The Penn's Grove record., 1895-04-12
REV. DR. TAIMAGE
xHM RROOKLYN DIvyyR,s SUE.
DAY SERMON.
Subject: "The Gates of Heaven"

TEXT; "0nthe east three gates; on tht
north three gates; on the south three gatesI
On the westthree gates. "--Revelation xxi, 13
The Cashmere gate of Delhi, where con,
verged a heroism that makes ones nervei
Jingle, the Lucknow gate, still denied and
SCARED with sepoy bombardment, the Madel
line gate with its emblazonry in bronze, tho
hundred gates of Thebes, the wonder OF
centuries, all go out OF sight before thu
gates Of my text.
Our subject speaks ofa great metropolis,
the existence Of which many have doubted.
Standing on the wharf and looking off upon
the harbor and seeing the merchantmen com,
ing up the bay, the flags Of foreign nations
streaming from the topgallants, you immedt.
ately make up your mind that those vessels
com from foreign ports, and you say: ''That
is from Hamburg, and that is from Mari
settles, and that is from Southampton, and
that Is. from Havana" and your supposition
is accurate. But from the city Of which l and
now speaking no weather-beaten merchant,
men or frigates with scared bulkhead have
ever come. There has been q vast emikraI
ton into that city, but no emigration from
1t, so far as our natural vision can descry.
"There Is n such city, says the undevoul
astronomer. 81 have stood in high towers
with a mighty telescope and have swept the
heavens, and 1 have seen spots on the sun
hhu chNeruS III tns moon, Dul no towers nave
ever risen on my vision, no palaces, no tenn
| pies, no shining streets, no massive wall.
There is no such CITY," Even very good peo-
pie tell me that heaven is not a material or
ganism, but n grand spiritual fact, cad that
the Bible descriptions of 1t are In or Eases to
be taken fguratively. 1 bring in aleply to
this what Christ said. and He oughtto know,
81 go to p~repare"-not a theory, not a prin.
ciple, not o sentiment, but 81 gqto prepare
place for YOU" The resurr.tS yIss I'M
plies this. Ifmy foot is to be refofne6 from
the dust, 1t must have something to tread on.
II my hand Is to be reconstructed, 1t
must have something to handle.
II my eye, having gone out in
death, Is to be r~ekindled, 1 must have
something to gaze on. You adverse theory
seems to imply that the resurrected body Ia
TO be hung IN nothing, or to walk In air, OF
to float 2 mid the i~ntaEgibles. You may say
II ther ,material organisms then a soul In
heaven viii be cramped and hindered in its
enjoyments, but l answer, Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room In the Garden
Of Eden2 Although only a few miles would
have described the circumference OF that
place, they had amplAroom. And do you
not suppose that God, in the immc5 Jities,
can build a place large enough to- I've the
whclerace room even though tkhsss be ma
terial organisms?
Herschel looked into the heavens. As q
Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock between
the glaciers and crosses. over from crag to
crag. so Herschel planll,d his tekeope be.
tween the worlds and gilded from s,arto star
until he could announce to us that we live
In q part OF the universe but sparsely strewn
with worlds, and he peers out into immen-
slty until he finds a region no larger than oui
solar system in which there are 80, 900 worlds
moving. And Professor Lang yiSs that by q
phiiosophic~ reasoning there must be some
where a world where there is no darkness,
but overlap ing 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 st all and catch a glimpse OF
/ the . n| pinnacle. As a conuuer-
ing army marshing on TO take a city comes
at nightfall to. the crest Of a 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 q
| good look before they pitch their tents fci
the night, so now, coming as we do OF this
mountain top of prospect, I 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. o the east three
gates; OF the north three gates; on the
south three gstes, and OIL the west three
\ gates"
In the first place, want to examine thu
architecture Of those gates. Proprietors oil
large estates are very apt to have an orna-
mental gateway. Sometimes they spring an
arch of masonary, the posts of the gate
thanked with lions In %statuary, the bronze
gate a representation of INTERVIEWING foliage,
bird haunted, until the hand Of architecture
genius drops exhausted, all its life frozen
into stone. Gates of wood and iron and
stone guarded nearly oil the old cities.
Moslems have inscribed upon their gatewayt
Inscriptions from the Koran OF the Moham-
medan. There have been a great many
fine gateways, but Christ sets His hand
to the work n for the upper
city swung a gate such as no
eye ever gazed on, untouched Of inspiration.
With the nail Of His own cross He cut into ita
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
70 base and from side to side 1T is all of pearl.
Not one piece picked up from Ceylon banks,
and another piece from the Persian gulf, and
another from the island Of Margarette, but
one solid pearl picked up from the beach Of
everlasting light by heavenly hands and
hGisted and swung amid the shouting OF
angels. IT glories of alabaster vase and
porphyry pillar fad out before his gateway.
1t puts out the spark of feldspar and dia-
mond. You know how one little precious
srone on your finger will flash under the gas.
light. But, oh! the brightness when the
great gate of heaven swings, struck through
and dripping with the light of eternal noon
day.
Julius Caesar paid 125, 900 crowns for ons
Lpearl. The Government Of Portugal boosted
Of having q pearl larger than a 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 1t 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 splendors OF earthly
fbeaIty. Against this gate OIL the other
side ASat the surges Of eternal glory.
Oh, the gate, the gate! 1t strikes an III.
finite cham through every one that passes
Il. One step this side OF the gate and we ARE
paupers. Dne step the other side of the gate
and we as kings. The pilgrim OF earth
going throaeh sees in the one huge pearl all
his earthly hears In crystal. Oh, gate Of
light, gate Of pearl, gate Of heaven, for oui
weary. souls at ast swing openl
When shall thes6eyes thy heaven built wall;
And pearly gates behold;
Thy bulvarks with salvation strong
And streets of shining gold2
oh, heaven is not a dull PLACED Heaven
Is not a contracted place. Heaven IL NOT a
stupid place. 81 saw the twelve gates, and
they were twelve pearls"
In the second place l want you to count
49, NA ~ AO1V S6tN1s lAAROAAdt PdIh7
and lordly manors are apt to have one expen- 7
dve gateway, and the others are ordinary, |
\ but look around at these entrances to heaven
andcount them. One, two, three, four, five, six, |
seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve. Hear
| 1t, all the earth and all the heavens! Twelve |
! gGtesi
/ admit this is ather hard on sharp sectari.
antsms. II a Presbyterian is bigoted, he
brings his Westminster assembly catechism,
and he makes a gateway out of that, and he
saysto the world, 'You go through there OF
stay out" II a member of the Reformed
Church is bigoted, he makes a gate ont Of
the Heidelberg catechism, and he says, ''You
go through there or stay out" ia Metho-
dist is bigoted, he plants two posts, and he
says. +.Now, you crowd in between those two
posts or stay out" Or perhaps an Episcopa- |
lian may say; ''Hereisa liturgy out Of (which
I mean to make a gate Go through 1t or |
. stay out" or q Baptist may shy, "Here Is a
water gate. You go through that. or you
must stay out" and so in 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
I Gbhor this contractedness In religious
Utarvs n ANAL anulad man when did God