Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1892-02-06
SILENCE IN HEAVEN.
DR.. Talmage Discourses on the
Strange Event.
Lessons Drawn From tho Text = Great
Powers In Sllonce-Qulet Resignation
to Great Trouble Glimpse OF the
Glories OF Heaven.

In lute sermon NJ DTOohlyu hcN L.
Dewitt Talmage took his text from
Revelations viii. /: "There was silence
IN Heaven about the space OF half an
hour" Or. Talmage said:
The busiest place in the universe is
Heaven. 1t is the center from which
all good influences start; it is the goal
mt which all good results arrive. The
Bible represents 1t as active with wheels
and wings and orchestras and process
sions mounted or charioted. But my
text describes space when the wheels
ceased to roll and the trumpets to
sound and the voices to chant. The
riders on the white horses refined IN
their chargers. The doxologies were
hushed and the procession halted. The
hand of arrest was put upon oil the
spleudors. "Stop, Heaven" cried an
omnipotent voice, and it stopped. For
thirty minutes everything celc stial
stood still. "There 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 a plague, for the inhabitant
never says, ~ am sick" 1T does not
stop for bankruptcies, for its in
habitants never fail. 1t does not stop
for impossible streets, for there are no
fallen SHOWS or sweeping freshets.
What then, stopped it for thirty min
utes? Prof. Stuart thinks it was at the
time of the destruction of Jerusalem.
Mr.. Lord thinks it was in the year 81,
between the close of the Diocletian
persecution and the beginning of the
wars by which Constantine gained the
throne. do not know when it was and
j do not care when it was, but OF the
fact that such an interregnum Of sound
took place. I am certain. "There was
silence in Heaven for the space OF half
an hour"
And. first of all. we may learn that
God and all Heaven then honored Sc
lence. The longest and widest domin-
ion that ever existed is that over which
stiffness was queen. For an eternity
mere ha not been sound Word
making was later day occupation.
For unimaginable ages it was u mute
universe. God was the only Being,
and, as there was no one to speak to.
there was no utterance. But that ST.
lence has been all broken up into
words, and it has become noisy uni
verse. Worlds in upheaval, worlds in
.congelation, wor.ds in confagration,
worlds in revolution. If biologists are
right land believe they are) there has
not been a moment of silence since
this world began its travels and the
crossings and the splittings and the
uproar and the hubbub are ever in
progress. But when among the SUI
T,ernals a voice cried: "Hush" and
for half an hour Heaven was
still, silence was honored The
full power of silence many of
u1s have yet to learn. We are told that
when Christ was arraigned, HE an
severed not q word" That silence was
louder than any thunder that ever
shook the world. Oftimes, when we
arc assailed and misrepresented, the
mightiest thing TO say Is TO say moth
ing, and the mightiest thing to do. Is to
do nothing. Those people who are al
ways rushing into print to get them
selves 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 uncom-
pIaininglv personal or domestic or
social or political injustice.
Nv friends, the tossing sea Of Galilee
A.eemed 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
for many centuries, yet Heaven never
stopped q moment for any such occur
renee, but It stopped thirty minutes for
the coronation of silence. "There was
silence in Heaven for the space of half
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. II 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 Of Heaven could
not have done justice to 1t in many
weeks
After besiegement Of the two fcrt-
resses Of Observation-Disclosures and Hip
uicus-had been going on for = long
while, q Roman soldier mounted on the
shoulder Of another soldier hurled into
che window of the temple firebrand,
and the temple was all ahame, and
after covering many sacrifices TO the
holiness of God, the building itself be-
--,-fQ,a 20 fha vana nf man