The Monitor-register., 1896-12-11
VISIONS OF HEAVEN.
DR.. TALMAGer DESCRIBES THE EN-
PLoYMENTS OF THE BLEST.

Each Saved Soul, Each Great Painter,
Each Great Scientist Laboring In the
Great workshop of Paradise-Grand So
ciality-The Library of the Universe,
WASHINGTON, Dec. CDR. Talmaee's
sermon today gives a very unusual view
Of the celestial world and is one of the
most unique disoourses of the great
preacher. The text is Ezekiel i, /,
"Now it came to pass in the thirtieth
year, in the fourth month, in the fifth
day Of the month, as was among the
captiyes by the river Chebar, that the
heavens were opened. -
Ezekiel, with others, had been expa-
triated, and while in 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-
ohadnezzar-this 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,
bat 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 aig-yea, to the weary, to the heart
; broken, to those whom sorrow has ban
ishsd. The text is very particular to
give us the exact time of the vision. 1t
was in the thirtieth year and in 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 the twelfth month and in sixth day
of the month?
What Are They Doing?
The question is often silently asked,
Though perhaps never audibly propound-
ed, "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 18 centuries ago, still
I think we may from strongest infer
ence decide what are the present occu-
pations of our transferred kinsfolk. Aft
er God has made nature he never
eradicates the chief characteristic of its
temperament. You never knew man
phlegmatic in temperament to become
sahguine in temperament. You never
knew a man sanguine in temperament
to become phlegmatic 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
3 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 in
heaven as they were different from each
other in Asia Minor.
You have, then, only by a sum in SUBJ
traction and a sum in addition to de-
eide 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 are to come to
the conclusion that they are 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 if they
got there if it should turn out to be the
rigid and formal place some people pho
tograph it. We like to come to 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 it all the time for so
centuries. 1t might be on some great
occasion it would be possibly comfort
able to wear a 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 celebrative 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.
The Different Emp1oyments.
am not going to speculate in regard
to the future world, but must, by in
evitable 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
mafay different employments in the &C.
lestial 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 abol-
ish employments? No more than love
on earth-paternal, filial, fraternal,
conjugal love-abolishes earthly occupa-
tion.
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 pic
lures and statuary and in the study of
the laws of light and shade and per-
!. spective. Have you any idea that that
affiuence of faculty ut death collapsed
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 and the rainbows and
the spring mornings are woven? Are
You SO obtuse as to suppose, BECAUSE
the painter drops his easel and the
sculptor his chisel and the engravel
his knife, that therefore that taste
which he was enlarging and intensity
ing for 40 or so years is entirely oblit-
Grated? These artists or these friends
r of art on earth worked in coarse mate
rial and with imperfect brain and with
l frail hand. Now they have carried theil
art into larger liberties and into wide
circumference. They are at their OLE
business yet, but without the fatigues
without the limitations, without tn,
hindrances Of the terrestrial studio
Raphael could improve upon his mas
terpiece Of "Michael the Archangel, ,
now that he has seen him, and coul(
improve upon his masterpiece Of th,
"Holy Trinity" now that he has visit
ed them. Michael Angelo could bette
present the "Last Judgment" after b,
had seen it's fash and heard the rum
bling battering rams of its thunder.
Masters Still Painting.
Exquisite colors here, graceful line
here, powerful chiaroscuro here, but
am persuaded that the grander studio
and thu bright galleries are higher up
by the Winding marble stairs of the sep
ulcher, md that Turner and Holmal
Hunt and Rembrandt and Titan an,
Paul Veroaese, if they exercised savin
faith in thu Christ whom they portraye
upon the canvas, are painting yet, bu
their strength of faculty multiplied te