The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-02-17
REV. DR.. TALMAGE.
THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject: Heaven"

as active with wheels and wings and orcnes'
tras and professions mounted or charloted.
But my text describes a space when the
wheels ceased to roll, and the trumpets to
sound, and the voices to chant. The riders
on the white horses reigned in their
chargers. The doxologies were hushed and
the professions halted. The hand of arrest
was put upon all the splendors stop.
heaven" cried an omniposent voice, ana IL
stopped. For thirty minutes everything
celestial stood still. "There was silence IN
heaven for 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 In
habitants never fail. 1t does nor stop for
impossible streets, for there are no fallen
SHOWS nor sweeping freshets. What, then,
stopped 1t for thirty minutesi Grotius and
Professor Stuart think it was at the time OF
the destruction Of Jerusalem. Mr.. LORD
thinks it was in the year BIZ. 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 learned and brilliant guess. do
not know when it was and do not care
when it was, but of the fact that such an in
terregnum Of sound took place. I am Ger.
tain. There was silence in heaven for half
an hour"
And first of all we may learn that God
and all heaven honored silence. The longest
and widest dominion that ever existed Is
that over which Stiffness was queen. For
an eternity there had not been sound.
World making was a later day occupation.
For unimaginable ages it was mute uni.
verse. God was the only being, and as
there was no one to speak to there was nc
utterance. But that silence has been all
broken up into worlds. and it has become
noisy universe. Worlds in upheaval, worlds
ir congeaticn, worlds in confagration,
worlds in revolution. If geologists are right
and I believe they are-there has not
been moment of silence since this world
began its travels, and the crashings and the
splittings, and the uproar, and the huo-
bub are ever in progress.
But when among the supernals voice
cried, "Hushm and for half an hour heaven
was still, silence was honored. The full
power of silence many OF US have yet TO
learn. We are told that when Christ was
arraigned, He answered not word" That
silence was louder than any thunder that
ever shook the world. Oftentimes, when we
are assailed and misrepresented, the might
lest thing to say is nothing, and the mlghtiest
thing to do is nothing. Those people
themselves set right accomplish nothing but
their own chagrin. Silence! 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 uncomplainingly personal or
domestic or social or political injustice.
Stronger than any bitter or sarcastic or
reyengeful answer was the patient silence.
The famous DR.. Morrison, Of Chelsea, ac-
.l hx,h q q
BY his pen and tongue. He had asthma that
for twenty.fv years brought him out OF his
couch at two O'clock each morning. His
four sons and daughters dead. The remain
ing child by sunstroke made insane. The
afflicted man said, "At this moment there
is not an inch Of my body that is not filled
with agony" Yet, he was cheerful, trium-
phant, silent. Those who were in his pres
ence said they felt as though they were in
the gates Of heaven.
Oh, the power of patiens silence! Eschy-
lus, the immortal poet, was condemned to
death for writing something that offended
the people. All the pleas in his behalf were
OF no avail, until his brother uncovered the
arm OF the prisoner and showed that his
hand had been shot off at Salamis. That
silent pea liberated MIN. The loudest thing
on earth is silence if it be of the right kind
and 1T the right time. There was quaint
old hymn, spelled in the old style, anu once
sung in the churches;
The race is not forever got
BY him who fastest runs,
Nor the Batt.l by those psopell
That saooL with the longest guns.
Nv friends, the tossing Sea OF Gaiilee
seemed most to offend Christ by the amount
OF noise it made, for He said to it, "Be still"
Heaven has been crowning kings and queens
unto God tor many centuries, yet heaven
never stopped a moment for any such occur
renee hut it stopped thirty minutes for the
coronation of Silence. There was silence
in heaven for half an hour"
Learn also from my text that heaven must
be HI eventtul AMI active place, from the
fact that it could afford only thirty minutes
O recess. There have been events on earth
an, in heaven that seemed to demand
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 scene was so
awful and so prolonged that the inhabitants
OK heaven could not nave done iustics 10 it
in many weeks.
After fearful besiege!nent Of the two for
tresseS of Observation-Disclosures and Hlppicus
had been going on tor long while, q Roman
soldier mounted on the shoulder OF another
solaer hurled into the window OF the tenn.
pie ,l frebran5, and the temple was all
atiame, and arter covering many sacrifices
to the holiness OF God. the building itself
became d sacrifice to the rage OF man. The
hunger OF the people in that city during the
besiegement was 50 great that as some out
laws were passing doorway ana inhaled
the odors OF foot, tney nurst open the door.
threatening the mother OF the household
with death unless she gave them food. and
she took them aside and showed them it was
her own child she was cooking for the ghast-
ly repast.
Mount Zion because the temple being gone
tnere was nothing for them to do. Six thou
sand peorle in one cloister were consumed.
There were one million one hundred thou
sand dead, according to Josepnus. Grotlus
| + inks that this was the cause of silence in
heaven for half all hour. If Mr.. Lord was
right and this silence was during tbs DIocle-
tian prosecutions, by which eight hundred
and forty-sour thousand Christians suffered
death from sword and lire and oanisnment
and exposure, why did not heaven listen
throughout ut least one of those awful years!
MOI Thirty minutes! The fact is that the
celestial programme is so crowded with spec.
uacle that it can afford only one recess in all
eternity and that for short space.
While there are great choruses in which
all heaven can join, each soul there has q
story of divine mercy pecullar 10 ltSeit anu
1t must be solo. How can heaven get
through with all its recitatives, with all
It's cantos, with all Its grand marches with
all its victories? Eternity is too 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 churches, when there are many to
take part, we have to counsel brevity, but
how will heaven get on rapidly enough to
let the one hundred and forty-four thou.
sand get through each with his own story,
and then the one hundred and forty -four
million. and then the one hundred and