The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-10-29
Caln1age
sermon
By Rev.
Frank De witt Talmage. D. D.

Los Angeles, Cal, Oct. o7.-In this
sermon the heavenly capital and its
attractions are presented i'll Il new
aspect. and st. Johns description re-
ceiveS Il realistic and beautiful inter
probation. The text is Revelation xxi
16, The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal"
A mans visions or iiiealisns or men
tai simiIitudes inevitably take upon
themselves the forms and colorings
and characters of his physical sur
roundings. When Pharaoh dreamed
revelations of the coming gra1ldeurs
of Persian capital. He caught no
glimpse of the future gories of Athens.
Rome, Berlin. London. st. Petersburg
or New York. He saw vision of his
own pasture lands and of his own
river Nile. flowing past his palace
door He saw his own cattle and his
own Wheatfields. His dreams were of
familiar scenes. The popularity was
in what these familiar objects did.
The seven lean cattle ate up the seven
fat cattle, the seven lean stalks ate
up the seven fat stalks. The seven
fat cattle represented seven years of
plenty; the seven lean represented sew
en- years of want. but all were the
same kind of cattle which Pharaoh's
herdsmen were then tending upon the
royal domains.
When Joseph, the shepherds son.
dreamed his dreams emblematic of
his future greatness the picture in his
vision did not show him the glories of
an Egyptian premiership. In all prob
ability. living the simple herdsmans
life. he at that time had no concep
ton of what royal court was like
No, Joseph did not dream of ermine
and coronets and thrones. He saw
the sun and the moon and the eleven
stars making obeisance to him. He
saw the sheaves of wheat which his
brethren were binding in the fields
bow down and worship his sheaf. He
saw these astronomical and agricu,
tural SMILES because as 4 shepherd
boy guarding his flock by night he
had often watched and studied the
stars. He saw the sheaves because as
a farmers boy he had often watched
the workmen gathering the harvests.
and his own back and arms often had
been wearied with binding the sheaves
for on the farm during the harvest
time all the men and boys who could
carry the scythe were pressed int
service. 1t is a psychological law thai
when we see visions they may be ride
ulous or grotesgue, but they generally
relate to objects familiar to us in our
waking hours.
St. Johns Vision of Heaven.
When ST John upon the island of
Patmos caught 4 glorious vision Of the
celestial capital, the New Jerusalem.
what was more natural for him than
20 pattern it after the greatest and the
most wonderful city his eyes had ever
seen? He certainly did not picture
heaven as any of the modern cities
you and l are accustomed to see. He
did not think of the New Jerusalem as
built upon sand dunes by beautiful
harbor. as San FrenciscO is built be-
side the tapping waters of the Golden
Gate OF the Pacific He did not find it
among the waving palms and the beau
tifui flower gardens and the orange
groves under the shadow Of the snow
capped mountains OF Gray back and
San Bernardino, as is Redlands. the
most beautiful city Of all California.
He imagined the New Jerusalem de-
scending from heaven and alighting on
a hill, as the Davidic capital was upon
a hill Then st. John imagines this
celestial city surrounded by great
wall Though this wall was glittering
with myriads of precious stones, it
was the same kind of wall that ell
circled the capital of the Holy Land.
Let us try to imagine the exterior
of the celestial capital which we call
heaven as John saw it in vision. | an
going to point out to you some OF the
chief characteristics of those celestial
battlements. At other times we may
ia fancy under the apostles guidance
try to enter those gates and roam over
the golden bouleyards and examine the
architecture of the mansions in the
skies, but today we are going to limit
our travels and just study the outer
walls of heaven. 1t is a strange spec
tacie as the inspired artist pictures It,
1t surpasses in splendor every wall
and portal in the most magnificent OF
European or Asiatic cities. Sometimes
as tourists think we pass too quickly
the beautiful carved doors of the great
cathedraIs of Europe or ignore the
mighty walls of eastern capitals in or
der to reach the centers of the cities
Let us not make this mistake in ref
erence to heaven. Let US loiter at least
one Sabbath day to study the walls
which encircle our future celestial hab-
itation. And the city lieth four
square, and the length is as large as
the breadth. and he measured the city
with the reed. twelve thousand fur
n