Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1896-12-18
TALMAGE'S SERMON
INTERESTING THEME ny THE
wAsHiNGToN PR.AJHER.
subject Occupation After Death"

TKrT: snow il came TO pass In the thirtleih
Fear. in the fourth month, in the FIR day OF
he month. as l was among the captiyes by
The river OF Chehar, that the heavens were
opened. Ezekiel l., l.
Ezekiel. with others. had been expatri.
sted, and while In foreign slavery. stand
Ing on the banks OF the royal canal Shich
he and other seris had been condemnsi
TO dig by the order OF Nebuchadnezzar-
this royal canal in the text called the River
Of Chebar-the illustrious exile hal
visions Of heaven. Indeed il IL 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 desOlate PatmOs, or to some Paul
in Mamertine dungeon. or TO some Ezekiel
standing on the banks OF a 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 US the exact time OF the vision. II 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 year, you remem-
Der the 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 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 a nature He never eradicates the chief
characteristic of its temperament. You never
knew a man phlegmatic in temperament to
become sanguine in temperament.
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
not eradicate the prominent characteristics
of temperament, 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 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, and then you
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 il they
got there If 1t should turn out to be 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 next
summer. We like TO hear the "Halleluiah
Chorus" but we would not want to hear
taII "a for Ri MIGHT
be on some great occasion it would be posi-
bly, comfortable to wear a crown OF gold
weighing several pounds, but 1t would be an
affitction to wear such crown forever. In
other words we run the descriptions ofheaven
into the ground while we make that which
was intended as special and celebratiye to
be the exclusive employment in heaven. You
might as well. If asked to describe the habits
Of American society, describe Il Decoration
Day or a Fourth of July, or an autumnal
Thanksgiving, as though it were all the time
that way.
am 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 as different from each other as we are
now different, and hence that there will be 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--paternal, tilial.
fraternal, 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 are now
indulging 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 affiuence
of faculty at death collapsed and perished2
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 the
spring mornings are woven? Are you so OBJ
fuse as to suppose, because the painter drops
his easel and the sculptor his chisel and the
engraver his knife, that therefore that taste
which he was enlarging and intensifying for
forty or fifty years Is entirely obliterated?
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, and 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
rumbling battering rams OF its thunder. EX-
quisite colors here, graceful lines here, pow
erful chiaroscuro here, but l am persuaded
that the grander studies and the brighter
galleries are higher up, by the winding mar
or oil pf ha md tIof T-,.
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 thousand
fold.
| 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
1t cannot all be flgurative. Why all this talk
about halleluiahs and choirs on the glass and
trumpets and harps and oratorios and or
gans2 The Bible over and over again speaks
of the songs of heaven. II heaven had no
songs of its own. a 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" and "Antioch" and
"Mount Pisgah" and "Old 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 and 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-
ton of sublunar harmonies, Christian
fond of music, dying, will have an abund-
ance 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
| organs2" l do not know. Some Mlseacres