The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-05-24
REV. DR.. TALMAGE
DISCOURSE BY THE EMINENT DIVINE
LAST SUNDAY.
Subject: The SpIendors Of Heaven--Uow-
ever Exalted Our ideas May Be % the
Home on High, They Are Far Short
of the Reality What Awaits Us.
[Copyrlght lgOO.I

tCopyrght 1901
WASHINGTON, d. C.-In this discourse DR..
Talmage lifts the curtain from eternal
felicities and in an unusual way treats OF
the heavenly world; text, l Corinthians,
ill., O. Eve hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man,
the things which God hath prepared for
them that love Him."
The city of Corinth has been called "the
Paris OF antiquity" Indeed for splendor
the world holds no such wonder to-day. 1t
stood on an isthmus washed by two seas,
the one sea bringing the commerce OF Eu-
rope, the other sea bringing the commerce
of Asia. From her wharfs, in the con-
struction of which whole kingdoms bad
been absorbed, war galleys with three
banks of oars pushed out and confounded
the navy yards of all the world. Huge
handed machinery such as modern inYen-
ton 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 a tariff from all ma
lions. The mirth of all people sported in
her sthmian games, and the beauty of all
lands sat in her theatres, walked in her
porticos and threw its elf on the altar of
her stupendous designations. Column and
statue and temple bewlldered the behold
er. 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 stand
ing as if 10 guard the costly display, was
a statue of Hercules of FURNISHED Corinth-
ian brass. Vases of terra Gotta adorned
the cemeteries of the dead-vases 50 cost
l.. T,Iit C.r,ro 1tc kf-G al,
he had captured them for Rome. Armed
officials, the COrintharii, paced up and
down to see that no statue was defaced,
no pedestal overthrow, no bas-reliet
touched. From the edge Of the city Il hill
arose, with its magnificent burden of col
umns, towers and temples 1000 slaves
waiting at one shrine), and a citadel so
thoroughly impregnable that Gibraltar is
heap of sand compared with it. Amid
all that strength and magndcence Corinth
stood and dehed the world.
Oh, it was not to rustcs who had never
seen any thing 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 porticoes 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 until
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 bold thing for Paul
to stand there amid all that and say: ''All
this is nothing. These sounds that come
from the temple of Neptune are not music
compared with the harmonies of which 1
speak; these waters rushing In the basin of
Pyrene are not pure; these statues of Bac-
chus and Mercury are not exquisite; your
citadel OF Aerocorinthus is not strong COM
pared with that which l offer to the poorest
slave that puts down his burden at that
brazen gate. Your Corinthians think this
is a splendid city; you think you have
heard all sweet sounds and seen all beauti-
full sights, but tell you eye hath not seen
nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart Of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love Him"
You see my text sets forth the idea that,
however exalted our ideas of heaven, they
come far short Of the reality Some wise
men have been calculating how many fur
longs long and wide is the new Jerusalem,
and they have calculated how many inhab-
itants there are on the earth, how long
the earth will probably stand, and then
they come to this estimate-tGat after all
the nations have been gathered to heaven
there will be room for each soul, q room
sixteen feet long and fifteen feet wide. 1t
would not be large enough for you it
MOuIN 1OI w VAOuS II iOI ulG tlll
glad to know that no human estimate is
sufficient to take the dimensions. Eye
hath not seen nor ear heard" or Arithmetic
clans calculated.
first remark that we can get no idea of
the health of heaven. When you were a
child and you went out in the morning,
how you bounded along the road or street.
You had never felt sorrow or sickness
Perhaps later you felt glow in your cheek
Srpipp and N-nb at.
ance of spirits and cearneSs OF eye that
made you thank God you were permitted
to live. The nerves were harp strings and
the sunlight was doXology, and the rus
thing Of the robes of great crowd rising
up to praise the Lord. You thought that
you knew what it was to be well, but there
is no perfect health on earth. The dis
eases of past generations came down to US.
The airs that now float upon the earth are
not like those which foated above Para
disc. They are charged with impurities
and distempers. The most elastic and ro-
bust health of earth, compared with that
which those experience before whom the
gates have been opened, Is nothing but
sickness and evacuation. Look at that
soul standing before the throne. On
earth she was lifelong invalid. See her
step now and hear her voice now.
Catch, ii you can, one breath OF that
celestial air. Health, in all the pulses,
health OF VISION, nealtn' OF splrlts-lmmor-
tai health No racking cough, no sharp
pleurisies, no consuming fevers, no ex-
hausting pains. no hospitals Of wounded
men. Health swinging in the air. health
flowing in all the streams; health bloom
ing on the banks. No head aches, no side
aches, no back aches. That child that
died in the agonies Of Group, hear her
voice now ringing in the anthem; that old
man that went bowed down with the In
flrmities of age, see him walk now with the
step of an immortal athlete forever young
again. That night when the needlewoman
tainted away In the garrett wave OF the
heavenly air resuscitated her forever. For
everlasting years to have neither ache nor
pain nor weakness, nor fatguel Eye
hath not seen it; ear hath not heard it,
/ remark further that we can in this
world get no just idea of the splendors of
heaven. John tries to describe them. He
says ''twelve gates are twelve pearls and
that "the foundations of the wall are garn-
ished with all manner OF precious stones"
As we stand looking through the telescope
OF st. John we see Il blaze of amethyst and
PEARL: and emerald and sardonyI and
chrysoprasus ana sapphire, mountain OF
light a cataract of color, a sea OF glass and
a city like the sun. John bids us look again,
~, al l.