The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1898-11-10
TALMAGE'S SERMON.
IMPROVEMENTS IN HEAVEN,
SUNDAYS SUBJECT.
From Revelations, Chapter XXI, Verse
I, as Follows:--''And I Saw New
Heaven"-A Glorious Spectacle. Il

The stereotyped heaven does not
make adequate impression upon us.
We need the old story told in new
style in order to arouse our apprecia-
ton. I do not suppose that we are
compelled to the old phraseology. King
James translators did not exhaust all
the good and graphic words in the
English dictionary. I suppose If we
should take the idea Of heaven, and
translate it into modern phrase, we
would find that its atmosphere is
combination OF early June and Of the
Indian summer In October-a place,
combining the advantages OF city and
country, the streets standing for the
one, and the twelve manner OF fruits
for the other; place of musical enter
tainments-harpers, pipers, trumpe-
tiers, doxologies; a place of wonderful
architecture-behold the temples;
place where there may be the higher
forms of animal life-the beasts which
were on earth beaten, lash-Whipped,
and CALLED and unblanketed, and work
ed to death, turned out among the
white horses which the Book OF ReVe-
lation describes as being in heaven;
place of stupendous literature-tne
books open; place OF aristocratlc
and democratic attractiveness-
kings standing for the one, all nations
for the other; all botanical, pomologl-
cal, pathological, arborescent, wor-
shipful beauty and grandeur.
But my idea now is to speak chiefly
Of the improved heaven. People some me
times talk of heaven as though IL
were an old city, finished centuries
ago, when have to tell you that no
city on earth, during the last fifty
years, has had such changes as heaven.
It is not the same place as when JoD'
and David, and Paul, wrote OF 1t. For
hundreds and hundreds of years 1t has
been going through peaceful reyolu-
ton, and year by year, and month by
month, and hour by hour, and moment
by moment, it is changing, and chang
ing for something better. Away back
there was only one residence In the
universe-the residence of the Alm1gh-
ty.. Heaven had not yet been started.
immensely was the park all around
about this great residence; but GODS
sympathetic heart after a while over
flowed in other creations, and there
came, all through this vast country
of immensely, inhabited villages, which
grew and enlarged until they joined
each other, and became one great CEN
trail metropolis OF the universe, street
ed, gated, tempted, watered, Inhabited.
One angel went forth with a reed, we
are told, and he measured heaven on
one side, and then he went forth and
measured heaven on the other side;
and then st. John tried to take the
census of that city, and he became so
bewildered that he gave it up.
That brings me to the first thought
Of my theme-that heaven is vastly
improved in numbers. Noting little
under this head about the multitude OF
adults who have gone into glory dur
ing the last hundred, or five hundred,
or thousand years, remember there
are sixteen hundred millions Of peo-
pie in the world, and that the vast ma
jority of people die in infancy. How
many children have gone to heaven
during the last five hundred or thou
sand years! If New York should
population, if London should gather
in one generation four million popula-
ton, what a vast increased! But what
mere nothing as compared with the
five hundred million, the two thousand
million, the multitude that no man
can number" that have gone into that
city! OF course, all this takes for
granted that every child that dies goes
as straight into heaven as ever the
light sped from a star; and that Is one
reason why heaven will always be
fresh and beautiful-the great multi
tude of children in it. Put five hundred
million children in a country, it will
be blessed and lively country.
4 But add to this, if you will, the great
multitude of adults who have gone in
to glory, and how the census of heaven
must run up. Many years ago a cler-
gyman stood in a New England pulpit
and said that he believed that the vast
majority of the race would finally be
destroyed, and that not more than
one person out Of two thousand per-
sons would be finally saved. There
happened to be about two thousand
people in the village where he preach
ed. Next Sabbath two persons were
heard discussing the subject, and won
dering which one Of the two thousand
people in the village would finally
reach heaven, and one thought it
would be the minister, and the other
thought it would be the old deacon.
Now, have not much admiration for
a lifeboat which will go out to a ship
sinking with two thousand passengers,
and get one off in safety, and let nine
teen hundred and ninety-nine 20 to
the bottom. Why, heaven must have
been a village when Abel, the first soul
from eActh entered it, as compared
with the present population Of that
great city.
Again: I remark that heaven has
vastly improved in knowledge. Give
man forty or fifty years to study one