The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1900-06-21
THE NEW JERUSALEM
Dr.. Talmage Lifts the Curtain from
Eternal FeliciAes.


The Glories Of Heaven surpass the
comprehension of the Finite
Mind-There Will he No
Parting There.
copyright. 1900, by Louis Klopsch.l
Washington,
In this discourse DR.. Talmage lifts
the curtain from eternal felicities and
in an unusual way treats of the Heaven
ly world. Text, I. Corinthians, 2:9:
Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of
man, the things which God hath pre-
pared for them that love Him."
The city of Corinth has been called
"the Paris of antiquity" Indeed, for
splendor the world holds no such won
der to-day. It stood on an isthmus
washed by two seas, the one sea bring
ing the commerce of Europe, the other
sea bringing the commerce of Asia.
From her wharfs, in the construction
of which whole kingdoms had been alb
sorbed, war galleys with three banks
Of oars pushed out and confounded the
navy yards of all the world. Huge
handed machinery, such as modern in
vention cannot equal, lifted ships from
the sea on one side and transported
them on trucks across the isthmus and
set them down in the sea on the other
side.
The revenue officers of the city went
down through the olive groves that
lined the beach to collect tariff from
all nations. The mirth of all people
sported in her isthmian games, and the
beauty of all lands sat in her theaters,
walked her porticoes and threw itself
on the altar of her stupendous dissipa-
tions. Column and statue and temple
bewildered the beholder. There were
white marble fountains into which
from apertures at the side there rushed
waters everywhere known for health
giving qualities. Around these basins,
twisted into wreaths of stone, there
were all the beauties of sculpture and
architecture, while standing, as if to
guard the costly display, was statue
of Hercules of FURNISHED Corinthian
brass. Vases of terra Gotta adorned
the cemeteries of the dead-vases so
costly that julius Caesar was not salts
fed until he had captured them for
Rome. Armed officials, the Corintharii,
paced up and down to see that no stone
was defaced, no pedestal overthrown,
no bas relief. touched. From the edge
of the city hill arose, with it's mag
nificent burden of columns, towers and
temples u,OOO slaves waiting at one
shrine), and citadel SO thoroughly
impregnable that Gibraltar is a heap
of sand compared with it. Amid all
that strength and magnifcence Corinth
stood and defied the world.
Oh, it was not to rustics, who had
never seen anything grand, that Paul
uttered this text. They had heard the
best music that had come from the best
instruments in all the world; they had
heard songs floating from morning por-
ticoes and melting in evening groves;
they had passed their whole lives
among pictures and sculpture and
architecture and Corinthian brass
which had been nodded and shaped un.
til there was no chariot wheel in which
it had not sped, and no tower in which
it had not glittered, and no gateway
that it had not adorned. All, it was 9
bold thing for Paul to stand there annie
all that and say: "All this is nothing
/ These sounds that come from the tenn
i lv,lo 4$ ,<>$ ,cSn ror
with the harmonies of which I speak
These waters rushing in the basin o.
Pyrene are not pure. The statues O.
Bacchus and Mercury are not exquisite
Your citadel of Acrocorinthus is mo-
strong compared with that which I of
fer to the poorest slave that puts dowl
his burden at that brazen gate. Yo,
Corinthians think this is splendit
city. You think you have heard al
sweet sounds and seen all beautiful
sights, but I tell you eye hath not see1
nor ear heard, neither have entere,
into the heart of man, the things whicl
God hath prepared for them that low
Him."
You see, my text sets forth the ide
that, however exalted our ideas o
Heaven, they come far short of tn
reality. Some wise men have been cal
culating how many furlongs long an,
wide is the new Jerusalem, and the
have calculated how many inhabitant
there are on the earth, how long tn
earth will probably stand, and the
they come to this estimate: That aft
er all the nations have been gathere
to Heaven there wqll be room for eac
soul, a room 16 feet long and IS fee
. wide. It would not be large enoug
. for you. It would not be large enoug
. for me. am glad to know that no h,
man estimate is sufficient to take tn
J dimensions. Eye hath not seen, nc
ear heard" nor arithmeticians calc,
: lated.
first remark that we can get no ide
!. of the health of Heaven. When yo
, were a child. and you went out in IL
. morning, how you bounded along tl
| road m c4ron%-vOu had never felt s0