Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1896-12-18
REV. DR. TALMAGE.
The Eminent Washington Divine's
Sunday Sermon.
Subject: Occupation After Deatn.'

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TEXT: 'Now it came 10 pass In the thirtleth
year, In the fourth month, in the htth day OF
The month, as was among the captives by
tina river of Ohebar, that the heavens were
opened. "-Ezekiel l., 1.
Ezekiel. with others, had been expatrii-
atel, and while In foreign slavery, stand
isR on the banks of the royal canal which
he and other serfs had been condemned
to dig by the order OF Nebuchadnezzar-
this royal canal in the text called the River
OF Chebar-the ilusirious exile ha |
visions Of heaven. Indeed it 1s almost a.
ways so-that the brightest visions OF
heaven come not to those who are on
mountain top of prosperity, but to some
John on 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 heartbroken, to those whom sorrow has
banished. The text is very particular to
give KS the exact time OF the vision. 1t was
In the thirteenth year aud in tho fourth
month and In the fifth day Of the month.
So you hal visions OF earth you shall never
forget. You remember the year, you remem-
berthe month, YOU remember the day, you
remember the hour. Why may we not have
some such vision now and it be in the
twelfth month and in sixth day OF the
month?
The question is often silently asked, though
perhaps never audlbly propounded, "What
are our departed Christian friends doing
now?" The question is more easily answered
than you might perhaps suppose. Though
there has CONS no recent intelligence from
the heavenly city, and we seem dependent
upon tho story of eighteen centuries ago,
still think we may from strongest inference
decide what are the present occupations OF
our transferred kinsfok. After God has
made nature He never eradicates the chief
characteristic OF its temperam snt. You never
knew man phlegmatic in temperament TO
become sanguine in temperament.
You never knew man san
guine in temperament to become ph'egma-
tic in temperament. Conversion plants new
principles in the soul, but Paul and John are
lust az different from each other after con-
version as they were different from each
ether before conversion. II conversion does
not eradicate the prominent characteristics
Il temperament, neither will death eradicate
them. Paul and John are as different from
each other in heaven as they wore different
from each other in Asia Minor.
You have, then, only by sum in sub
traction and 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 grossness
and add all earthly goodness ana then you
are to come to the conclusion that they ara
doing now in heaven what in their best
moment they did on earth. The reason
why so many people never start for heaven
is because they could not stand it 1t they
got there IL 1t should turn out to DO the
rigid and formal place some people photo
graph it, We like to come 70 church, but
we would not want to stay here till naxt
summer. We like 10 hear the "Halleluiah
Chorus" but we would not want 10 hear
it all the time for fifty centuries. 1t might
be on some great occasion it would be posi-
bly, comfortable to wear crown o. gold
weighing several pounds, but it would be an
affiiction to wear such n crown forever. In
other words, we run the descriptions OF heaven
into the ground while we make that which
was intended rs special and celeDrative to
be the exclusive employm ent in heaven. You
might as well, II asked to describe the habits
Of American society. describe Decoration
Day or a Fourth Of July, or an autunna
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 aud deduction and common
sense, conclude that IN heaven we will be
lust as different from each other as we are
now different, and hence thatthere will be at
least as many different employments in the
celestial world as there are employments
hsre. Christ Is to be the great love, the great
10y, the great rapture, the great worship OF
heaven, but will that abolish employments!
No more than love on earth-paternal, fil;al.
fraternh, conjugal love-abolishes earthly
occupation.
In the first place, remark that all those
OF our departed Christian friends who on
earth found great Joy in the fine arts arenow
lndulging their tastes in the same direction.
On earth they had their gladdest pleasures
amid pictures and statuary and in the study
OF the laws OF light and shade and perspec-
tive. Have 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 aud they stand amid the very looms
where the sunsets aud the ralnbow5 and the
spring mornings are woven7 Are you 80 OBJ
fuse as to suppose, because the painter drops
his easel and the sculptor his chlsel and the
engraver his knife, that therefore that taste
which he was charging and intenslfying FOR
forty or fifty years Is entirely 05literatei?
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
and into wider circumference. They are at
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 Archangel" now that
he has seen him, anu could improve upon
his masterpieces OF the "Holy Trinity" now
thnt he has visited them. Michael Angelo
10 ~ ID INT
after he had seen It's flash and heard the
rumbling battering rams OF its thunder. Ex-
cuisite celors hore, graceful lines here, pow
erful chiaroscuro here, but l I'm persuaded
that the grander studies and the brighter
galleries are higher up, by the winding mar
bic 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.
l remark again that all our departed
Christian friends who in this world were
passlonateIy fond of music ara still regaling
that taste in the world celestial. The Bible
saws 50 much about the music Of heaven that
it cannot all be fgurative. Why all this talk
about halelujahs and choirs on the glass and
trumpets AMI harps AMI oratorios and Or
gansf The Bible over and overagain speaks
OF the songs Of heaven. If heaven had no
vongs of its own. vast number oithose on
earth would have teen taken up by tho
Earthly enigrants. 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 Plsgah" and "Od Hundred" The
leader OF the eternal orchestra need only
once tap his baton, and all heaven will be
ready for the hallelujah.