Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1888 — THE NEXT WORLD. [ARTICLE]

THE NEXT WORLD.

. —— Things Which the Rye Hath Not Seen Nor the Ear Heard. ■ The Splendora of Kurth But hi a Failing Dre»m--Thrre ii Cheer and Comfort Beyond ihe«rave for Those Who Love God. 4 Rev. [Dr. [Talmage preached in the Brooklyn Tabernacle ofi the Ist. Subject, “The Opining Glory;” text, I. Cor,; ii., 9; “Bye hath not seen.nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of , mad, ths things which God hath J prepared for them that love Him.” He said: Eighteen liunfired and eighty eight! i How strange it looks and how strange it' sounds! Not oply is the past year dead buttlie century is dying. Only twelve more long breathsand the old giant will have expired. None of the past centuries will be present at the obsequies. Only the twentiatti centtity wm See the nineteenth buried. As all the years are hastening past,and all our lives on earth will soon he ended, I propose to cheer myself and cheer you with the glories to come, which Shall utterly eclipse all the glories past; for mv (ext tells us that eye hath not seen nor ear heard anything like the advancing splendors. The city of Corinth has been called the

Paris of antiquity. Indeed, for splendor the world holds no such wonder to-day. It stood on an isthmus washed bv two sea-, the one sea bringing the commerce of Europe, the other sea bringing the •ommerce ot Asia. From her wharves, in the construction of which whole kmgdbms had been absor bed, war galleys with three banks of oars pushed out and confounded the navy yards of the world. Huge handed machinery, such as modern invention can not equal, lifted ships fro n the season oneside and transported them on trucks across the isthmus and sat 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 ts 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 porticos, and threw itself bn the altar of her stupendous dis-

sipations. Column, and statue, and temple bewildered beholder. There were white marble fountains into which, from apertures at the side, there rushed waters every-where 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 a statue of Hercules of burnished Cdrinthain brass, Vases of terracotta adorned -the cemeteries of the dead—vaces so costly that Julius Cmser was not satisfied until he had captured them for Rome. Armed officials’ the Corintharii, paced up and down to see that no statue was defaced, no pedestal overthrown, no bas relief touched. From the edge of the city a hill arose, with its magnificent burden of columns, and towers, and temples, (one thousand slaves waiting at one shrine.) and a citadelso thoroughly impregnable that Gibraltar is a hean of sand compared with it. Amid all that Strength and magnificence Corinth stood and defied the world. Oh! it was not to rustics 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 a l the world; they had heard songs floating from morning porticos and melting in evening gioves; they had passed their whole lives among pictures, and sculpture, and architecture, and Corinthian brass, which had been molded and shaped until there was no chariot wheel in whjch it had not sped, and no tower in which it had not glittered, and n'o gateway that it had not adorned. Ahl it was a bold thing for Par to stand there amid all that and say: “ All this is nothing. These sounds ‘.nat come from the temple of Neptune are not music as compared with the harmonies of which I speak. These waters rushing in the basin of Pyrene ai£ not pure. These athtues of Bacchus and Mei'Cdiy aTe exquisite. Your citadel of ACfbcorinthus is not strong compared with that which I offer to the poorest slave that puts down his burden at th a t brazen gate. You Corinthians Yiink this is a splendid city ; you' 1 think you have heard all sweet sounds and seen all beautiful sights, bjit I tell you

eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the thingswhich God hath prepared for them that love him,” You see my text fifets fourth the idea that, however exalted our ideas may be of heaven, they come far short of the reality, fjome men have been cal cu’ating how many furlongs long and wide is the New Jerusalem; and they have calculated how many inhabitants there are on the earth; how long the earth will probably stand, and then they come to this estimate; that, after all the nations have been gathered to heaven, there W’U be room for each soul—a room, sixteen feet leng and fifteen feet wide. It would not be large enough for me. lam glad to know that no human estimate is sufficient to take the dimensions. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,” nor arithmetics calculated.

I first remark that we can in this world get no idea of health of heaven. When you were a child and you wert out in the morning, how you bounded along the road or street; yon had never felt sorrow or sickness. Perhaps 'a‘er. yon felt a glow in your cheek, and a eprinv in your step, and an exuberance of spirits and a c!ea nets of eye that made you thank God you were permitted to live. The nerves were harpstrings, and the sunlight a doxoiogy, and the rustling leaves were the rustling of the robes of a 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 disease of past generations came down to us. The airs that float now upon the earth are not like those which floated above Paradise. They are charged with impurities and distempers. The most elastic and robust health of earth, compared with that which those experience before whom the gates have -.been opened is nothing but sickness and emaciation. Look at that soul standing before the throne. On; earth she was a life long invalid. See her step now, and hear her voice notfr. Catch, if you can. one breath of that celestial air. . Health inall the pulses—health of vision; health of spirits; immortal health. No racking cough, no sharp

■ pleurisies, no consuming fevers, no exhausting pains, no hospitals of wounded men. Health swinging in the air; health flowing in at the streams; health ! blooming on the banka No headaches, Ino sideaches, no backaches. That child I that.died in the agonies of croup, hear her voice now ringing in the anthem. That old man that wen. bowed down with the infirmities of age, see him walk*noW with the step'bf an immortal athlete l -forever young again.? Thar, night wnen the needle woman fainted away in the garret, a wave of the heavenly air resuscitated her forever. For everlasting years tohave neither -ache, nor pain, nor weakness, Hos fatigue. I remark, further, that we can, in this world, get no just idea of the splendors of heaven. John tries to describe them. He 'tafs-“the twelve gates are twelve pearls,” and that “the foundations of the wall are garnished with all I manner of precious stones.” As we stand locking through the telescope of St. John, we see a blaze of amethyst, and pearl, and emerald, and sardonyx, and chryspprasus, and sapphire, a mountain of light, a cataract of color, a sea of glass, and a city like the sun. John bids us look again, and we sbe thrones;; thrones of the prophets, thrones of the patriarchs, thrones of the angels, thrones of the apostles, thrones of the martyrs, throne ot Jesus —throne of God. An we turn round to see the glory and it is a throne! Thrones! Thrones!

