The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-04-08
HEAVENS BEAUTIFUL GATES.
NOTHING OF HUMAN HANDIwORK
To COMPARE To THEN.

People Who Deny the Existence Of
such "A Place as Heaven Answered
with Christs own NOrds-A World
of Everlasting sunshine Proven by
PhflOsOphic Reasoning - Three
Gates on Each of the Four Sides
of the City.
New York. April THE bright spring
weather has brought stin larger crowds
to the Sunday afternoon services, con-
Quoted by Rev. DR.. Talmage. He took
for his subject to-day: The Gates OF
Heaven" the text being Revelations. p;
1S ION 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 con-
verged a heroism that makes ones nerves
tingle. the Lucknow Gate still dented and
scared with Sepoy bombardment, the Mad
cline Gate with its emblazonry in bronze.
the hundred gates of Thebes the wonder Of
centuries. all go out of sight before the
Gates of my text.
Our subject speaks Of a great metropolis,
the existence of which many have doubted.
Standing on the wharf and looking off
upon the DOIf anu Seeing AlAt IttAEAGlAN-
men coming up the bay, the flags OF for
eign nations streaming from the top
gallants, you Immediately make up your
mind that those vessels come from foreign
ports and you say: THAT is from Ham
burg, and that is from Marseilles, and that
is from Southampton, and that is from
Havana" and your supposition is accu-
rate. But from the city OF which l am now
speaking no weather-beaten merchant
men or frigates with SCARED bulkheads
have ever come There has been a vast
emigration into that city, but no emf
grafton from it-sO far as our natural
vision can descry. There is no such
city" says the undevout astronomer, Il
have stood in high towers with a mighty
telescope. and have swept the heavens, and
l have seen spots on tho 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 wall.
There is no such city" Even very good
people tell me that heaven is not a ma
terial organism, but grand spiritual fact,
and that the Bible descriptions of II are
in all cases to be taken hguratively. 1
bring in reply to this what Christ said,
and he ought to know: Il go to prepare"
mot theory, not a principle, not a SEN
timent; but Il go to prepare "A 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.
If my hand is to be reconstructed, II must
have something to handle. If my eye
having gone out in death, is to be relein-
died, 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 organisms, then a soul in heaven
viii be cramped and hindered in its en-
joyment, but l answer. Did not Adam
and Eve have plenty of room in the garden
of Eden? Although only a few miles
would have described the circumference
of that place, they had ample room. And
do you not suppose that God in the i'm
Inensities, can build place large enough
20 give the whole race room, even though
there be material organisms?
Herschel looked into the heavens. As
a Swiss guide puts his Alpine stock be-
tween the glaciers and crosses over from
crag to crag, so Herschel planted his tel
escope between the worlds and glided
from star to star, until he could announce
to us that we live in part of the uni
verse but sparsely strewn with worlds;
and he peers out into immensity until he
finds region no larger than our solar
system in which there are fifty thousand
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 do not know but that It is sim
ply because we have no telescope pow
erful enough that we cannot see into the
land where there is no darkness at all
and catch glimpse of the FURNISHED PIN
nacles. As conquering army marching
on to take a city, comes at nightfan 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 a
good look before they pitch their tents
for the night: so now, coming as we do
on this mountain-top of prospect, / COM
mand this regiment of God to rein i'm
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. ION the east three gates; on the
north three gates; on the south three
gates; and on the west three gates"
In the first place want you to examine
the architecture of those gates. Proprie-
tors of large estates are very apt to have
an ornamented gateway. Sometimes they
spring an arch of masonry, the posts
of the gates fianked with Hons in statuary;
the bronze gate a representation OF inter
twininS foliage bird-haunted until the
hand of architectural genius drops eN-
hausted. all its life frozen into the stone.
Gates of wood. and iron, and stone guard
ed nearly all the old cities. Moslems have
inscribed upon their gateWays inscriptions
from the Koran Of the Mohammedan
There have been great many fine gate
ways, out CHRIST sets MS hand TO the work,
and for the upper city swung a gate such
as no eye ever gazed on, untouched of in
spiration. 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 of pearl. Not one
piece picked up from Ceylon banks and
another piece from the Persian Gulf, and
another from the island of Marguerite;
but one solid pearl picked up from the
beach of everlasting light by heavenly
hands, and hotsted and swung amid the
shouting of angels. The glories of ala
baster vase and porphyry pillar fade out
before this gateway 1t puts out the spark
of feldspar and diamond. You know how
one little precious stone on your finger will
fash under the gaslight. But o! the
brightness when the great gate of heaven
swings, struck through and dripping with
the light of eternal MONDAY.
Julius Caesar paid a hundred and
twenty-five thousand crowns for one pearl
The government of Portugal boosted of
having a pearl larger than a pear. Cleo
patra and Philip ii. dazzled the worlds