The Penn's Grove record., 1892-07-15
REV. DR.. TALNAGES SERMON.
The Brook ~. i.,v,nc's sraday
Sermon.


TEXT: sAfer this I 5ehe,d, and lot O
great multitude tDhfch no man could nurn-
Der, of all nations and kildreds and peo-
pie md tongues, stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed s0ith Unite
robes, and palms IN their hands, md cried
NTH a loud poice, Saying, Salvation to our
Rod uAich stteh upon the throne. and
unto the Lamb "-Reveiation vii, ., 10.
1t is impossible to come In contact with
anything grand or beautiful In art, nature
or religion without being profited and ele-
waited. We go into the art gallery and our
soul meets the soul of the painter, AMI We
hear the hum OF his forests and the clash of
his conflicts and see the cloud b~lossoming Of
the sky and the foam blossoming OF the
ocean, and we come out from the gallery
better men than when we went in. We 90
into the concert of music u are lifted into
enchantment; for days after our soul seems
to rock with 3 very tumult OF JOY, as the sea,
after a long stress OF weather, rolls and
rocks and surges a great while before II
comes back to its ordinary calm.
On the same principle it Ia profitable to
think OF heaven, and look Cd upon that land
scare Of joy n light which st. John de-
picts-the rivers OF gladnees. the trees Of
life, the thrones OF power, the oomminglings
OF everlasting love. I wish this mQrning
that | could bring heaven frvm the list of in
tangibles and make it seem to you a. IL
really is-the great fact in all history, the
depot Of all ages, the parior Of Gods uni
verse.
This account In my text gives a picture OF
heaven as it is on a holiday. Now, If q man
came to New York for the first time on the
day that Kossuth arrived from Hungary,
and he saw the arches lifted, and the low
ers flung in the streets, and he heard the
guns booming, he would have been very
frrtiah 10 .ro 49, k-k
appearance Of the city. While heaven e
always grand and always beautiful, l think
text speaks OF q gala day in heaven.
1t 10 q time OF great celebration-perhaps
OF the birth or the resurrection Of Jesus.
perhaps Of the downfall Of some despotism,
perhaps because Of the rushing in
of the millennium. / know not
what, but 1t does seem to me In reading this
passage as Il it were a holiday in heaven;
stAfter this / beheld. and loi a great multi
tude which no nan could number, of all
nations and kindreds and people and tongues,
stood before the throne, and before the
Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms
in their hands. and cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God which sittetb
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb
1 shall speak to you of the glorihed In
beaven-their number, their antecedents,
their dress, their symbols and their song.
But how shall l begin by telling you of the
numbers Of those in heavenf Ihave seen Q
surious estimate by an ingenious man who
calculates how long the world WA going to
last. and how many people there are In each
generation. and then sums up the whole
matter, an says he thinks there will be
twe nty seven ~trillions Of souls 10 glory. I
rave no faith in his estimate. Isimply take
the plain announcement of the text-it 10
"a great multitude. which no man can
lumber"
One Of the most impressive things | have
looked upon is an army. Standing upou q
hillside you see forty thousand or fifty thou
men pass along. You can hardly
imagine the impression il you have not sct1.
ally felt IL. But you may take ali the
hat the earth has ever sesu-the
legions of Sennacherib and Gurus aud
Cesar, Xerxes and Alexander and Napoleon.
and all or modern forces and put them In
one great array, and then on some swift
You may ride along the line and
review the troops; and that accumulated
host from all ages seems like : hall formed
regiment compared with h great array Of
the redeemed.
Istood one day at williamsport. and saw
the opposite side Of the Potomact the forces
coming down. regiment after regiment, and
brigade after brigade. It seemed Is though
there was no end to the procession. But
let me take the field glass of st. John
and look of upon the hosts of heaven
thousands upon thousands ten thousand
ten thousand, one hundred and forty
and four thousand, aud Thousands OF thou
sands, until Iput down this Said glass and
say, II cannot estimate it-a great multi.
tude that no man can number
You may tax your imagination and tor
ture your ingenuity and break down your
powers Of calculation ia attempting to ex-
press the multitudes OF the released from
earth n the e~nraptured OF heaven. and
talk of hundreds OF hundreds of hundreds,
OF thousands Of thousands OF thousands, Of
millions Of millions Of millions, until your
head aches and your heart faints and ex-
hausted and ~overburdened you exclaim: az
cannot count them-a great multitude tina
10 man can number y
But my subject advances. and tells Won Of
their antecedents, ''of ali nations and kin.
dreis and tongues.n Some Of them spoke
Scotch, Irish, German, English, Italian.
Spanish, Tamil, Choctaw, Burmese. After
men have been long in the land you can tell
by their accentuation from what nationality
they came, and l suppose in the great thropQ
around the throne It will not be diflcuit %
tell from what part Of the earth thew came
These reaped Sicilinn wheat felds and
those picked Gotten from the pods. Thsss
aIr.er clustering skies gathered tAmarinds
and yaiDs. Those crossed the desert On
and those glanced over the smow
drawn by Siberian dogs and these miiksd
the goats Tar up on the Swiss craes. 1hsse
the walrus and white bear In ravions
everlasting snow, and those heard the
of fiery winged birds in Africsn thick-
cts. They were white Thes vers nae
They were raj. .rhev were ~ a. 49,
ali lands. from sli ages Thav ~:
plungei into Austrian dnnceons Thsv
passed throuvh Snanish inn,,;sitions iTrheyy
were confined IN London Towsr They
iought with beasts in the amphitheatsr
W aidsnsss. They wer,s Albieenses' Thav
were Scotch C~oyenanters1 Thsv wa,
Sandwich I~slapasrs.
In this world men prefer different Eindso N
government. The Unlted state wants .
The British Government nea n n |
ba a consfitutioaa