The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1892-07-27
CELESTIAL HOLIDAY.
All Nations Throng Around Chrsts
Imperial Throne.
The Multitndes Dressed in Robes of White
Unto Their Voices In Sweet SYM
phony-Dr. Talmagc's Sermon

the east of London, where Rev. ". Cuff
breaches, was thronged almost to suffo-
cation, and the large Congregational
church in the Hackney district could
not hold half the people who tried to
get into it, though it was on Monday
evening that DIR. Talmage preached
there. Outside London the eagerness
to hear him has been quite as intense.
In Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham,
Crewe and Hanley, no church could be
found large enough to accommodate the
audiences, and DIR. Talmage preached
in the halls in which the great po-
litical conventions are held and
the capacity of these was tested to the
utmost. Since his arrival, he has
preached seven times each week. The
sermon selected for publication this
week is from the text Rev. vii, Q, 10:
"After this ! beheld, and, 10, great
multitude which no man could num-
Der, 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 loud voice,
saving: Salvation to our God which sit
teth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb"
1t is impossible to come in contact
with anything grand or beautiful in
art, nature or religion, without being
profited and elevated. We go into the
art gallery. and our soul meets the soul
| of the painter, and we hear the hum OF
his forests and the clash of his conflicts,
and see the cloud blossoming OF the sky
Ind the foam blossoming of the ocean;
and we come out from the gallery bet
ter men than when we went in. We go
| into the concert of music and are lifted
into enchantment; for days after our
soul seems to rock with very tumult
of ioy as the sea, after long stress OF
weather rolls and rocks and surges a
great while before it comes back to its
ordinary calm.
On the same principle it is profitable
to think of Heaven, and look off upon
that landscape Of joy and light which
st. John depicts; the rivers of gladness
the trees of life, the thrones of power,
the comminglings of everlasting love.
I wish this morning that l could bring
Heaven from the list of intangles, and
make it seem to you as it really is-the
great fact in all history, the depot of all
ages, the parlor of Gods universe.
This account in my text gives pict-
ure of Heaven as it is on a holiday.
Now if 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 flowers flung in
the streets, and he heard the guns
booming, he would have been very fool
ish to suppose that that was the ordi-
nary appearance OF the city. While
Heaven 10 always grand and always
beautiful, think my text speaks OF a
gala day in Heaven.
1t is time of great celebration-per-
haps Of the birth or the resurrection of
Jesus; perhaps of the downfall of some
despotism; perhaps because of the rush
ing in of the millennium. know not
what; but it does seem to me in reading
this passage as if it were a holiday in
Heaven: latter this beheld, and, 10, a
great multitude, which no man could
number of all nations, and kindreds,
and people, and tongues, stood before
the throne, and before the Lamb, cloth.
ed in white robes and palms in their
hands; and cried with loud voice, say.
ing, Salvation to our God which stitch
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb. u
shall speak to you of the glorified in
ents, their dress, their symbols, and
their song. But how shall begin by
telling you of the numbers of those in
Heaven? have seen a curious estimate
by an ingenious man who calculates
how long the world was going to last
and how many people there are in each
generation, and then sums up the whole
matter, and says he thinks there will be
twenty-seven millions of souls in glory
] have no faith in his estimate. l sim
ply take the plain announcement of the
text-it is "a great multitude, which M
man can number"
Every few years in this country W.
take census of the population, and i
is very easy to tell how many people
there are in city or in a nation bu
who shall give the census of the grea
nation of the saved? 1t is quite easy t.
tell how many people there are in diff
ferent denominations of Christians
now many Baptists and Methodists anc
Episcopalians and Presbyterians; of al
the denominations of Christians w
could make an estimate. Suppose they
were gathered in one great audienc
room; how overwhelming the spectacle
But it would give no idea of the grea
audience room of Heaven-the multi
tude that bow down and that lift VI
their hosannas. Why, they come from
all the chapels, from all the cathedrals
from all sects, from all ages; they VIII,
prayed in splendid liturgy, and thos
who in broken sentences uttered tn
wish of broken hearts-from Grac
church and sailors bethel, from unde
the shapeless rafters and from unde
high-sprung arch-''a great multitude
that no man can number"
One of the most impressive things
; have looked upon is an army. Stand
ing upon hillside You see 10000 o
so, 900 men pass along. You can hardl
imagine the impression if you have no
actually felt it. But you may take a
the armies that the earth has ever see
|. the legions under Sennacherib, an
Cyrus, and Caesar, Xerxes, and Ale,
ander, and Napoleon, and all our moo
ern forces. and put them in one grea