The free press., 1892-02-18
REV. DIR. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINES SUN
DAY SERMON.
Subject: ~Reavcn."

about the space of half an hour."-Revela-
| ton viii, l.
The busiest place in the universe is heaven.
| 1t is the center from which all good in
fiuences start. 1t is the goal at which all
! good results arrive. The Bible represents it
as active with wheels and wings and orches-
! tras and professions mounted or charloted.
| But my text describes a space when the
wheels ceased to roll, and the trumpets to
sound, and the voices to chant. The riders
on the white horses reigned in their
chargers. The doxologies were hushed and
the professions halted The hand of arrest
was put upon all the splendors "Stop
heavenp cried an omnipotent voice. and it
stopped. For thirty minutes everything
celestial stood still. "There was silence in
heaven for half an hour
From all we can learn it is the only time
heaven ever stopped. 1t does not stop as
other cities for the night, for there is no
night there. 1t does not stop for plague,
for the inhabitant never says, 81 am sick. !"
1t does not stop for bankruptcies, for its in
habitants never fail. 1t does nor stop for
impossible streets, for there are no fallen
SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What, then,
stopped 1T for thirty minutess Grotius and
Professor Stuart think 1t was at the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord
thinks it was in the year 81. between the
close of the Diocletian persecution and the
beginning Of the wars by which Constantine
gained the throne. But that was all guess,
though learned and brilliant guess. l do
not know when it was and l do not care
when it was but of the fact that such an in
terregnum of sound took place, l am GER
tain. "There was silence in heaven for half
an hour"
And first of all we may learn that God
and all heaven honored silence. The longest
and widest dominion that ever existed is
that over which stiffness was queen. For
an eternity there had not been sound.
World making was later day occupation.
For unimagnable ages it was mute uni
verse. God was the only being, and as
there was no one to speak to there was no
utterance. But that silence has been all
broken up into worlds. and it has become a
noisy universe. Worlds in upheaval, worlds
in congelation, worlds in confiagration,
worlds in revolution. If geologists are right
and | believe they are-there has not
began its travels, and the crashings, and the
spittings, and the uproar, and the hub
bub are ever in progress
But when among the supernalS voice
cried, "Hushr' and for half an hour heaven
was still, silence was honored. The full
power of silence many of us have yet to
learn. We are told that when Christ was
arraigned, 'He answered not word" That
silence was louder than any thunder that
ever shook the world. Oftentimes, when we
are assailed and misrepresented, the might
lest thing to say is nothing, and the mightiest
thing to do is nothing. Those people
who are always rushing into print to get
themselves set right accomplish nothing but
their own chagrin. Silencel Do right and
leave the results. with God. Among the
grandest lessons the world has ever learned
are the lessons of patience taught by those
who endured uncompainingly personal or
domestic or social or political injustice.
Stronger than any bitter or sarcastic or
revengeful answer was the patient silence.
The famous DR.. Morrison, of Chelsea, ac-
complished as much by his silent patience as
by his pen and tongue. He had asthma that
for twenty-five years brought him out of his
couch at two o'clock each morning His
four sons and daughters dead. The remain
ing child by sunstroke made insane. The
afflicted man said, "At this moment there
is not an inch of my body that is not filled
with agony" Yet he was cheerful, trlun-
phant, SILENT Those who were in his pres
ence said they felt as though they were in
the gates of heaven.
Oh, the power of patient silence. Eschy-
lus, the immortal poet, was condemned to
death for writing something that offended
the people. All the pleas in his behalf were
of no avail, until his brother uncovered the
arm of the prisoner and showed that his
hand had been shot off at Salamis. That
silent,plea liberated him. The loudest thing
on earth is silence if it be of the right kind
and at the right time. There was quaint
old hymn, spelled in the old style, and once
sung in the churches;
The race is not forever got
BY HIM who fastest runs,
Nor the Battel by those peopelI
That shoot with the longest guns.
My friends, the tossing Sea of Galilee
seemed most to offend Christ by the amount
of noise it made, for He said to it, ''Be stillr
Heaven has been crowning kings and queens
unto God for many centuries, yet heaven
never stopped moment for any such occur
renee, burt it stopped thirty minutes for the
coronation of Silence. "There was silence
in heaven for half an hour"
Learn also from my text that heaven must
be an eventful and active 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 whole week or whole year for
celestial consideration. If Grotius was right
and this silence occurred at the time of the
destruction of Jerusalem, that scene was so
awful and so prolonged that the inhabitants
OF heaven could not have done Justice to it
In many weeks
After fearful besiegement of the two for
tresses of Observation-Disclosures and Hippicus
had been going on for long while, a Roman
soldier mounted on the shoulder of another
soldier hurled into the window of the tenn
pie firebrand, and the temple was all
afame. and after covering many sacrifices
to the holiness of God, the building itself
became a sacrifice to the rage of man. The
hunger of the people in that city during the
besiegement was so great that as some out
laws were passing doorway and inhaled
the odors OF food, they burst open the door.
threatening the mother of the household
with death unless she gave them food, and
she took them aside and showed them it was
her own child she was cooking for the ghast-
ly repast
Six hundred priests were destroyed on
Mount Zion because the temple being gone
there was nothing for them to do. Six thou
sand people in one cloister were consumed.
There were one million one hundred thou
sand dead, according to Josephus. Grotius
thinks that this was the cause of silence in
heaven for half an hour. If Mr.. Lord was
right and this silence was during the Diocle-
tian prosecutions, by which eight hundred
and forty-four thousand Christians suffered
death from sword and fire and banishment
and exposure, why did not heaven listen
throughout at least one of those awful years?
Mol Thirty minutes The fact is that the
celestial programme is so crowded with spec
tacle that it can afford only one recess in all
eternity and that for short space.
While there are great choruses in which