The Globe-republican., 1892-08-01


season in England. Not only in the Lon
don churches, but In the provinces, enor-
nous crowds have gathered to hear the
eloquent American preacher. The great
Shoreditch Tabernacle in the east of
London. where Rev. W. Cuff breaches,
was thronged almost TO suffocation and
the large Congregational Church in the
Hackney district could not hold half the
people who tried to get into it, though it
was on Monday evening that DR.. Tai
mage preached there. Outside London
the eagerness to hear him has been quite
as intense.
In Liverpool. Manchester, Noting
ham, Crewe. and Hanley no church could
be found large enough to accommodate
the audiences, and DR.. Talmage preached
in the halls in which the great political
conventions are held, and the capacity Of
these was tested to the utmost. Since
his arrival he has preached seven times
each week. The sermon selected for
publication this week is from the text,
Revelations vii, 9. 10. After this l be-
held, and 10, a great multitude which no
man could number, of all nations and
kindredS and people and tongues, stood
before the throne. and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes. and palms in
their hands, and cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God which sit
teth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb"
1t is impossible to come in contact with
anything grand or beautiful in art, nature
or religion without being profited and
elevated We go into the art gallery and
our soul meets the soul of the painter.
and we hear the hum Of his forests and
the clash of his conflicts. and see the
cloud blossomng Of the sky and the
foam blossomine Of the ocean; and We
come out from the gallery better men
than when we went in. We 60 into the
concert of music and are lifted into en-
chantment; for days after our soul seems
to rock with very tumult Of Joy, as the
sea, after long stress of weather, rolls
and rocks and SurgeS a great while be-
fore ii comes back TO its ordinary calm.
On the same principle it is profitable
to think of heaven, and look off upon
that landscape Of joy and light which
St John depicts: the rivers Of gladneSS,
the trees of life, the thrones Of power,
the commnClings of everlasting love. I
wish this morning that l could bring
heaven from the list of intangibles and
make it seem to YOU as it really is-the
great fact in all history, the depot of all
ages, the parior of Gods universe
This account in my text gives pic
ture of Heaven as it is on holiday.
, Now if a man came to New York for the
first time on the day that koSsuth ar
rived from Hungary, and he saw the
arches lifted. and the flowers flung in
the streets, and he heard the guns
booming, he would have been very fool
.zl.s lax -
ary appearance of the city. While
Heaven is always grand and always
beautiful, l think my text speaks of a
gala day in Heaven.
1t is time of great celebration-per-
haps OF the birth or the resurrection of
Jesus; perhaps of the downfall Of some
despotism; perhaps because of the rush
ing In of the millennium. l know not
what: but it does seem to me in reading
this passage as if it were a holiday in
heaven. After this | heheld. and 10.
a great multitude which no man could
number, of all nations and kindredS
and peoples and tongues. stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes, and palms in
their hands, and cried with loud voice,
saying. Salvation to our God which sit
teth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb"
/ shall speak to you of the glorilied in
Heaven-their number. their anteced-
entS. their dress, their symbols and their
song. But how shall begin by telling
you of the numb ers of those in Heaven?
/ have seen curious estimate by an in
geniouS man who calculates how long
the world was going 10 last, and how
many people there are in each genera
ton. and thea sums up the whole mat
ter, and says he thinks there will be
twenty-seven trillions Of souls in glory.
j have no faith in his estimate. l sim
ply take the plain announcement of the
text-it is "a great multitude, which no
man can number"
Every few years in this country we
take q census of the population, and i
is very easy to tell how many people
there are in city or nation, but VIC
shall give the census of the great lation
of the saved? 1t is quite easy to tell
how many people there are in different
denominations of Christians-how many
Baptists and MetnodiSts and Episcopa-
lians and PresbyteranS; Of oil the de-
nominations of Christians we could make
an estimate.
Suppose they were gathered in one
great audience room. now ONeTWEclUln2
the spectacle. But it would give no idea
of the great audience room Of Heaven
the multitudes that bow down and that
lift up their hoSannaS Why, they come
from all the chapels, from all the ca
thedrals. from all sects. from all ages:
they who prayed in splendid liturgy. and
those who in broken sentences uttered
the wish of broken hearts-from Grace
Church and Sailors Bethel, from under
the shapeleSS rafterS and from under
high sprung arch-''a great multitude,
that no mat can number.
One of the most impressive things I
have looked upon is an army. Standing
upon hillside you see 10000 or so, 600
men pass along. You can hardly i'm
agine the impression il you have not ac-
tually felt it. but you may take all the
armies that the earth has ever seen
the legions under Sennacherib aud Cyrus
and Cesar. Nerxes and Alexander and
Napoleon and all our modern forces and
put them in one great array, and then
on some swift steed Won may ride along