Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1896-12-12
VISIONS OF HEAVEN.
DIR. TALMAGE DESCRIBES THE EN-
PLOYMENTS OF THE BLEST.

DIR. TALMAGE DESCRIBES THE EN-
PIGMENTS OF THE BLEST.
Each Saved Soul, Each Great Painter,
Each Gront Scientist Laboring In tho
Great Workshop of Pnradisc-Grand So
ciality-Thc Library of the Universe.
WASHINGTON, Dec. Cdr. Talmaga's
sermon today gives very unusual view
of the celestial world and is one of, the
most unique discourses of the great
preacher. Tho text is Ezekiel j, i,
CHOW it came to pass i'll the thirtieth
year, in the fourth month, in the fifth
day of tho month, as was among the
captives by the river Chebar, that the
heavens were opened "
Ezekiel, with others, had been expa-
triated, and while i'll foreign slavery,
standing OH the banks of the royal
canal which he and other serfs had been
condemned to dig by the order of Nebu-
chadnezzar-thisr royal canal in the text
called the river of Chebar-the illustri-
Gus exile had visions of heaven. Indeed
it is almost always so-that the bright
est visions of heaven come not to those
who are on mountain top of prosperity,
but to some John OH desolate Patmos,
or to some Paul in Mamertine dungeon,
or to some Ezekiel standing on the
banks of ditch he had been compelled
TO dig-yea, to the weary, to the heart
broken, to those whom sorrow has BAN
ished. The text is very particular 10
give us the exact time of the vision. 1t
was in the thirticth year and i'll the
fourth month and in the fifth day OF
the month. So you have had visions of
earth you shall never forget. You re-
member the year, you remember the
month, you remember the day, you re-
member the hour. Why may we not
have some such vision now and it be
in tho twelfth month and in sixth day
of the month?
What Arc They Doing?
The question is often silently asked,
though perhaps never audibly PROFOUND
ed, "What arc our departed Christian
f~;--,ds 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 tho story of Is centuries ago, still
l think we may from strongest infer
ence decide what are the present occu-
pations of our transferred kinsfolk. Aft
er God has made q nature he never
eradicates the chief characteristic of its
temperament. You never knew man
phlegmatic i'll temperament to become
sanguine in temperament. You never
knew man sanguine in temperament
to become phlcgmatic in temperament.
Conversion plants new principles in the
soul, but Paul and John are just as diff
ferent from each other after conversion
as they were different from each other
before conversion. If conversion does
not eradicate the prominent character
istics of temperament, neither Will
death eradicate them. Paul and John
are as different from each other III
heaven as they were different from each
other in Asia Minor.
You have, then, only by sum in sub
traction and a sum in addition to de-
eide what are the cmplcyments of your
departed friends in the better world.
You arc to subtract from them all
earthly grossness and add all earthly
goodness, and then you are to come to
the conclusion that they are doing now
in heaven what il their best moment
ttey did OH earth. The reason why so
many people never start for heaven is
because they could not stand it if they
got there if it 4Auuuld turn out to be the
rigid and formal place some people pho
tograph it. Wo like to como to church,
but we would not want to stay here I'LL
next summer. We like to hear the
"Halleluiah Chorus" but we would
not want to hear it all the time for 90
centuries. 1t might be on some great
occasion it would be possibly comfort
able to wear crown Of gold weighing
several pounds, but it would be an af-
Fiction 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 especial
and celebrutivo to be the exclusive en-
ployment in heaven. You might as
we'll, if asked to describe the habits OF
American society, describe Decoration
day or a Fourth of July or an autumnal
Thanksgiving, as though it were all the
time that way.
Tho Different Employments.
1 am not going TO speculate in regard
to tho future world, but must, by in
evitablo laws Of Inference and deduction
and common sense, conclude that III
heaven we will be just as different from
each other as we are now different, and
hence that there will be at least as
many different cmployments i'll the &C.
lostial world as there are employments
here. Christ is to be the great love, the
great JOY, the great rapture, inc sreaU
worship of heaven, but will that abol-
ish employments? No more than love
on earth-paternal, filial, fraternal,
conjugal love-abolishes earthly occupa-
ton. 81.
In the first place, 1 remark that ak
those Of our departed Christian friends
who on en1.th found great iOy in the
fine arts are now indulging their tastes
in the same direction. On earth they
had their gladdest pleasures amid pic
lures and statuary and in the study of
the laws Of light and shade and per-
spective. Rave you any idea that that
affluence of faculty at death collapsed
and persisted? 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 and the rainbows and