The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1898-10-31
HEAVEN PROGRESSES
Or. TAlMAGe TELLS HOW GoD'6
HOME HAS IMPROVED.

The Old Fashioned Idea of Heaven.
The Illimitable vastness of Para
dise-What the Future ON High Will
Be-Heaven Beautihed by Death.
copyright. 1885, by American Press Asso-
ciation.l
WASHINGTON, OCT 80.-An out Of the
usual line Of sermonizing Is this story OF
DR.. Talmage concerning the next world.
and 1t may do good to SEQ things from
novel standpoint. The text Is Revelation
ri, l, "And saw new heaven"
The stereotyped heaven does not make
adequate impression upon us. We need
the old story told in new style In order to
arouse our appreciation. do not suppose
that we are compelled to the old phrase
ology. King James translators did not
exhaust all tho good and graphic words In
tho English dictionary. suppose II we
should take the idea of heaven and trans
lato 1t Into modern phrase we would find
that Its atmosphere is O combination OF
early juno and Of the Indian summer In
Ootober-a place combining the advan-
tages of city and country, tho streets stand
ing for the ono and the 10 manner of fruits
for the other; a place Of musical enter.
tainments-harpers, pipers, trumpeters,
doxologies: place Of wonderful architeo-
ture-behold the temples; q place where
there may be tho higher forms OF animal
life-the beasts which were on earth beat
en-, lash whipped and CALLED and un.
blanketed and worked to death, turned
out among the white horses which the
book Of Revelation describes as being In
heaven; place Of stupendous literature
tho books open; place of aristocratic and
democratic attractiveness - tho kings
standing for the one, all nations for the
other; all botanical, genealogical, orni-
biological, arborescent, worshipful beauty
and grandeur.
But my idea now Is to speak chiefly Of
tho improved heaven. People sometimes
talk Of heaven as though 1t were an old
city, finished centuries ago, when have
to tell you that no city on earth during
tho last TO years has had such changes as
heaven. 1t is not tho same place as when
Job and David and Paul wrote Of 1t. For
hundreds and hundreds Of years 1t has
been going through peaceful revolution,
and year by year, and month by month,
and hour by hour, and moment by moment
it IL changing, and changing for some-
thing better. Away back there was only
ono residence in the universe-the resi-
dence Of the Almighty. Heaven had not
yet been started. immensely was the park
all around about this great residence, but
God q sympathetic heart after while over.
flowed In other creations, and there came
all through this vast country of immensely
inhabited villages, which grow and en-
larged until they joined each other and
became one great central metropolis Of the
universe, streeted gated, tempted, water
cd, inhabited. Ono angel went forth with
q reed, we are told and he measured heav-
en- on ono side, and then he went forth
and measured heaven on the other side,
and then St. John tried to take tho census
of that city, and he became so bewildercd
that no gave 1t up.
improvements In Heaven.
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 during the last 100 or 800
or 900 years, remember there are ,600,-
OOO, 1000 of people In tho world, and that
tho vast majority Of people die in infancy.
How many children must have gone into
heaven during the last 500 or 1000 years.
II New York should gather in ore genera
ton 100000 population, II London
should gather In one generation 1000, 600
population, what vast increase But
what a mere nothing rs compared with
tho 500, 600, 900, the 2,000, 900, 900, tho
multitude that no man can number"
that have Como into that city. OF course
all this takes for granted that every child
that dies goes rs straight into heaven as
ever the light speed from star, and that
is one reason why heaven will always be
fresh and beautiful-the great multitude
of children In It, Put 500, O00,0 chill
dren in country, 1t will BIO a blessed and
livoly country.
But add to this, II you will, tho great
multitude of adults who havo gone into
glory, and how tho census Of heaven must
run up. Many years ago a clergyman
stood In 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 2 900
persons would DO finally saved. There
happened to DO about 1000 people In the
village where he preached. Next Sabbath
two persons were heard discussing the
subject and wondering which one Of the
1000 people in the village would finally
reach heaven, and one thought it would
be the minister, and the other thought it
would DO tho old deacon. Now, / have
not much admiration for lifeboat which
will go out to sinking ship with 1900
passengers and get one off in safety and
let 800 90 to the bottom. Why, heaven
must have been village when Abel, the
first soul from Garth, entered it as COM
pared with the present population Of that
great city
Even Heaven Must Change.
Again, I remark that heaven has vastly
improved In knowledge. Give man 40
or SO years to study ono science or all sci
ences, with all tho advantages of labora-
tories and observatories and philosophio
apparatus, no will DO marvel of informa-
ton. Now, into what intelligence must
heaven mount, angelhood and sainthood,
not after studying for 40 or 90 years, but
for thousands Of years-studying God and
the soul and Immortality and tho universal
How the intelligence Of that world must
sweep Oh and on, with eyesight farther
reaching than telescope, with power OF
calculation mightier than all human nath-
cmatics, with powers of analysis surpass-
ing all chemical laboratory, with speed
swifter than telegraphy What must heav-
en- learn with all these advantages in a
month, in year, in century, in mil
lenniumP The difference between the
highest university on earth and the small
est class In primary school cannot be a
greater difference than heaven as 1t now
is and heaven as 1t once WAS Do you not
suppose that when DR.. James Simpson
went up from the hospitals Of Edinburgh
into heaven he knew more than ever the
science of health, and that Joseph Henry,
graduating from the Smithsonian institu-
ton into heaven, awoke into higher realms
Of philosophy. and that Sir William Ham
alton, lifted to loftier sphere, understood
better the construction Of the human in
telleot, and that John Milton took up
higher poetry in the actual presence OF
things that on earth he had tried to de-
scribep When the first saints entered
heaven, they must have studied only the
A B G Of the full literature of wisdom
with which they are now acquainted.