The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-12

X. DIXON before his summer vacation
was preached to his congregation last
night In the Penn Avenue Baptist
church. His topic was Heavens open
Gates-Who Shall Enter" His texts
were Rev. xxi:25 and 27. "And the gates
Of 1t shall not be shut at all by day."
And there shall In nowisa enter into
1t anything that deflleth." DIR Dixon
said:
On the bairenest island OF the Aegean
sea young man had his eye turned to-
ward heaven. There were raptures of vs-
ion to reward him and floods OF glory
to pour In upon his soul Listen to the
music of that speech TO which John list
ened; God shall wipe sll tears from
their eyes-a land without tears-what a
wealth of summer, no speech may ever
put into the poverty OF human words.
and there shall bo no more DEATH"
A city along whose streets the wheels of
hearse never roll no sable plumes ever
bend in the zephyrs of the perpetual
summer, no Grape ever hangs from the
doorways of the many mansions.
Leaping from the attitude of a listener
where he has heard Gods speech OF
emancipation from all that binders and
hurts down here--he locks again at what
God reveals-looks from the superb heig hit
of mountain summit, there he needed
not the lenses of mans invention-for he
had been carried away Sin the spirit"
There he was given the sight of that city
more glorious than hts pen could ever
describe. Light that famed and shone
upon II like a Jasper stone bathed its
pinnacles. Its walls, four-square stretch
ing away for fifteen hundred miles, had
all been laid out with a golden reed,
and things that men consider most costly
and most precious are mentioned as en-
gt nf ha
vine masonery
History has made her gateways, swung
them In bronze and marble, gold-leav ed,
and heavy with figured statuary. Baby
Ion had her five score gateways, so had
ancient Thebes. Many of the worlds 4
pleasure gardens are approached through
arches under which there swing gates
or architectural beauty. The br ouze doors
of the baptistery in Florence will for
ever stand forth as noble specimens OF
art and genius. Then II YOU go back
into one of those old Indian towns In tina
Rajpootana, as you pass through the in
ner walls there will hang before you
the heavy gates hundreds OF years old,
studded with six'Hnch long spikes of iron.
A relic OF presc!eptific and old world
beligerency, such as was prevelart In
Asia, when elephants were always sent
forward to batter in the portals Of for
tresses with their foreheads, and the only
way OF preventing the great beast from
bursting in six inch oak plank was ia
put set of sharp spikes upon 1t.
HOPE ABANDONED.
The press of our time lavishes great
praise upon contemporary French
sculptor by the name Of Augusre Rodin.
A little time ago NJ. Turquet, then min
lister of stare, gave Rodin a commission
to make gates OF bronze such as Ghibertl
made for the baptistery Of Florence.
These gates were to adorn a museum OF
decorative art, which is not yet built
The subject was to be a synthesis OF
Dante's Inferno. For some ten years
Rodin has had this oollosal work in hand
and still II remains In his studio a mag
nificent ruin. and a magnificent ruin IL
VIII doubtless remain moulded in white
plaster, these gates OF he'll will doubt.
less remain in suggestive fragments
Over the door are three men whose ges
lures seem to imply those dreadful lines
abandon all hope ye who enter"
Along the Intel Of these gates in the
sea of lava are arms. legs, heads that
are charming or horrible. Figures OF
anguish, OF revolt and of eternal tears
On the side posts are the insatiat souls
of the damned. And amid the broken
ice and horrid circles of Dante's he'll
are innumersble groups OF centaurs
satyrs, and men and women in whom are
mentioned. These gstes OF hell are a col.
losal conception. They are also sug.
gestive setting forth In their scattered
and unfinished condition of the vanqu,sh.
ing power of heavens gates over ali tina,
is sin, "And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against IT," is the triumphant
burst of inspiration,
Heavens gates are finished There Is
no stain Of sin upon all their brilliant
outlines. every several gate is a pearl
Heavens gates are open. "And the gate.
of 1t shall not be shut ct all by day
they shall never he shut for there is nc
night there. AN sides OF heaven oper
at one time and open al, tho time Wher
the Lord Jesus knocks at the gatewa,
of your heart he finds 1t closed. Nc
troubled hand ever bruised itself against
the doorways OF heaven, knocking TO,
| admission, And the gates of it shall not
| be shut at ALL"
Heaven Is an open place to us who
dwell on the earth, The Scriptures lay
| emphasis ON the fact that the heavens
once closed to us on account of oup sins
have been opened to US on account OF
the life-death-and resurrection of Jesus
| Ezekiel, the captive prophet by the rivel
Chebar, saw what our Lord would re
veal ir the truth of the gospel, when h,
| declares: 1.-The heavens were opened, anC
| | saw visions of God" In the New Testa
| oneDeo heavens in connection with tn,
work OF Christ. When the Master cam,
| TO the Jordan to submit to the baptism
of John, al he went up out of the water
10 the heavens were opened unto him anC
he saw the spirit
| SIGNIFICANT THOUGHT.
Then we come to the vision before us
where the gates of the city are neve
| closed. q, brothers, there is an opel
way from the pew where you sit to tn
very throne OF God. Whatever else 20,
believe about God and his administra
| tion of this world, | do not want yo,
to exlude from your belief the fact tina
which ever way you come toward heaven
there are three gates open for your en-
| trance. Is there not something signific
ant In the thought that the highways o
| heaven are always open to receive al
| who wish To get in--also that they ar
alike open for all who wish to com
| out. We hear of a great army OF strug
| glng souls down here. who would lik
TO enter IN through the gates into tn
clty--but We haye NO knowledge any
| where OF any one of the mighty hos
| ever lifting q prayer to come back again
III the gates are open to receive US
they are then likewise open or .the exis
or minlstering spirits, sent to dellve
and guide us who stray and fall dow
here.
Heaven is not only an open place, bu
II Is a wide-open place. ION the cas-
three gates; on the north. three gates
on the south, three gates; and on tn
west. three gates" The accessibility O
heaven here impresses the mind. From
whenever way a soul may come ther
Is gate open. Every nation and ever,
man will have access to the great cit,
from that side Of their being, whicl
| looks toward heaven. This is not a mar