Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-01
SILENCE IN HEAVEN.
Rev. DR.. Talmage Talks of the Only
Halt Hour of Quietude There.
LESSONS OF A BEAUTIFUL TEXT.
Supreme Events of Our Lives ALI Happen
Within 80 Minutes.
A TRANSIENT VISION OF OUR HONE


that seem to have been neglected, and her,
is q sermon on beautiful text which proba
blv was never before selected for dis
course, Revelations S:i, ''There was silence
in heaven about the space of half an hour
The busiest place in the universe i:
heaven. 1t is the center from which al
good influences start: it is the goal at which
all good results arrive. The Bible repre-
sents it as active with wheels and wings and
orchestras and professions mounted OF
charioted.
But my text describes space when the
wheels ceased to roll and the trumpets to
sound and the voices to chant. The riders
the white horses reined in their chargers
The doxologies we're hushed and the pro-
cession halted. The hand of arrest was put
upon all the splendors. "Stop, Heaven
cried an omnipotent voice, and it stopped.
for SO minutes everything celestial stood
still. 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 >
Ii does not stop for bankruptcies, for its in
habitants never fail 1t does not stop for
impossible streets, for there are no fallen
SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What, then,
stopped it for 30 minutes?
Why Did Heaven Stope
Grotius and Prof. Stuart think it was at
the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Mr. Lord thinks it was in the year 81. be-
tween the close of the Diocletian persecu-
tion and the beginning of the wars by which
Constantine gained the throne. But that
was all a guess, though a learned and
brilliant guess. l do not know when it was
and do not care when it was, but of the
aa# FNanF 5rato <fe
took place am certain.
And, first of all. we may learn that God
snd all heaven then honored silence. The
longest and widest dominion that ever ex-
listed is that over which Stiffness was Queen,
For an eternity there had not been q sound
matchmaking was a later day occupation.
For untmaglnable 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 ND
into worlds, and it has become noisy uni
verse. Worlds in upheaval, worlds in con-
@elaSion, worlds in conf1agration, worlds in
revolution. If geoiogists are right (and
believe they are) there has not been a mo-
menU 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
WAS still, silence was honored. The full
power OF silence many of us have yet to
arraigned He answered not word"
That silence was louder than thunder
When II Is Best to Be stn.
Ofttimes, when we are assailed and mis-
represented, the mightiest thing to say is to
say nothing, and the mightiest to do, is to do
nothing. Those people who are ALWAYS
rushing into print to get themselves set
right accomplish nothing but their own
chagrin. Among tie grandest lessons the
world has ever learned are the lessons of
patience taught by those who endured un-
complainingiy personal or domestic or So
cla! or political injustice.
Learn also from my text that heaven must
De an eVentful and active place, from the |
fact that it could afford only so minutes of |
recess. There have been events on earth /
and in heaven that seemed to demand a |
whole DAY or whole week or whole wear for
celestial consideration. If Grotius was right
and this silence occurred at the time of the |
destruction of Jerusalem, that scene was so
aw Jul and so prolonged that the inhabitants |
OF heaven could not have done justice to it
in many weeks.
The hunger of the people in that city dur.
ing the beslegement was so great that as
some outlaws were passing a doorway and
inhaled the odoTs of food they burst omen
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 it was her own child she
was cooking for the glfastly repast. Six hun
dred priests were destroyed on Mount Zion
because the Temple being gone there was
nothing for them TO do.
The Heavenly Programme Full,
No. Thirty minutes! The fact is that the
celestial programme is SO crowded with |
spectacle that it can afford only one recess
In all eternity and that for a short space
While there are great choruses in which all
heaven can join, each soul there has story
OF divine mercy peculiar to itself and it |
must be Il solo. How can heaven get through
-4r ia.
with all its grand marches, with all its vic
tories? Eternity Is too short to utter all the
praise. In my text heaven spared 90 min |
utes but 1t viii never again spare one minute
BESIDES that, heaven is full of children |
They IRE in the vast majority. No child on |
larth who amounts to anything can be kept |
Iuict hal an hour, and how are you going to
lecp 5OOOOOOO of them quiet half an hour |
on know heaven is much more of a place
han it was when that recess OF so minutes
occurred. Its population has Quadrupled,
eNtupled, centupled. Heaven has more on
land, more OF rapture more of knowledge.
more Of intercommunication, more OF wor-
hip.
NV subject also impresses me with the i'm
of u half-nour. That haIf-bour
mentioned in my text is more widely known
han any other period in the calendar of
leaven. None of the whole hours of heaven
re measured OF, none Of the years. none of
he centuries The only part of eternity
hat WAS ever measured by earthly time |
'iece was measured by the minute hand of
ny text.
The Value of Little Half Hours,
Oh, the halfhours! They decide every
hing. l am not asking what you will do |
With the years months or days of your
lfe, but what OF the half-hours. Tell me the ]
history of your halfhours, and will tell
ou the story of your whole life on earth ]
nd the story OF your whole life in eternity
he right or wrong things YOU can think in
' nun ~ 2tes, the llgnt or wrongs you can say :
q - minutes, the right or wrong things you
an 40 III 81 minutes are glorious or baleful |
Inspiring or desperate. Look out for the |
@ .aS nlehts OF time They are pieces of eter-
The half-hours between his duties as C
chool master made Salmon P Chase Chief n
ustlce, nc halt-hours between shoe lasts h
lade Henry Wilson Vice President of tho | r
niteu States, the half-hour, between canal
oats made James A. Garfield President.
ne hall-hour a Gay 1or good books or had Q
ooks; tAe hali-hour day for PRAYER or in C
o. oleice: tne ne nal1-hour a day for helping n
thefs or olastlng others; the haIf-hour be- +,
Ore you go to business, and the halEhcur | o
iter louf return from business; that makes T
be dlference between the scholar and the d
,nOramus, between the Christian ann tbe | y
lfidel, between the saint and the denon y
etween triumph and catastropbe. between | !,
eaven and hell. -
The most tremendous things of vour life | 7,
nd mine were certain half-hours frba -,o1F | = !.
our when in the parsonage of a conntr, "
linister / resolved to become n Christ;a1 | T.
leE and there; the half-hour when 7 Do - -
ded to become preacher of the gosnel :, u
How About Your Next so Minut.s9 O
do not query what you will do with tbe y
Sentieth century, 90 not query what ,oT, g
i'll do with 1892, but what will Won do With
e next half hour7 Upon that hinges yonr
,stiny. And, during that some of Won wiu
ceiVe the gospel and make comniata ,,. ID
,1ay. md RI II hot