Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1896-12-16
REV. Or, TALMAGE,
The Eminent Divins's Sunday
Discourse.
Subject: "occupat,on After Dea.h.''

TEXT: SNOW it came 10 pass In the fhirtieth
year. in the fourth month, In the NTH day OF
the mon!b. As I was among the cartives by
the liver Of Chebar, that the heavens were
openeJ."-Ezekiel l.. l.
Ezekiel. with Others. had been expafrt-
ate!, and while In foreign slavery, stand.
ing on the banks OF the royal canal which
he and other serfs had been condemned
TO di.; by the order OF Nebucha inezzar-
this .oyal canal in the text called the River
OF Chebar-the iilu,trious exile ha !
visions of heaven. Indeed il u almost al
ways so-that the brightest visions OF
heaven come not to those who are on
mountain top of prosperity, but to some
John on desoIate Patmos, or to some Pnul
in Mamertine dungeon. or to some Ezekiel
standing on the banks OF ditch he had
been compelled to dig-yea. to the weary, to
banished. The text is very particular to
give US the ex8ct time OF the vision. It was
In the thirteenth year and in the fourth
month and in the nth day OF the month.
So you had visions of earth you shall never
forget. You remember the yesr. you remem-
ber the month, YOU remember the day, you
remember the hour. Why may We not have
some such vision now and II be In the
twelfth month and In sixth day OF the
month";
The question is often silently asked though
perhaps never audibly propounded, "What
are our departed Christian friends doing
now?" The question Is more easily answered
than you might perhaps suppose. Though
there has come no recent Intelligence from
the heavenly city, and we seem dependent
upon the story Of eighteen centuries ago,
still think We may from strongest inference
decide what are the present occupations OF
our transferred kinsfolk. After God has
made nature He never eradicates the Chief
characteristic OF its temperament. You never
knew a man phlegmatfc In temperament TO
hs2cnma SanUntn6 In f0mD0r6m6OI
You never knew man san
guine in temperament to become phlegma-
tic in temperament. Conversion plants new
principles in the soul, but Paul and John are
Just as different from each other after con-
version as they were different from each
other before conversion. II conversion does
no. eradicate the prominent characteristics
OF oftemperament, neither will death eradicate
them. Paul and John are as different from
each other in heaven as they were different
from each other in Asia Minor.
You have, then, only by Il sum In sub
traction and n sum in addition to decide
what are the employments OF your departed
friends in the better world. You are TO
subtract from them all earthly grossnes5
and add all earthly goodness, and then You
are to come to the conclusion that they are
doing now in heaven what in their best
moment they did on earth. Ths reason
why so many people never start for heaven
Is because they could not stand II II thev
got there II 1t should turn out to be the
rigid aud formal place some people photo
graph it, We like to come 20 church, but
we would not want to stay here till next
summer. We like to hear the ''Haileiuiah
Chorus" but We would not want 10 hear
II all the time for fifty centuries 1t might
be ON some great occasion 1t would be possi-
bly, comfortable to wear crown o, gold
weighing several pounds, but 1t would be An
affection TO wear such crown forever. In
other words, We run the descriptions OF heaven
into the ground while We make that which
was intended as special and celebrative to
be the exclusive employment in heaven. You
might as well, il asked to describe the habits
of American society. describe a Decoration
Day or Fourth OF July. or an autunual
Thanksgiving, as though it were all the time
that way.
lam not going to speculate in regard to
the future world, but must, by inevitable
laws of inference and deduction and common
sense conclude that IN heaven we Will be
just a different from each other AS we are
now different, and hence that there will b. at
least as many different employments in the
celestial world as there are employments
here. Christ is to be the great love, the great
joy, the great rapture, the great worship OF
heaven, but will that abolish employments?
No more than love on earth-paternaI. hliai.
fraternsl, conjugal love-abolishes earthly
occupation.
In the first place. remark that all those
of our departed Christian friends vino on
earth found great Joy in the fine arts are now
indulging their tastes in the same direction.
On earth they had their giaddest pleasures
amid pictures and statuary and in the study
of the laws of light and shade and parspec-
tive. Have you auy idea that that aftiusnca
of faculty al death col iapSed and perished?
Why SO, when there is more for them to look
at and they have keener appreciation OF the
beautiful and they stand amid the very looms
where the sunsets aud the rainbows aud the
spring mornings are woven? Are you SO OBJ
fuse as TO suppose, because the painter drouS
his easel aud the sculptor his chisel and the
engraver his knife, that therefore that tast,
which he was enlarging and intensifying for
forty or fifty years is entirely obliteratel?
These artists, or these friends OF art on earth,
worked in coarse material and with imper-
feet brain and with frail hand. Now they
have carried their art into larger liberties
aud into wider cir umference. They are al
their old business yet, but without the
fatigues, without the Limitations. without
the hindrances of the terrestrial studio.
Raphael could improve upon his master
piece of Michael the ArchangeI' now that
ne has seen him. aud could improve upon
his masterpieces of the Holy Trinity" now
that he has visited them Michael Angelo
could better present the "Last judgment"
after he had seen its flash and heard the
rumbliDg haitering rams OF its thunder Ex-
quiste colors here, graceful lines beIe, pow
erfu chiaroscuro here, but / am persuaded
galleries are higher up, by the winding mar
BILE stairs of the sepulcher. and that Turner
and Holman Hunt and Rembrandt and Titan
and Paul Veronese, il they exercised saving
faith in the Christ whom they portrayed
upon the canvas, are painting yet. but their
strength of faculty multiplied ten thousand
fold.
| remark again that all our departed
Christian friends who In this world were
passonately fond OF music are still regaiing
that taste in the world celestial This Bible
says much about the music of heaven that
II cannot al be figurative. Why all this talk
about halIelujahs and choirs on the glass and
trumpets and harps and oratorios and Or
gansf The Bible over and over again speaks
Of the songs of heaven. II heaven had no
songs of its own. vast number OF those on
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" AMI Antioch" and
mount Pisgah" and "Oid Hundred" The
leader Of the eternal orchestra need only
once tap his baton, and all heaven will be
ready for the hallelujah.
II heaven should ever get out OF music,
Thomas Hastings aud Lowell Mason and
Bradbury would start up hundred old
magnificent chorals. But what with the
new song that John mentions, and the vari-
Gus doxOlogies alluded to- and the importa-
ZION OF suDlunhr HdtuOulcS, SuFlStldu
fond OF music, dying, will have an abund-
snce OF regalement. 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?' L do not know. Some wlSeacres
cay positively there are no such things In
HEAVIER. 1 do not know, but l shoui1 not
be surprised if the God who made all the
mountains and all the hills, and all the
forests and all the mines of the earth. and
ali the growihs of the universe-I should
not be surprised If he could, IL He had =
mind to, make few harps and trumpets
and organs. Grand oil Haydn, sick and
wornout, was carried Tor the last time
into the mrsic hall; there he heard his
oratorio of the Creation" His ory says
that the orchestra came to that famous
passage, ''Lt there be light" the whole
audience rose and cheered, and Haydn
waved his hand toward heaven ami said
at comes from therei'' Oyerwhe mel
with his own music he vas carried out iE