The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1892-02-12
GLINIPSES OF HEAVEN
TALMAGE OPENS THE PORTALS
OF Eff 7NETY.
A Beautiful sermon from Revelations
There was Silence in Heaven for the
Space of Hair AN Hour-Thlrty Min
utes in Heaven.

OCSu ucBleCIbu anu mere Is sermon
on a beautiful text which probably
was never before selected for dis
course. Revelation s; I. "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; it 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 describes space when
the wheels cease to roll and the trum-
pets TO sound and the voices to chant.
The riders on the white horses refined
in their chargers. The doxologies were
hushed and the professions halted.
The hand Uf arrest was put upon all the
OFFENDERS. "Stop, Heaven" cried az
omnipotent voice, and it stopped. For
thirty minutes everything celestial
stood still. '"rhere was silence in
heaven for the space of 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: 81 am sick" 1t does not
stop for bankruptcies, for its inhabi-
tants never fail. 1t does not stop for
impossible streets, for there are no
fallen SHOWS nor sweeping freshets.
What, then, stopped it for thirty min
utes? Grotius and Prof. Stuart
think it was at the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem. Mr..
Lord thinks 1t was in the year 31l, be.
tween the close of the Diocletian per.
secution and the beginning OF the wars
by which Constantine gained the
throne. But that was all guess,
though learned and brilliant guess.
| do not know when it was and | dc
not care when it was, but of the fact
that such an interregnum of sound took
place, l am certain. "There was
silence in heaven for the'space of hall
an hour"
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 demand 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
enc was so awful and so prolonged
that the Inhabitants of heaven could
not have done justice to it in many
weeks. After fearful besiegements Of
the two fortresses of Jerusalem AN
tonic and Hippicus-had been
going on for q long while,
q Roman soldier mounted on
the shoulder of another SOL
der hurled into the window of the tenn
pie firebrand and the temple was all
afame, and after covering many sacri-
fees to the holiness of God, the build
ing itself became sacrifice to the rage
If man. The hunger OF the people in
that city during the besiegement was
so great that as some outlaws were
passing doorway and inhaled the
odors of food, they burst open the door,
threatening the mother of tine house
hold with death unless she gave them
some food, and she took them
aside ana showed them that il
was her own child she was cooking fol-
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 to Josephus.
Grotius thinks that this was the cause
of silence in heaven for half an hour.
If Mr.. Lord was right and this silence
was during the Diocletian persecu.
tions, by which eight hundred and
forty-four thousand Christians suf-
| fered death from sword and fire
and Punishment and exposure, why die
not heaven listen throughout at leas
one of those awful years? No! Thirty
minutes The fact is that the celestial
programme is so crowded with spec
tacle that it can afford only one recess
in all eternity and that for a short
space. While there are great chorusei
in which all heaven can join, each
soul there has story of divine mercy
peculiar to itself, and it must be q
solo. How can heaven get through
with all its recitatives, with all It'll
cantatas, with all it's grand marches
with all its victories? Eternity is toe
short to utter all the praise In my
text Heaven spared thirty minutes, but
it will never again spare one minute.
In worship in earthly church, when
there are many to take part, we have
to counsel brevlty, but how will Heav
en- get on rapidly enough to let the one
hundred and forty -four thousand gel
through each with his own story, anC
then the one hundred and forty -four
million, and then the one hundred and
forty-four billion, and then the one
hundred and forty-four trillion.
MY subject also impresses me with
the immortality of half-hour. That
half hour mentioned in my text is morV
widely known than any other perio ii
the calendar of heaven. None OF thu
whole hours Of heaven are measured
off, none of the years, mono Of the
centuries OF the millions of ages
mast and the millions of ages In