Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-06-05
SAINTS CELESTIAL.
How They Employ the Never End
ing Day Of Eternity. r
Heavenly 0ccupations-The Church Militant
Divine Mathematics Lit
erature-CeIestiaI Astronomy
Righteous Laws.
REV. TALMAGE's SERMON YESTERDAY.
Specidl 10 the Register.

Tabernacle, this morning. After the sing
ing of the hymn "Tm but a stranger here,
the Doctor announced his text as Ezekiei
i. 2:-"It came to pass in the thiruetn
wear, in the fourth month, in the fifth day
of the month, as was among the eaPtfyes
by the river Chebar, that the heavens were
opened,n - and then proceeded:
Ezekiel had, with others, been expatri-
ated, and while in foreign slavery and rest
ing On the royal canal, which these serfs
were digging by the order OF Nebucchad-
nezzar, this royal canal called the River
Cbebar, the illustrious exile caught visions
of heaven. Indeed so it has always been
that the brightest visions of heaven come
not to those on mountain tops, but to some
John on deselate Patmos, or some Paul IN
mammertine dungeon, or some Ezekiel on
the banks of the ditch he is condemned to
dig-to the weary and the heartbroken, to
those whom sorrow has baniShed' from
what was once their chief delight. The
text is particular to tell the exact date OF
Ezekiers vision-the thirtieth year, in the
fourth. month, in the fifth day OF the
month. So. there have! been especial times
when you have had especial visions OF
heaven. Perhaps this morning may be
sucb q time. Who knows but that it may
be in the sixth month, in the fourth day OF
the month,
The question is silently, though perhaps
never admittedly, asked by multltudes:
"What are our departed Christian frlends
doing now?" The question Is more easily
answered than at first supposed. Though
no news comes direct from heaven, ana we
are dependent upon descriptions eighteen
centuries Old, as to the occupation OF the
Celestial Residents,
vet we may be by strongest inference know
} the present employment OF our transferred
kinsfolk. When God makes nature ne
never takes away its characteristics OF tenn
permanent You. never knew plegmatc
temperament to become Ia sanguine tenn
perament. Conversion implants new prln-
ciples, but Paul and John are just as differ
ent from each other after conversion as
before. conversion. II conversion Leaves
the tsmpersment unchanged, so will death
leave it unchanged. John and Paul are as
different from each otherin heaven as they
were different in Asia Minor. By plaen
sum of subtraction and addition You Will
find out what your departed friends are
doing. You only have to subtract
from them earthly grOssness and add to
tham celestial goodness. They are doing O
gsander scale and without any hindrance
what they loved to do on earth in their
best moments One reason why so many
paople refuse to start for heaven Is that
tbey could not staad ii if they got there
and found it the rigid and formal place
some have figured it. The most of US like
! to 20 to church, bat do not suppose any
| of us would Want TO stay here till next
! Christmas We like to hear the hailelulah
| chorus, but we do not want to hear 1t for
| the next fifty years. A crown OF gold
would weigh so many pounds that ii would
| be an affiiCtion perpetually to wear 1t. We
run the Bible descriptions OF heaven into
| the ground by making that which is
especial and Celebrative in heaven as an
exclusive employment, as though in des-
| scribing the employment of our American
| Won should sketch a decoration day or a
| fourth of July or an autumnal thanksgiv-
! ing. BY all the laws Of inference and de-
| duCtion and common sense l knew we
shall be as different from each other there
as we are different from each other here,
and so there will at least be as many differ
ent occupations in heaven as on earth.
First l remark that those OF our friends
who in their earthly habitation had especial
| Joy in the fine arts are now in heaven
Their lEsthetie Tastes.
| Their gladdest earthly life was among the
pictures and statuary and in the study OF
| delicate lines and lights and shades and
| perspective. and do you suppose that at
| their deCease all that atfiuenCe OF the soul
collapsed and expired. What use, when
| they have more to look at and keener ap'
probation OF beauty and standing among
where the sunsets and rainbQws and spring
J mornings are woevn. Are you so ootuse
as to suppose that when a painter drops his
easel or a sculptor his chisel or an engraver
| his knife he is forever done with that taste
which for fifty years he he'd been intensi-
flying and developing. In this world the
artists work in rudeSt material and with
imperfect brain and frail hand. At death
they take their art into larger la6ors ano
more brilliant circumferences. They are
at their old business vet, but with none ot
the poverties and none the lamentations oi
terrestrial studio. Raphael can improve
on his masterpiece of Michael the
| Archangel," ;" now that he has seen him and
paint his Holy Family" now that he has
visited them. Angelo can give mightiel
portrayal of the
Last Judgment.
after once he has seen its flash and heard
the rumbling battering ram of its thunder
Color here, graceful lines here, powerful
chiaro oscuro here, but / am certain that
the grandeur of the studios and the better
galleries are higher up by the winding
marble stairs OF Sepulchre and that Tarnel
and Rembrandt, and Hillman Hunt and
Titan and Paul Verones and all the Other
immortals who welded pencil and brush sc
far as they had saving faith in the Christ
portrayed upon their canvass, are painter:
yet their faculties multiplied in strength
ten thousand fold. Though their hand has
lost its cunning their spirit has faculties a;
much superior to five fingers and thumb
as the supernal is superior TO 49, 49,
human. The only reason why God took
away their hand and their eye and their
brain, was to give them something more
Timber, more wieldy, more skilful, more
incisive, more potent. Do not mourn as
you look at the embroideries, at the bric-a
| braC, at the tapestries at the works of art
that were once so admired by the departed
and say what a pity they had to leave
them. Rather say: II am glad that they
have gone up to higher artistic opportunity
and appreciation. Our departed Christian
friends who had such appreciation of art are
to-day enjoying the w.r
Louyres and the Luxemburgs celestial.
Again remark that those of our depart
ed Christian friends who found their chief
enjoyment in music are now indulging IN
it amid better opportunities. The Bible
says so much about the music of heaven
that / am certain it is not fgurative. Why,
all that talk about halleinjahs and choirs
and harps and trumpets and organs? Over
and over and over again the Hble speaks
of the songs of heaven. Why II heaven
had no songs of its own vast number of
songs would have been taken up by the
celestial emigrants. Christians do not
lose their memory at death. There are
millions of them before the throne who
remember Coronation snd Old Hundred
Antioch. If heaven got out of music Lowell
Mason and Thomas Hastings and Others
could start up hundreds of grand old choirs.
But what with the new song that John
speaks Of and the various doxologies refer.
red to and all the importation of
.- LET There be Light
The audience rose and cheered and Haydn
wav ed his hand toward heaven aud cried:
1T comes from there" 0verpowered by
his own music he was carried out in his
chair, turning to the orchestra and spread
ing towards them as in benediction. Haydn
was right when waving his hand toward