Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1896-12-10
work AFTER DEATH.
OR. TALMAeE's IDEA OF EMPLOYMENT
IN HEAVEN.

Nv FlGtNNGNs
Unique View of the Celestial World.
Employment Suited to the wSrker-Mu-
sicians. Soldiers. Historians, Artists, Ali
VIII Find Congenial Occupation.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 6-Dr. Talmage's
sermon today gives a very unusual view Of
he celestial world and Is one Of the most
Unique discourses of the great preacher. I
The text is Ezekiel /, /, snow 1t 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 of
Chebar, that the heavens were opened"
Ezekiel, with others, had been expatri-
ated, and while in foreign slavery, stand
ing on the banks of the royal canal
which he and others serfs had been con-
demned to dig by the order of Nebuchad-
nezzar-this royal canal in the text called
the river Of Chebar-the illustrious exile
had visions of heaven. Indeed 1t is almost
always 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. 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 remember the year, you
remember the month, you remember the
day, you remember the hour. Why may
we not have some such vision now and 1t
be in the twelfth month and in sixth day
of the month?
Occupation After Death.
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 intelli-
gence from the heavenly city, and we seem
dependent upoN the story of 18 centuries
ago, still think we may from strongest
Inference decide what are the present occu-
pations of our transferred kinsfolk After
God has made nature he never eradicates
the chief characteristic of its temperament.
You never knew man phlegmatio in
temperament to become sanguine in tenn
perament. You never knew man san
guine in temperament to become phleg-
matte in temperament. Conversion plants
new principles in the soul, but Paul and
John are just as different from each other
after conversion as they were different
from each other before conversion. If con-
version 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 depart
cd 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 II 1t should turn out to be the
rigid and formal place some people photo
graph 1t. 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
1t all the time for so centuries 1t might
be on some great occasion itwould be pos
sibly comfortable to wear a crown of gold
weighing several pounds, but it would be
ansaffiiction to wear such q 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 employment
in heaven. You might as WE'LL if asked
to describe the habits of American society,
describe Decoration day or Fourth of
July or an autumnal Thanksgiving, as
though 1t were all the time that way
I am not going to speculate in regard to
the future world, but must, by inevitable
laws of inference and deduction and COM
mon 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 ut least as many different employ
ments 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 employmentsP No more than love
on earth-paternal, fllial, fraternal, con-
jugal love-abolishes earthly occupation.
Congenial Work.
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 glad
dest pleasures amid pictures and statuary
and in the study of the laws of light and
shade and perspective. Have you any idea
lapsed 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 wovsnI Are you so obtuse
as to suppose, because the painter drops
his easel and the sculptor his ehisel and
the engraver his knife, that therefore
that taste which he was enlarging and in
tensifying for 40 or 50 years is entirely
obliterated9 These artists, or these friends
of art on earth, worked in coarse material
and with imperfect brain and with frail
hand. Now they have carried their art into
larger liberties and into wider circumfer-
ence. They are at their old business yet,
but without the fatigues, without the lim-
itations, without the hindrances of the ter
restrial studio
Raphael could improve upon his master
piece of "Michael the Archangel'' now
that he has seen him, and could improve
upon his masterpiece Of the Holy Trini-
ty'' now that he has visited them. Michael
Angelo could better present the "Last
Judgment" after he had seen it's flash and
heard the rumbling battering rams of its
thunder. Exquisite colors here, graceful
lines here powerful chiaroscuro here, but
am persuaded that the grander studies
and the brighter galleries are higher up,
by the winding marble stairs of the sepul-
cher, and that Turner and Holman Hunt
and Rembrandt and Titan and Paul Ver-
onese, If they exercised saving faith in the
Christ whom they portrayed upon the can