Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-12-12
bling battering rams Of its thunder.
Masters Still Painting.

Ulcher, and that Turner and Holman
Hunt and Rembrandt and Titan and
Paul Veronese, if they exercised saving
faith in the Christ whom they portrayed
upon the canvas, are painting yet, but
their strength of faculty multiplied ten
thousandfold. Their hand has forgotten
its cunning, but the spirit has faculties
as far superior to four fingers and a
thumb as the supernatural is superior
to the human The reason that God
took away their eye and their hand and
their brain was that he might give them
something more Timber, moro wieldy,
more skillful, more multipliant Do
not therefore be melancholy among
the tapestries, and tho bric-a- brao, and
the embroideries, and the water colors,
aud tho works of art which your de-
parted friends used to admire. Do not
say, 81 am SO sorry they had to leave
all these things" Rather say, Il am
gl..a thoy have gone up to higher artis-
tic opportunity and appreciation. Our
friends who found so much joy in tho
fine arts OIL earth arc now luxuriating
in Louvres and Luxembourgs celestial.
1 remark again that all our departed
Christian friends who in this world
were passionately fond of music are
still RECALLING that taste in the world
celestial. The Bible says SO much about
the music of heaven that it cannot all
be fgurative Why all this talk about
halleluiahs and choirs on the glass
and trumpets and harps and oratorios
and organs? The Bible over and over
again speaks of tho songs of heaven. If
heaven had no songs of its own, vast
number of those Oh earth would have
been taken up by the earthly emigrants.
Surely the Christian at death does not
lose his memory. Then there must be
millions of souls in heaven who know
Coronation" and Antioch" and
Mount Piseah" and cold Hundred. !"
The leader of the eternal orchestra need
only once tap his baton, and all heaven
will be ready for the halleluiah. If
heaven should ever get out of music,
Thomas Hastings and Lowell Mason
and Bradbury would start up hundred
old magnificent chorals. But what with
the new song that John mentions, and
the various doxologies alluded to, and
the importation of sublunar harmonies,
a Christian fond Of music, dying. will
have an abundance of regalement.
What though the voice be gone III
death, what though the ear be fallen in
dissolution, are you therefore to con-
clude that the spirit will have no pow
err to make or catch sweet sounds? Can
not the soul sing? How often we COM
pliment some exquisite singing by say
ing, "Thero was so much soul in her
music.
Celestial Music.
In heaven it will be all soul until tho
body after awhile comes up in the res
direction, and then there will be an
additional heaven. Cannot the soul
hear? If it can hear, then it can hear
music. Do not therefore let it BIO IN
your household when some member
leaves for heaven, as it is in some
households, that you close the piano
and unstring the harp for two years be-
cause the fingers that used to play on
them arc still. You must remember
that they have better instruments OF
music where they are. You ask me,
"Do they have real harps and real
trumpets and real organs?" I do not
know. Some wiseacres say positively
there are no such things in heaven. l
do not know, but l should not be sur
prised if the God who made all the
mountains, and all the hills, and all
the forests and all the mines of the
earth, and all the growths of the uni
verse-I should not be surprised if he
could, if he had mind to, make few
harps ard trumpets and organs. Grand
old Haydn, sick and wornout was car
ried for the last time into the music
hall. There he heard his oratorio of the
"Creation. " History says that as the
orchestra came to that famous passage,
"Lct there be light!'' the whole audi
ence rose and cheered, and Haydn
waved his hand toward heaven and
said, "It comes from there' Over
whelmed with his own music, he was
carried out in his chair, and as he came
to the door he spread his hand toward
the orchestra as in benediction. Haydn
was right when he waved his hand to-
ward heaven and said, at comes from
there. " Music was born in heaven, and
it will ever have its highest throne in
heaven, and l want you to understand
that our departed friends who were pas
sionately fond of music here are now at
the headquarters Of harmony. | think
that the grand old church tunes that
died when your grandfathers died have
gone with them to heaven. When those
tunes died, they did not stay Oh earth,
and they could not have been banished
to perdition, and so think they must
be in the corridors of alabastcr and Leb-
anon cedar.
In Bloodless Battle.
Again, remark that those Of our de-
parted Christian friends who in this
world had very strong military spirit
are now in armies celestial and out in
bloodless battle. There are hundreds of
people born soldiers. They cannot help
it. They belong to regiments i'll times
of peace. They cannot hear drum or
fife without trying to keep step to the
music. They are Christian, and when
they fight they fight on the right side.
Now, when these our Christian friends
who had natural and powerful military
spirit entered heaven, they entered the
celestial army. The door OF heaven
scarcely opens but you hear military
demonstration. David cried out, 1.-The
chariots of God are 20,000" Elisha
saw the mountains filled with celestial
cavalry. St. John said, 1.-The armies
which are in heaven followed him on
white horses" Now, when those who