The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-02-10
A VIEW OF HEAVEN.
DR.. TALMAGE TELLS OF A THIRTY
MINUTES GLIMPSE OF PARADISE.

leeted Text from Revelation viii, L,
There Was silence in Fl eaven About the
Space of Half an Hour"
BROOKLYN, Jan. 31-Dr Talmage has of
late been preaching on texts of Scripture
that seem to have been neglected, and here
is a sermon on beautiful text which prob
ably was never before selected for a dis
course. Revelation viii, 1, There was
silence in heaven about the space of half
an hour"
The busiest place in the universe is
heaven. 1t 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
scribes space when the " heels ceased to
roll, and the trumpets to sound, and the
voices to chant. The riders on the white
horses refined in their chargers. The dox-
ologies were hushed and the professions
halted. The hand of arrest was put upon
all the splendors. stop, heaYenP' 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, II am sick"
1t does not stop for bankruptcies, for its
inhabitants never fail 1t does not stop
for impossible streets, for there are no
fallen SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What,
then. stopped it for thirty mintues? Grotius
and Professor Stuart think it was at the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem. Mr.
Lord thinks it was ia the year 3ll, between
the close of the Diocletian persecution and
the beginning of the wars by which Con-
stantine gained the throne But that was
all guess, though a 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 a later day occupation
For unimaginable ages it was a 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
noisy universe. Worlds in upheayal
worlds in congelation, worlds n conhagra-
tiOn. worlds in revolution. If biologists
are right-aud | believe they are-there
has not been a moment of silence since this
world began its travels, and the crashings.
and the splittings, and the uproar, and the
hubbub are ever in progress.
But when among the supernals a voice
cried, Hush and for half an hour heaven
vas still, silence was honored. The full
power Of silence many of US have yet to
earn. We are told that when Christ was
arraigned "He answered not word" That
silence was louder than any thunder that
yver shook the world. Oftentimes, when we
ire assailed an misrep resentd, the might
est thing to say is to say nothing, and
he mightiest thing to do is to do nothing.
Those people who are always rushing into
Print To get themselves set right accom-
oish nothing but their own chagrin- ST
encel Do right and leave the results with
Sod. Among the grandest lessons the
world has ever learned are the lessons of
patience taught by those who endured I'M
sOmplainingly personal or domestic or so-
.ial or political injustice
Stronger than any bitter or sarcastic or
revengeful answer was he patient silence
uE A&IlLQS III -AOEIlSOus OI AuCISCets dc-
eomplished 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, AT this
moment there IS not an inch of my body
that is not filed 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-
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 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 az the right time. There
was a quaint Old hymn, spelled in the old
style, and once sung insthe churches:
The race is not forever got
By him who fastest runs,
Nor the Rattel by those peOpeH
That shoot with the longest guns.
Ny friends, the tossing Sea of Galilee
seemed most to offend Christ by the
amount of noise it made, for he said to it,
BE stillp Heaven has been browning
kings and queens unto God for many CEN
turtles, yet heaven never stopped a moment
for any such occurrence, but it stopped
thirty minutes for the coronation of ST.
lence. There was silence in heaven for
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 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
fort rssses of Observation-Disclosures and Hip
picus-had been going on for long while,
a Roman soldier mounted on the shoulder
of another soldier hurled into the window Of
the temple fireBrand, and the temple was
all afame, and after covering many sacrif-
ces to the holiness Of God, the building it
self became sacrifice 10 the rage of man.
The hunger Of the people in that city dur
ing the besiegement was so great that as
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 aside