Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-02-01
FOR A HALF HOUR.
HEAVEN WAS SILENT BUT ONCE AND
ONLY FOR
Tie Brief Space Of Thirty Minutes-Dr. Talmage
Draws an Excellent Lesson Prom This Pieos
OF Soripmrs-Ths Things That May be
Crowded Into a Half Hour.

Talmage has OF late been preaching on
texts Of Scripture that seem to have
been neglected, and here is sermon on
q beautiful text which probably was
never before selected for discourse.
Revelations $: /, There was silence in
heaven about the spaceOf half an hour.
The busiest place in the universe is
heaven. 10 Is the centre from which
all good influences start; IL is the goal
at which all good results arrive. The
Bible represents il as active with
wheels and wings and orchestraS
aud professions mounted or charioted.
But my text describes a space when the
wheels ceased 10 roll and the trumpets
TO sound and the voices 70 chant. The
riders on the white horses refined in
their chargers. The doXolOgies were
huShed and the procession halted. The
hand OF arrest was put upon all the
SplendOors. "StOp, Heaven" cried an
omnipOtent voice, and it stopped. For
thirty minutes everything celestial
stood STILL There was silence in
heaven for the space Of half an hour.
FROM ALL WE CAN LEARN
it is the only time heaven ever stopped.
IL does not stop as other cities for the
night, for there is no night there. II
does not stop for a plague, for the in
habitant never says: Il am sick II
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 IL for thirty min
utes GrOtius and Professor Stuart
think il was at the time Of the destruc-
ton Of Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord thinks 10
was in 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 a guess, though a learned and
brilliant guess. DO not know when it
was and do not care when 10 was, but
OF the fact that such an intorregnum Of
sound took place, am certain. There
was silence in heaven for the space Of
half an hour.
Learn from my text that heaven must
be an eventful and active place, from
the fact that il could afford only thirty
minutes OF recess. There have been
events on earth and in heaven that
seemed 10 demand whole day or whole
week or whole year for celestial con-
sideratiOn. II 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 il in many weeks.
After fearful beSiegement OF the two for
tresseS 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 a trebrand,
and the Temple was all afame, and
after covering many sacrifices 10 the
holiness of God, the building itself be-
came a sacrifice to the rage OF man.
THE HUNGER or THE PEO PIE
IIif--tnsS great city during the hes eige-
ment was so great that as some outlaws
were passing a doorway and inhaled the
odors Of food they burst upon the
door, threatening the mother Of the
household with death unless she gave
them some food, and she took them
aside and showed them that ii was her
own child she was cooking for the
CHASTITY repaSt. Six hundred priests
were destroyed on Mount Zion because,
the temple being gone, there was moth
ing for them TO do. Six thousand peO-
pie in one clOiSter were consumed.
There were one million one hundred
thousand dead, according 10 JOSephuS.
Grotius thinks that this was the cause
Of silence i'm heaven for half an hour.
II Mr.. Lord was right, and this silence
was during the DiOcletiSn prosecutions,
by which eight hundred and fOrty-fOur
aud fire, and Punishment and exposure,
why did not heaven listen through
out at least one OF those aw-
full years? No, Thirty minutes!
The fact is that the celestial
programme is so crowded with specta
Gle that it can afford only one recess in
all eternity aud that for a short space.
While there are great chOruSes in
which all heaven can join, each soul
there has a story OF divine mercy peCu-
liar 20 itself, and il must be a solo. How
can heaven get through with all its
reCitatiyeS, with all its cantatas, with
all It's grand marches, with all its vic
tories? Eternity ia too short to utter
all the praise. In my text heaven
spared thirty minutes, but IL will never
again spare one minute. In worship in
earthly churches, when there are many
to take part, we have to counsel brevity,
but how will heaven get on rapidly
enough 20 let the one hundred and forty
four thousand get through each with his
own story, and then the one hundred
and forty-four million, and then the one
hundred and fOrty-iOur billion, and then
the one hundred and forty-four trillion.
HEAVEN Is FyLL OF CHILDREN.
They are in the vast majority. No
child on earth who amounts TO anything
can be kept quiet half an hour, and how
are you CDing 70 keep five hundred
million OF them quiet half an hour. You
know heaven is much more Of place
than IL was when thot recess of thirty
minutes occurred. It's population has
0uadrupled, seXtupled, Centupled,
Heaven has more on hand, more of rap
ture, more Of knowledge, more Of inter
communication, more Of worship.
There is not so much difference between
Brooklyn seventy-fve years ago, when
there were a few houses down on the
East River and the village reached up
only to Sands street, as compared with
what this great city is nOw-yea, not so
much difference between New York
when Canal street was far up town and
now when Canal street is far down
town, than there is a difference between
what heaven was when my text was
written and what heaven Is now. The
most thrilling place we have ever been
in is stupid compared with that, and, II
we now have no time TO spare, we will
then have no eternity 70 spare. Silence
P s. heaven only half An hour