Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-02-11
A VIEW OF HEAVEN.
DR.. TALMAcE TELLS or A THIRTY
MINUTES GLIMPSE or PARADISE.

A sermon on the Beautiful but on Neg
Iected Text from Revelation viii. 1.
.'There Was Silence In Heaven About the
Space Of Half an Hour"
BRooKLYE, Jan. sl.-Dr. TalmAge has Of
late been preaching on texts Of Scripture
that seem 20 have been neglected, and here
Is a sermon on beautiful text which prob
ably WIS never before selected for dis
course. Revelation viii, l. There was |
silence in heaven about the space OF half |
an hour"
The busiest place in the universe is
heaven. It is the center from which all
good influences start 1t Is the goal at
which all good results arrive. The Bible |
represents it as active with wheels and
wings and orchestras and professions
mounted or charioted. But my text de
seribes a space when the wheels ceased to
roll, and the trunpets to sound, and the
voices to chant. The riders on the white
horses reined in their chargers. The dox-
oIogies were hushed and the professions
halted The hand of arrest was put upon
all the splendors. stop, heaven" 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, Il am sick. F"
1t does not stop for bankruptcies, for its
inhabitants never fail 1t does not stop
for impassable Streets for there are no
fallen SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What
then, stopped it for thirty mintuesf Grotius
and Professor Stuart think it was at the
time of the destruction Of Jerusalem Mr.
Lord thinks it was in the year 3l1, between
the close of the Diocletian persecution and
the beginning of the wars by which Con-
stantine gained the throne. But that was
all a guess. though Il learned and brilliant
guess. do not know when it was and
do not care when it was, but of the fact
that such an interregnum Of sound took
place. am certain. There was silence in
heaven for half an hour"
HoNoRED SILENCE
And first of all we may learn that God
and all heaven honored silence. The long
est 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 unimaginable ages it was mute uni
verse God was the only being, and as
there was 10 one to speak to there was no
utterance. But that silence has been all
broken up into worlds, and it has become
noisy universe. Worlds in upheaval,
worlds in congelation, worlds in confagra-
tion, worlds in revolution. II geologists
are right-and believe they are-there
has not been moment Of silence since this
world began it's travels, and the crashings,
and the splittings, and the uproar, and the
hubbub are ever in progress
But when among the supernals voice
cried, "Hushp and forhalf 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 "Hs answered not word" That
silence was ,~'.tler than any thunder that
ever shook the world. Oftentimes, when we
are assailed an d misrepresentd, the might
lest thing to say is 30 say nothing and
the mightiest thing to do is to do nothing
Those people who are always rushing into
print to get themselves set right accom-
plish nothing but their own chagrin. ST.
lencel Do right and leave the results with
<AluOlB Ou6 &IdutCSu hc~SoOLAS OuC
world has ever learned are the lessons Of
patience taught by those who endured un-
complainingly personal or domestic or So
cial 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
remaining child by sunstroke made in
sane The afflicted man said, SAT this
moment there is not an inch OF my body
that is not filled with agony" Yet, he
was cheerful triumphant, silent. Those
who were in his presence said they felt as
though they were in the gates of heaven.
Oh, the power of patient silencel Eschy-
aus, 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 uncov-
cred the arm Of the prisoner and showed
that his hand had been shot off at Salamis.
That silent plea liberated him. The loud
est thing on earth is silence if it be of the
right kind and at the right time. There
was a 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 Rattel by those peopell
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 stilll' Heaven has been crowning
kings and queens unto God for many CEN
turies, yet heaven never stopped a moment
for any such occurrence, but it stopped
thirty minutes for the coronation of 81
lence. "There was silence In heaven foz
half an hour
HEAVEN AN ACTIVE PLACE.
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 de
mand whole day or whole week or whole
year for celestial consideration. II Grotiu.
was right and this silence occurred at thu
time af the destruction Of Jerusalem, that
scene was so awful and 30 prolonged thai
the inhabitants of heaven could not havt
done justice to it in many weeks.
After fearful besiegement of the twt
fortresses of Jerusalem Antonio and Hip
picus-had been going on for long while
Roman soldier mounted on the shoulde
of another soldier hurled into the window o
the temple firebrand, and the temple wa
all afame, and after covering many sacrifi
ces to the holiness of God, the building it
self became sacrifice to the rage of man
The hunger of the people in that city dur
ing the besiegement was SO great that a
some outlaws were passing q doorway AM
inhaled the odors of food, they burst opel
the door, threatening the mother of th
household with death unless she CAV
them some food, and she took them asid
and showed them it was her own child sh