Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 April 1895 — "GATES AJAR.” [ARTICLE]

"GATES AJAR.”

An Endless Throng of the Re -deemed Is Passing Through. ”1 Saw the Twelve Gates and They Were Twelve. PearJsts—Dr. Talmaf e's •N Sermon. Rev. Dr. Talmage preached at the New York Academy of Music, last Sunday. Subject —“The Gates of .Heaven,” the text being -Revelation xxi, 13: “On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; on the west three gates.” Hesaid: ■ Our subject speaks of a great metropolis, the existence of which many have doubted. Standing on the wharf and looking off upon the harbor and seeing the merchantmen coming up the bay, the flags of foreign nations streaming from the- topgallants, you immediately make up your mind that those vessels come from foreign ports, and you say, .“That is from Hamburg, and that is from Marseilles, and that is from Southampton, arid that is from Ravanna,” and your supposition is aceurate. —Butfrpmthe whielr I am now speaking no weatherbeaten merchantmen or frigates with battered bulkheads have ever come. There has been a vast emigration to that city, but no emigration from it, so far as our natural vision can cry“There is no such city,” says the undevout astronomer “I have stood in high towers with a mighty telescope and have swept the heavens, and I have seen spots oh the sun and caverns in the moon, but no towers have .ever arisen on my vision, no palaces, no temples, no shining streets, rio massive walls. There is no such city.” Even very good people tell me that heaven is not a material organization, but a grand spiritual fact, and that the Bible descriptions of it are in all cases to be taken figuratively. I bring in reply to this what Christ said, and He ought to know, “I go to prepare^ —” not a theory, not a principle, not a sentiment, but “I go to prepare a place for you.” The resurrected body implies this. If my foot, is to be reformed from the dust, it must have something to tread on. If my hand is tmbe reconstructed, it must have something to handle. If Thy eye, having gone out in death, is to be rekindled, I must have something to gaze on. You r. ad verse theory seems to imply that the resurrected body is to be hung on nothing, or to walk in the air, or to float amid the intangibles. You may say if there be material organisms then a soul in heaven will be craihped and hindered in its enjoyments, but I answer, Did not Adam and Eve have plenty of room in the Garden of Eden? Although only a few miles would describe the circumference of that place, they bad ample room. And do you not suppose that God, in the immensities, can build a place lame enough to give the whole race room, even though there be material organisms?

As a conquering army mSr'ching on to tak.e a city comes at nightfall to the crest of a mountain from which, in the midst of the landscape, they see the castles they are to capture, and rein in their war chargers, and halt to take a good look before their tents for the night, so now, coming as we do on this mountain top of prospect, I command this regiment of God to rein in their thoughts and halt, and before thev pitch their tents for the night take one good, long look at the gates of the great city. “On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates, and on the west three gates.” In the first place I want you to examine the architecture of those gates. Proprietors of large estates are very apt to have-an ornamented gateway. Sometimes they spring an arch of masonry, the posts of the gate flanked with lions in statuary; the bronze gate a representation of intertwining foliage, bird haunted, Until the hand of architectural genius drops exhausted, all its life frozen into the stone. Gates of wood and iron and stone guarded nearly all the old cities. Moslems have incribed upon their gateways inscriptions from the Koran of the Mohammedan. There have been a great many fine gateways, but Christ sets his hand to the work, and for the upper city swung a gate such as no eye ever gazed on, untouched of inspiration. With the nail of his own cross he cut into its wonderful traceries stories of past suffering and of gladness to coine. There is no wood or stone or bronze in that gate, but from top to base and from side to side it is all of pearl. Not one piece picked up from Ceylon banks, and another piece from the Persian gulf, and another from the island of Margarette, but one solid pearl picked up from the beach of everlasting light by heavenly hands and hoisted and swung amid the shouting of angels. The glories of alabaster vase and porphyry pillar fade out before this gateway. It puts out the spark of feldspar arid diamond. You know how one little precious stone on your finger will flash under the gaslight? But, oh, the brightness when the great gate of heaven swings, struck through and dripping with the light of eternal noonday! Oh, heaven is not a contracted place. Heaven is not a stupid place. “I saw the twelve gates, and they were twelve pearls.” In the second place, I want you to number those gates. Imperial parks and lordly manors are apt to have one expensive gateway, and the others are ordinary, but look

