposition is accu-
rate. But from the city of which am
now speaking no weather-beaten mel
chantmen or frigates with SCARED
Oulkhead have ever come. There has
been vast emigration into that city,
but no emigration from it, so far IS
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 l have
seen spots on the sun and caverns in
the moon, but no towers have ever
risen on my vision, no palaces, no tenn
pies, no shining streets, no massive e
wall. There is no such CITY," Even
very good people tell me that Heaven
is not material organism, but a grand
spiritual fact, and that the Bible de.
scriptions of it are in all cases to be
taken fguratively. bring in reply to
this what Christ said. and he ought to
know, Il go to prepare"-not theory,
not principle, not sentiment, but
Il go to prepare place for you" The
resurrected body implies this. If my
foot is to be reformed from the dust, it
must have something 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. must have something to
gaze on. Your adverse theory seems
to imply that the resurrected body is
to be hung on nothing, or to walk in
air, or to float amid the intangibles.
You may say if there be material or
ganisms then soul in Heaven will be
cramped and hindered in its enjoy
ments. but l answer, Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the
garden of Eden? Although only few
miles would have described the circum-
ference 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 ma
terial organisms?
Herschcl looked into the heavens.
AS Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock
between the glaciers and crosses over
from crag to crag, so Herschel planted
his telescope between the worlds and
| glided from star to star until he could
announce to us that we live in part
of the universe but sparcely strewn
with worlds, and he peers out into i'm
mensity until he finds region no
larger than our solar system in which
there are $4,000 worlds moving. And
Prof. Lang says that by a philosophic
reasoning there must be somewhere a
world where there is no darkness, but
everlasting sunshine, so that l do not
know but that it is simply because we
have no telescope powerful enough
that we can not see into the land
where there is no darkness at all and
catch glimpse of the FURNISHED PIN
nacles. AS conquering army march
| ing on to take city comes at nightfall
to the crest of mountain from which,
| in the midst of the landscape, they see
the castles they are to capture, and
rein in their war chargers, and halt to
take a good look before they pitch
their tents for the night, so now, COM
ing as we do on this mountain top OF
prospect, l command 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. "On the
east three gates; on the north three
gates, and on the west three gates"
In the first place l want you to ex-
anime the architecture of those gates.
Proprietors of large estates are very
apt to have an ornamental gateway.
Sometimes they spring an arch Of ma
sonry the posts of the gate tlanked
with lions in statuary; the bronze gate
representation of INTERVIEWING foli-
age, bird haunted, until the hand of
architectural genius drops exhausted,
all its life frozen into the stone. Gates
of wood and iron and stone guarded
nearly all the old cities. Moslems have
inscribed upon their gateways inscrip-
tions from the Koran of the Moham-
medan. 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 inspiration. With
the nail of his own cross he cut into
its wonderful traceries 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 pearl.
Not one piece picked up from Cey'
Ion banks, and another piece from the
Persian gulf, and another from the