Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-10-31

Y VI Wv VII II pNIltlutI
tables are spread. Tho invited guests
have refused to come. Then the mas
ter OF the house said to his servants:
Go out quickly into the streets and
lanes Of the city and bring In hither
the poor and the MANNED and the halt
and the blind. And the servants said,
Lord, 1t is done as hot hast com
mandcd, and yet there is room" OF
course there is room. There is always
room in heaven. Why, heaven is SO
big that Gods messengers Of all gen
erations ran go into the highways and
the hedges and spread broadcast the
gospel invitation everywhere, and yet
there will he room. Room in heaven!
Room for every n that comes in
ChristIs name! Room, unlimited room!
whatsoever will, let him come and
drink of the water Of life" Room in
the many mansions of the Fathers
house. And the length and the
breadth and the height of 1t are equal
But there is another fact which ought
to impress you about the wall of heav-
en-, and that Is 1t has twelve swinging
gates, and they are all gates Of pearl.
These gates are divided into four
groups. There are three gates i'm the
south wall, three gates for the north
wall, three gates for the east wall,
three gates for the west wall. What
do all these gates stand for? They
mean that God has an unlimited num-
Der Of ways for us to get into heaven.
1t does not matter what gate we enter
by as long as we come through a gate
sprinkled with Christ's blood. And
yet there are sorne people so blinded
by sectarian bigotry that they think
no soul can get into heaven except
through one gate, and that the narrow
way of their own church door.
The Different Gates.
Some time ago I was speaking along
this line in my prayer meeting room.
When l had finished and thrown open
the service for general discussion, a
gentleman arose and spoke as follows:
Il am a Congregational minister. am
glad to hear your pastor call attention
TO the fact that the walls Of heaven
have twelve gates. / am glad that l.,
as Il member of q different Christian
denomination, can meet and sing and
pray with you tonight. Christ said,
Other sheep | have which are not OF
this fold There arc many churches,
many folds, but we all follow the one
Divine Shepherd. Once the secterian
walls were built so high that the diff
fcrent churches could not see over
them. Then time passed on. and they
were lowered a little, so that the mem
bcrs of the different churches could
throw brickbats at one another. Put,
thank God. tonight those walls are low
cred so that we can reach over them
and grasp each others hands as Chris
tian brothers,"
amen I said to that. But while
my brother minister was talking |
kept asking myself this question. Have
those sectarian walls been lowered so
much every where that all churches
have ceased to throw brickbats at each
other?' I believe not, for when that
day Lutheran, ~TpiScopallan,
( Presbyterian. Methodist. Baptist, Con-
-rcgational and all who worship Christ
III spirit and in truth will clasp hands
in Christian love. In that day there
will not be five or six different churches
fighting each other in one little village
Of 800 inhabitants. There are twelve
gntcs to the walls of heaven. and all
those gates are of pearl.
But | want you to study the gor-
geousness OF those glittcring walls Of
heaven as we'll rs the twelve gates of
pearl. Those walls are no: made OF
common stones, as are the walls OF the
east. Those stones of the walls OF the
eastern cities were not selected for
their beauty. but for their strength.
We can see from the ruins Of tie Old
Chinese walls and OF the Roman walls
IN the northern part of England, which
were built to keep out the Plcts ana
the Scots. that they we're not built OF
beautiful tones The stones were lift
ed out OF the quarries and placed there
to resist armies and to last for CEN
turtles. The walls of heaven are not
only strong walls, but they are built
out of the most beautiful of precious
stones. Wherever you examine them
tlieir brilliant surfaces CLEAN with
myriads OF flashing lights. Never did
rainbow in the sky have such Won
derful mixture Of colorS as those to be
found among the precious stones which
are built into the walls of heaven.
There in apocalyptic vision st. John
saw the jasper, the sapphire. the chal-
cedony, the emerald, the sardonyx, the
s%ardius, the chrysolite, the beryl, the
topaz, the chrysopraSe, the jacinth and
the amethyst. Oh, the beauty. the ex-
ubcrance, the infinite variety. Of the
colors OF the precious stones of the
walls Of heaven! Why were those
stones set in the walls of the New
Jerusalem? To teach us that when an
immortal soul passes through one of
the gates OF pearl he finds that tho
wealth OF heaven Is so inexhaustible
that every soul is fully satisfied and
every element of its nature has abun-
dant gratihca .ion. From this we I'M
dcrstard what the Bible means by 'the
beauty CT holiness"
Where the Walls Ar. of Gems.
Supposing we should today drive up
to one of the great walled in cities OF
the east. If the setting sun striking
its light upon its walls turned them
into a flaming mountain OF light. and
as we approached those walls we