Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1892-02-01

never bpOppch uuOucht AOi ny
such occurrence. but 1t stopped thirty
minutes for the coronation of Silence.
There was silence in heaven for
half an hour"
THEY ARE BUSY IN HEAVEN.
Learn also from my text that
heaven must be an eyentflll and ac-
tive place. from the fact that it could
afford only thirty minutes of recess.
There have been events on earth and
in heaven that seemed TO demand a
whole day or a whole week or whole
year for celestial consideration. II
(irotius was right and this silence oc-
CURED at the time of the destruction
of Jerusalem, that scene was 80 awful
and so prolonged that the inhabitants
Of heaven could not have done JUS
tice to It in many weeks. After fear.
ful besiegement of the two fortresses
Of Jerusalem and Hippicus
had been going on for a long while.
q Roman soldier mounted on the
shoulders of another soldier hurled
into the window of the temple fire.
brand and the temple was all afiame.
and after covering many sacrifices TO
the holiness of God, the building Ia.
self became sacrifice to the rage Cf
man.
The hunger of the people in that
city during the besiegement was so
great that az some outlaws were
passing a doorway and inhaled the
odors of food they burst open the
door. threatening the mother OF the
household with death unless she gave
them some food. and she took them
asitle aud showed them that 1t was
her own child that she was cooking
for the CHASTITY repast. Six hundred
priests were destroyed on Mount Zion
because the temple being gone there
was nothing for them to do. Six
thousand people in one cloister were
consumed. There were one million
one hundred thousand dead, accord
ing TO Josephus. Grotius thinks that
this was the cause of silence in heaven
for half an hour.
II Mr.. Lord was right and this 81
lence was during the Diocletian per-
secutions, by which eight hundred
and foity-forT thousand Christians
suffered death from sword and fire
and punishment and exposure, why
did not heaven listen throughout at
lenst one of those awful years9 Mol
Thirty minutes The fact is that the
celestial programme IL 80 crowded
with spectacle that 1t can afford only
one recess in all eternity, and that
for short space. While there are
great choruses in which all heaven
can join. each soul there has a story
of divine mercy peculiar to itself,
and it must be a solo. How can
heaven get through with all its reci-
tatives, with all its cantos, with all
it's grand marches, with all its vic
tories9 Eternity Is too short to utter
all the praise.
In my text heaven spared thirty
minutes. but it will never again spare
one minute. In worship in earthly
churches, when there are many to
take part, we have to counsel brev-
ity, but how will heaven get on rap
idly enough TO let one hundred and
forty-four thousand get through
each with his own story, and then
tho one hundred and forty-four mil
lion, and then the one hundred and
forty-four billion, and then the one
hundred and forty four trillion.
TMUMHs TO BE ooMMEMoRATED
Not only are all the tIiumphs OF
the past to be commemorated, but
all the tIiumphs to come. Not only
what we now know of God, but what
we will know Of him after everlast
ing study OF the Deific. If my text
had said there was silence in heaven
for thirty days l would not have
been startled at the announcement,
but II indicates thirty minutes. Why,
there viii be 30 many friends TO hunt
up; 30 many Of the greatly good and
useful that we win want TO see; SC
many of the inscrutable things OF
earth we will need explained; 80
many exciting earthly experiences
we viii want TO talk over, and all the
other spirits and all the ages viii
want the same. that there will DO no
moro opportunity for cessation.
How busy we viii DO kept in having
pointed out TO us the heroes and
heroines that the world never fully
appreciated the yellow fever and
cholera doctors who died. not flying
from their posts; the female nurses
who faced pestilence in the lazarettos;
the railroad engineers who staid at
their places in order 10 save the train
though they themselves perished.
Hubert Coffin. the master miner,
who, landing from tho bucket at the
bottom OF the mine Just as he heard
the waters rush in aud whom one
jerk az the rope would have lifted
him into safety, put a blind minerwho
wanted 10 go 10 his sick child in the
bucket and jerked the rope for him
10 be pulled up, crying, "Tell them
the water has burst In and we are
probably lost but we viii seek ref
uge at the other end OF the right gal
lery, and then giving the command
10 tho other miners TIL they digged
themselves 80 near out that the peo
pie from the outside could come 30
their rescue. The multitudes of men
and women who got no crown ON
enr.fh IVA will want IA sasa xvhon thav