Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1892-02-06


heaven. None of the whole hours of heaven
are measured of, none Of the years. none OF
she centuries. Oi the millions of res past
and the millions of ages to coms not one is
especially measured OFF in the Bible. Tia
half hour OF my text is made immortal. THIS
| only part of eternity that was ever measured
by earthly timepiece was measured by the
minute hand of my text.
| Oh, the half hoursi Thsy decide every-
thing. an not asking shat you will do
with the years or months or DAYS of your
life, but what of the half hours. Tell me
the history OF your half hours and will
| tell you the story of your whole life on earth
and the story of your whole life in eternity.
The right or wrong things you can think in
thirty minutes, the right or wrong things
you can say in thirty minutes, the right or
wrong things you can do in thirty minutes
are glorious or baleful, inspiring or desper-
ate. Look out for the fragments of time.
They are pieces of eternity.
1t was the half hours between shoeiny
horses that made E,ihu Burritt the learned
blacksmith; the half hours between pro.
fessional calls as q physician that made
Abercrombie the Christian philosopher, the
half hours between his duties as school.
master that made Salmon P. Chase chief
justice; the halt hours between shoe lasts
that made Henry Wilson vice president Of
the United States; the half hours between
canal boats that made James A. Garfield
president
The half hour day for good books or bad
books, the half hour day for prayer or in
dolence, the halt hour day for helping
others or blasting Others the half hour be-
fore You go to business and the half hour
after your return from business-that makes
the difference between the scholar aud the
ignoramus between the Christian and the
tnfidel. between the saint and the demon, be-
tween triumph and catastrophe, between
heaven and hell. The most tremendous
things of your life and mine were certain
half hours.
The half hour when in the parsonage OF a
country minister | resolved to becoms
! Christian then and there, the half hour
when | decided to become preacher of thu
Gospel; the half hour wnen / first realize |
that my son was dead; the half hour when
stood on the top of my house in Oxford
street and saw our church burn; the half
hour in which l entered Jerusalem; the
half hour in which ascencsd Mount Cal
vary; TIE half hour in which | stood on
Mars hill; the half hour in which thu dedi-
catory prayer Of this temple was made, and
about ten or fifteen other half hours are the
chief times of my life. You may forget the
name of the exact years or most of the im-
portant events of your existence but those
be immortal.
do not query what you will do with the
Twentieth century. do not query what
you will do with 1892 but what will you do
with the next half hour? Upon that hinges
your destiny. And during that some of you
will receive the Gospel and make complete
surrender, and during that others of you
will make final and fatal rejection OF the
full and free and urgent and impassione
.,ffa fNflI afo No1 hat navrfb aIf
hour might be the most glorious thirty min
utes of your earthly existence
Far hack in history a great geographer
stood with sailor looking at globe that
represented our planet an he pointed to q
place OH the globe where he thought there
was an undiscovered continent. That uu
.scoverei continent was America. The
geographer who pointed where he thought
there was new world was Martin Behaim
and the sailor TO whom he showed it wa
Columbus. This last was not satisfied till h;
had picked that gem out of the sea and set il
in the crown of the worlds geography. Oh
We who have been sailing up AMI down TIL
rough seas of sorrow and sin, let me poin
out to you another continent, yea, another
world, that you NAV yourselves find rap
furious worl :, and that is the world half
| hour OF which we now study. Oh, set sail
for it Here is the ship and here are the
| compasses.
IN other words, make this half hour, be-
ginning at twenty minutes to twelve by my
watch, the grandest half hour of your life
and become Christian. Pray for regen-
Grated spirit. Louis XIV, while walking in
the garden at Versailles, met Mansard. the
great architect, and the architect took off
his hat before the king. Put on your hat, y
said the king nor the evening is damp and
cold" And Mansard, the architect, the rest
OF the evening kept on his hat. The dukes
and marqulses standing with bare heads ba-
fore the king expressed their surprise at
Mansard, but the king said, 81 can make a
duke or a marquis, but Col only can make a
ManSard." And say to yon, my hearers, God
only by His convincing underwriting grace
can make Christian, but He is ready this
very half hour to accomplish it.
Again my text suggests a way of studying
heaven SO that we can better understand it.
I The word eternity that we handle so
much is an Unreasonable word. Knowing
that we could not understand that word the
Bible uses it only once. We say Forever
and ever" but how long is Forever and
ever? am glad that my text puts under
our eyes heaven for thirty minutes As
when you would see great picture you put
sheet of paper into a scroll and look
through 1t, or join your forefinger to your
thumb and look through the circle between
and the picture becomes more intense. SO
this masterpiece of heaven by st. John Is
more impressive when we take only thirty
minutes of it at time. Nov we have some
thing that we can come nearer to grasping,
and it is quiet heaven. When we discourse
about the multitudes of heaven it must be
almost a nervous shock to those who have
all their lives been crowded by many peo-
pie and who want a quiet heaven.
For the last thirty-five years have been
much of the time in crowds and under public
kp,v
sometimes thought for a few weeks after l
reach heaven / would like to go down in
some quiet part OF the realm with few
friends and for some little while try COM
parative solitude. Then there are those
whose hearing is so delicate that they get no
satisfaction when YOU describe the crash of
the eternal orchestra, and they feel like say
ing, as a good woman in Hudson n. Y !,
said after hearing me speak of the mighty
chorus of heaven. That must be great
heaven. but what will become of my poor
headg' Yes this half hour of my text is d
still experience.
There was silence in heaven for half an
hour" You will find the inhabitants all
at home. Enter the Kings Palace and take
only glimpse, for we have only thirty min
utes for all heaven. as that Jesus" YES.
Just under the hair along His forehead is the
mark of wound made by a bunch of
has on the round OF His inStep another marx
of a wound made by a spike, and scar on
the palm of the lelt hand. But what a
countenance What a smile! What a
GRANDEUR What a lovelinessi What
an overwhelming look of kindness
and grace Why, He looks as il
He had redeemed world But come on,
for our time is short. Do you sac that row of
palaces? That is the Apostolic row. Do
you see that long reach of architectural
glories? That is Martyr row. Do you sea
that immense structure? That is the big
gest house in heaven; that is "the House OF
Many Mansions" Do you see that waltz
Shade your eyes against its burning splen-
dor, for that is the wall of heaven, Jasper
at the bottom AMI amethyst at the top.
See this river rolling through the heart Of
tho great metropolis That is the river
concerning which those who once lived on
the banks of the Hudson, or the Ala
bama, or thu Rhine or the Shannon
say, "We never saw the like Of this
for clarity and sheen.n That is tbs
chief river of heaven-so bright, 50 wide, SO
deep But you ask, where are tno
asylums for the oldr l answer, "rhs
inhabitants are all young" Where are
the hospitals for the lames' ''They are all
agile" "Where are tia iutirmaries for the
blind and deaty' They all see and hear"
Where are the almhouses for the poorgn
They are all multimillionaires" "Whers
are the inebriate asylums?" why, there
are no saloons" ''Where are the grave
yards" "Why, they never die" Pass
down those boulevards of gold and
amber and sapphire and see those
interminable streets built by the Aren't
tect OF the universe into homes,
over the threshold of which sorrow
never steps, and out OF whose windows faces,
9nce pale with earthly sickness, now look