John bids us look again, and we see the great procession of redeemed passing: Jesus on a white horse, leads the march, and all the armies of heaven following on white horses. Infinite cavalcade passing, passing; Empires pressing into line, ages following ages. Dispensation tramping on after dispensation, Glory in the track of glory. Europe* Asia, Africa, North and South America pressing into lines. Islands of sea shoulder to shoulder. Generations before the flood following generations after the flood, and as Jesus rises at the head of the great host and waves His sword in signal of victory, all crowns are lifted, and all hallelujahs chanted, and some cry, “Glory to God Most High,” and some, “Hosanna to the son of David,” and some, “Worthy is the lamb that was slain”—till all exclamations of endearment and homage in the vocabularly of heaven are exhausted, and there comes up surge after surge of

“Amen! Amen! and Amen!” Skim from the summer waters the brightest sparkles, and you will get no idea of the sheen of the everlasting sea. Pile up the splendors of earthly cities, and they would not make a stepping stone by which you might mount to the city of God. Every house is a palace. Every step a triumph. Every covering of the head, a coronation. Every meal a banquet. Every stroke from the tower is a wedding-bell. Every day is a jubilee, every hour a rapture, and every moment an ecstacv. I remark further, we can get no idea on earth of the reunions of heaven. If you have ever been across the seas, and met a friend or even an acquaintance in some strange city, you remember how your blood thrilled, and how glad you werd to see hirfi. What will be our joy, after we have passed the seas of death, to meet in the bright city of the sun those from whom we have long been - separated! After we have been away from our friends ten or fifteen years and we come upon them we see how differently they look. The hair has turned, and wrinkles have dome in their faces, and we say: “How you have changed!” But oh, when we stand before the throne, all care gone from the face, all marks of sorrow disappeared, and feeling the joy of that blessed land, me thinks we will say to each other with an exultation we can not now imagine: “How you have changed!” In this world we only meet part. It is good-by, good-by. Farewells floating in the air. We hear it at the rail-car window and steamboat wharf—-good-by. Children lisp it and old age answers it Sometimes we say in a light way—“ Good-by”—and sometimes with anguish in which the soul breaks down. Good by ! Ah| that is the word that ends’ the Thanksgiving banquet: that is the word that comes in to close the Christmaschant." Good by,gocd ; by!-But not so in heaven. Welcomes in the air, welcomes at the gates, welcomes at the house of many mansions—but no goodby, That group is constantly being

augmented. They are going up from, our circles of earth to join it —little voices to-join the anthem; little hands to take hold in the great home circle; little feet to dance in the eternal glee; > little crowns to be cast down before, the feet of Jesus. Our friends are in two groups —a group thjs side of the river and a group on the other side of the river. Now there goes one from' this to that, and another from this to that, and soon we will all be gone over. How many of your loved ones have already entered upon that blessed place? If I should take a paper and pencil, do yon think 1 could put them all down? Ah, my friends, the waves of Jordrn roar so hoarsely we can not hear the jdy on the other side when that groap “is augmentecL It is graves here, and coffins and hearses here. A little child’s mother had died, and they comforted her. They said* “Your mother has gone to heaven—don’t cry;” and the next day they went to the graveyard, and they laid the body of the mother down into

the ground; and the little girl came .up to the verge of the grave, and, , looking down at the bodv of her mother, said: “Is this heaven?” Oh, we have no idea what heaven is. It is the grave here—it is darkness here —but there is merrymaking yonder. Methinks when a ... ul arrives some angel takes it around to show it the wonders of that blessed place. The usher-angel says to the newly-arrived: “These are the martyrs that perished at Piedmont; these were torn to pieces at the Inquisition; this is the throne of the great Jehovah; this is Jesus.” Ohl to stand in IDs presence! That will be heaven! Ob! to put our hand in that hand w hich was wounded for us on the cross—O to go around amid the groups of the redeemed and shake hands with the prophets,and apostles, and martyrs, and with our own dear, beloved ones! That will .be’ the great reunion; we cannot imagine it now, our loved ones seem so .ar away. When we are in trouble and lonesome, they don't seem to come to us. We go on the banks of the Jordan and call across to them but they don t seem to hear We say, “Is it well with the child? Is it well with the loved ones?” and we listen to hear if any voice comes back over the waters. None! none! Unbelief says, “They are dead and they are annihilated.” ,but, blessed be God we have a bible that tells us -- • ’ -’ I. - - --T >- ‘

different. We open it and ire And they are neither dead nor annihilated—that never were so much alive as now—that they are only waiting for our coming, and that we shall join them .on the other side of the river. Ob, glorious reunion! we can not grasp -it now. ‘‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heprt « man the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” Oh what a place of it will bel I wish in our closing hymn to day w* might catch an echo that slips from the gates. Who knows but that when the heavenly door opens to day to let some soul through there may come forth the strain of the jubilant voices until we catch it? Ob, that as the song drops down from heaven, it might meet half way a song coming up from earth. They rise for the doxology, ail the multitude of the blest! Let us rise with them; and so at this hour the joys ot the Church on'earth and the joys of the Church in heaven will mingle their" chalices, and the dark apparel of our mourning will seem to whiten into the spotless raiment of the skies. God grant that through the rich mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ we may all get there.