around at these entrances to heaves arid'ebuh t them. One, two, th r ee, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, hear it all ths earth and all the heavens. Twelve gatesL— ■ Well, now, I see all the redeemed of earth coming up toward heaven. Do youthink they will all get in? Yes. Gate the first, the Moravians come up; they believed in the Lord Jesus; they pass through. Gate the second, the Quakers come up; they have received the inward light; they have trusted in the Lord; they pass through. Gate the third, the Lutherans come up; they had the same grace that made Luther what he was, and they pass through. Gate the fourth, the Baptists ■ pass through. Gate the fifth, the free will Baptists pass through. Gate the sixth, the reformed church passes through. Gate the Seventh, th e Con gregationalTsts pass th rouuh. Gate the eighth, the German- reformed church passes through. Gate rhe ninth, the Methodists pass through. Gate the tenth, the Sabbattarians. Gate the eleventh, the Church of the Disciples pass through. Gate the twelfth, the Presbyterians pass through. But there are a great part of other denominations who must come in, and great multitudes who connected themselves with no visible church, but felt the power of godliness in their heart and showed it —in their life. Where is their gate? Will you shut all the remaining hosts out of the city? No. They may come in at our gate. Hosts of G od, if you can not get admission through any other entrance, come in at the twelfth gate. Now they mingle before the throne. While I speak an ever increasing throng is pouring through the gates. They are coming up from Senegambia, from Patagonia, from Madras, from Hong Kong. “What,” you say, “do you introduce all the heathen into glory?” I tell you the fact is that a majority of the people in those climes die in infancy, ancßnfants all go straight into eternal life, and so the vast majority, of those who die in China and India, the vast majority who die in Africa, go straight into the skies —they die in infancy. One hundred and sixty generations have been born since the world was created, and so I estimate there must be 15,000,000,000 children in glory. If at a concert 2,000 children sing your soul is raptured within you. Oh, the transport when 15,000,000,000 little ones stand up in white before the throne of God, their chan ting drowning out all the stupendous harmonies of Dusseldorf and Leipsic. Pour in through the twelve gates. Oh. ye redeemed, banner lifted, rank after rank, saved battalion after saved battalion, until the city of God shall hear the tramp, tramp! Crowd all the twelve gates. Room yet. Room on the thrones. Room in the mansions. Room on the river bank. Let the trumpet of invitation be sounded until all the earth’s mountainshear the shrill blast and glens echo it. Let missionaries tell it in pagoda and colporteurs sound it across the western prairies. Shout it to the Laplander on his swift sled, halloo it the Bedouin careering across the desert. News! News! A glorious heaven and twelve gates to get into it! Hear it! Oh, you thin-blooded nations of eternal winter—on the north three gates. Hear it! Oh, ye bronzed inhabitants panting under equatorial heats —on the south three gates,

Once more I want to show you the gate keepers. There is one angel at each one of those gates. You say that is right. Of course it is. You know that no earthly palace or castle or fortress would be safe without a sentry pacing up and down by night and by day, and if there were no defenses before heaven, and the doors set wide open with no one to guard them, all the vicious of earth would go up after awhile, and all the abandoned of hell would go up after awhile, and heaven, instead of being a world of light and joy and peace and blessedness, would be a world of darkness and horror. So lam glad to tell you that while these twelve gates stand open to let a great multitude in, there are twelve angels to keep some people out. Robespierre cannot go through there, njr Hildebrand, nor Nero, nor any of the debauched of earth who have not repented of their sins. If one of those nefarious men who despised God should come to the gate, one of the keepers would put his harid on his shoulder and push him into outer darkness. There is no place in that land for thieves and liars and whoremongers and defrauders and alt, those who disgraced their race and fought against their God. If a miser should get in there, he would pull up the golden pavement. If a house, burner should get in there, he would set fire to the mansion. If a libertine should get in there, he would 1 whisper his abominations standing on the white'coral of the sea beach. Only those who are blood-washed and prayer-lipped will get through. Ob. my brother, if you should at last come up to one of the gates and try to get through and you had not a pass written by the crushed hand of the Son of God, the gatekeeper ;j would with one glance wither you forever. I stand here, this hour, to invite you into any one of the twelve gates. I tell you now that unless your heart is changed by the grace of God you cannot get in. I do not care where you come from, or who your father was, or who your mother was, or what your brilliant surroundings—unless you repent of your sins and take Christ for your divine Savior you cannot get in. Are you willing, then, this moment, just where you are, to kneel down and cry to the Lord Almighty for his deliverance?