Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-11-01

enough 70 contain all people of all ma
tiODs. of al generations. OF all times.
who have been and will be cleansed
from sin by Christs atoning blood |
want 10 show that provision is made
for the widest acceptance Of the invi-
tation "WhoSoever viii" and is so big
that ii viii take in every sinner who
comes and bows ut the foot of the
cross and who says. as did the pub
lican of old. God be merciful to me n
sinner" And "tne length and the
breadth and the height of it are equal"
Tho Banquet Hall.
was never more impressed with
Christ's parable of the banquet hall of
heaven than after l had studied this
revelation Of st. John. The banquet
tables are spread. The 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 thou hast COM
manded, and yet there is room" OF
room in heaven. Why, heaven is so
big that Gods messengers of all gen.
erations can go into the highways and
the hedges and spread broadcast the
gospel invitation everywhere, and vet
there will be room. Room in heavenl
Room for every one that comes In
Christ's name! Room, unlimited room!
"WhoSoever 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 it are equal"
But there is another fact which ought
to impress you about the wall of heav-
en-, and that is it has twelve swinging
gates, and they are all gates of pearl.
These gates are divided into four
groups. There are three gates In 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 some 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 L was speaking along
this line in my prayer meeting room.
When 1 had finished and thrown open
the service for general discussion, n
gentleman arose and spoke as follows:
Il am Congregational minister. am
> glad to hear your pastor call attention
to the fact that the walls OF heaven
have twelve gates. am glad that 1,
as a member of a different Christian
denomination, can meet and sing and
pray with you tonight Christ said.
Other sheep have which are not of
this fold There are many churches.
many folds, but we all follow the one
Divine Shepherd. Once the sectarian
walls were built so high that the diff
ferent churches could not see over
them. Then time passed on. and they
were lowered little. so that the men,
bers of the different churches could
throw brickbats at one another. But,
thank God, tonight those walls are low
cred so that we can reach over them
and grasp each others hands as Chris
tian brothers."
'Amenr' | said to that. But while
my brother minister was talking l
kept asking myself this question. "Have
those sectarian walls been lowered so
much everywhere that all churches
have ceased to throw brickbats at each
otherY' 1 believe not for when that
day comes Lutheran. Episcopalian,
Presbyterian. Methodist. Baptist, Con-
gregational and all who worship Christ
in 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
or 800 inhabitants. There are twelve
gates to the walls OF heaven. and all
those gates are OF pearl.
But want you to study the gor-
geousness OF those glittering walls Of
heaven as well as the twelve gates of
pearl. Those walls are not 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 the old
Chinese walls and OF the Roman walls
in the northern part of England, which
were built 10 keep out the Picts and
the Scots. that they were not built OF
beautiful stones. 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
their 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
sardius. the chrysolite, the beryl, the
topaz, the chrysoprase. the jacinth and
the amethyst. Oh the beauty, the ex-
uberance, 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 the
wealth OF heaven is so inexhaustible
that every soul is fully satisfied and
every element of its nature has abun-
dant qualification From this we un-