The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1892-02-04
REV DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON.
srr.ENcE REIaNED IN HEAVEN.
Tho Sermon as Delevered d by the Brooklyn
Divine.

about he space OF hdU an hour.'-Revela-
tion viii, l.
The busiest place in the universe is heaven.
It n the center from which all good in
Huences start. IL is the goal at winch all
good results arrive The Bible represents it
as active with wheels and wings and orches.
tras and professions mounted or cherioted.
But my text describes q space when the
wheels ceased 20 roll, and the trumpets to
sound, and the voices TO chant The riders
on the white horses reign,i in their
chargers- The doxologies wers hushed and
the professions halted. The hand of arrest
was put upos all the spiendors- stop
heavenp cried an omnipotent voice, and 10
stopped. For thirty minutes everything
heaven for half an hour
Prom all we can learn II IL the only time
heaven ever stopped. IL does not stop as
other cities for the night for there is no
night there. IL does not stop for n plague,
for the inhabitant never says, III am sick. :"
1t does not stop for bankruptcies, for its in
habitants never fail. IL does not stop for
impssssble streets, for there are no fallen
SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What then,
stopped 1t for thirty minutesf Grotius and
Professor Stuart think 1t was at the time of
che destruction OF Jerusalem. Mr.. Lord
thinks IL was in the year 3ll. 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 a learned and brilliant guess. do
not know when II was and do not care
when 10 was but of the fact that such An in
terregnum OF sound took place | am Ger.
tain. There was silence In heaven for half
an hour"
And first OF all we may learn that God
and all heaven honorod silence. The longest
and widest dominion that ever existed is
ths1 over which stiffness was queen. For
an eternity there had not been a sound.
lrlA ..al. La. L.. etgx..
For unimagnable ages 1t was a mute uni.
verse. God was the only being and as
there was no one 10 speak to there was no
utterance. But that silence has been all
broken np into worlds. and it has become a
noisy universe Worlds In uphelval, worlds
in congelation, worlds In conhagration,
worlds in revolution. Ii geologists are right
and 1 believe they are-there has not
been a moment Of silence since this world
began its travels, and the crashinys and the
splittings and the uproar, aud the hub
bub are ever in progresA
But when among the supernals a voice
cried "Hushr' and for half an hour hea ven
was still, silence was honored. The full
power OF silence many OF Us have yet TO
learn. We are told that wnen Christ was
arraigned, "He answered not word" Tint
silence was louder than any thunder that
ever shook the word. Oftentimes, when VIZ
are assaiied and misrepresented, the might
thing 70 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 uncomp!ainingly personal or
domestic or sociaI or political injustice.
Stronger than any bitter or sarcastic or
revengetul answer was the patient silence
The famous DIR. Morrison, Of Chelsea. ac-
complshed as much by HIS silent patience as
by his pen and tongue. He had asthma that
for twenty five years prou ght him out of his
couch at two o'clock eacn morning. His
four sons and daughters deal. The remain
ing child by sunstroke made insane. Tne
afflicted man said, AT this moment there
As not an inch of my body that is not filed
VIII agony" Yet he was cheerful, .trinm.
phant, silent fhoss who were IN ms pres
ence said they felt as though they were in
the gates OF heaven.
Oh, the power Of patient silencei Eschy.
1us the immortal poet was condemned 90
death for writing something that offended
the people. All the pleas in his benalf were
of no avail, until his brother uncovered the
arm OF the prisoner AMI showed that his
hand had been shot Off at Salamis. That
silent pea liberated him. The loudest thing
on earth is silence If il be of the right kind
and at the right time. There was quaint
old hymn, spelled in the old style, anu once
sung in the churches;
The race Is not forever cot
by him who fastest runs.
Nor the Bate, by those peD1all
That shoot with the On,,s. guns
NY friends, the tossing Sea OF GaliIee
eeemed most to offend Christ 10y the amC INT
of noise il made, tor He said 10 it, "Be st.'lw
Heaven has been crowning kings and queens
unto God for many centuries, yet heaven
T,,,.
renee, but it stopped thirty minutes for the
coronation of Silence. "Fhere was silence
In heaven for half an hour"
Learn also from my text that heaven must
be an eventful AMI 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 TO demand "A
whole day or whole week or whole year for
celestial consideration. If Grotius was rght
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 nave done Justice To 1t
In many weeks.
After fearful besiegement OF the two for
tresses of Observation-Disclosures and Hippicus
had been going ON for long while, Roman
soldier mounted on the shoulder of another
soldier hurled into the window of the tenn
pie a frebrau1, and the temple was all
ahame, and alter covering many sacrifices
became "A sacrifice TO the rage OF man. The
hunger OF the people in that city during the
besegement was 50 great that as some out
laws were passing doorway and inhaled
the odors of fool, they burst open the door,
threatening tine mother OF the household
with death unless she gave them food, and
she took them aside aud showed them it was
her own child she was cooking for the ghsst-
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 ono cloister were consumed.
There were one million one hundred thou
sand dead, according to Josephus. Grotlua
thinks that this was the cause OF silence In
heaven for half an hour. IL Mr.. Lord was
right and this silence was during the Dlocle-
tian prosecutions by which eight hundred
and forty-four thousand Christians suffered
death from sword and fire and banishmeni
and exposure, why did not heaven listen
throughout at least one OF those awful years.
Mol Thirty minutesl The fact is that th'
celestial programme Is 80 crowded with spec
tacle that IL can afford only one recess In al